STELLANTIS has signed an agreement with Western Australian miner Alliance Nickel for the supply of EV battery-grade nickel and cobalt sulphate from its NiWest project in the Goldfields.

The car-maker has agreed to take 40 per cent of Alliance Nickel’s (AXN) nickel and cobalt sulphate production – equivalent to 170,000 tonnes of nickel sulphate and 12,000 tonnes of cobalt sulphate – from the mine over the first five years.

The agreement, the third between Stellantis and an Australian miner, builds on a memorandum signed last year. It coincides with Stellantis allocating $15 million to build an 11.5 per cent shareholding in AXN and leading to the right to nominate a director to AXN’s board.

AXN managing director Paul Kopejtka said: “It validates our development strategy for the NiWest Nickel-Cobalt Project and opens critical new funding options by securing a premier Tier 1 cornerstone customer and investor.”

“We look forward to a long partnership with Stellantis as we continue to execute our strategy to become the next Australian supplier to the global markets of premium battery-grade nickel and cobalt sulphate.

“This is truly a ‘We Win Together’ outcome for both companies.”

The mine is located near the Murrin Murrin nickel and cobalt mine in WA’s northern Goldfields. It is expected to produce 456,000 tonnes of nickel in nickel sulphate and 31,400 tonnes of cobalt in cobalt sulphate over its 27-year life.

Annual production is expected to average 19,200 tonnes of nickel and 1400 tonnes of cobalt over its first 15 years, making the mine one of the largest in both these EV metals in Australia.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said the partnership with AXN was an important element of the group’s plans which “are to build on the foundation of a guaranteed supply of key materials for our battery electric vehicles”.

The car-maker, the world’s third biggest by revenue, has already reached deals for battery materials with McEwen Copper, Terrafame, Vulcan Energy, Element 25 and Controlled Thermal Resources.

It is one of a growing number of car-makers taking equity and committing to production outputs from key battery-material miners around the world.

The commitment is also leading to moves by industry and governments to entice battery manufacturers to invest in mining.

Chile last month announced plans to nationalise its lithium resources, another metal essential in batteries.

Rising demand for EVs is encouraging car-makers to step up efforts to secure raw materials needed for making batteries.

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Automotive News in the US said that some of the deals that major car-makers have announced with Australian suppliers and miners include:

 

Tesla:

February 2023 – Australian company Magnis Energy signs a minimum three-year agreement to supply from February 2025 up to 35,000 terapascals of anode active materials.

January 2023 – Australian miner Piedmont Lithium to supply lithium-rich spodumene concentrate for making batteries.

March 2022 – Australian miner Core Lithium to supply up to 110,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate over four years, starting in the second half of 2023.

February 2022 – Australia’s Liontown Resources to supply up to 150,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate a year over five years, starting in 2024.

 

Stellantis:

January 2023 – Stellantis signs with Australian miner Element for manganese sulphite for batteries. Deliveries of up to 45 kilotons expected to begin in 2026

October 2022 – Stellantis signs preliminary agreement with Australian miner GME Resources to secure supplies of nickel and cobalt sulphate for EV batteries

June 2022 – Stellantis to invest $A82m to buy an 8 per cent stake in German-Australian start-up miner Vulcan and become the miner’s second-largest shareholder. The lithium supply agreement extends to 10 years

June 2022 – Australia’s Controlled Thermal Resources to supply Stellantis with up to 25,000 tonnes a year of lithium hydroxide over 10 years from a project in California.

 

Toyota:

August 2022 – A joint venture of Toyota and Panasonic will buy lithium from Australian miner Ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge mining project in Nevada to build EV batteries in the US.

General Motors:

October 2022 – GM to invest up to $A103m in Australia’s Queensland Pacific Metals to give it the right to buy nickel and cobalt sulphate produced in the first 15 years of the TECH project.

April 2022 – Australian miner Glencore to supply cobalt from its Murrin Murrin operation in Australia for GM’s Ultium battery cathodes.

Ford:

July 2022 – Australian miner Ioneer signs an agreement with Ford to supply lithium from Rhyolite Ridge in Nevada.

July 2022 – MoU with BHP for nickel supply from BHP’s Nickel West operations in Australia.

June 2022 – Australia’s Liontown Resources will supply up to 150,000 tonnes per year of spodumene concentrate from its Kathleen Valley project in Western Australia for five years, starting 2024.

Apr 11, 2022 – Signed preliminary deal to purchase 25,000 tons of lithium annually from Australia’s Lake Resources’ project in northern Argentina.

By Neil Dowling