Elon Musk: Bring Me More Nickel

[Recyclersteve]

https://www.kitco.com/news/2020-07-23/E ... ickel.html

And the text of the article for when the link goes inactive (emphasis mine)...

Thursday July 23, 2020 17:40 (per Kitco News)

Electric vehicle visionary, Elon Musk, said he is asking mining companies to produce more nickel.

Musk made the comments during his second quarter earning call earlier this week.

Musk said miners will be offered a giant contract from Tesla if they mine nickel efficiently and in an "environmental way," according to note published by Tesmanian.

The CEO of Tesla will need more raw materials. Musk also announced during the call that his company’s next gigafactory will be built in Austin, Texas. Gigafactories manufacture batteries and cars. Tesla currently has Gigafactories in the U.S., Europe and China.

Earlier this year Tesla signed a contract with Glencore for cobalt. The company has been reportedly trying to limit dependence on the material to reduce cost and avoid reliance on a material that has links to worker exploitation and environmental degradation.

Cobalt's chemistry generally provide lithium-ion batteries with greater stability.

Green Car Reports that Tesla is moving to an alternate battery chemistry: energy-dense nickel-cobalt-aluminum for its Semi production.

“The nickel-based cells have higher energy density, so longer range; those are needed for something like a Semi, where every unit of mass that you add in you have to subtract in cargo,” said Musk during the earnings call.

End of article...

For those who can get any .999 Canadian nickel at a reasonable price, what are you waiting for? Nope- not selling now.

P.S. I am not an expert on all things nickel or a scientist, but my understanding is that the kind of nickel Musk needs for his battery operations is high purity nickel. High purity nickel typically comes from colder climates like Canada and Russia. The lower purity stuff (also called nickel pig iron) comes from warmer weather locations such as Indonesia and the Philippines. It is often used in the production of stainless steel. Stainless steel represents roughly 2/3 of the demand for nickel worldwide.

P.P.S. Kitco only shows one price for nickel on kitcometals.com. I would imagine there will be a day (fairly soon perhaps) where the two classes of nickel will have separate prices. How much difference in price between the two? Hard to tell. I do think it is reasonable to expect that Canadian .999 nickels will almost blindly be accepted as the better of the two types as most buyers will likely assume that production was from the Sudbury basin (Ontario) area and is therefore the high purity type.

[thecrazyone]

Based on this demand, and the fact that so many car companies are going electric in the next 10 years, would Nickels be more prone to melting before copper cents?

[Corsair]

Based on this demand, and the fact that so many car companies are going electric in the next 10 years, would Nickels be more prone to melting before copper cents?

No. Nickel melts at 2651 degrees, while copper melts much sooner at 1984 degrees.

Joking aside, you may be right. Wouldn't it be ironic if that happened? Especially to the folks of Realcent...

[thecrazyone]

I could totally see it happening, if the industry is looking to fast tracking mining and resources.

[Cu Penny Hoarder]

Hoard all the copper pennies and nickels while you still can... not much time left... hurry.

[thecrazyone]

Looks like he found some, in New Caledonia:

https://electrek.co/2021/10/13/tesla-se ... roduction/

[TXSTARFIRE]

Maybe they dont figure the material needed to build these cars and the electricity needed to recharge, but it doesnt seem to me that they are "zero" emission vehicles.

[thecrazyone]

I've been saving every nickel I now get in change. None leave my hand anymore!

[JadeDragon]

I’m occasionally pulling out .999 Ni from Canadian rolls but the percentages are low. 10 years ago you could get a decent haul from separating the Ni out but no longer.

[Morsecode]

Last month, I found exactly 1 .999 CA nickel out of 12,000 US searched.

[thecrazyone]

Deal signed with Talon metal company in MN:

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos- ... 022-01-10/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -agreement

How long until they want nickel out of our currency??

[Cu Penny Hoarder]

Last month, I found exactly 1 .999 CA nickel out of 12,000 US searched.

Since I stepped up my US nickel hoarding late last year, I've gone through 15 boxes and found: 4 war nickels, 6 pre-1982 CA nickels and about 20 post-1982 CA nickels.

[Corsair]

Over $10/lb for the first time in nearly a decade.

[Cu Penny Hoarder]

Over $10/lb for the first time in nearly a decade.

Just ordered several more boxes from my CU. My girl there takes good care of me. Those boxes of chocolates really pay off.

[Silver4face]

Just curious- have you found anything good in those boxes that you ordered on January 12th? Or, are you simply hoarding them as unsearched?

[Cu Penny Hoarder]

Just curious- have you found anything good in those boxes that you ordered on January 12th? Or, are you simply hoarding them as unsearched?

All nickels are good Keeping them in the boxes wouldn't be any fun, so I break them all open. I set aside all the pre-1960s and any that are MS. For every $300-400 searched I find at least 1 war nickel, a few buffaloes (only about half have readable dates), some CA nickels (most are post-1981). I've slowed down a bit and only doing 2-4 boxes a month now. Currently have five 5gal buckets full to the brim. Fun stuff!

[Silver4face]

I am now keeping nickels 1963 and back. I would keep more, but penny hoarding takes priority.

[thecrazyone]

Found this article interesting, apologies if it's a dupe post:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/08/nickel- ... plans.html

[Silver4face]

I am now keeping nickels 1963 and back. I would keep more, but penny hoarding takes priority.

UPDATE: I am no longer keeping 1960-1963 nickels (except for AU/BU). I will soon be cashing in about a 70-80 dollar face of nickels from 1960-1963. The melt value of American nickels is too low to play this game. However, I am still keeping pre 1960. I can always change my strategies if crazy/profitable things happen.