Nickel – Page 14 – Republic of Mining

Difficult decisions to open a new all-electric mine in Sudbury – by Len Gillis (Northern Ontario Business – September 13, 2023)

September 13, 2023

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Glencore’s new Onaping Depth mine will need an underground refrigeration system and smaller diameter tunnels to keep the costs down

The process of going from diesel-powered underground mining to battery-electric mining is now a foregone conclusion for most Northern Ontario mine operators, but there are going to be plenty of growing pains.

That was one of the messages that came out of the Global Mining Guidelines Group forum held in Sudbury on Sept. 12 to examine the job of converting underground mines to full battery electric operations.

Lithium, Nickel Miners Get $110 Million Boost From US Defense Department – by Joe Deaux (Bloomberg News – September 12, 2023)

September 13, 2023

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Albemarle Corp. and Talon Metals Corp. are getting about $110 million in new US government funding to support the expansion of domestic mining of lithium and nickel, two metals critical to the nation’s energy transition.

Albemarle, the world’s largest lithium producer, will get $90 million to help support the miner’s planned reopening of its Kings Mountain, North Carolina lithium mine. Nickel miner Talon Metals will get $20.6 million to advance exploration of its Tamarack Intrusive Complex in Minnesota. The agreements, under the Defense Production Act, were announced Tuesday by the Defense Department.

Mining company loses bid to revive Minnesota copper, nickel project – by Clark Mindock (Reuters – September 7, 2023)

September 11, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

Sept 7 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge has rejected a bid by a subsidiary of Chilean mining company Antofagasta Plc(ANTO.L) to restore canceled mineral leases for a proposed $1.7 billion Minnesota copper and nickel mine, which the Biden administration had blocked over concerns it could pollute a major recreational waterway.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday dismissed Twin Metals’ 2022 lawsuit, which challenged the U.S. Interior Department’s decision earlier that year to cancel leases for an underground mine near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The project would have been one of the biggest U.S. sources of metals needed to build electric vehicle batteries and other clean energy technologies.

From ‘Ring of Fire’ to Mincor: Twiggy’s nickel dream drives Wyloo boss – by Simon Johanson (Sydney Morning Herald – September 3, 2023)

September 5, 2023

https://www.smh.com.au/

Ask Wyloo Metals boss Luca Giacovazzi, 31, if he’s a bit young to be four years into running a pure-play nickel miner that wrestled control of Canada’s fabled “Ring of Fire” basin from resources giant BHP, and he quips: “Don’t hold it against me.”

As head of Wyloo, Giacovazzi has the ear of mining magnate Andrew Forrest. The $1.5 billion mining and exploration company he has been building with strategic and capital creating deals since 2019 sits alongside Squadron Energy as a prize asset in Forrest’s private investment vehicle Tattarang.

Almost there’: Ring of Fire talks expected between Ottawa, First Nations this fall – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – September 05, 2023)

September 5, 2023

https://financialpost.com/

Representatives expected to meet this month to discuss conditions to guide regional assessment

Long-delayed plans to mine the mineral-rich Ring of Fire region in Ontario have taken a step forward as representatives from First Nations and the federal government are expected to meet this month to discuss conditions to guide a regional assessment.

The regional assessment will include large studies to determine the environmental impact of large-scale development in the region. Currently, about 18 First Nations from the area are creating a structure for the assessment, which will form the basis for discussions with the government.

JV Article: Archer’s Grasset nickel deposit is getting its ‘day in the sun’ – by Northern Miner Staff (Canadian Mining Journal – August 28, 2023)

August 29, 2023

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

A multi-million-tonne nickel sulphide deposit discovered more than 10 years ago in the northern Abitibi region of Quebec is receiving fresh scrutiny

A multi-million-tonne nickel sulphide deposit discovered more than 10 years ago in the northern Abitibi region of Quebec is receiving fresh scrutiny from Archer Exploration (CSE: RCHR; US-OTC: RCHRF), the latest addition to Canada’s emerging league of battery material-focused junior exploration companies.

Grasset is one of the largest nickel sulphide deposits in Canada’s Abitibi region and the only North American nickel sulphide deposit with more than 50,000 contained tonnes of nickel and an average nickel-equivalent grade of over 1.5% that isn’t controlled by a major mining company.

Wyloo will be mining more than nickel at Eagle’s Nest – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – August 17, 2023)

August 17, 2023

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Underground aggregate extraction for Ring of Fire road will deliver both practical and environmental solutions

The proposed Eagle’s Nest mine will “set a new benchmark for what mining could look like” in the Ring of Fire, said its Australian developer.

Luca Giacovazzi, CEO of Wyloo Metals and a director with Ring of Fire Metals (formerly Noront Resources), revealed some of their innovative engineering solutions last week at the Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum, a leading industry bash held at Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

Time for Canada to fix its First Nations Problem – by John Kaiser (Kaiser Watch Podcast – August 11, 2023)

August 15, 2023August 15, 2023

https://www.kaiserresearch.com/

Why did FPX Nickel drop sharply on Wednesday?

FPX Nickel Corp released a vague Aug 9, 2023 Update on its 2012 MOU with Tl’azt’en Nation which the market didn’t really understand until it tracked down the publication referred to by FPX, Dust’Lus Talo ‘Ooza’ August 2023, a monthly newsletter of the Tl’azt’en Nation.

Page 4 contained a declaration by Chief Leslie Aslin, elected in June 2022, that after more than a decade of collecting from FPX Nickel whatever benefits accrued from the 2012 Memorandum of Understanding, the Tl’azt’en Nation has decided it is unequivocally against development of Baptiste, which would become the world’s first awaruite based nickel mine in a secure jurisdiction, possibly with a zero carbon footprint, producing more than 4 decades of “clean” nickel relative to the dirty nickel Indonesia and Russia supplies (double that if Van is developed).

