BEIJING, Nov 1 (Reuters) – North American Nickel should start producing at its flagship Maniitsoq project in Greenland by 2023 or 2024, when demand for nickel from electric vehicle (EV) batteries should be in full swing, the company’s chief executive officer (CEO) said on Tuesday.
The Toronto-based exploration company, which acquired the Maniitsoq licences five years ago, has invested over $50 million in exploration so far, CEO Keith Morrison told Reuters in an interview in Beijing, where he was attending the annual Greenland Day at the Danish embassy.
It will be at least another five years before it has finished exploration, completed feasibility studies and construction, and started selling its metals output.
“If we’re extremely lucky that’s a five-year process, if not six or seven. But that drops up right in the middle of the impact on the scalability of electric vehicles,” Morrison said. Asked if a 2023 or 2024 launch was a realistic time frame, Morrison answered: “We should be there by then.”
The most-traded nickel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 6 percent on Wednesday – its daily limit under the Shanghai bourse’s trading rules – to 99,340 yuan ($14,967) a tonne, the highest in nearly 11 months.
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