FAQ

Introducing Westwin Elements, the pioneering force behind America's First Integrated Nickel Refinery: Intermediate to Precursor Cathode Active Material to solve America’s critical minerals crisis: a crisis of foreign entity of concern dependency, ESG violations, and forecasted global deficits. Westwin localizes America's critical mineral supply chain with the development of a precursor cathode active material (pCAM) production facility, integrated with the US' first major nickel refinery, also producing cobalt and manganese secondary products. While the US hosts no commercial nickel refining or pCAM production today, these materials must onshore to solve the crisis of our near total dependency on foreign adversaries: a national security, environmental, and economic crisis. China produces nearly 94.2% of the world's pCAM. Furthermore, Chinese, and Russian extraction dominance over resource rich countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala, and Indonesia perpetuates severe human and environmental harms.

Establishing America's First Integrated Nickel Refinery: Intermediate to Precursor Cathode Active Material is crucial for several reasons: Improving Human Rights: Oversees ethical sourcing practices, reducing the risk of abuses in the supply chain. Supply Chain Security: Reduces reliance on imports, ensuring stability for key industries. Economic Growth: Creates jobs, stimulates innovation, and boosts local economies. Environmental Impact: Adheres to strict regulations, promoting sustainability and reducing carbon footprint. Value Addition: Transforms low-value ores into high-quality metals, enhancing manufacturing competitiveness. Strategic Importance: Ensures access to critical materials, maintaining national security.

No, Westwin Elements is not a mine. Our facility specializes in refining raw materials ethically sourced from mines into high-quality, purified metals used in various industrial applications. ​While we do not extract raw materials directly from the earth, we play a crucial role in the refining process, ensuring the production of top-grade products for industries within the US.

CCIDA, LEDA, and the City of Lawton have pledged $3 million total to assist with the construction of the demonstration plant. The City is also building public water and sewer lines in the area to service the demonstration plant. Westwin is also being funded by private individual, accredited investors. If Westwin’s demonstration plant does not meet the requirements as outlined in the agreement, they will forfeit the building to the community, through CCIDA and LEDA. That building will be used as a spec building to entice other businesses to come to our community.

No, Westwin Elements does not utilize smelting to refine. Instead, we employ the innovative nickel carbonyl refining process, which offers several environmental advantages over traditional smelting methods. Unlike smelting, which involves the high-temperature melting of ores, our refining process operates at significantly lower temperatures, reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. ​Furthermore, our refining process is highly efficient and produces no solid or liquid waste. It allows for the extraction of pure metals from raw materials with greater precision, resulting in fewer by-products and pollutants. Additionally, our refinery is equipped with advanced technologies and stringent environmental controls to minimize emissions and ensure compliance with regulatory standards.

Westwin sources its feedstock responsibly from various suppliers globally, ensuring adherence to ethical and sustainable practices. The preferred feedstock will be sourced from mines independently audited against the IRMA Standard for Responsible Mining. As we are currently under construction, we are not yet sourcing materials. However, it is our intention to transition towards sourcing metals from IRMA audited mines once operational, reflecting our commitment to responsible and sustainable procurement practices from the outset. These audits ensure that the minerals we acquire are extracted and processed in a manner that reduces harm, respects human rights, environmental standards, and community well-being. We also ensure that our suppliers meet stringent criteria, including not being majority-owned by foreign entities of concern. Through these partnerships and standards, Westwin maintains a commitment to ethical sourcing while supporting the advancement of responsible mining practices worldwide.

While new to the US, the nickel carbonyl process, originally known as the Mond Process, has been utilized for refining nickel since 1890. It's a well-established method that has been used in industrial refining operations around the world. The process has proven to be effective in producing high-purity nickel metal from various nickel-containing materials.

The Westwin technical team boasts more than 250 years of experience in designing, commissioning, and operating commercial carbonyl facilities. Westwin relies on Metso to provide piloting, basic engineering, equipment, process, and training support for dissolution and production of pCAM. Metso also provides process, and material guarantees on pCAM production. Worley will provide the Bank Feasibility Study for the integrated commercial design to produce pCAM

Using a carbonyl-based technology, Westwin’s product suite will be based on Class 1 nickel. The nickel contained produced from the carbonyl circuit will be fed through a dissolution + pCAM circuit to produce pCAM as a final product. Additional value-add productssuch as speciality nickel and nickel alloy powders and briquettes will be produced dependent on customer needs. ​ The high purity and microstructure of the powders make them suitable for use in high value / high-end manufacturing applications such as electroplating, high temperature filters, conducting additives, hard metal binders, metal injection, and additive manufacturing. High purity powders are also used in the production of chemicals and catalysts. ​ Westwin will produce a high-nickel content, likely, NMC 811 precursor, referring to ratio of each critical material when precipitated. PCAM is the most important product going forward as it is the feedstock to produce cathode active materials (CAM) for nickel-rich lithium-ion batteries (LiB), and as CAM production appears to be where US capacity begins apart from Westwin’s production.