Nickel
- Complete view of GHG emissions associated with the production of nickel to first saleable product including mixed hydroxide, mixed sulphide, NPI, ferronickel and Class 1 nickel
- Data is presented from the mine or plant perspective in the production of nickel. Nickel production and emission data can be shown by mine, company or country
- Like-for-like comparison of assets through carefully defined supply chain system boundaries
- Allocation of emissions by company, according to equity ownership of mine assets.
- Physical production parameters are presented, including ore mined, heap leached and/or milled, ore grades, strip ratios and by-product metal production
- Includes emissions for minority shareholdings which are often excluded in company Sustainability Reports
Emission data is presented as total tonnes of CO2e and tonnes of CO2e per tonne of nickel equivalent in finished saleable product
For nickel E0 and E1 emissions are defined as:
E0: Scope 1 and 2 emissions at mine, smelter or refinery site.
E1: E0 plus emissions from intermediate product freight and downstream processing.
Methodology
Skarns analysis is normalised to first saleable product. This is the most logical endpoint for two reasons:
Further processing of intermediates is partially driven by market sector demand and is at the discretion of refineries. Therefore it is not possible to quantify with certainty the subsequent processing routes for the intermediates.
First end use products (Class 1 Nickel) are not necessarily a definitive end-point; they may be re-processed into nickel sulphate for the battery market.
Assets shown in our analysis can be either mine sites or process plants (FeNi, NPI etc). Where the analysis is presented from a process plant point-of-view, this is usually because the plant processes a mixture of feed from third parties or is the primary asset reported by the owner. We attempt to ensure that nickel production (and CO2e) units are not double counted and are accounted for only once in our dataset, whether shown at the mine or process plant level.
Downstream emissions for mining include a substantial portion of Scope 3 (Other Indirect) Greenhouse Gas Emissions. These typically include downstream GHG emissions such as freight and distribution and port handling (for operations not included in Scope 1) and loading. Further downstream emissions from smelting are also included to produce Final Product bearing nickel. By including these downstream emissions this allows mining operations located in different geographical areas, providing raw materials into key consuming markets like China, to be placed on the same basis.
Upstream Mining Emissions : For NPI and FENI plants, emissions related to upstream logistics and mining are included in Skarns E1 metric.