Nickel and cobalt are essential minerals needed to make lithium batteries used in electric vehicles. This project uses new technology that will allow miners to extract nickel and cobalt from materials previously classified as mining waste.
The project
The impact
As demand for electric vehicles soars worldwide, demand for nickel and cobalt is expected to rise greatly in the coming years. Therefore, increasing the production of nickel and cobalt is essential to prevent future supply shortages.
Australia has the world’s largest nickel deposits and yet is only the sixth largest producer of nickel globally. The project will support the further development of Australian battery industries by helping to release an estimated $20 billion dollars’ worth of nickel and cobalt.
In addition to helping Australia become a dominant producer of nickel globally, the project strengthens Australia’s capabilities, cost competitiveness in downstream processing and reduces the environmental impact of conventional extraction processes.
“The current method of production uses a lot of energy and it results in the loss of a lot of valuable resources, which means producers are typically only recovering about 60% of nickel and 40% - 45% of cobalt. With our technology, we treat the material differently and are aiming to extract 85% of nickel and cobalt.”
— Dr Elsayed Oraby
Participants
- Ardea Resources
- BASF Corporation
- BHP
- Blackstone Minerals Limited
- Curtin University
- IGO
- JordProxa
- Lycopodium
- Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia
- Mineral Carbonation International
- Mining and Process Solutions
- Murdoch University
- Pure Battery Technology
- University of Melbourne
- University of Western Australia