nickel, mining, production

Nickel

A naturally occurring metallic element, Nickel is a key ingredient in stainless steel, and major component in the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles.

What is nickel?

 

Nickel is a silvery white, naturally occurring metallic element with a light golden tinge. There are two main types of nickel deposits, laterite and sulphide, each requiring a different extraction technique.

How is nickel used?

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Food and health

Stainless steel produced from nickel is used in a variety of home appliances, kitchen materials and medical instruments.

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Industry

Nickel is used in process plants, oil and gas, power generation and chemical production.

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Architecture

Nickel has many structural applications, like reinforcing concrete.

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Transport

Nickel is a key ingredient in almost every form of transportation. This includes cars, trains and even the aerospace industry.

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Electronics

You’ll find nickel in your everyday electronics including mobile phones, laptops and digital cameras.

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Energy storage

Nickel is a key component in a range of renewable energy storage systems, including Lithium-ion batteries.

Nickel and electric cars

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Batteries

Nickel is essential to the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles.

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The key ingredient

A 60kwh NMC811 battery needs 5kg of cobalt, 5kg of manganese, 6kg of lithium and 39kg of nickel to function.

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Longevity

When a battery has more nickel, a vehicle can operate for longer and drive further.

Where is nickel found?

 

Nickel sulphide deposits can be found all over the world including Western Australia, South Africa, Canada and Russia. Nickel laterite deposits can be found in countries such as Australia, Indonesia, New Caledonia and the Philippines.

How do we produce nickel?

 

Nickel sulphide ore is mined at our open-cut and underground operations in the Northern Goldfields of Western Australia. It is then crushed and concentrated using nickel sulphide flotation technology, before being dried and railed to the Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter, where it is fed to a flash furnace. This produces a granulated matte product containing approximately 68% nickel, which is then railed to Kwinana Nickel Refinery and converted to nickel metal in the form of powder and briquettes, at 99.8% nickel grade. Nickel matte and metal are exported to overseas markets via the Port of Fremantle.

What is the future for nickel?

As a key component in batteries, we expect the demand for high quality nickel sulphate to surge as the trend towards electric vehicles increases.
A$140mPlanned investment over next two years on brownfield exploration.
85%We sell more than 85% of our nickel to the electric vehicle battery industry.
314mBy 2035, we expect there’ll be 314 million electric vehicles on the road.