Solway to restart Guatemala nickel plant after price surge

Swiss-based Solway Investment Group plans to restart its nickel operations in Guatemala within months, the company told Reuters, following a sharp rise in the nickel price and after the United States removed sanctions on the facilities.

The amounts involved are a small fraction of global nickel supplies, estimated by analysts at around four million metric tons this year.

But industry sources say the plan suggests that prices are high enough for some of the smelters that cut output after prices dropped to three-year lows towards the end of 2024, to resume profitable production.

Prices of nickel, also used to make electric vehicle batteries, on Monday jumped to a 19-month peak at $19,160 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange. Nickel has gained nearly 20% since leading producer Indonesia said late last year it planned to cut nickel mining quotas.

Solway’s operation in Guatemala comprises the PRONICO facility with annual production capacity of 25,000 metric tons of nickel in ferronickel and CGN, a mine with capacity to extract up to 2.2 million tons of nickel ore.

“The anticipated timeline for restarting CGN is around April to May 2026, aligned with the restart of PRONICO,” Solway said.

Solway closed PRONICO and CGN after the US placed sanctions on its Guatemalan subsidiaries in November 2022. The US lifted them in January 2024.

Ferronickel is trading at around a $2,000 a ton discount to the LME nickel price, according to one industry source, adding that because Solway owns its own mine in Guatemala, its costs of producing the ferronickel would be around $12,000 a ton.

(By Pratima Desai; Editing by Barbara Lewis)