As part of its Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub (TECH) project to produce nickel and cobalt sulphate, Queensland Pacific Metals (QPM) has been undertaking pilot studies with SGS Canada since May 2023. The Australian project developer saw production of 10kg on-spec nickel sulphate that meets the specifications of the General Motors (GM), LG Energy Solutions and POSCO offtake agreements. It now hopes to produce on-spec cobalt sulphate during the next phase of pilot work.

The Tech Project will process laterite ore, specifically limonite, imported from New Caledonia. The project's plant will use a newly developed DNi process from Altilium Group to produce Ni-Co mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) and nickel, cobalt and alumina refined products. An advanced feasibility study was released in November 2022, which estimated annual nameplate production of nickel sulphate (16kt Ni), cobalt sulphate (1.75kt Co), hematite (610kt) and HPA (4kt), as well as magnesia for an estimated capex estimate of A$2.1Bn (US$1.4Bn) (which includes contingency of 10%).

Ore feedstock has been secured through binding ore supply agreements with New Caledonian producers Société Le Nickel (SLN), Société Minière Georges Montagnat (SMGM), Maï Kouaoua Mines (MKM) and Société des Mines de la Tontouta (SMT). QPM also has offtake agreements in place with LG Energy Solution, POSCO and GM. With LG and POSCO, QPM signed a binding offtake agreement in June 2021 for the sale of 10kt Ni and 1kt Co. Whereas its agreement with GM was signed in October 2022 and stipulates the sale of cobalt and nickel sulphate provided GM investment of US$69M to the Tech Project.

Although this is a positive step in the development of QPM’s project, scaling up production based on its novel flowsheet to the volumes reflected in the offtake agreements will require considerable effort. However, the company’s claims for zero solids waste and no requirement for tailings dams gives it an ESG advance compared to Indonesian HPALs, which are associated with dry stacked tailings facilities and vast tailings waste volumes.

Nickel sulphate demand is forecast to soar by 16%py over the coming years to feed cathode active material (CAM) production for use in EV batteries.

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