BHP's $5b nickel write-down, Indonesian election add to critical minerals woes
BHP's multibillion dollar writedown of its nickel assets and the Indonesian election result could ramp up pressure on the government to lift for support the sector.
There’s nothing like a shock $US3.5 billion writedown of one of BHP’s flagship projects to focus the minds of policy makers in Perth and Canberra.
So when BHP notified the ASX this morning that it had basically written the value of its forthcoming West Musgrave nickel mine to zero, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook was quick to spring into action, revealing that his government was in talks with a handful of mining companies about royalty relief in a bid to stop more projects going under or being shelved.
“The BHP announcement today is extremely concerning. And while I think we should all be worried about the future for our nickel industry off the back of BHP’s announcements today, our nickel industry globally is experiencing significant structural disruption,” Cook told reporters earlier today.
“We'll do everything we can to make sure that we support them.”
The BHP write-down was announced on a difficult day for nickel miners. The presumptive winner of Indonesia's general election, General Prabowo Subianto, has signalled a desire to maintain his predeccessor Joko Widodo's nickel export ban.
