Research firm BMI has revised downward its nickel price forecast for this year to $20 000/t from $20 600/t as the market remains in a supply glut. Simultaneously, weak Mainland Chinese demand and a limited growth outlook across major markets will place a cap on prices.
Nevertheless, BMI foresees some support from the weakening of the dollar throughout this year, which will prevent prices from falling back to pre-pandemic levels.
https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/
The news service Reuters is reporting that the long dreamed of merger of Vale and Glencore mining assets in Sudbury basin could happen this year. “Talks for a Sudbury tie-up have been on and off since 2006, when annual savings were put at more than $500 million, with a number of options being touted for the mining and processing operations in the area,” the Reuters story said(opens in a new tab).
Brazil-based Vale purchased the former Inco for $19.6 billion in 2006. Talk of combining efforts in the area have surfaced from time to time, and an official with the company raised the issue recently, according to the Reuters story.
This column first appeared on the website LAW360 Canada which gives news and analysis on legal developments including litigation filings, case settlements, verdicts, regulation, enforcement, legislation and corporate deals. https://www.law360.ca/ca/
Columnists representing Attawapiskat, on Ontario’s James Bay coast – 500 kms north of Timmins – have recently written some op/ed pieces on the Ring of Fire. These columns that have left out some basic facts about the mineral-rich region, whose traditional territories the nickel/copper/chromite deposits are on, and previous industrial developments that might be considered inconvenient truths.
The Hudson Bay Lowlands is about the size of Norway and without a doubt plays a key role in capturing carbon emissions. Roughly 10, 000 people live in small First Nations communities like Attawapiskat, Fort Albany and Kashechewan or regional service towns like Moosonee and Churchill, Manitoba. During the 1930s, two railroads were constructed to Moosonee and Churchill, while their collective and cumulative impacts on the ecosystem was insignificant.
(Bloomberg) — A meltdown in some of the most-hyped energy-transition metals is wreaking havoc across the mining world, stalling projects, scuppering deals and triggering a scramble for cash that promises to reverberate through the industry for years.
Lithium — the ultra-light metal used in electric-vehicle batteries — has plunged more than 80% from a late-2022 record, as the market whiplashed from shortage fears to a mountain of surplus inventories. Nickel and cobalt have also tumbled, weighed down by an influx of new production amid concerns that the shift to EVs may not be as smooth and quick as predicted.
https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/
Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM) made a $23.1-million investment in the recent flow-through offering from Canada Nickel Company (TSXV: CNC; OTCQX: CNIKF). Agnico acquired 19.6 million units at a price of $1.18 per unit for a total consideration of slightly more than $23.1 million. This gives Agnico a non-diluted equity interest in Canada Nickel of 12% or 15.6% on a partially diluted basis.
Canada Nickel raised a total of $34.7 million. Each unit consists of one flow-through share and 0.35 of one flow-through share purchase warrant. Each warrant entitles the holder to purchase an additional common share at a price of $1.77 any time prior to Dec. 29, 2026, or the expiry date.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/
Environmentally sound production increasingly important factor in sourcing the critical mineral
Low nickel prices partly attributed to a flood of the metal coming onto the market from Indonesia aren’t deterring nickel miners in northeastern Ontario from moving forward in the coming year.
The price of nickel per pound was hovering around $7.42 US on January 1, 2024 compared to just under $14 a year prior. Paul Fowler is vice president of Magna Mining which owns the Shakespeare mine near Espanola and the Crean Hill mine near Whitefish.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
In remote Ontario, Marten Falls First Nation hopes to move past more than 100 years of subjugation, as it opens the door to critical minerals development and an all-season road that will change their lives
As crazy hectic as your life may be, it likely doesn’t hold a candle to that of Bruce Achneepineskum. He is chief of Marten Falls First Nation, an extremely remote Anishinaabe community on the banks of the Albany River in Ontario’s far north, about 400 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay. As chief, Mr. Achneepineskum wears many hats. He oversees his council. He’s a mentor, a spiritual figure, an artist and a fire marshal. He’s a father of two grown children from his first wife, and of a 17-month-old boy with his current partner.
