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Western miners hope superior ESG credentials can revive their fortunes amid devastating nickel crash – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – March 4, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Nickel was one of the hottest commodities on the planet as recently as 2022. Analysts and mining executives then predicted blue-sky fundamentals for the critical mineral, based on the belief that demand for the electric car battery input would far outstrip global supply.

But after a short-lived trading frenzy drove nickel to a record high in March, 2022, the commodity went into a steep decline. In the last year alone, nickel has tumbled almost 30 per cent to around US$17,500 a tonne.

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Canada concerned about critical metals market manipulation, minister says – by Divya Rajagopal (Reuters – March 2, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO, March 2 (Reuters) – Canada is concerned about market manipulation and dumping in key metals used in electric vehicle batteries, a federal Canadian minister told Reuters, adding the country wants to explore a U.S.-mooted alternative pricing model.

Canada, along with Australia and the U.S., is looking to develop its critical mineral supply chain to break the monopoly of China which controls over 90% of key metals that are crucial for energy transition.

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Abitibi Metals drills 3.5% copper in Quebec – by Colin McClelland (Mining.com – February 29, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Abitibi Metals (CSE: AMQ) says its first two drill holes at the B26 polymetallic deposit in northern Quebec bode well to earn most of the project from the provincial government and develop an open-pit mine.

Drill hole 1274-24-293 intersected 22.7 metres grading 3.5% copper, 0.7 gram gold per tonne, and 6.6 grams silver from 120 metres depth including 10.6 metres at 5.4% copper, 1.3 grams gold and 9.6 grams silver, Abitibi reported on Thursday. Drill hole 1274-24-294 cut 34 metres at 3% copper, 1.5 grams gold and 6 grams silver from 135 metres depth, it said.

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Indonesia says its nickel supply will keep global prices low – by Eddie Spence and Eko Listiyorini (Bloomberg News – February 29, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Indonesia, the world’s largest nickel exporter, has a sobering message for struggling producers of the battery metal elsewhere: don’t expect any meaningful revival in prices.

Septian Hario Seto, the government official who has overseen Indonesia’s nickel processing boom, says prices are unlikely to rise much above $18,000 a ton on the London Metal Exchange. The Southeast Asian nation will ensure the market remains well supplied to keep costs lower for electric vehicle manufacturers, he said.

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New Caledonia’s nickel crisis prompts call for ‘economic, social state of emergency’ – by Patrick Decloitre (Radio New Zealand – February 29, 2024)

https://www.rnz.co.nz/

Analysis – New Caledonia’s current nickel industry crisis has prompted several pro-French parties to call for a “state of economic urgency”. The French Pacific archipelago’s nickel industry (including its three major plants) is in dire straits: in the North of the main island, Koniambo’s (KNS) main stakeholder, Anglo-Swiss giant Glencore, is now withdrawing from the venture.

The measure announced a few days ago that is putting the whole site in sleep (“care and maintenance”) mode has become very real. In the South of the main island, Société Le Nickel – SLN – plant, a subsidiary of French giant Eramet recently had to be bailed out by a French government loan to avoid an ominous bankruptcy.

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Closing Canada’s back door: Strategies to control our Arctic critical minerals – by Stephen Van Dine (MacDonald Laurier Institute – February 28, 2024)

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Stephen Van Dine writes that Canada’s Critical Minerals Strategy not only fails to secure investment but also leaves Canada’s Arctic exposed to security risks.

Chinese balloons, ocean buoys, and ships of all shapes and sizes are navigating through our Arctic waters and over our lands. In response, the coast guards and militaries from both Canada and the United States are increasing their detection and response capability against China’s probes into North America. That response includes scrambling fighter jets to shoot down suspected Chinese spy balloons as was done in February 2023 over Yukon.

Today, there is another kind of Chinese incursion in the Canadian Arctic. This incursion is much less visible than balloons or buoys, and is something that the conventional military is ill-equipped to confront: the acquisition of junior mining companies.

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Canada’s hope to be a global power in the energy transition needs a strategic push – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – February 27, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s hopes to be a global power in the low-carbon transition could be dashed unless it develops national strategy based on competitive strengths and aligns its diplomacy, trade and public policy, a new report warns.

The country takes its place in the geopolitical pecking order for granted after prospering for decades as a major oil and gas supplier, says the study by the Centre for Net-Zero Industrial Policy, released Tuesday. Without a new plan, Canada risks losing out as clean energy expands as a supply source and developers look for locations to invest capital, it says.

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The ‘critical minerals’ bubble has seemingly burst. What does it mean for Australia’s geopolitical strategies? -by Lian Sinclair and Neil Coe (Australian Strategic Policy Institute – February 26, 2024)

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/

Early 2024 has not been kind to investors in critical minerals. Media outlets across Australia have run with headlines talking of ‘crash’, ‘crisis’ and ‘collapse’, with many blaming China and Indonesia for the slump— especially in nickel prices. This is in stark contrast to the extreme bearishness in 2022 and 2023.

