As Trafigura Group’s metal traders were partying in London at last year’s LME Week jamboree, Citigroup Inc. was taking a step that would end up shaking their world.
Until late October, the US bank had been helping to finance Trafigura’s nickel trades with companies linked to Indian businessman Prateek Gupta — deals which Trafigura now says were part of a “systematic fraud” against it that could cost more than half a billion dollars.
Will bolster Canada Nickel’s plans to build a rare ‘zero-carbon’ nickel mine within two years
Canada Nickel Co. Inc. chief executive Mark Selby called Anglo American Plc’s decision to take a minority stake in his company a “game changer” that will bolster Canada Nickel’s plans to build a rare “zero-carbon” nickel mine within two years.
London-based Anglo American’s $24-million investment in Toronto-based Canada Nickel is the latest example of a major international player making a bet on Canada emerging as a node in the supply chain for electric vehicles, at least in North America and Europe, where governments are spending billions of dollars on subsidies aimed at weakening China’s hold on the market for batteries and the things needed to make them.
(Bloomberg) — General Motors Co. is competing for a stake in Brazilian mining giant Vale SA’s base metals unit, people familiar with the matter said, underscoring automakers’ desire for easy access to the materials needed for electric vehicle batteries.
Detroit-based General Motors has advanced to the next round of bidding for a minority stake in the business, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. Vale could raise more than $2 billion from a deal, according to the people.
Diversified miner Anglo American has agreed to acquire a 9.9% minority interest in Canada Nickel Company, which owns the Crawford nickel project in Ontario, Canada. The major will make a C$24-million investment in Canada Nickel at a price of C$1.95 a common share – a 10% premium to the 30-day volume weighted average price.
Anglo will provide technology expertise to the Crawford project and has the exclusive right to buy up to 10% of recoveries of nickel concentrate, iron and chromium contained in the magnetite concentrates and any corresponding carbon credits from the Crawford project.
https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/
Ryan Sistad of Duluth is executive director of Better In Our Back Yard (betterinourbackyard.com), which promotes responsible industrial development.
In her Jan. 25 column in the News Tribune, Lynn Anderson of the Tamarack Water Alliance attempted to convince Minnesotans that the high-grade nickel deposit discovered in the deep bedrock of Aitkin County by Talon Metals is actually not needed in the energy transition.
She even asserted that Tesla made a mistake by partnering with Talon Metals to source nickel because the company is moving to batteries that don’t use nickel and that any day now President Joe Biden will reverse course and remove nickel from the U.S. critical-minerals list. None of this is true.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Vic Fedeli predicts exciting year ahead for Northern Ontario on the critical minerals development front
There’s a window of opportunity for Ontario to be part of the electrical vehicle revolution, said Vic Fedeli, the province’s economic development minister, and Ontario needs to move fast to secure its global position.
Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and Northern Ontario’s place in the global transition to clean energy technologies took up much of Fedeli’s speech before a Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce crowd on Feb. 6.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Ring of Fire Metals CEO Steve Flewelling seeks balanced, faster approach to advance Far North nickel project
Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson wants to avoid government duplication with the provinces in regulations and permitting in order to bring new critical mineral mines into production quicker. So does Ring of Fire Metals CEO Steve Flewelling.
But when it comes to proposed mine development in the James Bay region, Wilkinson insisted last month that no shortcuts will be taken in safeguarding the environment, protecting fragile peatlands, and in respecting the rights of Indigenous people and communities near any proposed mine site.
The U.S. Department of the Interior issued a 20-year mining moratorium Thursday on 225,000 acres of federal land near the Boundary Waters, dealing a further blow to the proposed Twin Metals mine near Ely, Minn. and other potential mines for copper, nickel and precious metals within the watershed of the canoe wilderness area.
The decision is the latest milestone in a long and contentious tug of war over mining near the popular wilderness area that has spanned more than six years and three presidential administrations.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/
‘One thing I can say for sure is we are committed to placing that facility in northern Ontario’
While Sault Ste. Marie was identified in 2019 as the preferred site for a ferrochrome facility, Ring of Fire Metals, which owns several of the mineral deposits about 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, says its still considering its options.
We first heard the words ‘Ring of Fire,’ connected to mining back in 2010. Now, 13 years later, the project hasn’t made much progress and has instead been marked by delays. The company that owns several of the mineral deposits northeast of Thunder Bay is now called Ring of Fire Metals.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/
CEO of Ring of Fire Metals also says mineral-rich area contains minerals coveted for the growing electric vehicle market
While chromite for the steel industry has been a major focus of developing the Ring of Fire in the province’s far north, the area is also rich in other minerals coveted for the growing electric vehicle market.
“We’re a firm believer that the Ring of Fire hosts multiple nickel deposits, not unlike Sudbury,” said Stephen Flewelling, CEO of Ring of Fire Metals, in a virtual presentation to a Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Thursday.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
SPC Nickel cuts deal with Vale to combine nickel deposits in Sudbury basin
A Sudbury exploration outfit has taken a great leap forward toward establishing itself as the city’s next nickel miner. SPC Nickel has struck a “cooperation agreement” with mining giant Vale to consolidate ownership of two adjacent nickel and copper deposits —SPC’s undeveloped West Graham and Vale’s Crean Hill 3 — into an advanced exploration project.
The junior miner is calling the deal a “transformational growth opportunity” for a one-time private company that went public two years ago with the objective of becoming the next nickel mining player in the Sudbury camp.
Canadian junior SPC Nickel and diversified miner Vale’s Canada subsidiary have announced that they will consolidate their adjacent and contiguous West Graham and Crean Hill 3 nickel and copper deposits, in the Sudbury mining camp of Ontario.
The agreement grants SPC Nickel the right to acquire a 100% interest in the surface and mineral rights of the Crean Hill 3 property. In consideration, certain rights and royalties will be extended to Vale across the combined project.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/
Premier discusses Ontario’s critical mineral strategy, plans for EV production during ROMA speech
Companies that want to extract Ontario’s critical minerals to make EV batteries will also need to open factories in the province, Premier Doug Ford said Monday.
Speaking at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association’s (ROMA) annual general meeting, Ford said northern Ontario boasts deposits of 34 of the “most critical minerals the whole world wants.” “Everyone’s here wanting to get the minerals,” Ford said. “I have one condition.
Vale has received multiple bids for a stake in its base metals business after talks with parties from carmakers to sovereign wealth funds, its chief executive said, as he predicted the division could become “even bigger” than the Brazilian mining group itself.
Eduardo Bartolomeo said “non-binding offers” had been made for the slice of up to 10 per cent of the unit, which produces materials vital for the energy transition and is being carved out as a standalone entity separate from Vale’s main iron ore operations.
The billionaire at the center of last year’s nickel short squeeze is planning a major shift in his production mix, in a move that could reshape global supply dynamics and inject fresh volatility into the battered nickel market.
Xiang Guangda’s Tsingshan Holding Group Co. is seeking to profit from an unusually large premium in the price of refined nickel metal – the type that is deliverable on exchanges in London and Shanghai – over the intermediate forms that Tsingshan supplies for battery manufacturing, according to people familiar with the matter.
