Green premium won’t save Australian nickel – by Elouise Fowler (Australian Financial Review – March 10, 2024)

https://www.afr.com/

The boss of acquisitive copper producer Metals Acquisition says the nickel market has “fundamentally shifted” and it is unlikely the world’s largest buyer, China, will pay a “green premium” for the commodity.

Even if nickel miners could fetch a green premium, it may not be enough to make nickel mined outside Indonesia attractive, said Mick McMullen, who is scouring the globe for mines to add to his portfolio.Indonesian nickel has flooded the market, crashing the price of the metal required for steel-making and batteries.

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Nickel from China, Indonesia could face tariffs over market manipulation concerns, Ottawa says – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – March 7, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says Canada and other Western countries could consider imposing tariffs against Indonesia and China because of the potential for market manipulation stemming from their stranglehold on the global nickel market.

Indonesia has gone from supplying 7 per cent of the global supply of nickel to 55 per cent in the past decade, with much of that new production controlled by China-based mining companies with ties to the authoritarian Beijing government.

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French government throws more lifebuoys at New Caledonia’s beleaguered nickel industry – by Patrick Decloitre (Radio New Zealand – March 7, 2024)

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

The French government has agreed to dig in its coffers and throw more lifebuoys at New Caledonia’s beleaguered nickel industry. But the aid is tied to a stringent reform “pact”.

The latest financial assistance came early this week with an agreement between France and mining giant Eramet, whereby a sum of €320 million (which is the amount of previous loans granted by the French government) will be converted to “neutralise” an existing debt in Eramet’s New Caledonia subsidiary Société Le Nickel (SLN) so as the huge figure can be transferred from the liabilities section to “quasi-equities”.

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How Will Chinese Investors Navigate Indonesia’s Post-election Risks? – by Ahmad Syarif (The Diplomat – March 7, 2024)

https://thediplomat.com/

Chinese firms, which have established good relations with President Joko Widodo’s cabinet, are quietly putting out feelers ahead of the changeover of administration.

Over the past ten years, China has emerged as a significant foreign investor in Indonesia. Between 2019 and 2022 alone, according to data from the Ministry of Investment, Chinese companies invested $20.9 billion across 9,080 projects in the country.

Chinese investments in Indonesia can be categorized into two distinct groups. The first are those of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and state-supported initiatives, which encompass major infrastructure projects like railways, power plants, and other government-sponsored developments.

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Indonesia and China killed the nickel market – by Rich Mills – Ahead of the Herd (Mining.com – March 4, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

The mantra? Our fossil-fueled based transportation system needs to be 100% electrified, and the switch must be made from oil, gas, and coal-powered power plants to those which run on solar, wind and nuclear energy. If we have any hope of cleaning up the planet, before the point of no return, a massive decarbonization needs to take place.

This has to involve a colossal boost in the production of mined metals, including lithium, graphite, cobalt and nickel for lithium-ion batteries used in EVs, renewable energy grid storage and consumer electronics; copper for electric vehicle motors, charging stations and renewable energy plants; silver for solar panels and EVs.

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‘Data not accurate’: Macquarie’s nickel veteran says rout ending – by Hans van Leeuwen (Australian Financial Review – March 2024)

https://www.afr.com/

London | The nickel turmoil of last year may blow over more quickly than previously expected, according to Macquarie’s 44-year veteran nickel watcher Jim Lennon, as unexpectedly high Chinese demand and potentially slower Indonesian growth rebalance the market.

Mr Lennon has just returned from a visit to China that has triggered a “major change” to Macquarie’s forecasts for nickel – a market in which prices nose-dived by almost 50 per cent last year, and which many analysts still expect to be stuck in the doldrums this year.

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Nickel producers fear growing Indonesian pricing power – by Andy Home (Reuters – March 5, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) – An Indonesian nickel producer has for the first time ever applied to have its metal listed as a good delivery brand on the London Metal Exchange (LME). Indonesia has rapidly emerged as the new powerhouse of global nickel production but until now has not produced the metal in the high-purity form traded on either the LME or the Shanghai Futures Exchange.

That will change if PT CNGR Ding Xing New Energy gets the official nod for its “DX-zwdx” brand of full-plate nickel cathode. It is likely to do so since the LME is fast-tracking new nickel listings as part of its recovery plan after the market meltdown in 2022. The policy appears to be paying off for the exchange with stocks and trading volumes rising.

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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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Entire Aussie industry on the brink amid China move – by Jamie Seidel (News.com.au – February 29, 2024)

https://www.news.com.au/

The commodity is meant to be the answer to the green revolution but it’s on the brink of collapse and Australia is in the firing line. Analysts believe up to half of the world’s nickel mines are unprofitable at current prices. And those prices are unlikely to change anytime soon. That has profound implications for Australia’s multinational miner, BHP.

While nickel is only a minor component of its overall portfolio, the “Big Australian” had high hopes for the critical mineral’s future. It’s a key ingredient in advanced batteries and high-efficiency electric motors. And both are crucial in the race to limit the impact of CO2-induced climate change.

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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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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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Indonesia to wipe out global nickel rivals, warns French miner Eramet chief – by Harry Dempsey and Sarah White (Financial Times – February 24, 2024)

https://www.ft.com/

South-east Asian country’s low-cost production of metal vital to electric cars has made traditional suppliers uncompetitive, says Christel Bories

Indonesia’s low-cost nickel suppliers will wipe out rivals in the next few years, cementing the country as the world’s dominant producer of the metal vital to electric car batteries, the head of French miner Eramet has warned.

The south-east Asian nation could end up accounting for more than three-quarters of the world’s highest class of pure nickel in five years from now, Christel Bories told the Financial Times, with radical consequences for competitors elsewhere.

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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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