Forrest urges LME to separate nickel contracts into 'dirty' and 'clean'
The London Metal Exchange should classify its nickel contracts into "clean" and "dirty" contracts to give customers more choice, Australian iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest said on Monday.
The comment by Forrest, chairman and founder of Fortescue Metals Group, is part of a push by miners and Australian lawmakers to save the country's nickel industry after prices collapsed amid a jump in cheaper supplies from Indonesia.
Nickel, a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries, is typically produced to higher environmental and regulatory standards in Australia than in Indonesia. That has Australian producers calling for a green premium.
"If you've got dirty nickel in your battery systems, then you want to know about that because you don't want to propagate that and you want the choice to buy clean nickel if you can. So the London Metal Exchange must differentiate between clean and dirty," Forrest told Australia's national press club.
The LME did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Australia's nickel industry is shedding hundreds of jobs. Forrest's private investment arm, Wyloo Metals, said last month it would put its Western Australian nickel operations on care and maintenance at the end of May due to low prices. It bought those assets last year for $504 million.
Comments
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation