It's almost 2 yrs old but still a good read. I found it interesting and insightful. The talk about energy is telling. 20-25% of the cost is directly from energy.

http://www.nornik.ru/_upload/present...

"Equally importantly, nickel laterite projects tend to be more capital intensive per unit of production capacity than do sulphide projects. This not only increases the all-up cost entry into nickel production but higher capital intensity implies a higher ratio of fixed to variable costs in production and correspondingly greater commercial risk.

Also having a bearing on project cost and project financing is the geologically-determined fact that most laterite deposits are in tropical, developing, countries with significant infrastructure requirements and a more challenging project risk profile. Aggravating this problem in recent years has been growing evidence of a resurgence of resource nationalism."