Minnesota Nickel?

"But in 2022, for Biden to start shutting off our spigot for gas and oil is insanity. It is hurting us, as well as our allies in Europe. And if Russia totally shuts us off from its high grade nickel, we could be up a creek with not much of a paddle."

Have you heard the big secret about the upcoming EVs? About what makes them run? Hint: batteries. Batteries made of all kinds of things which we don't have much of in this country. In fact, one of the key ingredients is nickel. And guess who produces 17% of the world's high grade nickel? Mother Russia. I guess unless a miracle happens, we are not going to get much of that high grade stuff from Russia. That is a BIG problem for the upcoming EVs.

Guess which car company is not sweating one drop if Russia quits supplying its nickel to America? Tesla. Elon Musk. Long before the Ukrainian invasion, Musk hedged his bets. He has exclusivity arrangements with other nickel mining locations. Enough so, that Tesla will be fine, no matter what Putin does. In fact, one of the nickel mines that Tesla will be getting product from is located in Tamarack, Minnesota. That mine (which has not yet been shut down by Biden), will supply Tesla with 75,000 metric tons over 6 years. Even though this nickel is not of the same grade as the nickel coming out of Russia, it can be refined to be good enough to be used in EV batteries. 

But - what about the other car companies, who will need nickel (and lots of it) for their batteries? Good question. The price of nickel has already spiked on the world market when the Ukrainian invasion started. Tesla, being run by a modern day genius, not only has alternate nickel supplies sown up, Tesla also has come up with a new battery design which uses iron instead of nickel. The best battery solution continues to be nickel, but iron will be an alternate plan. Stay tuned for more about this one!

Many of today's "greenies" who live in la-la land, don't understand the mountain of problems ahead if we transition to all electric. The science simply is not there as yet. Will it be in a decade or so? Probably. But in 2022, for Biden to start shutting off our spigot for gas and oil is insanity. It is hurting us, as well as our allies in Europe. And if Russia totally shuts us off from its high grade nickel, we could be up a creek with not much of a paddle.

One final word about the Duluth Complex. This is where Biden has shut down the permitting to mine. This complex, contains a massive amount of copper and nickel (among other minerals). How much nickel? It is estimated to be enough to build the batteries for 200 million EVs. Let that sink in. Biden wants us to be 100% electric, but will not let us mine the Duluth Complex. Go figure...