Nickel's evolving role in green power

The challenge of reducing emissions from the mining industry as a whole is ongoing and especially vital for the metals needed in renewable power and de-carbonized transportation.

Taking center stage in this push, the electric vehicle space is being tasked to evaluate the overall environmental impact of EV battery life cycles. Scalable solutions are needed by 2030 for the anticipated first wave of batteries soon reaching end-of-life to keep them out of the toxic waste stream.

This exponential demand for clean and renewable energy applications in transportation and emerging technologies is creating a surge in nickel use. The resulting reevaluation of mining and recycling infrastructure in light of a more circular economy is producing new policies and private sector incentives focusing on where commodities are being sourced and how they are being processed.

The new face of nickel

Three types of rechargeable batteries include nickel-cadmium, nickel-metal hydride and various lithium-ion cells used in electric and hybrid vehicles. All these contain nickel as a vital component and are recyclable.

Nickel helps increase energy storage in lithium-ion batteries, enabling cars to go farther on a single charge. It benefits nearly all sustainable energy technologies where surplus energy storage is needed and contributes less than 10% of the overall carbon footprint of an EV battery.

How much and what type of energy resources are used throughout the battery manufacturing process, along with additional components like aluminum, cobalt and manganese, are considered more significant in judging the industry's overall carbon emissions.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) added nickel to the 2021 redrafted critical minerals list due to a combination of green energy mandates, economic importance, and lack of resource diversity from current international trading partners. The short-term benefits of doing business overseas are being considered against potential supply risk and socioeconomic costs over time.

EV manufacturers in the U.S. are eager to switch over to domestic nickel, increase recycling, and shorten transportation distances to keep up with nickel's changing usage profile from alloy in stainless steel production to a necessary component in EV batteries.

International tensions

Currently, China is the leading manufacturer of EV battery cells globally. Russian mining company Norilsk Nickel has remained the world's largest nickel producer, so much so that it has avoided wartime fuel sanctions which otherwise include oil, liquefied natural gas and coal. Both countries are laboring under scrutiny for their lack of transparency and regulation.

Speaking at a nickel carbon footprint assessment webinar with Chinese stakeholders in December 2021, Professor Xu Aidong, Executive Secretary-General of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association's (CNIA) nickel branch, acknowledged the need for clarity when assessing Chinese nickel's carbon footprint alongside other compliant nations.

She agreed that the "CNIA should take on its role to make the map complete, starting from the carbon footprint assessment of nickel sulphate as a response to the urgent compliance need from the EV battery supply chain."

In Norilsk, a Russian city over 200 miles above the Arctic Circle that is surrounded by nickel and copper factories, the ground is perpetually frozen. After the collapse of a thermal power plant tank in June 2020 due to melting permafrost, there was a leakage of more than 20,000 tons of diesel, one of the largest fuel spills in the history of the Arctic, according to the BBC.

According to the USGS, the United States still relies on imports for about half of its annual nickel consumption. Nearly half of that supply between 2017 and 2020 was from Canada, rounded off by Australia, Norway and Finland, all countries in good standing.

Domestic nickel sources

The Department of Energy has identified nickel as vulnerable but also a ready opportunity, encouraging expanded recycling systems to complement increased production. Traditional and "urban" reclamation mining concerns are burgeoning to fill the need as EV sales continue to boom.

Though there is encouragement from the current presidential administration, including federal incentives, domestic mining companies easily average a decade between exploration and commercial readiness for new mines.

Considerable time and material investment are needed for specialized recycling plants as well before they can effectively contribute to the commercial production cycle. To improve efficiency and cash in on the movement, more battery manufacturers are building their own materials reclamation facilities or partnering with startups specializing in refurbishment or reuse.

Currently, the Eagle mine in Michigan is the only domestic primary nickel operation in the United States and was expected to close in 2025 but will remain open another year after price increases made nearby lower-grade ore worth extracting. Its production began in 2014, and the mine anticipates producing 440 million pounds of nickel and 429 million lb of copper in the next few years before exhausting its ore body.

Bolstered by a contract with Tesla, Talon Metals Corp. plans to open their Tamarack Mine in Minnesota in 2026. Further proposed mines in the state are being explored by PolyMet Mining and Twin Metals Minnesota, but both are still navigating legislative requirements and local environmental concerns.

Calculating nickel's carbon footprint

Nickel lends itself well to a circular economy with near-infinite potential reuse without deterioration. Due to the long life of nickel products and ease in recycling, only about 17% of this metal used in consumer products winds up in landfills, largely as electronics waste.

Mark Mistry, senior manager of life cycle assessment and sustainability at the Nickel Institute, is optimistic, "Nickel can be infinitely recycled, and recycled nickel has the same properties as nickel coming from primary sources. 85% of all nickel that leaves the use phase is recycled. More than 80% of all nickel that historically was mined is still in use, meaning that it is available in future to help satisfy the growing demand."

He goes on to say that both mining and recycling "Require a stable regulatory framework which is providing them with long term planning security and this will allow nickel to play its critical role in the future."

Nickel Institute, which is an international association of leading producers to promote sound science in support of proper nickel use, offers nickel carbon footprint analysis based on hard numbers provided by companies, calculated to a globally agreed standard and independently verified.

Nickel life cycle data includes measurement of initial energy input, use of chemicals or water, and non-optimum outputs such as emissions to air and water as well as types of waste.

This data collection is the unbiased scientific groundwork used for life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) that identifies every stage of processing where environmental impacts occur. Data is used to accurately determine and help improve a company's specific carbon footprint.

An LCIA can also be utilized by the end user to assess the environmental performance of products for comparison. This provides valuable data points such as assessing EVs against combustion engine cars to pinpoint and compare the complete environmental performance of both.

Several parameters impact the life cycle data at any nickel operation, such as ore grades, by-products, process modernization, the specific technology applied, energy supply and technology updates or investments in emission reduction or prevention. These factors may change in a relatively short time frame and affect the results of a life cycle assessment significantly. Life cycle data should then be updated regularly.

International cooperation, data transparency and government-supported standards combined with increased self-sufficiency and efficient materials reclamation will bring nickel into a greener future in North America and across the world.

Nickel Institute's guide to calculating nickel's carbon footprint can be read at How to determine GHG emissions from nickel metal Class 1 production.