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Nickel Laterites

Miners slam demolition campaign, blame illegal small-scale mining – by Manolo Serapio Jr and Enrico Dela Cruz (Reuters U.S. – August 24, 2016)

http://www.gmanetwork.com/

MANILA – Miners claim the government’s environmental crackdown is a “demolition campaign” against mineral producers and are seeking to meet with President Rodrigo Duterte amid a spate of shutdowns stemming from the probe, an industry official said.

Duterte’s seven-week old government has so far suspended 10 mines, eight of them nickel, for environmental infractions, sowing fear among large-scale miners in the world’s top nickel producer that more shutdowns may follow.

The mining industry expects to push ahead with $23 billion worth of new investments from this year through 2020, but this “spirit of optimism is being shattered by … a very unstable policy outlook,” Benjamin Philip Romualdez, president of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, said at an industry conference on Wednesday.

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We Did It, You Should Too: Ore-Ban Talk Gathers Pace in Asia – by Jasmine Ng (Bloomberg News – August 22, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The Philippines should follow Indonesia’s lead and prohibit the export of raw metal ores, according to National Development Planning Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro, who said he was a big supporter of the curbs imposed by his country and results so far have been a success.

The restrictions have helped to spur the local manufacture of greater-value products, the former finance minister said in an interview in Singapore on Monday. Although some revenue was lost in the near term, the policy means there’ll be much a better result in future, he said.

Indonesia halted the export of ores from 2014, roiling the nickel market, and some Philippine lawmakers are now weighing a similar move as President Rodrigo Duterte conducts an audit of the industry to ensure its compliance with environmental standards.

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Philippine Miners Optimistic Over $34 Billion Project Pipeline – by Norman P Aquino (Bloomberg News – August 22, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The Philippines’ mining crackdown will separate good companies from bad ones and the industry is optimistic over prospects for $34 billion in projects to be developed in the next six years.

Most of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines’ 20-plus members meet international standards and comply with the country’s environmental regulations, Executive Vice President Nelia Halcon told a briefing in Manila on Monday.

In terms of the pipeline, “these projects have been approved and it’s only a matter of pushing their development,” Halcon said, referring to ventures that include the $5.9 billion Tampakan copper-gold project in South Cotabato province and Philex Mining Corp.’s $900 million Silangan project in Surigao del Norte. “We’re always hopeful,” she said.

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Philippine villagers claim victory over nickel mining firm (Catholic News Service – August 18, 2016)

http://www.catholicregister.org/

MANILA, Philippines – Residents of a small island in the central Philippines hailed a government order that stopped one of the country’s largest mining firms from removing nickel ore stockpiles from their village. The removal of the ore was ruining local ecosystems, the residents said.

“We thought we’d see our island waste away first,” Rebecca Destajo, a village leader on Manicani Island off the coastal town of Guiuan in Eastern Samar province, told ucanews.com Aug. 18 after the government announced its decision.

Opposition to mining operations on the island had been ongoing since the Hinatuan Mining Corp., an affiliate of Nickel Asia Corp., acquired rights to mine in the village in 1987.

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Top Chinese Nickel Producer Says Bull Market Just Beginning – by Alfred Cang (Bloomberg News – August 17, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Nickel’s rally is only just getting started, making the metal an attractive bet for investors, according to Jinchuan Group, China’s biggest producer of the refined metal.

Tightening global supplies because of a mining clampdown in the Philippines and rising demand from the stainless steel industry in China will push prices higher even after they climbed 35 percent from February lows, Chairman Yang Zhiqiang wrote in a statement on the company’s website. China consumes about half of the world’s supply and the Philippines produces a fifth of it.

“Nickel’s advance is just the beginning of a long bull run, with current prices still around multi-year lows, making the metal a promising investment,” Yang wrote.

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Mining is not a sunset industry – expert – by James Konstantin Galvez (The Manila Times – August 17, 2016)

THE mining industry will always remain a major pillar of the Philippines economy, a management consultancy firm specializing on mining said.

Challenging President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent remark that minerals development sector is already a sunset industry, the president and CEO of Amdgy Consultancy, Deogracias Contreras, said that there will never be a sunset in the local mining industry.

Speaking at a roundtable discussion at Lido, Contreras cited the country’s increasing need for both metallic and non-metallic resources to keep the economy moving forward. “Since the dawn of time, we have been mining. Mining is not just metallic, it also includes non-metallic and energy,” he pointed out. President Duterte had vowed to limit mining operations in an effort to preserve what is left of the country’s natural resources.

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UBS Makes a Bugle Call for Nickel Bulls on Crackdown, Demand (Bloomberg News – August 15, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Rising demand, deficits and a crackdown in the Philippines are combining to make nickel one of its most-preferred commodities, according to UBS Group AG, which said the full impact of mine shutdowns in the Southeast Asia nation may be felt only next year when exports fail to ramp up as usual.

The government’s audit of standards in the mining sector is a front-of-mind risk that’s already shut down about 2 percent of world supply, analysts including Daniel Morgan wrote in a note. Ore shipments from the top supplier could fall to 314,000 metric tons next year from 410,000 tons last year, it said.

Nickel has been the best-performing base metal in the second half, rallying to its highest level in a year Aug. 10, on speculation that the Philippine crackdown led by President Rodrigo Duterte will crimp supplies. Prices have also been supported as rising stainless-steel output boosts consumption, the UBS analysts said in the Aug. 12 report.

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The Key Challenge To Tesla’s Growth – by Michael McDonald (Oil Price.com – August 12, 2016)

http://oilprice.com/

Tesla’s increasingly ambitious plans to rule not only the electric vehicle space but also the solar energy space are likely to become more difficult to achieve over the next year. It has been widely reported in recent weeks that Tesla’s gigafactory is facing some challenges in becoming fully operational.

