INTERVIEW: US minerals refining crucial as battery demand rises: Precision Periodic CEO

US-based startup Precision Periodic plans to build a refinery in Florida to produce battery-grade nickel, cobalt and manganese. The project is expected to help the US boost its domestic refining capacity for critical minerals, as the nation seeks to reduce dependence on imports of strategic materials needed in clean energy and defense systems.

Precision Periodic aims to ramp up the facility to its full capacity of 10,000 metric tons/year of contained nickel within 12-18 months. The company said it has developed proprietary process and technology to minimize capital costs and accelerate the development timeline. The refinery is also located near major US ports, making its location ideal for receiving mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) feedstock and exporting finished sulfate products to customers.

Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, recently spoke with Precision Periodic CEO Brian Andrew about the project and the company's strategy for navigating a volatile critical minerals environment. The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Platts: How important is it for the US to have its own refinery for battery-grade products?

Brian Andrew: America is not a world leader in nickel mines. So the global nickel market is going to be the source of nickel. The challenge for us is to be able to get nickel that is available no matter what the political situation may or may not be. If we can take nickel from Australia, Indonesia, New Caledonia, South America — places that have large amounts of nickel mining — and then be able to turn that into battery-grade products, that makes sense.

As you know, the US government has a huge need for batteries in almost every facet of its business, and it would prefer to get as much of that built in America as possible from as many different sources as possible. So from a geopolitical point of view, if you can get it from friendly nations, that's a whole lot better than not being able to get it at all.

So the importance of being able to process from the raw material all the way up to finished product is the drive for the current administration. And I think the administration before, this is not a new thing, they are trying to get manufacturing back in America. You're not going to make a lot of batteries if you don't have the raw materials for the batteries. Right now, that all comes from overseas.

Platts: You are looking to secure MHP from several sources. Indonesia is the world's largest nickel producer, and its high-pressure acid leaching facilities that produce MHP are currently strained due to high costs amid a shortage of nickel ore and sulfur. This cost pressure has resulted in a surge in MHP prices. How does Precision Periodic intend to navigate this environment?

This is a global issue, not just us. At this stage, at 10,000 mt/year, we're not going to have a big impact on the global market of nickel. We are basically responding to whatever the costs are, and then whatever the finished price will be. So that's all set by the London Metals Exchange to a large extent.

And so as long as your operational costs are significantly lower than your competition, we will survive quite well. So that's the thing about the commodity market. Everybody gets stressed by the same things.

One difference for us is we don't need to store large amounts of input or product. We're very much able to respond to the spot market. We acquire MHP and then 50 minutes later, you can ship nickel sulfate. It's not like a four-week process or an eight-month process where you have to stockpile a lot of stuff and you have a lot of money in your processing goods processing. We move it quickly. So it comes in, processed, and then goes straight back out. A very quick turnaround.

The concern is going to be more of shipping issues, which everybody has. Nobody has a nickel mine next door or a battery factory right next door. China is probably the closest to that. But the reality is, shipping is 40% of the structured cost of nickel. One of the reasons we are setting up in this part of America is that it has very good access to ports. So we can have three different ports that can bring in bulk materials.

How can Precision Periodic remain cost-competitive?

We will survive when other refineries will not. We're 60% lower cost or even higher in terms of operation. And just, for example, our capital expenditures are 90% less than an existing plant.

From an operational point of view, we don't have the same stresses on us because of our low capex. And then from an operational point of view, we don't use solvent. We don't use sodium hydroxide. We don't use any of these other chemistries that other folks have to do because of their process. We don't have to pay for any waste because we make none. And the only thing we do make is water, and it's distilled water, which is very clean and can be sold.

The other thing is our multi-scale refining units. It is multi-metal. I don't have to stick with nickel. I can purify copper, I can purify zinc. I can purify cobalt. It really doesn't matter what metal we're doing, and we can change that on a daily basis. This is something completely unheard of in the normal refining industry.

Nickel-based electric vehicle batteries are currently facing competition from lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) and other chemistries. What is the outlook for nickel batteries?

Nickel batteries have a couple of advantages. One is density and power. LFP is heavy, so you're not going to put it in airplanes. The other thing is high-performance batteries are staying in nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) chemistries. They aren't moving at all.

If you're trying to build a low-cost EV, where you're looking at just a small battery and a high-volume business, LFP is great. If you look at Tesla Inc., half of their cars are LFP, but the high-performance machines are NMC. So if you want high performance, which here in America is premium, we don't see NMC batteries disappearing next week.

But for our refinery, it doesn't have to be nickel. I can refine sodium, for example. It's not as profitable. But again, our technology allows us to refine almost any metal.

The battery business is very attractive. We've got one of the biggest consumers of NMC batteries in Tesla. And the US military uses NMC batteries for pretty much everything because of the weight and performance. So we aren't going to run out of opportunity for a long time.