The head of Andrew and Nicola Forrest’s mining vehicle Wyloo Metals says carmakers are struggling to find nickel to stick in electric vehicles in a sign the sector is ripe for investment. It comes as BHP (ASX:BHP), a customer of Wyloo’s recently acquired Mincor Resources business in WA’s historic Kambalda nickel district, launches into one of the biggest investment splurges its once near dead nickel division has seen in 50 years.
Wyloo Metals CEO Luca Giacovazzi, who has spearheaded a dramatic expansion of Fortescue founder and iron ore billionaire Forrest’s private mining enterprise in recent years, told the Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum in Kalgoorlie last week contracts signed to date showed how short carmakers would be of the key cathode material.
“We took those agreements and we converted them into volume, and we converted it into the number of electric vehicles that we can actually produce from the total volume with the contract,” he said. “And what you can see is a pretty big difference. a vast difference between lithium and nickel, which I think really kind of tells the story.
“The scarcity of nickel projects to be able to invest in is real. Car companies are genuinely struggling to try and lock up nickel supply for some of these gigafactories that they are busy building.”
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