The needs in Marten Falls are immediate and stark. There is a severe shortage of homes. A boil-water advisory has been in place for 18 years. There are endemic social problems that never seem to go away – youth suicide, alcoholism and opioid addiction.
https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/
When George Pirie, Ontario’s mines minister, closes his eyes and imagines what a resurgent northern Ontario mining industry will look like five years from now, he might see new nickel mines in Sudbury and Timmins, a battery industrial park in Cobalt, haul trucks transporting nickel concentrate on the recently completed road from the Ring of Fire, and multiple lithium mines and processing facilities in northwestern Ontario.
It is a good bet that much of the scenario will indeed materialize. The drills are confirming that the resources are there, the environmental assessments are progressing, and meetings with battery manufacturers and the automobile industry are resulting in offtake agreements.
The boss of Andrew Forrest’s private mining company says nickel’s omission from Australia’s expanded critical minerals list is “disappointing” at a time when weak prices for the battery metal are endangering “hundreds” of Australian mining jobs.
Wyloo Resources boss Luca Giacovazzi issued the warning on the same day the federal department of industry warned of more “downward pressure” on nickel prices in 2024 because Indonesian miners were poised to oversupply nickel markets for years to come.
The overhaul of the Albanese government’s critical minerals strategy offers no relief to the besieged nickel industry, which faces further job losses at BHP-owned mines.
BHP said its Nickel West business was not immune to the challenges suffocating the sector where some mines have shut down, and fellow producer Panoramic Resources was tipped into administration this week. Nickel West asset president Jessica Farrell said uncertainty had swept through the Australian nickel industry.
In March of 2022, a crisis transpired on the London Metal Exchange. It revolved around a colossal short position that one market participant amassed in nickel, betting that the price would fall. Instead, it surged. The resulting liabilities were so staggering that the whole exchange was at risk of collapse. To prevent implosion, the LME retroactively annulled several trades.
Elliott Associates, a US-based hedge fund, brought a lawsuit against the LME claiming that the exchange acted unlawfully in cancelling those transactions. Jane Street Global Trading also sued for damages.
The so-called ‘Ring of Fire’ in Ontario’s far north is expanding in size as mining claims spike in the area. More than 31,000 mining claims have been registered to date, an increase of 28 per cent in a year, according to analysis by Wildlands League, a non-profit conservation group.
The rise in the number of mining claims coincides with more land being taken up by surface rights owners. The claims now cover 626,000 hectares of the remote northern landscape, up 30 per cent from September 2022. The area is now nearly 10 times the size of the City of Toronto or double the Greater Sudbury area, the group says.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/
Top company official tells chamber of commerce deep mining is the key to Glencore’s future operations in Sudbury
The man who leads Glencore’s Sudbury operations told the city’s business leaders this week that his company remains committed to this region, Canada and mining. Peter Xavier, a company vice-president, acknowledged that Glencore Sudbury’s Integrated Nickel Operations will soon close its Nickel Rim South mine, but that should not be a surprise.
Nickel Rim South Mine will close in late March as it goes into care and maintenance mode. The Skead-area mine’s employees will be reassigned to other Glencore operations in Sudbury, such as the Craig/Onaping project. “Mines have a life,” Xavier told the 128th annual general meeting of the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce. “We all know mining one site is finite.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/
They are Glencore’s Onaping Depth project, Vale’s Copper Cliff Deep project and KGHM’s Victoria Mine project
The federal government has launched a $1.5-billion fund for critical minerals infrastructure, while simultaneously highlighting close to 500 projects nationwide that are generating jobs and growing a greener economy. The funding announcement this week coincided with the release of an annual report on major projects underway across the country in the fields of energy, forestry and mining.
Three of the big mining projects are in Sudbury: Glencore’s Onaping Depth project, with an estimated capital cost of $1 billion to $2.5 billion; the Copper Cliff Deep project being pursued by Vale, pegged at $750 million to $1B; and a revived Victoria Mine project being undertaken in the Whitefish area by Polish company KGHM, at a projected cost of $1B to $2.5B.
LONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) – The bears are out in force on the London Metal Exchange (LME) nickel market. Fund players have lifted their bets on lower prices to levels last seen in 2019, or even earlier if expressed as a percentage of open interest.
It’s not hard to understand why. The LME three-month nickel price has been on the slide for most of the year, sucking in momentum-tracking technical funds. Currently trading around $18,000 per metric ton, nickel is down by 42% on the start of January and challenging chart support levels dating back to late 2021.
