As the nickel bull run turned into a stampede in early 2007, Agnelli’s aggressive outbidding of rivals for Inco’s sprawling deposits in Canada, Brazil, Indonesia and New Caledonia looked like a stroke of genius. But then prices crashed and the foray into nickel quickly become an albatross around Vale’s neck.
“It was a midsummer night’s dream,” Jose Carlos Martins, a former senior executive at Vale, said in an interview Tuesday. “Prices retreated and were running closer to the cost of production for years.”
But nickel’s fortunes began to change as it became a key ingredient in rechargeable batteries. With the electric-vehicle revolution gaining momentum, the market for battery-grade nickel started to tighten, boosting the value of those deposits snapped up in the Inco deal. Then the invasion of Ukraine saw nickel prices skyrocket, as fears over Russian supplies left buyers exposed to a historic squeeze.
Nickel’s…