Alarmingly, some players are using this ‘crisis’ to call for government bailouts and softer regulation. Others, including Minister for Resources and Minister for Northern Australia Madeleine King, are pushing for global green mining standards and a premium price for nickel produced with higher environmental standards.

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Why this miner predicts Europe will demand green nickel – by Hans van Leeuwen (Australian Financial Review – February 26, 2024)

https://www.afr.com/

London | As the nickel market maelstrom engulfs project after project, Perth-based mining CEO Todd Ross is betting his company, ASX-listed Nordic Nickel, can withstand the tempest.

The $17.5 million minnow has two tenements in Finnish Lapland, and is still in the early stages of exploration. Ross expects the market shake-out will eventually carve world demand into two tracks – a “bifurcation” between Chinese and European demand that will ultimately benefit Nordic Nickel.

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Nickel faces existential moment with half of mines unprofitable – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – February 26, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Many of the world’s biggest nickel mines are facing an increasingly bleak future as they wake up to an existential threat: a near limitless supply of low-cost metal from Indonesia. With roughly half of all nickel operations unprofitable at recent prices, the bosses of the largest mining companies last week sounded a warning that there was little prospect of a recovery.

The potential collapse of nickel mining from Australia to New Caledonia comes at a time when western governments are scrambling to secure the supply chains needed to decarbonize the global economy. But in an ironic twist, Indonesia’s coal-fired nickel output is pricing out greener metal that’s so far failed to command a market premium.

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Iron ore boom of the 2000s repeating – this time with critical metals – by James Cooper (Northern Miner – February 22, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

A headline published in The Age back in July 2003 reads: “[Andrew] Forrest has a grand $1.2bn plan for tiny Perth mining company.” That company was called Allied Mining and Processing and you’ve probably never heard of it. But from small roots this tiny outfit grew into one of Australia’s largest listed companies with a market cap exceeding A$88 billion.

Twenty years ago, Andrew (Twiggy) Forrest renamed this micro-cap stock to Fortescue Metals Group (ASX: FMG). The rest is history, but it was quite the story behind Twiggy’s road to immense wealth. Fortescue was perhaps the single biggest success story from the last mining boom. A stock that grew from a measly A2¢ per share back in 2003 to more than $10 a share just five years later.

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Why there’s no silver bullet for the nickel pickle facing the Albanese government – by Rhiannon Shine (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – February 22, 2024)

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

When miners first struck nickel in Western Australia’s dusty outback in the late 1960s, it kickstarted a rollercoaster ride that brought the likes of Harold Holt and Andrew Forrest to town. So exciting was the revelation of nickel in Kambalda, 60 kilometres south of Kalgoorlie, the prime minister came to town to join the party.

“It is an important national asset,” Mr Holt declared from the Goldfields mine site in 1967.Today it is seen as not only important but critical – due to its use in the batteries needed for the global energy transition.Two years ago, the price of nickel reached a dizzying height of around $76,000 (US$50,000) per tonne.

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Australia gives nickel a quick fix, but surgery of global industry needed – by Clyde Russell (Reuters – February 19, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Australia is throwing a lifeline to its under pressure nickel mining sector, but the solution on offer is more of a band aid than the needed major surgery, the carving of the global nickel industry into green and dirty.

Resources Minister Madeleine King placed nickel on the critical minerals list, a move that allows the industry to access some of the A$4 billion ($2.7 billion) of federal government funding aimed at promoting minerals vital to energy transition.

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Optimism for metals clashes with reality for juniors ahead of PDAC – by Alisha Hiyate (Mining.com – February 18, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Increasing funding for battery metal and uranium projects versus gold brings home the global energy transition but big financing deals for preproduction companies have almost disappeared, new figures show ahead of the country’s largest mining showcase.

The data, from the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) which holds its 92nd annual convention Mar. 3-6 in Toronto, shows just how much junior miners are struggling, despite a growing international recognition of mining’s importance.

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Mines Minister calls for economic support for critical minerals – by Len Gillis (Sudbury.com – February 17, 2024)

https://www.sudbury.com/

George Pirie said investment and support of exploration and development of critical minerals mining is essential for the future economy of Northern Ontario

When it comes to critical minerals for the battery electric vehicle industry, Ontario Mines Minister George Pirie is telling people to stay away from Chinese-financed nickel, to stay away from cobalt from the Congo and to buy Canadian products. Pirie said he is taking that same message to Washington, D.C. when he visits the U.S. in April.

He was in Sudbury on Thursday at the Workplace Safety North forum on the safety of battery electric vehicles in mining. Pirie spoke at Cambrian College on the importance of the supply chain of Canadian minerals for the manufacture of batteries.

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