Nickel Industries CEO Justin Werner warns of ‘challenging’ future for Australian mining – by Duncan Evans (News.com.au – February 9, 2025)

https://www.news.com.au/

The man behind a booming mining company in Indonesia has issued a stark warning about 10,000 Aussie jobs.

The shock collapse of Australia’s nickel mining sector has threatened 10,000 high-paying jobs as a leading ASX-listed nickel miner warns bluntly those jobs are probably never coming back. That’s the view of Nickel Industries managing director Justin Werner, who leads the rising $3.3bn company with vast mining and refining operations in Indonesia.

“It is certainly challenging (for Australia) in the foreseeable future,” he told NewsWire from his home in Bali in a wide-ranging interview this week. “Even if the nickel price goes up, it’s about having a sustained nickel price above $20,000 (per tonne).

“And even at that price, for a lot of producers the margins are very thin.” A sharp decline in nickel prices, propelled by a massive surge in low-cost production from Indonesia from producers like Nickel Industries, broke Australia’s comparatively high-cost nickel miners.

For the rest of this article: https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/mining/nickel-industries-ceo-justin-werner-warns-of-challenging-future-for-australian-mining/news-story/711f2b4eea3ad168104a4a6513acec92