DifferentiationNot to rain on the parade, but the nickel may not pan out. No pun intended.
It was selling in the 100k per ton range in '22, whereas now, producers are lucky to get 15k, give or take.
There is a huge oversupply.
One possible good thing that I never realized is that all nickel is not the same.
There is what's called Nickel Pig Iron (NPI), and battery grade nickel. I guess that up to now they've been treated pretty much the same price wise.
I don't know if it will make much of difference in Karora's situation, but if BHP keeps it's smelter going and hones in on the higher grade, it might.
That's assuming, which I suspect is a given, that KRR's nickel is the better quality.
Now we'll need two tier pricing to have a chance for the nickle to contribute as a byproduct.