Before reading below...I have to comment that "Herb..I agree  ", in regards to your reasoning as to why Glencore and Vale are digging deeper..

When I read stuff like the below, I came to the conclusion that that every slightly decent nickel deposit will be valuable. The EV world changes everything.

This came out today,

A Chinese company called GEM signed a strategic agreement to buy raw materials from Glencore.

....and it's for ...battery making..

Gem offers cobalt powder, oxalate, sulfate, chloride, and carbonate products; and nickel powder and sulfate products, as well as cobalt and copper plates

https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-gem-units-sign-strategic-agreement/brief-gem-units-sign-strategic-agreement-to-buy-raw-materials-from-glencore-international-idUSH9N1QJ04O

March 14 (Reuters) - Gem Co Ltd:

* SAYS IT, UNITS SIGN STRATEGIC AGREEMENT TO BUY RAW MATERIALS FOR BATTERY MAKING FROM GLENCORE INTERNATIONAL

=============================================================some things to note below: 

-Do you remember Sirius resources who has the Nova project? They appeared in a Noront corporate presentation and were compared to the Eagles nest.

Sirius Resources was bought up by Independence group. If you read the article below, it looks like Independence group is going to maximize money by processing the nickel into stuff like nickel sulfate...And ask yourself ..down the road ..why wouldn't Noront do the same.

Why wouldn't North America want to see a Nickel sulfate plant if the stuff is so important? Consider this NR from 4 years ago. Why not eventually  make the nickel sulfate here and have Panasonic make the batteries in the USA?

https://www.tesla.com/blog/panasonic-and-tesla-sign-agreement-gigafactory

OSAKA, Japan / PALO ALTO, USA, July 31, 2014 – Panasonic Corporation and Tesla Motors, Inc. have signed an agreement that lays out their cooperation on the construction of a large-scale battery manufacturing plant in the United States, known as the Gigafactory.

According to the agreement, Tesla will prepare, provide and manage the land, buildings and utilities. Panasonic will manufacture and supply cylindrical lithium-ion cells and invest in the associated equipment, machinery, and other manufacturing tools based on their mutual approval. A network of supplier partners is planned to produce the required precursor materials. Tesla will take the cells and other components to assemble battery modules and packs. To meet the projected demand for cells, Tesla will continue to purchase battery cells produced in Panasonic's factories in Japan. Tesla and Panasonic will continue to discuss the details of implementation including sales, operations and investment.

The other thing I want you to pay attention to ...is the 3 year offtake agreements with Sirius (Glencore, BHP) in particular to the nickel projection. When you get to the end of this post you'll see the NR from BHP and ask yourself what they are up to? They were one of the folks that signed the confidentiality agreement with Noront....and Mick Davis did work there at one time  (He previously served as chief financial officer of Billiton, the mining company that in 2001 merged with BHP to form the world’s largest natural resources group by market capitalisation)

What is Vale going to do? They also signed a confidentiality agreement with Noront, same with Rio Tinto, and Xstrata(who merged with Glencore)

I posted this from the past:

"I have zero doubt in heavy duty interest in the Eagles nest after infrastructure is announced. Why wouldn't companies be lining up??

I look at the example of Sirius Resources last year. They had the most comparable deposit to Eagles nest. They were bought out for 1.8 Billion last year...during low nickel prices!

I think back to my post regarding Sirius Resources . 
I wondered at the time about the fact that 3 of the 10 year mine life was spoken for:

All three companies below secured 3 years worth of stuff from a 10 year mine.

http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/news/sirius-signs-nickel-offtake-deal-with-bhp-billiton

http://www.siriusresources.com.au/documents/20150513CopperconcentrateofftakesignedwithTrafigura

http://www.miningweekly.com/article/sirius-inks-supply-agreement-with-glencore-2015-08-18

Notice all 3 companies want only 3 years out of 10!

Could it be that a deal was made with someone like Noront for their stuff after the 3rd year contingent on infrastruture agreements?? Why not? Noront will be the lowest cost producer in the world!

If Sirius got these deals why not Noront who happens to have lots of chromite too!

http://www.4-traders.com/GEM-CO-LTD-6605918/news/GEM-Electric-cars-set-world-s-nickel-miners-on-new-course-25404484/

SYDNEY/MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Battery makers are increasingly turning to nickel to help power growing global electric car sales, but only half of the world's producers of the metal are likely to benefit, mining analysts and executives say.

Lithium batteries containing nickel, which helps keep a charge over longer distances, are being installed in electric cars from Tesla's (>> Tesla) top-of-the-line Model X to General Motors Co  modestly-priced Chevy Bolt.

The battery boom promises a new and growing market for miners producing high-grade nickel products. However, half the world's supply of the metal, comprised of so-called ferronickel and nickel pig iron grades, is unsuitable for battery production, according to analysts at UBS.

Some of the biggest producers of the higher-grade ores, including BHP <BHP.L> Norilsk Nickel , Vale and Sumitomo Corp  are moving quickly to take advantage and seal long-term supply deals with battery producers.

Smaller producers with ores suitable for batteries, such as Australia's Independence Group  and Western Areas  also stand to win. These producers are building plants to convert the metal into a powder-like sulphate that is particularly suited for use in batteries. Sulphate nickel regularly fetches a price premium over London Metal Exchange-traded nickel.

"Not everyone will be a winner," said Dan Lougher, chief executive of Western Areas.

"We've met with quite a number of battery manufacturers, and they are quite specific on their requirements. Nickel is an important component of these batteries."

Among those losing out would be lower-grade nickel mines like Cerro Matoso in Columbia, owned by South32 Ltd (>> South32 Ltd) and Glencore's Koniambo in New Caledonia, as well as Anglo American's (>> Anglo American) mines in Brazil producing ferronickel.

