Australian Mines has signed a seven-year offtake agreement giving South Korean energy and petrochemicals company SK Innovation 100% offtake rights to its battery-grade materials production, the company said on Tuesday August 6.
Under the terms of the agreement, SK will have 100% rights to downstream nickel and cobalt sulphate output from Australian Mines' Queensland-based Sconi nickel-cobalt-scandium project, which is being developed in preparation for increased electric vehicle (EV) demand for both preferential battery-grade materials. "Australian Mines remains steadfastly committed to... becoming a major producer of cobalt sulphate and nickel sulphate chemicals with a fully auditable supply chain for the electric-vehicle sector," Australian Mines' managing director Benjamin Bell said in the company's 2019 interim report.A bankable feasibility study from November 2018 estimated that the Sconi project, which houses three separate ore deposits, has mineral reserves of more than 115 million tonnes, the breakdown of which was not specified.According to...