Hmm thanks Jazz. This is interesting topic. I am starting to look into this:
It's been a rough start to 2016 for Australian nickel producers with low prices, job cuts and mine closures across the nation.
At the current price of just US$3.86 a pound ($5.60), 70 per cent of the nation's nickel producers are making a loss.
This week alone, there have been redundancies in Western Australia's Kambalda region and Queensland Nickel, which includes the Yabulu refinery, was placed into administration.
Analyst Carey Smith, from Alto capital, expects more mine closures in the future.
He predicts prices will inevitably lift, but said there is still a long road ahead and some producers won't be able to hold on.
"Because we had such a large boom, on the reverse end we always have such a large bust basically, that's the way cycles go," Mr Smith said.
"It's a whole industry wide thing at the moment, I mean at current prices, 70 per cent of producers are unlikely to be making money and that's a very large percentage."
