Nickle Spike

[johnbrickner]

So Nickle was up about $.25+ today. Any one come up with a reason? I still think nickle(s) are an under the radar stackable. And still the only un-debased coin still in circulation. But then, I'm a total contrarian.

Edited to add: And the way zinc is moving, zincolns are closer to parody than Jeffersons. Whooda thought we might be way ahead of the curve if we started stacking debased pennies? And folks are selling their copper hoards

[Recyclersteve]

I see an article on http://www.kitcometals.com that came out today and could be causing a spike.

The article is titled "Electric cars set world's nickel miners on new course." It was published on 10/31/17 and is by Reuters. It talks about the growing use of nickel in lithium car batteries, where it helps to make a battery charge last longer. It then says that not all nickel is suitable for car batteries, and specifically mentions ferronickel and nickel pig iron grades as being unsuitable.

It says that approximately half of the nickel produced is in this unsuitable category.

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.kitco.com/news/2017-10-31/LM ... ourse.html

Two questions I have:

1) Assuming it was legal to melt down U.S. nickels (only 25% nickel and 75% copper), would they be the right type of nickel for lithium car batteries?; and
2) What about pre-82 Canadian nickels, French and Dutch nickel coins, which are .999 nickel. Would they be acceptable?

[AGgressive Metal]

I'd assume coinage nickel would be pure and therefore useable for this purpose but you never know - French and Dutch .999 nickel jumps onto the magnet whereas US .750/.250 nickels do not at all.

[Recyclersteve]

Nickel continues to go up- currently at $5.83, up about 46% since early July when it was right at about $4.00 a pound.

[johnbrickner]

Since my last post on Halloween, nickels have now passed zinc pennies on the road to parody.

[Recyclersteve]

Nickel had a HUGE spike today. Kitcometals.com currently shows the price at $6.89, up 47 cents (7.35%). Earlier today it got as high as $7.17. 7% isn't a bad year and we did that in just a single day! I love the fact that even at this level we are not even close to the $27.02 price that nickel hit in May, 2007 (per TradingEconomics.com).

Reason for the big day? Worries over spillover from US sanctions on Rusal and after Brazilian producer Vale said its production dropped by 25 percent. Rusal holds a 25 percent stake in Norilsk which is one of the largest producers of nickel. (per TradingEconomics.com)

[johnbrickner]

Thanks for the update, Steve. I missed it.

[hobo finds]

Nice site you posted about recyclersteve

https://tradingeconomics.com/commodities

[Recyclersteve]

Thanks Hobo. The price that amazed me was $435,000 for neodymium. I'm assuming that is per ton. But that still converts to about $13.50 per ounce and I've got a bunch of neodymium magnets that I use.