MiningNews.net, 6th Aug 2021'Existential crisis'facing iron ore...

MiningNews.net, 6^th Aug 2021

'Existential crisis'facing iron ore majors

LEADING Australian battery minerals CEOs say BHP and Rio Tinto's increasing moves into the space was inevitable.

BHP has made no secret of its desire to get more exposure to nickel, trumping Wyloo Metals' proposed offer for Noront last week and committing to expand its existing Nickel West operations.

Meanwhile, Rio approved its Jadar lithium project in Serbia.

"I feel like it's wonderful advertising for the whole space in that you're really getting that interest from the top end of town and from the investors that invest in the top end of town and increasing their awareness of the transition and the thematic," IGO CEO Peter Bradford told reporters at Diggers & Dealers this week.

"I think, if anything, the likes of BHP investing in the space is a vote of confidence that underlying thematic is real and it's going to continue."

Pilbara Minerals managing director Ken Brinsden said the involvement of the majors in the battery metals space was inevitable.

"You know, if you're in iron ore, if you're in, arguably even in gold, and definitely if you're in fossil fuels, you'd be having an existential crisis today wondering what the future of your industry is, because it's not going to be tolerated in its current form for too much longer," he said on the sidelines of the conference.

"You have to come up with an alternative that makes sure the protesters aren't sitting out the front of your AGM.

"In which case, will [the majors] get active more active in battery raw materials? Of course they will.

"And they need to attract the next wave of mining professionals and trades. The only way they're going to do it is if they get a bit more sophisticated about the markets they participate in

"There's big changes being brought through the industry as a function of the rise of electrification, and it's only just started."

BHP has ruled out a move into lithium on multiple occasions, preferring to focus on nickel as its main battery exposure.

Brinsden scoffed at suggestions from some who believe lithium is too prevalent to be a profitable industry.

"I don't believe that for a second. Anybody who thinks there's too much lithium in the ground and that ultimately defines the nature of the industry is forgetting that it has to be in the right place, it has to be at the right cost base, you've got to be able to recover the right amount of product at the right quality in the right timeframe , and I can assure you those confluence of events don't come together that often," he said.

"Think iron ore. Of course there's a lot of iron ore in the ground, but not all the mines around the world make a lot of money. It just so happens that ours in the Pilbara do, because they've got all those characteristics, qualities, scale, right location, sufficient infrastructure - that's what defines success in a project over the cycle.

"As to the idea that, you know you can solve the problem with nickel or somehow nickel differs from lithium, I think you're kidding yourself.

"You've got to be able to match the right resource in the ground. Is it sulphide, is it a laterite, does it just go to pig iron and consume a whole heap of carbon to get there? Can I make a sulphate out of it that's going to match the market and create the right quality?"

"Really differentiating between the two, I reckon, is clutching at straws."