Abstract

For many mining companies, a miner produces and sells ore or concentrate and pays little attention to how that product is processed and even less attention to how the final consumer utilizes the metals contained in what they are mining.

Unfortunately, in a number of commodities, this approach leaves substantial amounts of value on the table and the potential for step changes in value creation.  In today’s environment, it will become even more important as miners will need to begin considering how much carbon is generated through the use of their products

Nickel, from its earliest days, is one of those commodities where the understanding of how the nickel is used by consumers and the processing path to deliver that nickel has been one of the major drivers of value creation.

Monel was patented by Inco in 1905 and was a critical contributor to its early success – an alloy that was utilized in a wide range of applications which contained the same proportion of nickel and copper contained in contact ores in the Sudbury basin which simplified and reduced the cost to deliver a very useful product.

One hundred years later, Tsingshan – now the world’s largest nickel and stainless steel company, recognized in the mid 2000s that ferronickel production was just stainless steel production which stopped one step short.  By integrating those steps and realizing the potential of the vast saprolite resources of Indonesia (the bulk of which were historically considered “too low grade” and costly for traditional ferronickel production), Tsingshan become the industry leader in just 15 years.

The massive differences in carbon footprint for various types of nickel production and new large nickel consumers from the electric vehicle supply chain are creating another once-in-a-generation opportunity for those miners willing to pursue it.