Nickel has had a very interesting year, especially since Russia – one of its primary exporters – had sanctions imposed which significantly reduced supply. This led to an over 200% increase in the price of nickel overnight while the London Metal Exchange (LME)’s clearing house suffered $2.6 billion in losses as a result. The world’s 3 largest exporters of nickel are Indonesia, the Philippines, and Russia, who collectively produced 1.62 million tons in 2021, showing that nickel has some considerable geopolitical risk from its primary producers. Fundamentally, nickel is a somewhat rare metal that primarily arrived on earth through meteoric means, which has mainly been used in the past for its ability to resist corrosion in alloys like stainless steel…