Posted on 10 Mar 2023
Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Group intends to grow its copper and nickel business, but it is not interested in lithium at the moment, Kallanish has learned.
The comment came from Sonia Scarselli of BHP Xplor, the company’s division that invests in junior mining companies, in comments to Reuters at a mining convention in Toronto, Ontario.
“We still don’t see the demand-supply equation of lithium to be as fundamental as copper and nickel. For us, lithium will remain flat,” she says.
That comment reaffirms the company’s position that the global lithium market is well supplied and that lithium prices could dip this year. BHP says it expects global copper and nickel supplies to remain below demand because few new mines for copper and nickel are beginning production in the near future.
BHP has invested $40 million in Kabanga Nickel in Tanzania and is working with Rio Tinto to open the Resolution copper mine in Arizona. BHP Xplor has invested $3.5m in seven nickel and copper projects globally. Those inaugural grants were made last January.
Source:Kallanish
