Westwin Elements will invest $502 million over five years to build a commercial-scale Class 1 nickel refinery at the Belwood Industrial Site in Natchez, Mississippi. Phase one is 18,000 tonnes a year with 2029 commissioning, building on the company’s 20-tonne-per-year demonstration plant in Lawton, Oklahoma using nickel carbonyl technology.
The company says its bankable feasibility study is complete, the lease is secured, and binding feedstock and offtake agreements are in place, with 134 jobs at about $84,000 average pay. The US-Ukrainian investment fund separately sealed its first critical minerals deal, though details were not yet reported.
Class 1 nickel is the high-purity grade required for EV batteries, and Western supply chains remain dependent on Indonesian and Chinese processing. A permitted, financed US refinery is the kind of project the onshoring agenda has been waiting for.