What Is The Magic Of A Mineral That Allows BHP To Renege And Tesla To Spend Billions?

BHP Billiton said on Tuesday it would invest $100 million in a tanzanian nickel project owned by British mining company Kabanga, joining the global race for nickel deposits.

In 2019, BHP sold the rights to develop an iron ore mine in Guinea, officially "liquidating" its African mining assets. It is worth noting that BHP had planned to exit the nickel business and focus on other commodities. But BHP has apparently backtracked, not only returning to Africa after a gap of several years, but also doubling down on nickel as one of its priorities.

Similarly, On January 10, Tesla agreed to buy 75,000 tons (165 million pounds) of nickel concentrate from Talon's Tamarack nickel project in Minnesota. At current nickel prices, the deal is notionally worth more than $1.5 billion, according to foreign media estimates. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly expressed concerns about future nickel supplies, citing nickel as tesla's biggest concern in expanding lithium-ion battery production.

What is the magic of nickel that makes the world's oligarchs fall in love with it?

In fact, the answer is very simple. Like lithium and cobalt, nickel is also one of the important raw materials for the production of power batteries, mainly used in ternary batteries.

But in fact, stainless steel is the largest nickel downstream, in the global nickel consumption accounted for 68%; Alloys and foundry are next at 18%, while batteries account for about 7% of global nickel consumption. But with the explosive growth of the new energy industry, nickel demand is naturally rising.

Cathode material is one of the core materials of lithium battery, which is the decisive factor of electrochemical performance of lithium battery, accounting for about 40% of the total cost of lithium battery, and plays a leading role in the energy density and safety performance of the battery.

At present, among the cathode materials, the most commonly used materials are lithium cobalt oxide (LCO), lithium manganese oxide (LMO), lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and ternary materials (lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide/lithium nickel cobalt aluminate) (NCM\NCA). At present, due to low cost, high safety and excellent overall performance, the market of lithium iron phosphate has grown substantially. In 2021, the installed proportion of lithium iron phosphate battery will exceed three yuan and become the mainstream of the market.

But one big challenge for lithium iron phosphate batteries is "specific capacity".

练习场是一个顽童ortant parameter to measure the efficiency of new energy vehicles. According to statistics, the ratio of new energy vehicles with a driving range of more than 300 kilometers increased from about 15% in 2019 to more than 60% in 2020. It is expected that the demand for vehicles with high driving range in the future will explode. One of the most effective ways to improve the driving range of new energy vehicles is to improve the energy density of their battery system.