Electric cars and nickel

[mtalbot_ca]

Ref: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-metals-lmeweek-nickel/electric-cars-set-worlds-nickel-miners-on-new-course-idUSKBN1D012V

Since nickel is used within lithium batteries, some experts are seeing and increase in nickel prices between now and 2025. They say this could be a game changer.

Any thoughts?

[Recyclersteve]

A bunch of thoughts/questions on this subject:

1) Are Canadian .999 nickels good enough for car batteries? I am assuming so (because of the purity) but is there perhaps something else that would make it difficult (or very expensive) to sell (ultimately) to a refiner? Also, would a refiner accept a small quantity, or do they need a minimum of a ton at a time to make it worthwhile to them?
2) I am assuming that U.S. nickels (only 25% nickel) would not fit the bill for being capable of being used in batteries. Costs to extract the nickel portion of the coins would likely be VERY PROHIBITIVE.
3) For those looking to play stocks of the miners, that can be VERY tricky. There are some large miners (Examples: Glencore and VALE)that produce a lot of nickel, yet the nickel is a very small percentage of total output. So buying the stock just because of nickel would be like buying G.E. because they make light bulbs.
4) The largest nickel producer I know of where nickel is a substantial portion of their revenues is Norilsk. I am writing a book on stock trading and have a chapter about Norilsk where I say "The name is "Norilsk"- it is NOT "no risk"". The risk comment pertains mainly to Norilsk being a Russian company.
5) All it takes is a comment from Tesla saying they are having a hard time procuring enough nickel for their batteries and the price of nickel could move quickly and substantially.
6) We are nowhere near the all-time high (well above $20 US/lb.) price of nickel, so IMHO it could double pretty easily and still be nowhere near the peak.
7) People tend to overreact to good and bad news. I imagine some of the lower grade nickel companies could be subject to being sold off to perhaps ridiculous levels just because their nickel is deemed unsuitable for electric cars. That might be an opportunity, as nickel has other uses such as an alloy for steel, etc.

I own a decent amount of .999 Canadian nickels and have for some time. No interest whatsoever in selling anywhere near current prices thank you.

If I was homeless, I could always hold a sign that says "No job. Will trade my nickels for rides in your Tesla."

[Recyclersteve]

And of course I remember well the prominent Canadian nickel company called Inco (formerly traded with the symbol "N"). Inco was the largest nickel miner in the world for much of the 20th century and bought by the huge Brazilian miner Vale in 2006. I imagine their output was pure enough for car batteries, but am not sure.

There was even a Canadian nickel from 1951 which has an image of a nickel refinery on it. I often wondered if that coin depicted one of Inco's operations.

I wonder how much nickel is produced from these formerly Inco mines. It might be hard to tell by looking at Vale's numbers because they have operations all over the world and are involved in lots of base and precious metals. I'd be surprised if they separated Canadian nickel from everything else.

My understanding is that the less pure nickel typically comes from places such as Indonesia and the Philippines.

[mtalbot_ca]

If I was homeless, I could always hold a sign that says "No job. Will trade my nickels for rides in your Tesla."

This is good!

The 1951 nickel, is the first commemorative nickel in Canada ant it celebrates 200yrs of the discovery by A.F. Cronstedt (Swedish scientist) who successfully identified and named nickel. Unfortunately the design is from a generic refinery.

We cannot melt the nickels so it is only a theoritical value if the price of the nickel price increases. The Royal Canadian Mint has been removing them for many years now. Only 5% of the wild coins are .999 nickels. So technically we might see a value from the rarity.

Best regards,

[Recyclersteve]

If I was homeless, I could always hold a sign that says "No job. Will trade my nickels for rides in your Tesla."

This is good!

The 1951 nickel, is the first commemorative nickel in Canada ant it celebrates 200yrs of the discovery by A.F. Cronstedt (Swedish scientist) who successfully identified and named nickel. Unfortunately the design is from a generic refinery.

We cannot melt the nickels so it is only a theoritical value if the price of the nickel price increases. The Royal Canadian Mint has been removing them for many years now. Only 5% of the wild coins are .999 nickels. So technically we might see a value from the rarity.

Best regards,

You can't melt them in Canada, but we likely can here in the U.S. Just like with silver in the late 1960's- you could legally melt U.S. silver in Canada and vice versa. They made it illegal to melt U.S. silver in the U.S. in 1968, which was the subject of the fantastic book The Big Silver Melt (by Merton). A copy just sold on this site in the last week or so. I may take my copy to the grave- it is that good.