Brazilian Nickel, Westwin ink offtake MOU on Piauí project for US market

[Ben Graham]

UK- based Brazilian Nickel (BRN), announced Tuesday that it has signed a non-binding agreement with Westwin Elements to supply high-grade Mixed Hydroxide Precipitate (MHP). 

Under the deal, BRN would sell Westwin up to 10,000 tpa of nickel in MHP and circa 240 to 400 tpa of cobalt in MHP extracted from the Piauí nickel project in Brazil, using the company’s low-CO2 laterite heap leaching process.  

Westwin would then refine the MHP into class 1 nickel powder and briquettes for the US market, advancing the goal of establishing a cost-effective critical minerals supply chain and supporting the overall funding of Brazilian Nickel’s flagship Piauí project, the company said.  

“This agreement with Westwin not only strengthens Brazilian Nickel’s funding structure, but, more importantly, confirms our proven capability to produce high-quality nickel and to position ourselves as a key player in the global critical minerals market,” Brazilian Nickel CEO Mark Travers said in a news release.  

“It underscores BRN’s strategic role in reinforcing supply chain resilience and our commitment to being a reliable, long-term partner to customers in key markets,” Travers said. 

“Establishing dependable supply-chain relationships is essential to restoring US refining capacity,” Westwin CEO KaLeigh Long said. “This agreement advances Westwin’s mission to convert responsibly produced feedstock into Class 1 materials inside the United States, strengthening supply chain security for advanced manufacturing and critical defense applications.” 

Brazilian Nickel last year signed preliminary offtake agreements with European processors Electro Mobility Materials Europe SAS and Königswarter & Ebell Chemische Fabrik, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pure Battery Technologies, to strengthen the European battery supply chain and advance cleaner material sourcing, it said.