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clock Created with Sketch. 27/04/24
11:17
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Originally posted by UndergroundTrader:
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The nickel market can be pretty complex so I would recommend you to firstly research the different types of nickel ores - sulphide, laterite and even nickel pig iron. Nickel sulphide (which is what we have at Mulga Tank) contains the highest amount of actual nickel grade and concentration meaning it is the easiest to process when it comes to the metallurgy of it...because of this sulphides are deemed to be 'battery grade' which is a term you'll hear as purity's are required to be 99% to be used in lithium-ion batteries. Now the nickel laterite is what you're seeing in Indonesia and is what has ruined the market...because it is mined literally from surface it is a much more muddy, clayish ore and therefore, contains a very low nickel concentration and extremely hard to process into a viable product. Essentially what has happened over the years is China have invested billions into Indonesia to develop a technology to transform this 'dirty nickel' into a final product suitable for the market, mostly for stainless steel. Experts thought it couldn't be done but it has and it's shocked them, the HPAL technology is extremely energy intensive and contradicts every 'green transition' narrative there is...but they don't care and Indonesia are ripping up their own country (look at photos and videos) to mine as much laterite as they can, to which China floods the market with it.
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@UndergroundTrader , do you subscribe to the view that the current EIS3 DD hole is potentially going to strike a thick massive sulfide "keel" deposit, or is that hope too fanciful ?
(20min delay)