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The Astonishing Nickel Eating Plant That Could Radically Change Mining – by Tim Worstall (Forbes Magazine – May 13, 2014)

http://www.forbes.com/

There’s been a discovery of a new species of “metal-munching” plant that has the possibility of radically changing how we go about mining for metals. Or at least, how we go about mining for certain metals. We’ve long known that certain plants concentrate certain metals in their tissues: for example, that coal has elevated levels of germanium in it is simply the result of the fact that those plant tissues the coal was made from contained Ge. But this latest finding concentrates metals, in this case nickel, to such an extent that it could radically change the way that we go mining for certain metals.

A report is here and this is the most amazing line:

“Professor Fernando said that the Rinorea niccolifera’s leaves can take in up to 18,000 parts per million of nickel. This is a thousand times more than what any other known plant species can safely absorb.”

It’s that thousand times which is the astonishing part. And it’s so astonishing that it completely changes the economics of the matter.

18,000 ppm is also known as 1.8%. So, for one tonne of the leaves of this plant we would have 18 kilogrammes of nickel contained. Well, OK, we would if it had been growing on highly nickel contaminated soil.

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Rising nickel prices good for Sudbury – by Ben Leeson (Sudbury Star – May 14, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

World events including an export ban on nickel ore in Indonesia and uncertainty over the political situation in eastern Europe have helped drive up nickel prices, analysts say. Nickel high a two-year high this week, peaking at more than $9.50 per pound on Tuesday.

That’s more than $2 higher than two months ago and about $3.50 higher than six months ago. Terry Ortslan, nickel analyst at TSO and Associates, based in Montreal, said the primary cause of the increase has been changes to mining laws in Indonesia, which previously supplied China with much of its nickel ore to be processed into pig iron, for use in stainless steel.

“China produces more nickel than Canada and (the former Soviet Union) combined,” Ortslan said. The Chinese have relied on deposits in Indonesia, as well as New Caledonia and the Philippines, before the Indonesians announced a ban on nickel ore exports, in an effort to extract more value from its mineral resources, in 2009.

That ban went into effect in mid-January and though there are presidential elections in Indonesia this summer, it’s not expected the next government will change course.

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Duluth sees nickel upside at Twin Metals (Northern Miner – May 14, 2014)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

VANCOUVER — It’s been a long road for junior Duluth Metals (TSX: DM, US-OTC: DULMF) on the northern edge of Minnesota’s prolific Iron Range, but it looks like the development potential of the company’s Twin Metals joint venture with major Antofagasta (LON: ANTO, US-OTC: ANFGY) is set to come into focus in the next few months.

The companies are set to release a prefeasibility study (PFS) based on a large-scale copper-nickel-platinum-palladium-gold resource in July — the first updated study since a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) in 2008 — which will outline a 50,000-tonnes-per-day underground mine.

Duluth has also undergone a management change as it moves towards a potential development scenario, with former-COO Kelly Osborne — who worked as a senior vice-president of underground operations for Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE: FCX) — stepping in as the company’s president and CEO on May 12.

Outgoing president Vern Baker took some time to sit down with The Northern Miner to discuss his four-year tenure with the company, and shed some light on the current state of the Twin Metals project. Baker will continue to serve on the Twin Metals technical committee moving forward.

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Vale could keep smelter and refinery open until 2019 – John Barker (Thompson Citizen – May 14, 2014)

The Thompson Citizen, which was established in June 1960, covers the City of Thompson and Nickel Belt Region of Northern Manitoba. The city has a population of about 13,500 residents while the regional population is more than 40,000.  editor@thompsoncitizen.net

‘Vale will continue to invest in Thompson without a strategic partner,’ spokesman says

Vale Canada Limited’s Manitoba Operations has a green light from federal environmental officials on keeping its Thompson smelter and refinery open until the end of 2015.

Pending new federal sulphur dioxide (SO2) emission standards, pursuant to The Canada-Wide Acid Rain Strategy for Post-2000, set to come into effect in 2015, could have required a reduction in airborne emissions of approximately 88 per cent from current levels at the Thompson operation.

