Nickel Industries Ltd (ASX: NIC) shares are gaining ground on Wednesday following a new update from the company.
At the time of writing, the Nickel Industries share price is up 3.06% to $1.01. By comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is 0.43% higher to 8,956 points.
The ASX 200 mining stock has now climbed around 22% since the start of 2026 and is trading 44% higher than this time last year.
Nickel Industries owns mining and nickel processing operations in Indonesia, producing material used in stainless steel and electric vehicle batteries.
The company has a market capitalisation of around $4.4 billion, making it one of the largest nickel producers on the ASX.
Here's what has caught the market's attention.
Image source: Getty Images
May earnings bounce back
According to the release, Nickel Industries generated around US$80 million of adjusted EBITDA across April and May.
The result was split between US$29 million in April and US$51 million in May.
April was affected by 8 days of downtime at the Hengjaya Mine. The company also faced subcontractor standby charges and planned maintenance across its rotary kiln electric furnace operations.
The maintenance work forced Nickel Industries to use more expensive third-party electricity while repairs were completed on its power plants.
Conditions improved in May as activity returned to normal, helping adjusted EBITDA recover by around 76% from the previous month.
More cash set to arrive
Nickel Industries is anticipating a sizeable cash boost over the coming weeks.
Management expects to receive around US$70 million in distributions by early July after working capital was released from its RKEF operations.
It is also due to receive a US$15 million refund from Shanghai Decent, linked to the ONI matte converter.
Nickel Industries paid for the converter in 2023 but eventually decided not to go ahead with the investment.
That means around US$85 million could be coming back into the company over the next few weeks.
First production edges closer
Nickel Industries also provided an update on its Excelsior Nickel Cobalt high-pressure acid leach project in Indonesia.
The first ore has now arrived at one part of the site, while another section is expected to receive ore by mid-July.
The company expects the first production line to start running sometime between mid-July and late August. The other lines should then begin operating one by one.
Once the project is running, it will produce nickel products used in electric vehicle batteries.
