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LME Suspends Trading in Nickel After Prices Spike over $100,000

This is the type of thing I was warning about in another thread and the Russians have not even announced an embargo on exports to “enemy” nations yet. Look at the chart this morning:

The story from London says it all (via the Financial Post):

LME suspends nickel trading for the day after prices see record run

Excerpt:

The London Metal Exchange (LME) said on Tuesday it has suspended the trading of nickel on all venues for at least the rest of the day after prices more than doubled to cross a record $100,000 per tonne level.

For my reader’s information, this is the first time this has happened since 1985, so all types of historical market “firsts” are underway and none of them are good.

That is bad enough, but there is more. From an article by The Visual Capitalist on nickel mining:

Alongside the decarbonization of the nickel mining process, nickel itself powers many of the technologies crucial to the energy transition. Vehicle electrification is highly dependent on nickel, with a single electric car requiring more than 87 pounds of nickel, making up almost 1/5th of all the metals required.

With a history of being used in nickel cadmium and nickel metal hydride batteries, nickel is now being increasingly used in lithium-ion batteries for its greater energy density and lower cost compared to cobalt. Alongside the increase in usage, not all nickel is suitable for lithium-ion battery production, as batteries require the rarer form of the metal’s deposits known as nickel sulphides.

The more common form of the metal, nickel laterites, are still useful in forming the alloys that make up the frames and various gears of wind turbines.

Nickel is also essential to nuclear power plants, making up nearly a quarter of the metals needed per megawatt generated.

And from the same article just a quick point of reference as to where the largest nickel miner in the world is (easy enough to guess):

Russia

Too bad our political elites didn’t think this through. Their desire to impose globalization despite its inherent anti-nationalist flaws may hurt the Russian economy but it will destroy the Western economies and quite probably prompt what the very economic depression and World War they claim they do not want.

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