Cause for optimism amid battery clouds

There’s cause for optimism about the potential to manufacture battery components in Western Australia in the long term, according to BHP Nickel West asset president Eddy Haegel.

Speaking to journalists during a tour of the company’s nickel refinery in Kwinana today, Mr Haegel said there was no reason WA could not move further downstream.

The supply chain is complicated.

For example, after nickel is refined, it is then turned into a cathode precursor with cobalt, then used to make cathodes, and eventually used in batteries.

WA’s competitiveness further along the supply chain has been the subject of some debate in recent years, however.

A report by Regional Development Australia, for example, was bullish about the potential for WA to move far downstream from mining battery minerals, while work by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of WA was more circumspect, suggesting significant value adding beyond refining may not be economically competitive.

More recently, the potential for a lithium hydroxide refining industry in WA has been scaled back a little, after Mineral Resources and Ablemarle Corporation canned a planned refinery in the Pilbara and trimmed down a project at Kemerton.

But Mr Haegel said the longer-term signs were positive.

“I'm optimistic that in the long term it will happen, I see no reason why not,” Mr Haegel said.

"If I contrast some of the thinking that goes on around the world.

“You had a couple of Tesla executives start Northvault in (Sweden) and these two guys are well advanced to creating a gigafactory in Europe.

“That’s just entrepreneurship at work.

“They’re engaged with customers … they’re moving forward.

“It may not necessarily be the case that the batteries that are manufactured in WA are for the (electric vehicle) market; they may be for the (storage) market, which would be a more natural fit.”

BHP’s own expansion at the Kwinana refinery to allow large-scale nickel sulphate production for use in cathodes is due for start in the second quarter of 2020.

Work on a potential cobalt sulphate project has been on the backburner after a fire last September, Mr Haegel said, but it had recently returned to the agenda.

Mr Haegel will speak about the company's strategy at Diggers and Dealers conference next week.