BHP reportedly stood down almost 100 workers, that were working on its West Musgrave nickel and copper project.
👉 Background: BHP is Australia's biggest company and the world's largest mining company, with a market capitalisation of an unfathomable $220 billion dollars.
👉 What happened: BHP has been doing it rough when it comes to its nickel mining projects. It reportedly stood down almost 100 workers, that were working on its West Musgrave nickel and copper project.
👉 What else: This has come about after BHP wrote down the value of its nickel business by $5.4 billion last month.
💡Dominating an industry is great, but dominating just part of an industry means running the risk of being undercut by competition.
💡While Australia's got one of the biggest nickel reserves globally, it lacks capacity to process and refine nickel. The price of nickel has dropped from $50,000 USD in 2022 to just over $17,500 USD today... mostly thanks to Indonesia's rapid development in nickel-processing.
💡Indonesia has received foreign investment, allowing it to mine and refine cheaper nickel. As a result, Indonesia's share of the global nickel market has gone up more than ten times and left nickel miners like BHP in the dust.
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