As automakers around the world set ambitious goals for vehicle electrification, many in the industry are seeing nickel — an integral component of most lithium-ion batteries — as a major hurdle.
While there is enough nickel in the ground to support significant growth in electric vehicles, there are not enough planned mining projects or processing facilities to produce the high-quality nickel required for electric vehicle batteries.
Meanwhile, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence’s Mark Beveridge, nickel content in batteries is only increasing. This is because more nickel means energy density.
“We are moving towards having 90% of the cathode for certain cell types to be nickel,” Beveridge said.
Russia has plenty of high-quality nickel, and its invasion of Ukraine sent prices skyrocketing to record levels over fears of supply disruptions, even leading the London Metal Exchange to suspend nickel trading for a week.
Meanwhile, the US lacks domestic nickel resources. The Eagle Mine in Michigan is the nation’s only primary nickel mine and is expected to close in 2025.
Enter the proposed Tamarack mine in Minnesota, which is being developed by Talon Metals and mining giant Rio Tinto. While the approval process is still pending, Talon has already struck a deal with Tesla to supply Tamarack nickel in electric vehicle batteries.
Talon Metals employees examine a core sample at the company’s proposed nickel mine in Tamarack, Minnesota.
Talon Metals
Elsewhere, however, the portfolio of projects for new high-nickel mines has largely dried up, and proposals for new mining projects are often resisted by local residents.
The Tamarak mine is no exception.
Paula Maccabee, a Minnesota lawyer who serves as director of advocacy and counsel for the nonprofit WaterLegacy, has questions. “How much nickel will end up in our drinking water? Where will this toxic nickel go if there are gaps and cracks in the underground mine?
Various types of nickel deposits
Currently, most of the world’s nickel is used in the production of stainless steel. Batteries account for just over 10% of total demand, Beveridge estimates, although that balance is expected to change rapidly over the coming decades.
“If we look 10 to 15 years ahead, we are actually looking to a future where the battery sector will be able to supply more than 50 percent of nickel device demand by then.”
But not all nickel is high enough quality to be used in electric vehicle batteries – it has to be so-called “class one” nickel with at least 99.8% purity. No nickel is so pure in nature; all this needs to be improved. But the higher the content of the original nickel deposit, the easier and less energy is required for its processing.
The proposed Tamarak mine site is a high grade nickel sulfide deposit.
“You know, in some of our nickel grades we have seen up to 12% nickel, which is very high globally. These are some of the highest grades I have ever seen in my career,” said Brian Goldner, Talon’s Chief Exploration and Operations Director.
Nickel sulfides are usually found deep underground and are mined in underground mines. The US currently obtains most of its nickel sulphide from Canada, Norway, Australia and Finland, but very few new sulphide mines are in development.
Additional nickel can come from laterite, a lower quality but more common type of nickel ore that is found near the surface of the earth and is mined in an open pit. Indonesia and the Philippines mine the most laterites, while Australia and Brazil also have large reserves.
Nickel laterite mine in New Caledonia.
Getty Images
The problem is that upgrading low-grade nickel laterite for use in electric vehicle batteries involves extremely energy-intensive processes such as high-pressure acid leaching, in which the laterite ore is heated to an extremely high temperature, mixed with sulfuric acid, and subjected to pressure.
“CO2 emissions will be about 15 to 20 times what we can do with a deposit like yours at the Tamarack project,” said Henri van Rooyen, CEO of Talon Metals.
That’s one reason many in the electric vehicle industry see the development of new nickel sulfide deposits as important, especially in the US and allied countries like Canada, Beveridge said.
“This not only potentially brings delivery closer to the future end user in North America, but also gives that end user the opportunity to say they are using a cleaner source of nickel, which is obviously good for their marketing. their product.”
But if all domestic automakers want nickel from these less carbon-intensive mines, Beveridge says there simply isn’t enough supply right now to use it. He believes the government may need to encourage automakers to source nickel from sulphide mines rather than laterite mines, thereby encouraging exploration and development.
Overall, however, mining is just one step in a tangled nickel supply chain. Once nickel is mined, it is often shipped to another country to be processed or converted into nickel sulfate, and then sent overseas again for battery assembly. All this transport only adds to the carbon intensity of the entire process.
While there are plans to develop domestic nickel smelters, there are currently none in the US. So even if the Tamarack is up and running by the target date of 2026, that nickel could still be shipped around the world before it makes its way into American electric vehicles.
Environmental issues and alternatives
First of all, the Tamarak mine must go through an environmental review and permitting process. And there is no guarantee that it will be as quick and easy as Talon hopes.
A major concern in sulphide mining is the potential for contamination of surrounding ground and surface waters. In Minnesota, lawsuits have delayed another proposed copper sulfide mine through environmental review and permitting for 17 years. Maccabi, who has been the plaintiff in a number of these lawsuits, says the Tamarack project raises familiar concerns.
“There are a lot of community meetings and a lot of public relations. But when the community asked, “What is the evidence? Where is your hydrological evidence of where the pollution will go…?” They didn’t get any information. “
Talon hopes to begin the environmental review process by early next year, after which the public will have access to the information Maccabee wants. But she worries that if all the data is not released in advance, regulators and the public will prematurely support the project.
If Talon does run into community resistance and delays, it could see the deal with Tesla voided. The automaker could pull out of the deal if the mine isn’t up and running by 2026.
Adrian Gardner, chief nickel analyst at Wood Mackenzie, said it was too ambitious a target. “It was much earlier than it would have been possible, feasible, from our point of view, to obtain permission and construction.”
But Gardner believes that lithium-ion battery recycling, as opposed to mining, could provide a more fruitful and sustainable nickel supply anyway. While the technology is still fairly new, battery recycling companies such as Li-Cycle and Redwood Materials have already partnered with major automakers.
Pallets of depleted lithium-ion batteries at JB Straubel’s Redwood Materials are ready for recycling.
“There are at least five or six companies in the US alone, each with their own proprietary technology,” says Gardner, though he doubts recycling alone will provide all the nickel needed. “Is this enough to cover the overall demand for electric vehicles? ? I doubt it, but it’s in tandem with the traditional technologies that are available and in use today.”
While battery recycling is gaining momentum and getting cheaper, nickel mining will still be part of the equation. The Tamarack project, if allowed, will only slightly reduce the global nickel shortage. But the Talon team hopes this project will help prove that mining can be done in an environmentally responsible manner.
“I wish our teams could say we’ve found it. We designed it… Environmentally friendly, socially responsible metals,” van Rooyen said, “and that they power our cars, and that those metals will be recycled into the next battery and the next battery. So I will be gone for a long time, but these metals will live.
Watch the video to learn more about nickel mining and see how Talon Metal’s proposed mine in Tamarack, Minnesota works.