Stellantis will receive nickel and cobalt sulphate from the NiWest project in Western Australia

The agreement with Alliance Nickel (formerly GME Resources) sees the total supply of 170kt nickel sulphate (37.9kt Ni) and 12kt cobalt sulphate (2.5kt Co) over an initial five-year period. These volumes would represent a little under 40% of forecast annual production from the NiWest project. The deal comes after the two companies signed an initial non-binding, preliminary agreement for supply of battery metals last October.

Whilst securing potential future supply, Stellantis will invest an additional EUR9.2M (US$10.1M) to acquire an 11.5% stake in Alliance Nickel and rights to nominate one director to the Alliance board. Alliance Nickel is currently undertaking a definitive feasibility study (DFS) on the NiWest project, which it aims to complete before the end of the year. The project is located in the West Australian Nickel belt and is adjacent to Glencore’s Murrin Murrin nickel-cobalt operation.

Stellantis has been active in securing battery raw materials for its EV fleet and in January signed a five-year supply agreement for nickel sulphate with Terrafame in Finland. In sourcing nickel and cobalt from Australia, which the US has a free trade agreement with, Stellantis will qualify for US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) tax credits. The company is racing to lock in future nickel and cobalt supply from outside of Indonesia and the DRC respectively and will enable it avoid some of the negative ESG scrutiny that these countries often attract.