BHP Billiton has signed an agreement with researchers from the University of Leicester, the University of Western Australia and Macquarie University to explore new areas of nickel, a metal crucial to the electric car revolution. The two-year project, called Craton Margin Exploration Targeting 4D, aims to find new nickel deposits.
Nickel is the main ingredient in the cathodes of lithium-ion batteries used in electric cars. But production is highly concentrated in Asia, with Indonesia accounting for about 33 per cent of global metal supply, followed by the Philippines with 12 per cent and Russia with 11 per cent. China has the lion's share of processing, refining about 35 per cent of the world's nickel.
Given this situation, finding untapped sources of battery metals elsewhere as well as innovative and environmentally friendly processing methods has become an important quest for countries and companies to move towards a greener future.
With this in mind, teams from Lester and the University of Western Australia have been investigating the processes involved in the origin and transport of metals through the lithosphere in the magmatic system.
Basic research is expected to challenge scientists' current understanding of nickel ore systems and potentially open up new areas of nickel exploration and search on a global scale.
