They said it could'nt be done but here we are. Chinese Nickel...

They said it could'nt be done but here we are.

Chinese Nickel laundry services open for business.

You have to give it to them (The Chinese) they certainly know how to do business and monopolise a commodity, in this case Nickel.

This plan has been a strategy in the making for over a decade.

Lets take a trip down memory lane.

- December 2012 - Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) buys London metal exchange for US$2.2 billion.

- 'Big shot' gets intel on Chinese strategy and shorts nickel on a major level, gets caught out by Russia / Ukraine invasion and short term spike in Nickel price, creditors sweat, Big shot remains cool and calm that Chinese owned LME will proceed as planned. He was right. (Red flag)

- Chinese invest billions in technology to upgrade Laterite ore (class 2) into battery grade (class 1) nickel at scale. (Red Flag)

- China further invests billions to ramp up nickel mining and production in Indonesia and secures offtake rights

- Ramp up of Indonesian Nickel supply destroys Nickel price and sentiment, wiping out competition globally

- Now (latest) Indonesia now able to trade on LME (Chinese owned) exchange and essentially 'wash' dirty Indonesian Nickel through exchange as buyers will not know the origin of Nickel they will just see 'x' amount of nickel at 'x' price - deal. LME has pushed back on any bifurcation policy and it is clear why.

What has Western government done about this? Basically sat on their hands and been out played, they now have to play catch up and this will cost them. This will come in the form of anti China police (IRA) and aggresive tariffs.

Western governments are finally trying to fight back, the relevance to Aston is that Astons investment case is to hopefully survive the glut and thrive on Government funding if and when it comes. If this does come Aston Management team have the experience and ability to create a mine (2030+) but they need money to do that.

Just as things have unravelled over the past 12 years, hopefully Western goverments can unite and rebuild a domestic supply framework and inject the funding required to compete with China.