The Canada-Wide Acid Rain Strategy for Post-2000 was agreed to in 1998 by federal, provincial and territorial ministers of energy and environment to fulfill an earlier commitment in their 1994 “Statement of Intent on Long-Term Acid Rain Management in Canada,” which in turn built on the 1985 Eastern Canada Acid Rain Program.

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BHP Says in Talks for Nickel Unit Sale as Metal Price Rockets – by Elisabeth Behrmann and David Stringer ( Bloomberg News – May 14, 2014)

http://www.businessweek.com/

BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), the world’s biggest mining company, is holding talks for the sale of all or part of its Australian nickel unit as prices rose to two-year highs.

“The review is considering all options for the long-term future of Nickel West, including the potential sale of all or parts of the business, Melbourne-based BHP said today in an e-mailed statement. Talks with interested parties have begun, spokeswoman Eleanor Nichols said by phone.

The sale announcement comes as nickel surged 10 percent in the past week and follows comments from BHP Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mackenzie that he wants to run a smaller collection of assets. Glencore Xstrata Plc (GLEN), the global commodities trading and mining group, said in March it was assessing a bid for the assets, which could fetch about $800 million according to a report by RBC Capital Markets.

‘‘For BHP, it’s something that doesn’t move the needle any more,” Chris Drew, an analyst in Sydney with RBC, said today. “The overall size of the business means it’s not material enough for them to justify maintaining or potentially putting capital into, so it’s better off in someone else’s hands.”

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KGHM’s Victoria Mine to begin production in 2019 by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – May 12, 2014)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Mine could employ up to 300 people

KGHM’s Victoria Mine, near Sudbury, is expected to be operational by 2019, said Mark Frayne, KGHM’s manager of project controls for the mine. The mine will employ between 150 and 300 people, the company said.

KGHM has completed timbering at the site, located about two kilometres south of the historic Victoria Mine, which was first developed in the 1890s and then closed in the 1920s.

The former Inco reopened the mine in the 1970s, and made a deal with KGHM’s predecessor, FNX, in 2002, to take control. A long and thin ore body – about 50 kilometres long – was discovered in 2010, which the company now wants to bring into production.

KGHM estimates the new mine site contains 14.2 million tonnes of resources. The inferred resources include 700 million pounds of copper, 700 million pounds Nickel and 3.5 million ounces of platinum group elements. Frayne said KGHM plans for the mine to use the latest technology.

“We’re going to try and leverage that and make sure that when we go into operation we’ll have the safest and most efficient mine that we possibly can,” he said.

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Nickel prices continue huge rally on supply concerns – by Peter Koven (National Post – May 13, 2014)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

The jaw-dropping rally in nickel prices shows no signs of slowing. At least not yet.

When the Indonesian government introduced an export ban in January that severely curbed nickel supply, industry insiders predicted it would have a profound effect on the market. But they were largely ignored by the investment community, which had little interest in nickel after nearly three years of dismal performance by the metal.

In retrospect, the insiders were right. Nickel prices have soared more than 50% since the export ban came into effect. Prices rose more than 5% at one stage on Monday, climbing above US$9.50 a pound. That is the best level since early 2012.

“We’re cheerleading this morning,” said Rick Mark, chairman and chief executive of North American Nickel Inc. “I was amazed to see it up another 30 cents. It’s remarkable that we’ve had two 30-cent days in the space of three or four days.”

Indonesia is responsible for roughly 28% of global nickel mine production. The export ban on unprocessed ore is part of an effort to encourage more value-added processing within the country.

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Goro suspension pushes nickel price to two-year high (Northern Miner – May 9, 2014)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

VANCOUVER – With nickel prices already up almost 40% in 2014, a suspension at Vale’s (NYSE: VALE) Goro mine in New Caledonia has pushed the price of the steelmaking component to a two-year high.

The Goro mine has limited impact on global nickel supplies whether it is running or not, so a stable metal market would react little to the suspension. However, the nickel market is far from stable and so the Goro news acted as fuel on the fire that has been heating up nickel for months.

Indonesia started that fire in January when it banned exports of nickel ore. For years China and Japan have imported raw nickel laterite ore from Indonesia and turned it into nickel pig iron (NPI), a cheaper alternative for steelmakers to pure nickel. The trade amounts to 450,000 tonnes a year, or almost a quarter of the 2-million-tonne global annual nickel market.

