Mindanao miners reel from [Philippines] President-elect’s remarks (Business World – June 6, 2016)

http://www.bworldonline.com/

Manila, Philippines – OFFICIALS of some of the biggest miners in the country yesterday professed agreement with the next administration’s avowed policy of holding those exploiting the country’s mineral resources more accountable for environmental damage they may cause, but stocks of some of those with Mindanao operations yesterday bared investor jitters.

Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc.; Manila Mining Corp. and Marcventures Holdings, Inc. yesterday saw substantial drops in their stock prices as trading ended after President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte warned companies whose operations threaten the environment — particularly those in mineral-rich Mindanao — to upgrade their practices or face closure.

Stock prices of Global Ferronickel, Manila Mining and Marcventures fell 2.22% to 88 centavos, 7.14% to 1.3 centavos and 4.26% to P1.80 apiece, respectively, even as the bourse’s 17-stock mining and oil sectoral index to which they belong gained 0.13%.

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South32 CEO Says Colombia Nickel Mine Needs Cash Flow Plan – by David Stringer (Bloomberg News – June 2, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

South32 Ltd., the diversified miner that’s cutting its global workforce on lower commodity prices, says its loss-making and strike-threatened Colombian nickel asset must deliver a plan to return to profits in the coming fiscal year to remain in operation.

Cerro Matoso is facing a deadline of July 2017 to demonstrate how it’ll begin to improve cash flow, Chief Executive Officer Graham Kerr said in an interview Thursday in Melbourne. The Perth-based producer is continuing talks with union members at the asset to avert a planned strike this month amid a dispute over a wage offer, he said.

“If they are not cash flow positive, if they can’t show me a plan to be cash flow positive, well we shouldn’t be running,” Kerr said. “We can’t cross-subsidize across the group, so if we can’t restructure if a way that makes sense, well then we won’t produce.”

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South32 sees more pain ahead for miners – by Sonali Paul (Reuters U.S. – June 2, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE – Australia’s South32 Ltd expects base metals and coal prices to give up recent gains, inflcting more pain on debt heavy rivals who will eventually be forced to shut loss-making operations, its chief executive said on Thursday.

Spun off by BHP Billiton a year ago with little debt, South32 produces nickel, manganese, aluminium and coal, commodities that have all slumped over the past year due to oversupply and slowing growth in China.

Chief Executive Graham Kerr said the rebound in coal and metals prices during the current quarter is unsustainable, given that markets are still oversupplied. “I think there’s a little bit of pain still to come,” Kerr told Reuters in an interview.

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Sherritt announces plans to restructure $720-million debt load – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – June 1, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Sherritt International Corp. is joining a flurry of miners that are buying themselves time in a tough commodities market by restructuring their debt.

The Toronto-based company said on Tuesday that it plans to push back the maturity date on $720-million in unsecured debentures by three years. The extension would provide breathing room for the money-losing nickel producer as it waits for prices to recover. “Upon completion of the extension, there will be no maturities until November, 2021,” David Pathe, Sherritt chief executive, said in a statement.

The move underscores miners’ need to carefully manage cash as the vicious downturn in base metal prices that began in 2011 slogs onward. In recent days, both First Quantum Minerals Ltd. and Teck Resources Ltd. have announced their own moves designed to ensure liquidity and push out debt maturities.

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Workers Vote to Strike at South32’s Cerro Matoso Nickel Mine – by Andrew Willis and David Stringer(Bloomberg News – May 29, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Workers at South32 Ltd.’s Cerro Matoso, the world’s second-biggest ferro-nickel mine, voted to take strike action amid a dispute over negotiations on a wage agreement.

Members of the Sintracerromatoso union approved the move at the operation in northern Colombia, the union’s negotiator Eder Blanco confirmed in a text message. A strike must begin before June 14, and a deal to avert the action could be reached before then.

A previous strike at Cerro Matoso in April 2015 caused output to fall, leading to an increase in global prices. The nickel complex is among the world’s largest, with output of 27,200 metric tons in the nine months to March 31.

Perth-based South32 will continue to seek a resolution of the dispute, spokesman Tony Johnson said by phone.

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China’s nickel imports still flattering to deceive – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – May 25, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – China is importing more nickel than ever before. Headline imports of refined metal hit a new all-time record high of 49,012 tonnes in April. The cumulative tally of 157,600 tonnes over the first four months of the year represents a 115,000-tonne increase over the same period of last year.

Imports of ferronickel have also surged to 294,700 tonnes so far this year, which is already more than any previous calendar year with the exception of 2015.

Somewhere in this flow of material lies an unfolding bull narrative, one of falling Chinese production and resurgent demand. The problem is that there is too much else going on in the import data to get a good view of the shifting Chinese nickel landscape.

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Clive Palmer to face court over Qld Nickel – by Tracey Ferrier (The Australian – May 18, 2016)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

Clive Palmer and his nephew have been ordered to face court to answer damning allegations about their management of Queensland Nickel before it collapsed.

The Federal Court has granted a request by liquidators FTI Consulting to question the federal MP after FTI earlier said there was evidence he’d acted as a shadow director and used Queensland Nickel to bankroll his other business interests.

The court has also ordered Mr Palmer’s nephew Clive Mensink – Queensland Nickel’s sole appointed director – to appear, along with former managing director Ian Ferguson. The hearings will likely be held next month and are expected to range over damning allegations FTI made in its April report to creditors, who are owed hundreds of millions of dollars.

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Editorial: Queensland mining at risk from law to rein in Clive Palmer (The Courier Mail – May 16, 2016)

http://www.couriermail.com.au/

LIKE all jurisdictions, Queensland needs to take particular care to keep itself competitive when attracting development and jobs.

