Nickel is one of the metals whose production and consumption are used to judge a country's level of development. Nickel consumption is largely diversified by region. The greatest demand for the metal is in industries focused on the production of consumer goods and construction materials, as well as in the chemical industry and automotive industry. The market of non-ferrous metals, including nickel, is very unstable and if we analyze the price dynamics for the pure metal, we can conclude that the dynamics is negative and there is a high price dispersion (volatility) of nickel. According to the latest forecasts of foreign experts, the expected growth of the world economy will result in growth of demand for stainless steel, production of which absorbs up to two thirds of the world nickel supplies, thus resulting in growth of nickel prices. At the same time, the high volatility of the global nickel market makes it impossible to reliably forecast the future trends of its development.
Until the mid-1990s, the global nickel industry was mainly focused on the development of sulfide copper and nickel deposits. This was due to the fact that it was more economical to extract nickel and associated minerals from sulfide ores than from lateritic ores. After the discovery of the large Voysey Bay copper-nickel sulfide deposit in Canada in 1993, the world market was anxiously awaiting its commissioning. Specialists predicted that nickel mined there would have a low cost of production and would be able to significantly outpace traditional producers of the metal. The threat of commissioning of this deposit initiated research aimed at increasing the competitiveness of other sites, including laterite-type deposits. The most successful solution to the problem was found at the technological level by Australian specialists. Their main achievement can be considered the idea of large-scale processing of lateritic ores using the technology of direct (without pre-firing) acid leaching under pressure followed by refining, once developed by the Canadian Sherritt International Corp. and very limitedly used until now in Cuba and Brazil. In view of such unfavorable forecasts and trends, Russian nickel mining companies should determine promising areas for their development, look for domestic markets, reduce production costs, upgrade their machinery and equipment, and consider opportunities to diversify their products and production facilities.