The export ban is intended to spur local processing and thereby capture more of the metal’s value domestically, but it will be years until Indonesia develops significant NPI production capacity.

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China, Japan scramble for nickel after Indonesian ban – by Polly Yam and Yuka Obayashi (Reuters U.S. – May 8, 2014)

http://www.reuters.com/

HONG KONG/TOKYO, May 8 (Reuters) – Nickel buyers in China and Japan are scrambling to secure supplies as soaring prices and a fear of shortages boosts demand for both refined metal and long-term ore contracts.

The price of nickel ore from the Philippines has more than doubled since late February, as supplies have dried up from rival producer Indonesia, previously the world’s biggest exporter.

China, the world’s largest nickel consumer, has recently increased imports of refined metal to help meet higher seasonal demand, say trader and importers, as the price of commonly used alternative nickel pig iron has soared since the Indonesian ban took effect in mid-January.

Nickel demand may get a further boost from stockpiling by China, with refined imports due to start arriving at State Reserves Bureau warehouses before the end of June, sources with knowledge of the matter said.

“Everybody in China is bullish nickel and everybody is hoarding nickel of any kind,” commodities strategist Ivan Szpakowski of Citi in Shanghai said. China, the world’s largest steelmaker, has turned to laterite nickel ores in recent years to produce nickel pig iron, a cheap, low-grade ferro-nickel – an alloy of iron and nickel – used in stainless steel.

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Anglo May Sell Brazil Nickel Unit to Vale, Deutsche Bank Says – by Firat Kayakiran (Bloomberg News – May 8, 2014)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Anglo American Plc (AAL), which is reviewing assets globally as it tries to return to profit, may offer its Brazilian nickel unit to the nation’s largest miner Vale SA as metal prices increase, Deutsche Bank AG said.

Nickel will probably peak at $27,000 a metric ton in 2017, Deutsche analysts Rob Clifford, Anna Mulholland and Paul Young wrote in a report dated yesterday, raising the bank’s forecast of $20,000 a ton in 2018. The metal has surged 40 percent in London trading this year after leading global miner Indonesia barred exports of raw ores in January.

Anglo’s Barro Alto unit, which missed its target of an annual capacity of 36,000 tons at the end of 2012 because of setbacks at its two furnaces, said last month it aims to reach the mark by 2016. It plans to fix one of the furnaces this year and the second one in 2015. The mine produced 25,100 tons of nickel last year, Anglo said in February.

“We would suspect that Vale, having undertaken a similar rebuild program at its Onca Puma, could be interested in acquiring the Barro Alto operations and may consider taking on the assets prior to the completion of any refurbishment program if that were to be reflected in the price,” the Deutsche analysts said in the report.

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Nickel soars to two-year high on Goro mine halt, shortages – by Eric Onstad and Harpreet Bhal (Globe and Mail – May 9, 2014)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

LONDON — Reuters – Nickel raced to its strongest level in more than two years on Thursday as industrial consumers scrambled to secure supplies and speculators extended their buying spree after Vale halted its Goro nickel operations in New Caledonia.

Though the Goro shutdown was not expected to have a major impact on physical nickel supplies, it served to fire up bullish sentiment and chart-based purchases.

The nickel market, which has soared nearly 40 per cent this year, was already nervous about shortfalls from top producer Indonesia and worried about potential Russian supply problems.

“Today we’ve seen some panicked consumer hedging and the hedge funds have already been in there for a while,” said analyst David Wilson at Citi in London.

Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange (LME) surged 6.1 per cent to a high of $19,786 a tonne, the strongest since March 2, 2012. It later retreated to $19,451 a tonne at 1421 GMT, up 4 per cent from Wednesday’s close, with trading volumes of over 10,700 lots compared with Wednesday’s full-day volume of 5,121.

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Patchy Power Challenges Indonesia Minerals Goal: Southeast Asia – by Fitri Wulandari and Eko Listiyorini (Bloomberg News – May 07, 2014)

http://www.businessweek.com/

The challenge of supplying power across an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands is complicating Indonesia’s goal of getting more out of its scattered mineral resources.

