The following are excerpts from an article found today - by a company I cannot mention:
The analysts at believe US$66 billion will need to be sunk into producing nickel by 2030, the highest cost of any battery-related commodities.
Most nickel demand is for items found in people’s kitchens such as stainless steel pots and pans which account for ~50% of its use.
Thing is, batteries are driving demand way above nickel supply forecasts. This year, that demand accounts for 15%, yet analysts envisage this to rise to ~32% by 2030, according to Nickel Forecast.
Because of this, the Australian government’s new
Critical Minerals Strategy 2023-2030 aims to help fast-track local production and refinement, of which nickel is looped in to.
$500m in funding through its Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund (NAIF) will be directed towards enhancing project development across the next seven years.
“The new Critical Minerals Strategy outlines the enormous opportunity to develop the sector and new downstream industries which will support Australia’s economy and global efforts to lower emissions for decades to come,” Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King said.
However, it may not be enough.
????? says the battery industry as a whole requires at least US$514 billion across the entire supply chain to meet expected demand by 2030.
Not only that, they reckon we’ll need an extra US$406bn in the following five years to 2035.
And producing the critical raw materials will require US$220 billion (43% of the total), with nickel and lithium accounting for over half of that.
“The energy transition is still in its early stages and massive capital deployment is going to be needed in order to meet the goals of industry and policy makers,” ??????????????? said.
“Energy storage might form a relatively small piece of the overall financing required, but it is a strategically critical piece of the puzzle. Batteries are the platform technology for clean energy goals, so financing these supply chains is at the heart of the race towards net zero.”
Here’s what a few local explorers with advanced-stage nickel projects are doing at the moment:ARDEA RESOURCES (ASX:ARL)ARL is in the midst of developing its flagship Kalgoorlie Nickel Project (KNP) in WA’s goldfields, which is touted by many observers as the largest nickel-cobalt resource in Australia, with a resource of 830Mt at 0.71% nickel and 0.046% cobalt for 5.9Mt of contained nickel and 380kt of contained cobalt.
It’s on the cusp of a big milestone – the release of KNP’s long-awaited pre-feasibility study (PFS) which potential partners are keenly waiting for before they enter into offtake agreements.
At this stage, Ardea still retains 100% of nickel-cobalt offtake, so partnerships will be key to funding project development.
The PFS is due any moment now, and if it’s a cracker, Ardea could well become a beneficiary of some extra funding from the government via Australia’s critical mineral strategy.
As sweeteners, Ardea is also in advanced-stage exploration activities at its nearby Emu Lake nickel-sulphide project and critical mineral targets such as scandium and REE’s throughout its KNP tenements.
(20min delay)