Fortescue Metals Group/Wyloo Metals – Page 3

Ring of Fire developer Wyloo Metals rebrands to Wyloo – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – September 27, 2023)

September 28, 2023

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Australian company decides to place its global mineral assets under one banner

Australia’s Wyloo Metals has again rebranded its mineral assets in Ontario’s Ring of Fire. The Perth-headquartered mine developer has decided to place its Canadian and Western Australian mine and exploration properties under the single banner of Wyloo.

Privately owned Wyloo acquired the assets of Toronto’s Noront Resources in April 2022, which comprises the Eagle’s Nest nickel project and its chromite properties, 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay.

NEWS RELEASE: Ring of Fire Metals, Wyloo Metals, Mincor Resources combine to become major nickel player, “Wyloo” (Wyloo – September 27, 2023)

September 27, 2023

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Ring of Fire Metals, Wyloo Metals and Mincor Resources and will unify under the brand name Wyloo after becoming the largest pure-play nickel company outside of Russia. Wyloo Metals’ acquisition of Mincor Resources, completed last month, makes Wyloo a producer of high-grade nickel sulphide from its newly acquired Cassini and Northern Operations mines in Kambalda, Western Australia.

The new name also applies to Wyloo’s Canadian subsidiary, formerly Ring of Fire Metals, which owns the high-grade Eagle’s Nest project and the only material chromite resource in North America, in the Ring of Fire region in northern Ontario, Canada.

Ring of Fire Metals CEO responds to environmental concerns – by Nicole Stoffman (Timmins Daily Press – September 27, 2023)

September 27, 2023

https://www.timminspress.com/

Says mining on high ground means minimal impact on peatlands

Kristan Straub provided an update on the development of the Eagle’s Nest Project within the Ring of Fire at a State of Mining luncheon at the Dante Club on Tuesday. Eagle’s Nest is an undeveloped high-grade nickel sulphide project and chromite deposit 400 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, and is set to be the first critical minerals deposit to be mined in the Ring of Fire region.

The Ring of Fire comprises 5,000 square kilometres, and is rich in critical minerals such as: high-grade nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum group elements and chromite. Critical minerals are so called because they have specific applications in industry and technology and have few substitutes. They are subject to geopolitical and environmental risk because they are geographically concentrated. The world’s biggest supplier of Nickel is Indonesia.

From ‘Ring of Fire’ to Mincor: Twiggy’s nickel dream drives Wyloo boss – by Simon Johanson (Sydney Morning Herald – September 3, 2023)

September 5, 2023

https://www.smh.com.au/

Ask Wyloo Metals boss Luca Giacovazzi, 31, if he’s a bit young to be four years into running a pure-play nickel miner that wrestled control of Canada’s fabled “Ring of Fire” basin from resources giant BHP, and he quips: “Don’t hold it against me.”

As head of Wyloo, Giacovazzi has the ear of mining magnate Andrew Forrest. The $1.5 billion mining and exploration company he has been building with strategic and capital creating deals since 2019 sits alongside Squadron Energy as a prize asset in Forrest’s private investment vehicle Tattarang.

Fortescue CEO Fiona Hick’s sudden departure raises eyebrows – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – August 28, 2023)

August 28, 2023

https://www.mining.com/

Fortescue Metals Group (ASX: FMG) announced on Monday the unexpected departure of its chief executive officer Fiona Hick, who held the post for less than six months and who attended a corporate party on Saturday to mark the iron ore miner’s 20-year anniversary.

Hick, who was scooped up in November last year from oil and gas producer Woodside Energy (ASX: WDS), has been replaced by current chief operating officer for the iron ore division, Dino Otranto. The 49-year-old female executive made her name by pushing the Western Australia’s resource sector to address its sexual harassment and bullying issues while serving as president of the state’s Chamber of Minerals and Energy.

Wyloo will be mining more than nickel at Eagle’s Nest – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – August 17, 2023)

August 17, 2023

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Underground aggregate extraction for Ring of Fire road will deliver both practical and environmental solutions

The proposed Eagle’s Nest mine will “set a new benchmark for what mining could look like” in the Ring of Fire, said its Australian developer.

Luca Giacovazzi, CEO of Wyloo Metals and a director with Ring of Fire Metals (formerly Noront Resources), revealed some of their innovative engineering solutions last week at the Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum, a leading industry bash held at Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

Juukan Gorge owners PKKP and Fortescue negotiate land use deal – by David Prestipino (National Indigenous Times – July 13, 2023)

July 14, 2023

https://nit.com.au/

Fortescue Metals and PKKP Aboriginal Corporation have signed a memorandum of understanding they hope will lead to join management of current and future projects on Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura lands. The PKKP holds native title over nearly 11,000sqm of sparsely populated land west of Karijini National Park, including FMG’s Eliwana mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

The corporation was highly critical of Rio Tinto after the miner destroyed 46,000-year-old heritage-listed rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in May 2020, against the wishes of the PKKP people, who were unaware of the company’s intentions until it was too late.

The flame bearer: Kristan Straub, chief executive officer, Ring of Fire Metals – by Mehanaz Yakub (CIM Magazine – July 04, 2023)

July 14, 2023

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

Kristan Straub’s path to becoming the newly appointed CEO of Ring of Fire Metals was influenced by both nature and nurture.

