Billionaire Forrest Pursues ‘Green Nickel’ Index With Metalshub

(Bloomberg) -- Wyloo Metals Pty Ltd., one of Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest’s private investment vehicles, has struck an agreement with trading platform Metalshub to explore starting the first price index for “green nickel”. 

The collaboration is designed to “set a new global standard” for the sale of low-carbon nickel and concentrates, Wyloo said in a statement Wednesday. The index would provide buyers with information on the provenance and carbon footprint of the metal that’s key for batteries used in electric vehicles. 

Forrest said in February “clean nickel” would fetch a premium and criticized some companies for using batteries made with cheap nickel mined in Indonesia, known for their higher emissions footprint and questionable environmental standards.

The companies have entered a memorandum of understanding to progress the index. While Wednesday’s statement didn’t give financial details, it said Wyloo intended to use Metalshub for the sale of its low-carbon nickel and concentrate products following a re-start of its Western Australia nickel operations, which remain shut due to a crash in prices.

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