Posted on 11 Oct 2022
Stellantis has signed a non-binding offtake agreement with Australian miner GME Resources Limited (GME) for the supply of battery grade nickel and cobalt sulphate from the future NiWest nickel-cobalt site in Western Australia, Kallanish learns from Stellantis.
So far, GME has invested heavily to develop NiWest and a definitive feasibility study is due to start this month. The location of the processing plant at the site is about 30 kilometres from the Glencore Murrin mine, the largest nickel-cobalt operation in Australia, Stellantis explains.
NiWest should initially produce annually some 90,000 tonnes of battery grade nickel and cobalt. Low-strip open pit mining and heap leaching followed by highly efficient direct solvent extraction (DSX) is expected to produce low-cost nickel and cobalt sulphate products, with initial 27-year operating life at a nameplate processing capacity of 2.4 million t per year. GME also sees substantial further upside potential from inclusion of Wanbanna, Murrin North, Waite Kauri, and Mertondale deposits into NiWest mine schedule to optimise grade profile, increase operating life, and/or expand throughput (see Kallanish 27 July newsletter).
With the objective to reach 100% of passenger car battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales in Europe and 50% passenger car and light-duty truck BEV sales mix in the United States by 2030, Stellantis is strengthening its supply chain and securing raw materials throughout the world. It has become the second-largest shareholder in Australia-listed Vulcan Energy and is developing a lithium hydroxide project in Germany. The companies also extended their binding lithium hydroxide offtake agreement by five years to 2035, consolidating Stellantis as Vulcan’s largest offtaker to date. The automaker also signed a binding offtake agreement with Controlled Thermal Resources (CRT) to acquire lithium from a planned California project (see Kallanish passim).
Source:Kallanish
