Nickel - IGO, MCR, WSA, BRW, JBM, SMY ,TTR, etc

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Originally Posted by airedale

I have read that each electric vehicle will use about 25 kgs of nickel. I have topped up on RXL who have good nickel and gold prospects.

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Yes, I like the look of RXL great Gold Prospects very large tenements neighbouring boomtime SPX.. missed out recently @ 26c but looking at the close might well get in at this level after all

Another Ni focused company I continue to be impressed with the forward plan and value to assets is BSX -- Great BUY IMHO

Blackstone’s Scott Williamson has batteries on his mind for the Ta Khoa nickel project
On November 13, 2019, 5:08 pm

Special Report: Blackstone managing director Scott Williamson believes the future of nickel is in the burgeoning battery sector and that the company’s Ta Khoa project is ideally suited to meet this growing demand.

And there is good reason for this given that battery manufacturers have found that adding nickel to their lithium-ion batteries increases their energy density, which allows them to store more power.

“At the moment only about 5 per cent of nickel goes into batteries but going forward that will become almost 50 per cent of all nickel,” Williamson told *.

This is good news for Blackstone Minerals (ASX:BSX), which took a 12-month option in May to acquire a 90 per cent interest in the Ta Khoa project, about 160km west of Hanoi.

The project includes the Ban Phuc nickel mine, which includes processing equipment such as a 450,000-tonne-a-year concentrator that was built to Australian standards and would require little work to bring back online, a fully permitted tailings facility and a modern 250-person camp.


Ban Phuc was operated as a mechanised underground nickel mine from 2013 to 2016 and generated $US213m ($311.3m) in revenue during this period of falling nickel prices.

Blackstone’s work to date has identified a number of new nickel sulphide targets, while drilling has not only delivered broad nickel sulphide intersections but also uncovered significant platinum, palladium and gold – collectively known as platinum group elements (PGE).

Williamson believes that the most exciting part about the project is the ability to quickly move towards downstream processing.

“We’ve already got the existing nickel concentrator and we could convert the concentrate it produces into a nickel sulphate or a battery product,” he said.

“It all comes back to how quickly we can build the downstream process and that’s about a two to three-year process. So we need to do scoping studies and bankable studies.”

He pointed out that having the concentrator onsite represented over $130m of capital infrastructure already sunk into the project.



“We can focus on finding the next circa $100m to build the downstream process.”

Focusing on finished or advanced downstream products also allows Blackstone to avoid the Vietnamese government’s 20 per cent tariff on concentrates, which was introduced to incentivise mining companies to build downstream facilities.

“With nickel concentrate, you don’t get the full LME nickel price but with an advanced product, you can get better payability and sometimes even a premium to the nickel price,” Williamson added.

“We haven’t decided yet where the downstream facility will be situated – there here are several suitable locations throughout Vietnam, the question is do we do it near the port of Hai Phong, where LG is looking to build a battery factory, or at the mine gate, Hanoi, or the Son La province as the city has industrial zoning.”



Williamson also said that while the focus was primarily on the nickel, the PGE content could cover a lot of the operating costs.

“The previous owners didn’t assay for platinum, palladium and gold but we are seeing up to 1 gram per tonne,” he added.

“We still need to do the study to determine the mining method, but if it winds up being an open pit then the byproduct credit from the platinum becomes very significant.

“It will come through the same processing route. There will be a small addition to the circuit but most of it will be in the same flotation into that downstream process and you will be able to extract the PGEs.”


Next Steps
Looking ahead, Williamson said Blackstone was aiming to define a maiden resource and complete a scoping study within the next six months.

“Between now and then we have four drill rigs spinning. There are 25 targets that are untested, so at the same time that we are drilling out the main ore body, we will also be searching for new discoveries,” he said.

“There will be a dual focus of moving the mine back into production and really exploring the geology. The previous owner really didn’t do any exploration outside of the main orebody.”

He added that while the company was keen to maintain its 90 per cent interest in the mine and concentrator, it would bring in a partner to help build the downstream processing part of the project.

“The idea is, let’s say we need $100m, we find a partner that can help us fund that and they become a partner in that part of the business.”

Thanks for sharing JB. Not sure how he gets to 50% thats 10 fold. Any idea what % of nickel is in the average EV or storage batt?

“At the moment only about 5 per cent of nickel goes into batteries but going forward that will become almost 50 per cent of all nickel,” Williamson told *.

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Originally Posted by Joshuatree

Thanks for sharing JB. Not sure how he gets to 50% thats 10 fold. Any idea what % of nickel is in the average EV or storage batt?

“At the moment only about 5 per cent of nickel goes into batteries but going forward that will become almost 50 per cent of all nickel,” Williamson told *.

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Great info on the blackstone twitter feed https://twitter.com/Blackstone_BSX

I understand Ni in batteries is planned to increase + more Battery powered autos etc

GAL and CR1 both up strongly Friday on owning land in the Fraser Range next to LEG which is in a trading halt with a rumoured big find.

https://www.livewiremarkets.com/wire...ch-the-ev-wave

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Originally Posted by duncan22

GAL and CR1 both up strongly Friday on owning land in the Fraser Range next to LEG which is in a trading halt with a rumoured big find.

https://www.livewiremarkets.com/wire...ch-the-ev-wave

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And CWX also has some great land in the Fraser range along with a J/V with IGO

Great watch interview with BSX MD- great BUY IMHO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...ature=emb_logo

Nickel price still dropping though -9.17 % in the last month, -2.23% last trading day.

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Originally Posted by Joshuatree

Nickel price still dropping though -9.17 % in the last month, -2.23% last trading day.

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Last I look its back up over 1.89% but yes like Copper it's been hammered by Corona virus FEARS last few weeks .. all depends how it all plays .. in BSX case they won't be producing Ni for sometime hopefully Corona is dealt with soon than later

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Originally Posted by Joshuatree

Thanks for sharing JB. Not sure how he gets to 50% thats 10 fold. Any idea what % of nickel is in the average EV or storage batt?

“At the moment only about 5 per cent of nickel goes into batteries but going forward that will become almost 50 per cent of all nickel,” Williamson told *.

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I've recently started to look for good battery component exposure options. I know i'm late to that realisation but there is an extremely strong outlook if by the 2030's EV's are majority of new cars. There's a bunch of sources saying battery component demand will grow 5-15x depending on source, start point and end point.

One of the main lithium-ion batteries is 8.1.1 NCM. Nickel @ 80%, cobalt and manganese at 10% each. The other two key bits are lithium and Graphite, and by weight graphite is the largest input. Stable rather than sharply increasing lithium supply is causing that price to go nuts. Other component parts may follow but it depends on the ease supply is increased and the amount of non battery demand. BSX certainly looks an interesting prospect in the Nickel space, although to date nickel hasn't gone balastic.