Samsung joins LG in the queue for Townsville nickel
Korea’s Samsung SDI will start negotiating a binding offtake agreement for 6000 tonnes of contained nickel from the planned Pure Minerals refinery in Townsville.
Townsville could be the base of a major nickel refinery
The two companies have entered a memorandum of understanding on the deal. Samsung wants to buy the nickel in combination with mixed hydroxide precipitate and final battery chemical sulfate forms.
Pure Minerals has also signed an MOU with LG Chem.
The initial term of the agreement would be three to five years and pricing would be linked to the underlying commodity prices, possibly using the London Metal Exchange as a benchmark.
The two companies would also establish product specifications to be used in the offtake agreement.
Pure Minerals chief executive Stephen Grocott said the company was keen to have Samsung SDI as a customer of the project.
“We are consistently gaining traction with end-users who view Pure Minerals as a potential part of their future supply chain,” he said.
“This is evident in the MOUs we have signed to date with LG Chem and Samsung SDI.”
The Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub (“TECH”) Project will process high-grade nickel-cobalt laterite ore imported from New Caledonia to produce battery chemicals for the emerging electric vehicle sector.
The new refinery would process 600,000 tonnes of laterite ore a year to produce 25,000 tonnes of nickel sulphate and 3000 tonnes of cobalt sulphate plus other valuable co-products such as hematite and alumina.
Ore would be imported under long-term supply agreements already negotiated with two New Caledonian mining companies .
With exploration and mining risk minimised via the ore supply agreements, it is anticipated that the company can move rapidly through to a final investment decision and commence development in a much shorter timeframe than typical mining projects.