BHP Nickel West opens Australia’s first nickel sulphate plant

BHP Nickel West has opened Australia’s first nickel sulphate refinery, adding value to the company’s metals business and entering the battery supply chain for electric vehicles.

The nickel sulphate plant has been operating since September at its Kwinana refinery and has the potential to exceed 100,000 tonnes of nickel sulphate per year at 99.99 per cent purity, which is enough to make 700,000 batteries for EVs.

The Kwinana facility has until now refined granulated nickel matte from the company’s Kalgoorlie smelter into premium-grade nickel powder and briquettes containing 99.8 per cent nickel metal.

State development minister Roger Cook congratulated BHP Nickel West and said the plant contributed to building an advanced industrial corridor to feature battery minerals, materials, technology and expertise between Henderson and Rockingham south of Perth.

Cook said: “Nickel is essential to decarbonisation and WA has some of the largest and highest-grade nickel sulphide deposits in the world, in addition to leading mining and mineral expertise.

“Significant economic gains can be achieved for WA by building on our strengths in mining to diversify our activities into other segments of the battery value chain, including more onshore materials processing and manufacturing.”

As part of BHP’s focus to minimise environmental impacts, 50 per cent of the Kwinana refinery’s electricity needs will be powered by solar.

Picture: Nickel West

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