Factbox-Australia's nickel producers face writedowns amid supply glut

MELBOURNE (Reuters) -Australia has classified nickel as a "critical mineral" on Friday, allowing the crisis-hit industry to access billions of dollars in government support, as its prime minister prepared wider policy support for the green energy industry.

A sharp slide in nickel prices over the past year, driven by a jump in Indonesian supply, has hit Australian nickel producers, leading to mine closures, production cuts and writedowns in recent months.

Australia is the world's fifth-biggest producer of mined and refined nickel, with output led by BHP Group.

Following are moves by nickel producers and developers to cope with the slump:

* BHP, the world's biggest-listed miner, on Thursday flagged a $2.5 billion impairment charge for its Nickel West operations. The operations are now under review with the potential to be placed on care and maintenance.

BHP signed a deal to supply nickel to Tesla in 2021.

* France agreed to provide a 140-million-euro ($150.60 million) loan to New Caledonian nickel producer Prony Resources on Friday. Prony Resources is one of three nickel processors in the territory that face insolvency with the other two being Glencore co-owned Koniambo Nickel SAS, and SLN, in which Eramet has a majority stake.

* Wyloo Metals, a private investment company owned by iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest, said in January it will put its Australian Kambalda nickel operations on care and maintenance at the end of May as a result of low nickel prices.

* Diversified miner South32 said last month that it had started a strategic review of its nickel operation Cerro Matoso in Colombia to evaluate options to improve its competitive position amid a sharp downturn in the nickel market.

* Canada's First Quantum Minerals said in January it will cut jobs and production at its Ravensthorpe mine in Australia due to a "significant" downturn in prices that it expects to last three years.

* Panoramic Resources went into voluntary administration in December. In January, its administrators said operations at its Savannah nickel project would be suspended as the "prospect of achieving a near-term turnaround of operations and finances is low". The project remains up for sale.

* Battery materials producer IGO flagged in December it expects to book a further impairment to its Cosmos nickel project when it reports on Jan. 31, adding to an almost A$1 billion writedown in the 2023 financial year.

($1 = 0.9296 euros)

(Reporting by Melanie Burton, Himanshi Akhand and Aaditya Govind Rao; Editing by Sonali Paul and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)