QPM qpm energy limited
Add to My Watchlist 0.00% ! 3.3¢

https://**promotion blocked**/resources/they-are-desperate-for-nickel-...

  1. jamesprivet
    210 Posts.
    lightbulb Created with Sketch. 101
    clock Created with Sketch.
    21/06/21
    22:27
    Post #: 53976787
    https://**promotion blocked**/resources/they-are-desperate-for-nickel-qpms-stephen-grocott-on-the-impending-battery-supply-chain-trainwreck/

    ‘They are desperate for nickel’: QPM’s Stephen Grocott on the impendingbattery supply chain trainwreck


    What is the TECH project?

    “The TECH Project has anumber of distinctions from other junior battery metals projects,” Grocottsays.

    “We don’t have a mine, andthe risk associated with a mine. We are essentially an advanced batterymaterials manufacturing facility.

    “We import ore from NewCaledonia, one of the leading – if not the leading – global exporter of nickelores, truck it 40km to our project site where we chemically process it intohigh purity battery nickel and cobalt products.”

    Tell us about the Direct Nickel process.

    “Direct Nickel (or DNi) wasinvented by a guy in the US who sold the licence to a former ASX-listed companycalled Direct Nickel,” Grocott says.

    “That company and the CSIROspent ~$30m developing and piloting DNi. In 2011 they did something like 19pilot plant runs [a smaller version of the real thing] in Perth at whoppinggreat facility.

    “I’ve never seen anythingpiloted so extensively.

    “They tried tocommercialise it, and they got close, but it never went ahead.

    “The reason is becausethere was only really one market for nickel back then – stainless steel.

    “In the 2000s, Chinadeveloped something called nickel pig iron (NPI) which remains the cheap way toget nickel into stainless steel. When poor old Direct Nickel were trying tocommercialise their process, the only market was stainless steel effectivelyand they were competing with low cost NPI.

    “But timing is everything.Battery sector demand is now emerging, and to go from NPI to battery nickel isnot economical.

    “NPI is 14 % nickel, 86%iron — if you want nickel for the battery market you need 99.995% purity nickelsulphate.

    “The advantage of HPAL andDNi is that you can go straight through to battery grade nickel sulphate. NPIcan’t.

    “The market has changed,and we aren’t competing with NPI anymore.”

    How does DNI compare with HPAL? HPAL doesn’t have a very successfultrack record so far.

    “Only two of the dozen HPALprojects in the world have been successful. All of the others have been abjectfailures,” Grocott says.

    “HPAL is difficult to getright.

    “While HPAL plants usesulfuric acid, which is cheap, the plants are capital intensive, they aredifficult to operate. And we can only build them as whopping great units.

    “DNi is easier to scale up.

    “It also uses nitric acidwhich is the far superior acid. DNi process recycles more than 98% of thenitric acid back, which would be too expensive to use otherwise.

    “And as a side effect ofrecovering all that nitric acid you produce all these by-products – high gradeiron ore, magnesium and aluminium, which we will convert to high purityalumina.

    “Anything you don’t get outof the ore is silica, which is about 15% to 20% of the ore mass.

    “Everything else ends up asa saleable product as a by-product of the process.”


    QPM Price at posting: 15.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
    Likes Created with Sketch. 7  Upvote
    lightbulb Created with Sketch.  Great analysis
    Stroke 3 Created with Sketch. Comments Created with Sketch. Reply

  2. Top Stories

 

Featured News

NEWS Next Science to Sell Majority of Assets in Proposed Transaction
right-arrow Created with Sketch.
ACW Actinogen Confirms 100th Participant in Alzheimer’s Disease Trial and Interim Analysis Timeline
right-arrow Created with Sketch.
NEWS Significant new gold-copper discovery at Minyari Dome delivers high-grade results
right-arrow Created with Sketch.
NEWS Outstanding Drill Results Define New High-Grade Iris Zone at Apollo Hill
right-arrow Created with Sketch.
AFP Combogesic IV Launches in Canada and R&D Shows Significant Advances
right-arrow Created with Sketch.
NEWS Proteomics International granted first patent for endometriosis diagnostic blood test in Japan
right-arrow Created with Sketch.
Add to My Watchlist
What is My Watchlist?
A personalised tool to help users track selected stocks. Delivering real-time notifications on price updates, announcements, and performance stats on each to help make informed investment decisions.
Add to My Watchlist
(20min delay)
Last
3.3¢ 		Change
0.000(0.00%) 		Mkt cap ! $83.33M
Open High Low Value Volume
3.3¢ 3.4¢ 3.2¢ $488.8K 14.74M

Buyers (Bids)

No. Vol. Price($)
20 2193282 3.2¢
 

Sellers (Offers)

Price($) Vol. No.
3.3¢ 2331335 4
View Market Depth
Last trade - 14.59pm 03/07/2025 (20 minute delay) ?
QPM (ASX) Chart
arrow-down-2 Created with Sketch. arrow-down-2 Created with Sketch.