"The market dynamics will change in the coming years as a result of electric vehicles," said Peter Bradford, chief executive of Independence Group Ltd (>> Independence Group NL), which is aiming to produce around 25,0000 tonnes of high-purity nickel this year from a new mine.

"Battery growth is going to disrupt the market," he said.

World nickel mine production by region - http://reut.rs/2yZuLP9

The big companies are already moving.

Norilsk, the world's biggest nickel miner, in June announced a tie-up with the German battery maker BASF (>> BASF).

Within a few weeks, BHP unveiled plans to retool its Nickel West division to start shipping nickel to battery manufacturers beginning in April 2019.

The announcement marked a turnaround for Nickel West, which two years ago was in its death throes, with its workforce of 2,000 told that their jobs would end in 2019.

Eduard Haegel, division chief of Nickel West, expects demand for electric vehicle batteries to account for about 90 percent of the division's annual output of 100,000 tonnes within the next six years.

Meanwhile, Vale is looking for a partner in its loss-making New Caledonia nickel complex. It has been in talks with the Chinese battery maker GEM Co (>> GEM Co Ltd), the Financial Times reported.(we can see that Vale lost out to Glencore)

"If we are not successful, we'll have to face the reality, which is this operation is holding the company back," Luciano Siani Pires, Vale's chief financial officer, said, referring to the New Caledonian business.

Plants already shut may get a second chance, too.

Two with shots at restarting are Brazil's Votorantim Metais, and First Quantum Minerals's (>> First Quantum Minerals Limited) Ravensthorpe in Australia, which at today's nickel prices cannot compete but could be profitable if the market continues to climb.

NICKEL GROWTH SEEN

Benchmark prices on the London Metal Exchange <CMNI3> have jumped 17 percent in the year to date to $11,725 per tonne, but remain well below the 2014 peak of more than $21,400, and over 75 percent off the all-time high of just over $51,000 in 2007.

In a sign of how much the electric car industry is changing the market, the London Metal Exchange this week said it may offer a nickel contract specifically targeting the battery market.

Manufacturing electric cars with high-driving ranges is fuelling demand for nickel-rich batteries, according to Porsche (>> Porsche). The German carmaker expects the ratio of nickel to cobalt and manganese in a typical battery to rise eight-fold as electric cars become more mainstream.

UBS estimates that 15 million electric vehicles will be on the road by 2025, lifting nickel demand by 300,000-900,000 tonnes, or by 10-40 percent of the current market.

==========================================================================

https://www.fjordlandex.com/assets/docs/news/9evmarket.pdf

August 9, 2017

BHP to build world’s largest nickel sulfate plant as EV market eyed The Australian BHP Billiton’s resurgent nickel division will build the world’s biggest nickel sulfate plant, as it looks to tap into what could be a game-changing new source of demand from the electric vehicle sector. The nickel division, which only a few years ago was facing closure, will instead pump $US43.2 million into a downstream processing plant at Kwinana, south of Perth, as part of a broader plan to reposition the business around the burgeoning lithium-ion battery market. BHP Nickel chief Eddy Haegel told The Australian he believed that demand from the battery market could account for about 90 per cent of BHP’s nickel output within five or six years, up from about 10 per cent presently. The battery sector, he said, was willing to pay for the quality of the material out of BHP’s Nickel West business, opening up a potentially lucrative market for a nickel industry that has been swamped by weak prices for several years.

While excitement around the potential of lithium-ion batteries and energy storage systems such as those being built by Tesla has already inspired a boom in lithium and graphite stocks, Mr Haegel noted that lithium-ion batteries included far more nickel than lithium. “Lithium-ion batteries are growing at spectacular rates, the role of nickel is significant in lithium-ion batteries and the concentration of nickel is increasing because it increases energy density and gives greater range,” Mr Haegel said. The new sulfate plant will produce 100,000 tonnes a year of nickel sulfate hexahydrate, and will be bigger than any other similar facility currently in operation around the world. The company will also contemplate a doubling in output once the first phase is complete. Nickel sulfate is a powder material that is particularly amenable for use in batteries, and consistently fetches a SPONSORS Trusted Legal Advisors to the Mining Industry 2 material price premium to typical nickel metal cathode and concentrate. Importantly for Australian nickel sulphide producers like BHP, Western Areas and Independence Group, the nickel pig iron produced by the likes of The Philippines and Indonesia and the production from the big nickel laterite projects are generally not suitable for use in batteries. The nickel price has been in the doldrums for several years, with the low-grade nickel pig iron keeping a lid on prices, but BHP and others are now expecting demand from the batteries industry to help unwind that. “We have the largest nickel powder producer in the world; we are in a country with a free-trade agreement with the three major growing countries of China, South Korea and Japan,” Mr Haegel said. “We can get significant leverage from doing this at the refinery because of all the installed infrastructure already there. We believe we can be highly competitive in this space and that’s why we’re making this investment.” Nickel West has been rejuvenated in recent years. Its future looked to be under a cloud not long ago when a sales process failed to identify a buyer and it appeared to be an orphan when it was left out of the South32 spin-off of BHP’s other non-core assets. It was slated for closure by 2019 but a series of improvements have improved the viability of the business, with Mr Haegel now increasingly confident Nickel West will continue out to 2040. He said the business had benefited from being given free rein by BHP. “We operate differently. We’ve been given a licence to go downstream, which is not a core strategy for BHP, so there’s been allowances made to recognise that this is a different business and that’s been very helpful for our ability to turn this business around,” he said. Western Areas managing director Dan Lougher told The Australian he was also seeing substantial interest from potential customers from the battery industry. He said the potential from batteries would offer a further positive catalyst for a nickel market that was already structurally poised for improvement