2023-11-20 16:00:00 ET
The new demand for nickel that’s being driven by electric vehicles (EVs) will require a low-carbon footprint and high-grade mineralization, according to Stuart Harshaw, president and CEO of Nickel Creek Platinum (TSX:NCP,OTCQB:NCPCF) .
“The challenge is it’s got to be very high-grade nickel,” he noted. "It’s got to be high purity, and this high purity has really been dominated by the sulfide world. And the sulfide world has been shrinking for the last 10 years as the dominance in the laterite world from Indonesia (expanded)."
He explained that projects in Indonesia are using high-pressure acid leach technology, which extracts pure nickel from laterite. The process is harmful to the environment, using coal fire with a high-carbon impact. For Harshaw, the challenge in supplying nickel to the EV sector is that nickel production has to have a low-carbon footprint to align with global energy transition goals.
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Low-carbon, High-grade Nickel Needed to Supply EV Market, Nickel Creek Platinum CEO Says