Black Mountain Metals is focused on ethically sourcing and sustainably producing high-quality, battery-grade metals in Tier 1 jurisdictions.

A clean energy future necessitates low-carbon technologies such as electric vehicles, solar panels, large-scale battery storage, and Gigafactories. As the world transitions to net zero, renewables markets are driving demand for critical metals such as nickel, copper, cobalt, and lithium. However, the ultimate success of the sector depends on the source and quality of these integral materials. Black Mountain Metals is committed to meeting and exceeding environmental and social initiatives to deliver conflict-free metals of the highest quality possible.

Our cells should be called Nickel-Graphite, because primarily the cathode is nickel and the anode side is graphite with silicon oxide… [there’s] a little bit of lithium in there, but it’s like the salt on the salad.

Elon Musk
CEO of Tesla
June 2016

NICKEL’S VITAL ROLE

To Elon Musk’s point above, nickel is the most important metal by mass in lithium-ion battery cathodes for electronic vehicles.

BUT NOT ALL NICKEL IS CREATED EQUAL

At over $20 billion dollars a year, nickel is already one of the world’s most important metal markets. However, with the rise in demand for electric vehicles, nickel is potentially on the cusp of a fundamental supply shift where quality over quantity comes crashing to the fore. This is because most nickel in the global supply chain is not actually suited for battery production.

BATTERY EVOLUTION

According to UBS, future battery chemistries will contain more nickel.

Why? Cost and efficiencies.
Every new generation of NMC is getting optimized to increase energy density while reducing total raw materials cost. These improvements help make each kWh of battery storage capacity more cost competitive to manufacture.

Nickel will make up 80% mass in battery cathodes used by companies like Tesla and Chevy in 2020.