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Australia/New Caledonia/Papua New Guinea Mining

Nickel sulfide shortage amid ESG evolution in market pricing – Wyloo CEO – by Anthony Barich (SP Global – July 2024)

https://www.spglobal.com/

Wyloo Pty. Ltd. is a wholly owned portfolio company of Australian private investment group Tattarang Pty. Ltd. Tattarang is owned by Andrew and Nicola Forrest, serving as a holding company for the Forrest family’s private business interests. Tattarang also has a 35.15% interest in iron ore major Fortescue Ltd.

At the end of May, Wyloo put its Cassini and North Kambalda operations on care and maintenance in a bid to weather market oversupply caused by Indonesia flooding the market with cheap nickel.

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High Returns Lure Wealthy Investors to Fund Coal as Banks Exit – by Sharon Klyne (Bloomberg News – July 21, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Wealthy Australians, in search of attractive investment returns, are emerging as an important pool of capital for financing coal projects shunned by banks due to environmental, social and governance concerns.

Income Asset Management Group Ltd. is one fund manager targeting the well-off in Australia to provide private loans to coal and other mining companies, offering investment returns of about of 12% to 13% per year.

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Paladin CEO bullish on clearing national security test on Fission deal, as Ottawa inquires about state-owned China shareholder – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – July 18, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Australia’s Paladin Energy Ltd.is confident its proposed acquisition of Canada’s Fission Uranium Corp. will clear a national security probe, as Ottawa makes enquiries about CGN Mining Co. Ltd., a China-based state-owned deal stakeholder.

Perth-based Paladin last month said it had reached a friendly agreement to buy Kelowna, B.C.-based Fission in an all-stock transaction worth $1.14-billion. Fission is developing the Patterson Lake South (PLS) uranium project in the Athabasca Basin region of Saskatchewan and hopes it will be in production by the end of the decade.

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BHP joins the lengthening list of nickel price casualties – by Andy Home (Reuters – July 16, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, July 16 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s nickel production surge is crushing competitors and challenging the West’s ambitions of diversifying its critical metals supply chains. Australia’s BHP Group is the latest victim of a two-year price slump, which has seen London Metal Exchange three-month nickel tumble from an all-time high of $55,000 per metric ton in March 2022 to $16,650.

The world’s largest listed miner has announced it is suspending its Western Australia nickel operations from October. The decision was well flagged and probably made easier by the loss of feed from Wyloo Metals’ Kambalda mines, which were placed on care and maintenance in May, also due to low prices.

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Indonesian onslaught wipes out Australia’s nickel industry – by Kristie Batten (Mining.com – July 14, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

An influx of cheap nickel supply from Indonesia has all but killed off Western Australia’s long-running nickel sector. Nickel prices halved in 2023, dipping below $16,000 per tonne in December as surpluses widened. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, Indonesia accounted for 49% of nickel production in 2023, up from less than 5% just eight years ago.

Nickel sector decimated

The impact on Australia’s nickel industry has been dramatic. ASX 200 producer IGO paid A$1.1 billion ($744 million) for nickel miner Western Areas in mid-2022. Just 18 months later, the entire value of the acquisition had been written off and the Cosmos development project was suspended, resulting in the loss of 400 jobs.

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BHP to Shut Australia Nickel Business as Glut Upends Market – by Paul-Alain Hunt, Thomas Biesheuvel, and Mark Burton (BloombergBNN News – July 11, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — BHP Group Ltd. will close its loss-making nickel business in Australia until at least early 2027, after a global glut of the metal spread havoc through the market.

The company will place its Nickel West business on “care and maintenance” from October due to low prices of the metal used in electric-vehicle batteries, it said in a statement Thursday. It will also halt the development of its West Musgrave nickel mine.

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Glencore warns of nickel job losses unless labour costs controlled – by Brad Thompson, Tom Rabe and James Hall (Australian Financial Review – July 12, 2024)

https://www.afr.com/

Global mining heavyweight Glencore says the future of its nickel and cobalt operations in Australia will hinge on keeping a lid on labour and energy costs and access to infrastructure.

In what shapes as another blow to Anthony Albanese’s critical minerals ambitions, Glencore warned it was closely monitoring the situation and the future of its Murrin Murrin mine in Western Australia, which employs about 1500 people and is the nation’s biggest source of cobalt.

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BHP’s Nickel West closure could mark end of Australian nickel industry, analyst says – by Emily JB Smith and Ethan French (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – July 11, 2024)

https://www.abc.net.au/

The closure of mining giant BHP’s nickel operations in Western Australia will have ripple effects far and wide and could signal “the end of the Australian nickel industry”, according to a prominent mining analyst.