With both his maternal and paternal grandfathers working in the mining industry and living in Falconbridge in Greater Sudbury, the allure of the local mine, mill and smelter naturally captivated his interest as a boy.

The EV battery gold rush is here. Here’s how Canada can access its untapped resources. – by Virginia Heffernan (MACLEAN’S Magazine – July 10, 2023)

July 10, 2023

https://macleans.ca/

“If Canada can find a way to sustainably mine and supply metals to EV manufacturing hubs in North America, the country will be spinning green gold”

Canada’s EV sector is booming. In 2022, GM Canada opened the country’s first full-scale EV manufacturing plant in Ingersoll, Ontario. The federal government is offering billions of dollars in subsidies to Volkswagen and Stellantis to build EV battery plants in the province.

More than 86,000 EVs were registered in Canada in 2021, compared to around 19,000 in 2017. Battery charging infrastructure is improving rapidly too: Telus and the Australian EV company Jolt announced plans to build 5,000 charging stations in five years across Canada.

Forrest makes a ‘whatever it takes’ bet on clean nickel – by Brad Thompson (Australian Financial Review – July 5, 2023)

July 5, 2023

https://www.afr.com/

Billionaire Andrew Forrest is rewriting history in nickel-rich Western Australia, returning to the scene of his biggest career heartbreak as the owner of Mincor Resources. He is willing to invest “whatever it takes” to become a global force in nickel via his private investment vehicle, Wyloo Metals, in a sector where BHP leads the way in terms of Australian output.

Dr Forrest famously backed Anaconda Nickel in the late 1990s, building it up from nothing before things went badly wrong at the Murrin Murrin mine out in bush near Leonora. He lost some skin and reputation before exiting as chief executive in 2001.

NEWS RELEASE: WYLOO TO ACQUIRE MINCOR RESOURCES AND BECOME A MAJOR NICKEL SULPHIDE PRODUCER (July 5, 2023)

July 5, 2023

• Wyloo now owns 90.87% of Mincor’s shares.
• On completion of its on-market takeover offer at close of trading today, Wyloo will own more than 90% of Mincor’s shares and will proceed to the compulsory acquisition of Mincor.
• This transformative acquisition will turn Wyloo into an integrated nickel producer, with high-grade nickel production from Kambalda feeding a future downstream processing plant in Kwinana.
• Kambalda is set to be reinvigorated as Wyloo invests in the exploration and assessment of the Kambalda and Widgiemooltha Domes.
• Combined with its Canadian assets, Wyloo’s nickel portfolio now boasts an impressive combination of production, processing, development and exploration projects – all in the tier one jurisdictions of Australia and Canada.

Red tape may strangle natural resource opportunity – by Kenneth Green (Toronto Sun – June 13, 2023)

June 15, 2023

https://torontosun.com/

Canada has a problem, nowadays, in getting Big Things Done

The “Ring of Fire” mining project is in the news again. And it’s looking eerily familiar to the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline project, which went through interminable on-again-off-again cycles of regulatory approvals and delays before the company that proposed the project withdrew and the federal government purchased the project. The pipeline is now being (slowly) completed at a wildly inflated cost.

The Ring of Fire is an area in northern Ontario some 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, covering 5,000 square kilometres. The Ontario government’s website lists five metals (including chromite and nickel), which are plentiful in the area and of potential use in making good on the federal government’s plans to “transition” Canadians into battery-electric vehicles.

Indigenous Leaders: Kristan Straub looks to find common ground in the Ring of Fire – Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – May 26, 2023)

May 26, 2023

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

New Ring of Fire Metals boss brings an Indigenous perspective and project smarts to advance Far North mine

Dialogue and transparency. Those words have served Kristan Straub well over his 22-year career with Glencore and the postings that have sent him across Canada and around the globe.

Earlier this year, the Sudbury-born Straub, the now-former vice-president of exploration with Glencore’s nickel team, was offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to advance one of the world’s new and untapped sources of critical minerals.

Nickel’s price paralysis could see mines ‘gobbled up’ cheap – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – May 25, 2023)

May 25, 2023

https://www.afr.com/

Miners say pricing mechanisms for nickel have struggled to keep pace with the industry’s shift to supplying the specialised needs of battery and electric vehicle makers, creating an opportunity for acquisitions on the cheap.

Australian nickel was traditionally sold to stainless steel producers in briquettes or powders, but miners such as BHP now sell the bulk of their nickel to electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla, which want nickel for the cathodes of lithium-ion batteries.

Ring of Fire project at risk due to red tape and cumbersome consultation process, billionaire owner says – Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – May 24, 2023)

May 24, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Andrew Forrest, the Australian billionaire owner of the most promising mining assets in Ontario’s Ring of Fire region, says the viability of the critical minerals project is at risk because of Canada’s regulatory burden, its cumbersome consultation process and persistent delays in building crucial infrastructure.

The Ring of Fire, in the province’s far north, is a key part of Ontario’s and Canada’s plans to become a player in metals for electric-vehicle batteries, but it has sat undeveloped for the better part of two decades owing to unproven economics, tension with Indigenous communities, a lack of political consensus and the gigantic capital cost requirements.