For the doubters....The question about Nickel's role for batteries comes up regularly (besides the question about low-grade deposits). This article from ING is a couple months old but shows nicely what's gonna happen to Nickel demand.
On the low-grade nickel question: this should be more a question about Ni-sulphate which is a key component of batteries.
Laterite mines, such as primarily run in China/Indonesia/New Caledonia, produce Ni-PIG iron. Converting pure Ni or Ni-pig has been recently done due to the high Ni demand, but requires a lot of additional (mostly dirty energy) to get the Ni-sulphate. EV customers don't want that and will look more for environmetal-friendly manufacturers!
IMO, the rock composition of CNC's properties creates a win-win: A straight forward process to create the purest-grade Ni-sulfate substract for EVs while capturing carbon in tailings and top-layer rock.
For the ING Article click here Hope this helps
GLTA
P.S. I wish my chemistry teacher wasn't such a b... and I had enjoyed chemistry more in high-school, so please jump in if some terms are not 100% correct. But it doesn't change the bottom-line ;-)