According to resource sector leaders, major national and international companies are becoming increasingly reluctant to go ahead with investments in Queensland because of the high fixed regulatory costs they face in this state. And the release of this finding yesterday came amid worrying claims from resource sector chiefs that some unintended consequences have occurred from the recent green laws used to make failed developer Clive Palmer operate properly.

After Mr Palmer’s ill-fated Queensland Nickel refinery in Townsville shut its doors and caused hundreds of workers to lose their livelihoods, the company was properly caught by regulations aimed at making resource companies live up to their environmental responsibilities and make sure the operation did not fall short of what is required for a clean and healthy industrial site.

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Sherritt International CEO confident that debt issues will be fixed without painful restructuring – by Peter Koven (National Post – May 11, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

TORONTO — The chief executive of Sherritt International Corp. said Tuesday he is confident the company will avert a painful restructuring despite its big debt load and woeful nickel prices.

“I expect we’ll be able to do something that works for all stakeholders,” David Pathe said in an interview at the company’s annual meeting in Toronto. He did acknowledge that the situation is highly dependent on what happens in the nickel market.

Toronto-based Sherritt is a victim of timing. The company and its partners spent a staggering US$5.3 billion to develop the Ambatovy mine in Madagascar over the past several years, and nickel prices plummeted just as production was ramping up. As a result, the mine is not generating the cash its owners expected.

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Inside Clive Palmer’s Queensland Nickel mess – by Trevor Sykes (Australian Financial Review – May 5, 2016)

http://www.afr.com/

Since Queensland Nickel went into liquidation on April 21 everyone has been worrying about the workers who’ve been retrenched from the Yabulu nickel refinery at Townsville.

Well, from a reading of the report by FTI Consulting on Queensland Nickel, the workers were lucky to keep their jobs as long as they did. Because if Yabulu were owned by Pierpont, he would have closed it 18 months ago.

FTI reckoned Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd (let’s call it QN) has been insolvent since November 27, 2015 when it was unable to pay a debt of $11.9 million to the Aurizon transport group. Aurizon issued QN with a notice of default on that day.

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UPDATE 1-French PM commits 200 mln euros to support New Caledonia nickel producer – by Ccile Lefort (Reuters U.S. – April 29, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

France will lend up to 200 million euros ($228 million) to support struggling New Caledonia nickel producer Societe Le Nickel (SLN), Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Friday.

Valls, who is visiting the French territory, said the financing will be in place until 2018 with final terms still under discussion. The aid package comes at a time when nickel prices are hovering near 13-year lows. The mineral is crucial to New Caledonia as it accounts for about a fifth of its economy.

Earlier this year, the territory lost a key Australian customer which fell into insolvency. “The situation is serious,” said Valls. “SLN is facing an unprecedented crisis.”

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Column: How Shanghai trading is changing the physical nickel market – Andy Home (Reuters U.S.- April 29, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – Everyone’s talking about Chinese speculators. This year has seen an unprecedented surge of trading volumes and open interest in Chinese markets as institutional and retail investors pour money into commodities.

Both the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) and the Dalian Exchange are upping margin requirements and transaction fees to try and calm overheating contracts such as steel rebar and iron ore.

The stampede appears to have been halted with both prices and trading activity losing some of their recent froth. But the current trading frenzy shouldn’t distract from the growing global influence of China’s domestic commodity exchanges.

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France to lend $340 mln to New Caledonia nickel group – media (Reuters U.S. – April 26, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

France is set to provide 300 million euros ($340 million) in loans to New Caledonia nickel producer Societe Le Nickel (SLN) as it struggles with weak prices for the metal, a French weekly newspaper reported.

Le Journal du Dimanche reported the move on Sunday, citing unidentified sources. It comes as French Prime Minister Manual Valls is due to visit the French territory in the Pacific later this week.

Nickel output accounts for about a fifth of New Caledonia’s economy. But a slump in prices is pressuring its three smelters, owned by Glencore, Vale and SLN, a unit of French conglomerate Eramet.

New Caledonia holds around a quarter of the world’s reserves of nickel, used in everything from stainless steel to batteries.

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Quarter of Nickel Miners Seen Battling to Survive in Price Rout – by Joe Deaux (Bloomberg News – April 12, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

A quarter of the world’s nickel miners are caught in a game of chicken, churning out the stainless steel ingredient at a loss in the hope that competitors will shut first, according to research firm IHS Inc.

The price of nickel slumped 30 percent in the past year, the worst performance among major metals traded on the London Metal Exchange, as slowing demand helps feed a global glut. Stockpiles on the LME are up fivefold since 2011, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates a surplus of 90,000 metric tons in 2016, according to a Feb. 8 report.

“Very few industries can support that, and yet we’ve seen a minimal supply-side reaction,” Jason Kaplan, a commodities research manager at Englewood, Colorado-based IHS, said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “Everybody is looking at each other hoping that the guy down the street will fail before them.”

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New Caledonia fears civil unrest after collapse of Clive Palmer’s nickel refinery – by Joshua Robertson (The Guardian – January 19, 2016)

http://www.theguardian.com/

Nearly all of South Pacific territory’s income comes from nickel exports and authorities say job losses and economic downturn could cause political unrest

The collapse of Clive Palmer’s Queensland Nickel business has compounded fears of civil strife in New Caledonia should the French territory’s key mining customer go under completely.

The perilous position of the Townsville-based metals producer, which puts nearly all of New Caledonia’s export income from laterite nickel ore at risk, has heightened concerns among business operators and government officials that the fallout could spill over from major job and revenue losses into violent industrial clashes.

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