Nickel news, page-232

Hi gpmm
You have hit the nail on the head, briquettes are the highest most refined form of Ni.
If you look at The SMM ( who just happened to write this article) briquettes gain a $US1000 premium to refined Nickel such as powders or cathodes. The furnace process that follows the hydrogen reduction autoclave process (where a product called wet metals is formed essentially powders once dried by dragging out of solution Ni by use of hydrogen and ammonia under pressure at approx 3000kpa) is where the powders are compressed into briquettes then passed thru very large radiant furnaces at temp of 1250degC with hydrogen gas introduced into furnace unburnt to pass over and thru the pressed briquettes to harden and also cause the final chemical reaction to get in excess of 99.8% pure nickel. Very expensive. Then these companies are buying the premium product (preferred because extremely low in impurities to toss back into acid to dissolve then add ammonia sx to get sulphate grade material) then they wonder why losing money. BHP has seen the gains that can be made by producing their own silphates at a much cheaper price to these producers. Any mining company that can go straight from mine to sulphates is on a winner. The Chinese are not net producers of briquettes hence must buy mainly from LME.
Anybody who sees this as a neg for AUZ is a complete twit, if anything this is a big positive.
This is akin to the Chinese buying Australian iron ore or coal as it is cheaper than their own production because of low grades and inferior product.