Carmakers are desperate for nickel and have nowhere to look. It’s spurring majors to invest big – by Josh Chiat (Stockhead – August 13, 2023)

August 14, 2023

https://stockhead.com.au/

The head of Andrew and Nicola Forrest’s mining vehicle Wyloo Metals says carmakers are struggling to find nickel to stick in electric vehicles in a sign the sector is ripe for investment. It comes as BHP (ASX:BHP), a customer of Wyloo’s recently acquired Mincor Resources business in WA’s historic Kambalda nickel district, launches into one of the biggest investment splurges its once near dead nickel division has seen in 50 years.

Wyloo Metals CEO Luca Giacovazzi, who has spearheaded a dramatic expansion of Fortescue founder and iron ore billionaire Forrest’s private mining enterprise in recent years, told the Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum in Kalgoorlie last week contracts signed to date showed how short carmakers would be of the key cathode material.

Opening of Cassini mine marks start of new era for Kambalda’s historic nickel mining industry – by Jarrod Lucas (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – March 29, 2021)

August 14, 2023

https://www.abc.net.au/

WA’s Mines Minister Bill Johnston will officially open a new nickel mine at Kambalda today, more than 50 years after the town was put on the map by the discovery of Australia’s first nickel mine. The Cassini underground mine is Kambalda’s first new nickel development in two decades — since the Miitel mine began production in the year 2000.

More than 200 jobs have been created since September’s decision by Perth-based miner Mincor Resources to green light its $98 million restart plan for Kambalda’s once-booming nickel industry. The investment decision was long-awaited after a decade-long run of low nickel prices saw Mincor shut its Miitel and Mariners mines in 2016.

Conference Board forecasts nickel demand will lift all sectors of Sudbury’s economy – by Kate Rutherford (CBC News Sudbury – August 9, 2023)

August 10, 2023

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

An economist says Sudbury’s recovery is on the way but won’t reach pre-pandemic levels until 2026

Nickel prices and rising demand for the mineral will help Sudbury’s local economy ride out a slowing national economy and carry it to pre-pandemic prosperity by 2026. In its most recent report, the Conference Board of Canada says nickel prices jumped nearly 72 percent between 2020 and 2022 buoyed by the war in Ukraine and strengthening nickel demand.

Senior economist Rob Wiebe says it’s precisely that demand and heightened exploration for nickel to produce batteries for electric cars that will fuel investment across different sectors in the city.

Magna Mining planning to reopen Crean Hill mine near Sudbury (CBC News Sudbury – August 8, 2023)

August 10, 2023

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

The former Crean Hill mine operated from 1900 to 2002 before being closed

A Sudbury, Ont. mining company is setting its sights on reviving the Crean Hill mine for further exploration. Magna Mining Inc. acquired the mine in 2022. It recently completed a preliminary economic assessment on the mine, and the results of the study indicated the potential for more mineral production.

“What has been shown by the drilling that was done prior to Magna is there’s still a lot of resources left in the ground, a lot of nickel, a lot of copper, a lot of precious metals,” said Jason Jessup, CEO of Magna Mining.

Under pressure: Recent successes in high-pressure acid leaching operations for nickel laterite deposits tempered by environmental risks – by Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco (CIM Magazine – August 07, 2023)

August 8, 2023

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

The nickel market is expected to undergo a significant shift in the coming years as the global energy transition speeds up. Currently, only about 11 per cent of nickel goes towards the electric vehicle (EV) battery and battery storage markets. The majority of nickel produced—some 65 to 70 per cent—is purchased by the stainless-steel sector. However, in 10 to 20 years, it is estimated that the battery applications market will need some 50 per cent of all nickel produced.

EV batteries cannot use just any nickel, however; battery manufacturers require high-purity nickel sulfate. Almost all Class 1 nickel, which exceeds 99.8 per cent nickel content, comes from magmatic nickel sulfide deposits, which represent only 30 to 40 per cent of known global nickel resources. This has many looking hard at the remaining 60 to 70 per cent: low-grade nickel laterite deposits.

The new commodity superpowers – by Leslie Hook, Harry Dempsey and Ciara Nugent in Buenos Aires (Financial Times – August 7, 2023)

August 8, 2023

https://www.ft.com/

In the first part of a series, countries that produce the metals central to the energy transition want to rewrite the rules of mineral extraction

The red-brown landscape of Tenke-Fungurume, one of the world’s largest copper and cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is covered by tens of thousands of dusty sacks. The bags stacked up by the roadside and piled next to buildings contain a stash of cobalt hydroxide powder equivalent to almost a tenth of the world’s annual consumption — and worth about half a billion dollars.

The haphazard stockpiles of this bright green powder, a key ingredient in electric car batteries, point to how the DRC, the world’s largest producer of cobalt, is starting to flex its muscles when it comes to the metals needed for the energy transition.

Magna Mining sees 15-year mine life in reviving former Inco mine – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – July 31, 2023)

August 3, 2023

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Sudbury nickel junior miner posts preliminary economic assessment for pit and underground operation

Sudbury’s Magna Mining has tabled an economic and technical report to bring a former Inco nickel mine back into production. The exploration outfit and would-be mine developers released a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) showing strong mineable economics on its Crean Hill Project located in the southwest corner of the Sudbury Basin. A PEA is an initial report on what a mine operation could look like.

In the company’s evaluation of the property, Crean Hill has the potential for a 15 to 19-year mine life depending upon the mineral processing scenario they eventually choose, and bring it online at a “modest” cost.