BHP announced yesterday it would begin suspending operations at the Kwinana nickel refinery in Perth, the Kalgoorlie smelter and its major mines at Mt Keith and Leinster in the state’s Goldfields from October. BHP said market conditions were to blame for its decision to either redeploy or offer redundancies to 1,600 of its frontline workers, while hundreds more contractors would be impacted.

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Coalition nuclear policy leaves traditional owners of Kakadu uranium mine worried – by Jane Bardon (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – July 2, 2024)

https://www.abc.net.au/

Mirarr traditional owner Corben Mudjandi is desperate for his spectacular land at Jabiluka to be incorporated into Kakadu National Park, which surrounds it, rather than mined for its uranium. “Its sacred to us, and it’s a piece of human history, 65,000 years, we want Jabiluka not mined; we want to show people the beauty of nature, and what we call home,” he said.

Mr Mudjandi is worried the federal Coalition’s plan to open nuclear plants if it wins government could drive demand for Jabiluka’s uranium. The Mirarr are also concerned that almost a year after Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) applied to extend its uranium mining lease over Jabiluka for another decade, the Northern Territory and federal governments have not yet decided whether to reject or approve it.

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Anglo Suspends Production at Australian Steelmaking Coal Mine – by Paul-Alain Hunt and Victoria Cavaliere (Bloomberg News – June 30, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — A fire at Anglo American Plc’s biggest metallurgical coal project in Australia halted production, with the miner saying it may take months for it to be extinguished. Anglo, which is seeking to sell the mine as part of a turnaround plan, fell as much as 4%.

A methane explosion on Saturday caused the fire at the Grosvenor underground mine, which accounts for about 30% of the company’s annual production of coking coal in Queensland state, Anglo said in an emailed statement Monday. No one was injured.

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Australia’s Paladin Energy to buy Canada’s Fission Uranium for $1.14-billion – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – June 25, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Australia’s Paladin Energy Ltd. has reached an agreement to buy Canadian mining development company Fission Uranium Corp. in a friendly transaction worth $1.14-billion, as Fission lays down a big bet on a uranium project in Saskatchewan. Kelowna, B.C.-based Fission is developing the Patterson Lake South (PLS) project in the Athabasca Basin region of Saskatchewan, and hopes to be in production by the end of the decade.

Paladin is offering 0.1076 of its shares for each Fission unit, or $1.30 a share, a premium of just under 26 per cent compared to Friday’s closing price on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

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Mining M&A stokes coal race against cleaner power – by Antony Currie (Reuters – June 20, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE, June 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) – Coal is doomed, or so the energy thesis goes. Many banks, insurers and investors have backpedalled from or abandoned the carbon-belching fossil fuel, prompting companies that excavate it to complain they cannot get mainstream or affordable financing.

One corner of the industry, however, is burning strongly: the coking, or metallurgical, variety used to make steel. For sellers, it’s a diamond underneath the growing pile of mining M&A. Buyers, however, are in a race against low-emissions alternatives to justify their strategies.

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New Caledonia crisis: Does France fear China will dominate Pacific colonies? – by Christine Rovoi (Pacific Media Network – June 7, 2024)

https://pmn.co.nz/

If you think the French Empire – powerful in the 19th and 20th centuries – no longer exists, you may want to think again. Thirteen colonies fly the French flag and speak the French language today. Independence has not yet come to these territories, and New Caledonia is among them.

Located less than 2400km north of Aotearoa New Zealand, New Caledonia has a population of 272,000 (2019 Census) with 40 per cent the Indigenous Kanaks. The Pacific island nation is reeling from political unrest following the 13 May protests, led by pro-independence supporters, in the capital Noumēa last month.

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Australian miners at the forefront of the robotics revolution – by Smruthi Nadig (Mining Technology – June 7, 2024)

https://www.mining-technology.com/

As robotic technology advances, Australian mining companies such as Rio Tinto and BHP are among the leaders in deploying automated systems to enhance operational efficiency and safety.

Australia has a strong robotics industry that focuses on automation in both the manufacturing and agricultural sectors, which sets it apart from other robotics markets. GlobalData research indicates that 29% of robotics companies in Australia cater to the mining sector. Besides the robotics industry itself, the main industries served by robotics suppliers are metal and machinery, with 47% of suppliers serving these industries.

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New resources boom in Western Australia’s north likely to lift rents further as housing supply is stretched – by Charlie McLean (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – June 6, 2024)

https://www.abc.net.au/

As Western Australia’s mining and energy sectors shape up for their latest boom, residents in the state’s mining heartland are scrambling to keep a roof over their heads. Rents in the Pilbara’s two biggest mining towns, Karratha and Port Hedland, have increased by more than 120 per cent in five years, driven by an influx of resource workers and a shortfall of homes.

And with more than $160 billion in new mining and energy projects in the pipeline, the influx of mining work and mining money is leaving other residents behind. “I love the weather … the scenery, the people here are amazing,” Karratha mother Debbra Duff said.

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