Metals refiner Westwin Elements and commodities trader Traxys announced amended and restated agreements on Monday that give Westwin the option to extend their feedstock and nickel offtake arrangements for a total of up to 22 years. If exercised for the full term, the nickel offtake component alone could represent about 3.96 billion dollars in transaction value at current market prices, the companies said.
The relationship dates from 2025, under which Traxys supplies mixed hydroxide precipitate feedstock to Westwin’s planned commercial refinery and buys refined nickel briquettes from the facility. The amended framework is intended to secure feedstock and offtake as Westwin expands US production, reducing commercial risk for what would be the first commercial scale class 1 nickel refinery in the United States.
Westwin operates a 20 tonne a year demonstration plant in Lawton, Oklahoma, which has completed multiple campaigns producing on specification class 1 nickel powder using nickel carbonyl refining technology, and has selected the Belwood Industrial Site in Natchez, Mississippi, for the commercial plant. “The extended framework with Traxys supports our plans to scale production, secure reliable feedstock supply and develop long term markets for our products,” chief executive KaLeigh Long said. Traxys chief executive Mark Kristoff said the longer tenor may help underpin Westwin’s development and financing plans.
The qualifiers matter as much as the headline. The 3.96 billion dollars is a gross full term value at today’s prices if every option is exercised, not booked revenue, and the commercial refinery itself is not yet built or financed. What the agreement does establish is duration: feedstock in and product out on matching long tenors, which is the commercial structure lenders usually ask for before a first of its kind refining plant can raise project debt.