Boom turns to bust for Australian nickel and lithium
ANALYSIS: Market for ‘new economy’ minerals accelerated fast but hit some big roadblocks, affecting some of Australia’s richest people – and the country’s biggest company.
WATCH: NBR senior journalist Lachlan Colquhoun speaks with Calida Stuart-Menteath.
What’s at stake. Billions of dollars of investment in Australia’s lithium, nickel, and rare earths industries.
Background. The mining of ‘new economy’ minerals experienced a boom on forecasts of surging demand for the batteries which power electric vehicles, but a few years on and those forecasts have proved to be overly optimistic and the world has a supply glut and prices have slumped.
Main players: BHP, Gina Rinehart, Twiggy Forrest, China’s EV industry.
Back in 2018 a friend of Shoeshine’s was on a motorcycle tour of Western Australia and happened to drop in on the Kalgoorlie Diggers and Dealers conference, the famous annual mining industry get together in the old gold mining town.
He’s an anaesthetist and a lover of Ducati motorcycles and not
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What’s at stake. Billions of dollars of investment in Australia’s lithium, nickel, and rare earths industries.
Background. The mining of ‘new economy’ minerals experienced a boom on forecasts of surging demand for the batteries which power electric vehicles, but a few years on and those forecasts have proved to be overly optimistic and the world has a supply glut and prices have slumped.
Main players: BHP, Gina Rinehart, Twiggy Forrest, China’s EV industry.
