Pictured:Gary Frampton, Head of Business Development & Technical Projects, BHP Nickel West and WA Minister of Industry, Science and Technology Hon Karen Andrews
In just 2.5 years, BHP Nickel West has seen a stunning turnaround in demand for its commodity.
“As of today, 75% of the nickel we produce in our refinery is sold to the battery materials industries. It has been an enormous turnaround and I think if we can extend our thinking and vision of what it could mean for the whole supply chain then going further downstream to precursors…there are enormous opportunities for Australia,” Gary Frampton, Head of Business Development & Technical Projects, BHP Nickel West said.
Frampton was speaking at the official opening of the Future Battery Industries CRC, whereby the cathode precursor pilot plant at CSIRO’s headquarters at Curtin University is the flagship research project.
About $5 million has been invested in plant and trials so far, with an estimated $13.2 million to be spent over four years.
“This particular plant we believe the Future Batteries CRC can effectively be repurposed for the next stage of going downstream so that is conversion of metal sulphates into precursor materials, which is a combination of the metal sulphates to produce hydroxide materials for precursors,” Frampton said.
Full story to appear in April’s Australia’s Paydirt magazine