What is perhaps less well understood is the magnitude of the supply chain challenges that will face Tesla and its gigafactory. Tesla’s goal is to produce 500,000 vehicles a year by 2018. The company has accelerated its production time table in large part due to the enormous amount of demand the company saw for its Model 3 sedan.

The firm announced almost 375,000 preorders for the vehicle. To fulfill this demand plus new demand that the company will likely see for its products over the next couple of years, Tesla needs to produce more lithium ion batteries in 2018 than the entire world produced in 2013. That’s not an impossible feat given the size of the gigafactory, but it is challenging.

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Philippines suspends two more mines in environmental clampdown – by Enrico Dela Cruz (Reuters U.S. – August 11, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

MANILA – The Philippine government has suspended operations at two more mines due to environmental violations in an ongoing audit of the country’s mining sector, officials said on Thursday.

The move raises the number of suspended mines to 10 – eight of them nickel ore producers – since the Southeast Asian nation launched a review of all mines on July 8.

The closures and the threat of more mines getting hit in the world’s top nickel ore supplier lifted prices of the metal to a one-year high of $11,030 a tonne on Wednesday. [MET/L]

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Philippine ‘shock and awe’ mine crackdown rattles nickel markets – by Manolo Serapio Jr. and Enrioc Dela Cruz (Reuters U.S. – August 5, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

MANILA – As the Philippines’ tough-talking new president ratchets up a campaign against irresponsible mining, the suspension of a quarter of the country’s nickel mines and the risk of more action to come is spooking global nickel markets.

The Southeast Asian nation is China’s biggest supplier of nickel ore – used to make stainless steel – and with few alternative suppliers available, the crackdown pushed nickel prices up 13 percent last month.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who swept to power on June 30 with a vow to crush crime by targeting hundreds of suspected drug dealers, warned miners this week to follow tighter environmental rules or shut down, saying the country can survive without mining.

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UPDATE 1-Philippines suspends seventh nickel miner in environmental crackdown – by Manolo Serapio Jr and Enrico Dela Cruz (Reuters U.S. – August 4, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

MANILA, Aug 4 – The Philippine government has suspended the operations of a seventh nickel miner, Claver Mineral Development Corp, a minister said on Thursday, deepening an environmental crackdown that has caused jitters in global nickel markets.

The Philippines is the biggest supplier of nickel ore to top market China and the suspension of some mines and the risk of more closures sent global nickel prices to an 11-month high of $10,900 a tonne on July 21.

“Today we are suspending Claver Mineral. We will audit all the mine sites of Mindanao,” Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Regina Lopez said, referring to the nickel-rich southern Philippine island. Claver runs a mine in the Surigao del Norte province in Mindanao.

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NEWS RELEASE: Horizonte completes acquisition of Glencore project to create one of largest nickel saprolite projects globally

LONDON, Aug. 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ – Horizonte Minerals Plc, (AIM: HZM, TSX: HZM) (‘Horizonte’ or ‘the Company’) the nickel development company focused in Brazil, is pleased to announce the transfer to a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company of the remaining two licences that make up the Glencore Araguaia nickel project (‘GAP’) in north central Brazil. This completes the licence transfer under the agreement (‘Asset Purchase Agreement’) to acquire GAP from Xstrata Brasil Exploraçâo Mineral Ltda (‘Xstrata’), a wholly owned subsidiary of Glencore, as announced by the Company on 28 September 2015.

Highlights

  • The closing of the transaction completes the consolidation of GAP and Horizonte’s Araguaia Project creating one of the largest nickel saprolite projects globally
  • The transfer includes the advanced Serra do Tapa nickel deposit
  • Combined projects currently the focus for a new Pre-Feasibility Study due for completion in Q3 2016

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Duterte on mining firms: I am fighting a monster – by Christina M. Mendez (Philippine Star – August 4, 2016)

http://www.philstar.com/

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED 7:26 p.m.) — President Rodrigo Duterte lashed out at the oligarchs who exploit the country’s natural resources particularly, those in the mining and fisheries industry.

“I am fighting a monster. Believe me, I will destroy their clutches on our nation,” he said at an environment summit at Ateneo de Davao University. Duterte vowed anew to go after mining firms which continue to practice environmentally destructive open-pit methods and corporations which are granted mining permits through money, influence and sheer greed.

The president scored the reckless grant of permits solely on the basis that a mining firm can afford it.

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Mining firms take up Duterte’s challenge – by Louise Maureen Simeon (Philippine Star – August 3, 2016)

http://www.philstar.com/

MANILA, Philippines — The mining industry has taken President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent warning as a challenge to continue keeping up with the standards of responsible mining in the country.

“We continue to take the President’s statements as a challenge for us to step up our efforts and practices in adhering to the tenets of responsible mining,” the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) said.

On Monday, Duterte issued a stern warning to mining firms as he vowed to be tough on businesses that are destroying the environment and violating government standards.

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Philippines’ Duterte says nation can survive without mining companies – by Manola Serapio Jr. and Enrico Dela Cruz (Reuters U.S. – August 1, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

MANILA – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday warned mining companies to strictly follow tighter environmental rules or shut down, saying the Southeast Asian nation could survive without a mining industry.

“We will survive as a nation without you,” Duterte told a media briefing, referring to the country’s miners. “Either you follow strictly government standards or you close down.”

It was the boldest statement yet from Duterte against domestic miners that he warned in the weeks before he took office on June 30 to “shape up” and to “stop spoiling the land.” The Philippines has so far suspended the operations of seven domestic nickel mines for failure to comply with environmental regulations.

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