Thousands of job losses this year marked the bleakest period in the local industry's history, which dates back to the 1960s.
It means Glencore's Murrin Murrin operation, developed by billionaire Andrew Forrest in the late 1990s, will be the only WA nickel mine left standing once the Nova nickel-copper mine runs out of reserves in 2027. Nickel's fastest-growing application is lithium-ion batteries, such as those used in electric vehicles, with global efforts to decarbonise expected to see demand increase.Nickel is used in stainless steel, coins, jet engines, and lithium-ion batteries.NiCo's proposed $2.9 billion Wingellina nickel-cobalt mine, near WA's border with the Northern Territory, has just been awarded major project status by the federal government.
It was a blow for a remote region where there are few job prospects, and the Big Australian will not review its nickel business again until 2027. Wingellina is just 12km from Surveyor General's Corner where the borders of WA, the NT, and SA intersect.Wingellina was the third nickel project in WA's Goldfields region to receive major project status in recent times, following Ardea Resources' $3 billion Kalgoorlie Nickel Project in March 2022 and Alliance Nickel's $1.6 billion NiWest project in May.
The Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter had operated continuously for more than 50 years but was placed in care and maintenance in October.Since Andrew Forrest's Wyloo Metals put its Kambalda nickel operations on care and maintenance in May, less than a year after paying $760 million to acquire them, the company has led a push towards so-called green nickel.