While almost 80 percent of Indonesia’s electricity capacity is in the islands of Java and Bali, the majority of its most abundant minerals such as bauxite and nickel are found in provinces including Sulawesi, Halmahera and Kalimantan. That’s testing PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara, the state utility, which received requests from 25 companies to supply new mineral-processing plants with power as of last month.

“The problem is smelters are often located in remote areas where power stations and infrastructure are lacking,” Jarman, the director general of electricity at the energy and mineral ministry, said in an interview in Jakarta.

Indonesia, the biggest producer of mined nickel, banned mineral ore exports in January to boost investment in the smelters and refineries needed to process raw materials locally into higher-value commodities. By 2030, the plants needed to turn the nation’s ore into metals will require additional power equivalent to 13 percent of current capacity, putting a strain on the electricity network in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

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Indonesia’s gamble on ore export ban starts to hit home – by Ben Bland (Financial Times – May 7, 2014)

http://www.ft.com/home/us

Ketapang, West Kalimantan – Two hundred huge hauling trucks used to hurtle down the 34km dirt road from Harita’s Air Upas mine to its river port every day, shipping bauxite for China’s resource-hungry aluminium industry.

But work at the sprawling site in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, and dozens like it across Indonesia ground to a halt in January after the government defied lobbying from this powerful industry by implementing a long-planned ban on the export of unprocessed

The move is designed to promote investment in costly domestic processing facilities, but critics, such as the World Bank, say it has damaged investor confidence and is threatening the state finances.

Economic growth fell to its slowest pace in five years in the first quarter as tens of thousands of workers were made redundant and mineral exports, which reached $11bn last year, were halted.

Harita, a family-owned conglomerate, and its contractors laid off nearly 5,000 workers in this poor, remote region where mining has been a key driver of employment since much of the remaining rainforest was obliterated by illegal logging a decade ago.

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Nickel at Two-Year High as Vale Ordered to Suspend Plant – by Agnieszka Troszkiewicz (Bloomberg News – May 8, 2014)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Nickel reached a two-year high in London after Vale SA suspended activity in New Caledonia, stoking concern supply might fall short of reviving demand.

The suspension at the plant was ordered after a spill, according to the island archipelago’s Southern Province government. Nickel surged 41 percent in London trading this year after leading global miner Indonesia barred exports of raw ores in January. The potential for sanctions against Russia also aided prices, according to Societe Generale SA.

“Clearly with the nickel market already tightening on Indonesia and possible sanctions against Russia, this is adding to the general sense that the market is facing a supply shortage over the coming months, if not years,” Robin Bhar, an analyst at Societe Generale in London, said by phone today.

Nickel for delivery in three months gained 4.5 percent to $19,487 a metric ton by 1:48 p.m. on the London Metal Exchange after touching $19,786, the highest level since March 2, 2012.

The spill was yesterday and operations were suspended, Cory McPhee, a Vale spokesman in Toronto, said by e-mail today.

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Why Ukraine Crisis Could Drive Nickel To $25,000/Tonne – by (Forbes Magazine – May 5, 2014)

http://www.forbes.com/

Nickel has enjoyed a solid price spurt in recent months, fuelled by fears over heavy supply disruptions after Indonesia — home to around a fifth of total nickel production — placed an export ban on nickel ore back in January.

The move was prompted by a 2009 law calling for more domestic refined output, a situation which is significantly hampering Chinese production of nickel pig iron (NPI) as ore shipments dry up. As Indonesian refining capacity could be described as inadequate at best, nickel prices have shot 35% higher since the turn of the year, striking 14-month peaks above $18,700 per tonne in the process and looking poised for another move skywards.

Meanwhile, the evolving political situation in Ukraine is also adding pressure to the nickel market, and analysts reckon that a backdrop of escalating trade restrictions on Moscow from the West could add fresh ammunition for the metal to surge still higher.

Indeed, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch upped its price forecasts in recent weeks in anticipation of lingering output issues worldwide, and fully expects the metal to strike $25,000 within the next 12 months.

The institution reckons that issues in Indonesia are set to push the nickel market into deficit next year, while the possibility of curbs on Russian shipments could drive stocks to critically low levels in coming months.

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