ASX Nickel Stocks: 5 Biggest Companies

Market cap: AU$239.25 billion; current share price: AU$47.21

BHP is a diversified mining company with headquarters in Melbourne, Australia. Worldwide, BHP runs dozens of mines that span North and South America and Australia. The company produces nickel sulphide ore out of its operations in Western Australia’s Northern Goldfields area. It covers the mining, development and production of nickel until both matte and metal are ready to be shipped to buyers. BHP sells over 85 percent of its nickel to the electric vehicle (EV) industry.

BHP is on its way toward net-zero nickel production. In September 2022, its Nickel West division signed a deal with renewable energy company Enel Green Power to begin construction of the Flat Rocks wind farm in Western Australia.The project is set to include 18 wind turbines, which will be the tallest wind turbines in Western Australia. As of October 2023, more than half of the wind turbines were already in place. The Wind Farm Stage 1 is expected to provide enough energy to power both the Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter and Kambalda Concentrator once complete.

Market cap: AU$6.61 billion; current share price: AU$8.74

IGO is a diversified miner that produces several different metals, but its focus is on its 100 percent owned Nova nickel-copper-cobalt operation. Nova is located in Western Australia’s Fraser Range and primarily produces nickel.

Nickel production guidance for the company’s 2023 fiscal year was set at 33,500 to 37,500 tonnes of contained material, and IGO ultimately produced 34,846 tonnes of the base metal during that time. Nova accounted for 22,915 tonnes of that amount, with the Forrestania operation contributing the remainder. Looking forward to 2024, IGO expects to produce a lower amount of nickel, with guidance for the period set at 29,000 to 32,500 tonnes.

Aside from its nickel-producing operations, IGO has a 49 percent stake in the Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia joint venture. The operation is focused on developing and operating world-class lithium assets.

Market cap: AU$3.12 billion; current share price: AU$0.73

New South Wales-based Nickel Industries, formerly Nickel Mines, is a significant producer of nickel pig iron, a critical component in manufacturing stainless steel. The company began producing high-grade nickel matte for EVs in 2022.

Nickel Industries has 80 percent interests in multiple nickel rotary kiln electric furnace (RKEF) operations in Indonesia: Hengjaya Nickel, Oracle Nickel and Ranger Nickel in the Morowali Industrial Park, and Angel Nickel in the Weda Bay Industrial Park. It also has an 80 percent interest in the Hengjaya nickel mine, located near the Morowali Industrial Park.

In its 2022 fiscal year, Nickel Industries’ RKEF operations produced a combined 473,116 tonnes of nickel pig iron containing 65,336 tonnes of nickel metal. Nickel metal in nickel matte production at Hengjaya Nickel came in at 4,743 tonnes; while it is currently the company’s only RKEF project producing nickel matte, a nickel matte converter may be constructed at Oracle Nickel in the future. As for the company’s mine, it produced 6.8 million tonnes of ore last year.

In October, Nickel Industries reached a positive final investment decision for its participation in the Excelsior nickel-cobalt high-pressure acid leach project in Indonesia. It is set to produce 72,000 tonnes per year of contained nickel equivalent, including mixed hydroxide precipitate, nickel sulphate and nickel cathode for the EV battery market.

Market cap: AU$244.95 million; current share price: AU$0.49

Centaurus Metals is a mining and development company based in Brazil. According to the company, its goal is to become a major supplier of nickel sulphide to help provide a cleaner and greener future. The firm has its sights set on the development of its wholly owned Jaguar project, which is located in Brazil’s Carajás mineral province.

Centaurus’ most recent mineral resource estimate for Jaguar, which was released in November 2022, outlines 109.2 million tonnes at 0.87 percent nickel. The company expects to update the resource estimate in the first quarter of 2024. A definitive feasibility study is also expected to be completed by that time.

In November, the company wrapped up a drilling program at Jaguar. The results indicate robust nickel sulphide mineralisation, suggesting the potential for resource expansion and future underground operations.

Market cap: AU$148.68 million; current share price: AU$0.68

Lunnon Metals is an exploration company operating in Western Australia’s Kambalda nickel district. Lunnon owns a portfolio of four past-producing nickel mines at the Kambalda nickel project: Foster, Baker, Silver Lake and Fisher.

In May, Lunnon released a prefeasibility study for Baker, establishing a probable ore reserve of 612,000 tonnes containing 2.86 percent nickel; that amounts to 17,500 tonnes of contained nickel. In the second half of 2023, the company has focused on performing studies at Foster, which has 57,000 tonnes of accessible nickel metal.

In December, Lunnon announced a resource estimate for Silver Lake. It points to 824,000 tonnes at 1.7 percent nickel for 13,800 contained tonnes of nickel. With that update in the bag, total in-ground resources for Kambalda now stand at 3.7 million tonnes at 2.7 percent nickel for 101,600 tonnes of contained nickel.