The big hurdle to develop new Canadian nickel mines

While nickel demand is growing due to energy transition, miners are hesitant to jump in due to an incomplete supply chain, said Lyle Trytten, development manager at Giga Metals and president of Trytten Consulting.

On Friday Trytten recorded Kitco Roundtable with Mining Audiences Manager Michael McCrae and Kitco correspondent Paul Harris. Electric vehicle adoption is quickening, and nickel is a key component to make some types of lithium-ion batteries.

While nickel traded at a decade-high this year, Trytten said the metal price works to economically build a mine, but there is a missing processing component.

"[Miners] haven't jumped in because there isn't a high degree of trust that all the pieces will be there. It's equally about the processing. There no capacity in Canada to actually treat and process the raw materials, so the whole midstream processing sector needs to grow."