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Nickel

Nickel executives raise alarm over potential flood of Indonesian imports stemming from free trade agreement – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – December 22, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s new free-trade agreement with Indonesia is causing an uproar in the nickel industry, with some executives saying that Ottawa should be clamping down on the Southeast Asian country, instead of opening up the domestic market to a flood of cheap supply produced at questionable environmental standards.

Earlier this month, International Trade Minister Mary Ng announced the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which will see tariffs phased out on many goods between the two countries as of 2026. The trade deal had been in the works for several years. Canada already has no tariffs on imports of nickel from Indonesia.

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Opinion: Canada needs swift reforms to lift its troubled mining sector – by Mark Selby (Globe and Mail – December 16, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Mark Selby is the founder and CEO of Canada Nickel Co.

Canada’s mining industry must overcome significant obstacles to unlock vast reserves of critical minerals essential to our modern economy. From securing development financing to navigating regulatory bottlenecks while competing against well-funded global players like China, bringing Canadian resources to market has never been so challenging.

The Canadian mining sector is teeming with projects stuck in the “Valley of Death” – the precarious stage between initial exploration success and full-scale production where many promising ventures fail to secure the backing needed to fund the years of permitting and engineering work required to begin production.

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Grid Metals, Teck Resources team up to explore nickel sulphide project in Manitoba – by Staff (Mining.com – December 12, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Battery metals explorer Grid Metals (TSXV: GRDM) will team up with Teck Resources (TSX: TECK.A/TECK.B) to advance the Mawka nickel-copper-PGM (platinum group metals) project in southeastern Manitoba.

Under an option agreement entered on Thursday, Teck can acquire up to a 70% interest in the project by spending C$15.7 million on the project and making staged cash payments totalling C$1.6 million to Grid Metals.

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Norilsk Nickel plans to sell all it produces in 2025 – by Anastasia Lyrchikova (Kitco/Reuters – December 13, 2024)

https://www.kitco.com/

Russia’s Nornickel, the world’s largest producer of palladium and a major producer of refined nickel, on Friday said it plans to sell everything it produces in 2025, despite challenging conditions in the metals markets.

Nornickel is not subject to direct Western sanctions, though restrictions against Moscow have prompted some Western companies to avoid buying Russian metal and complicated payment flows, leading Nornickel to redirect sales to Asia.

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Vale lays off staff as mining operations worldwide reckon with low nickel prices (CBC News Sudbury – December 11, 2024)

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

The company says it’s letting ‘non-operational’ staff go as it moves to a ‘decentralized structure’

Vale is cutting jobs throughout its global operations to remain competitive as the price of nickel continues to slump. The company is refusing to say how many of its Sudbury employees are included in this round of layoffs.

In a statement it says “people in non-operating roles” will be leaving as the mining giant moves towards a “new decentralized structure.”

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Vale to trim management staff in Sudbury and around the world – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – December 6, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Union says its members won’t be affected by the cuts

Vale Base Metals will be shedding some staff in Sudbury but as of now the downsizing seems isolated to management and will not impact the rank and file.

“We have been informed there is an internal, managerial reorganization, that is obviously resulting in job losses, as has been reported already,” said USW 6500 vice-president Ray Hammond. “But we have not been informed of who or how many people that affects.”

Hammond said the union has been given no indication that any of its workers are slated to lose their jobs. “We have not been informed of it affecting our membership in any way,” he said. “They’re still hiring, for us, and we still have new members going through training as we speak.”

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NEWS RELEASE: Vale Base Metals complete Voisey’s Bay transition to underground mining (December 3, 2024)

TORONTO, Dec. 3, 2024 /CNW/ – Vale Base Metals has completed construction and commissioning of its US$2.94 billion Voisey’s Bay Mine Expansion Project in northern Labrador, a major milestone that will increase production of nickel in concentrate to 45,000 tonnes per year (45 ktpy) – a critical mineral essential to security of supply, economic independence and the energy transition.

The expansion project transitioned Voisey’s Bay from open pit to underground mining. The project involved the development of two underground mines – Reid Brook and Eastern Deeps – which will deliver concentrate for processing at the company’s Long Harbour Processing Plant, one of the lowest-emission nickel processing plants in the world.

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WA’s nickel industry has collapsed but multi-billion-dollar projects still in development with eye on future – by Jarrod Lucas and Tara de Landgrafft (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – December 1, 2024)

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

Is Western Australia’s once-booming nickel industry dead or just a sleeping giant? Thousands of job losses this year marked the bleakest period in the local industry’s history, which dates back to the 1960s.

In those days, the discovery of nickel literally put the Goldfields town of Kambalda on the map, leading to the development of the country’s first nickel mine while the Vietnam War drove demand for this key ingredient of stainless steel.

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Navigating ‘The Valley of Death’: Why Canada’s emerging critical minerals miners are struggling to survive and what can be done about it – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 22, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Martin Turenne, chief executive officer of FPX Nickel Corp. FPX-X is wired as an optimist. In the mining industry, you have to be, because the timelines are agonizingly long and the odds are often heavily stacked against you.

Mr. Turenne hopes to have a nickel mine and refinery in production at its Baptiste project in central British Columbia by the end of the decade. The grand plan is to supply nickel for Canada’s nascent electric vehicle battery industry. The early estimate to build what could eventually be a top 10 nickel operation globally is $2.6-billion.

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FPX outlines Baptiste-like nickel in Yukon – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – November 14, 2024)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

Surface sampling outlines a zone of awaruite mineralization that is comparable in size and grade to B.C. nickel mine project.

FPX Nickel Corp. Nov. 14 reported that its summer sampling program at its Mich property in the Yukon has outlined a nickel zone that is comparable in size, grade, and style of mineralization as Baptiste, an advance-staged exploration project in central British Columbia that shows the potential of being a significant future supply of low-carbon nickel and cobalt, both of which are used in lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles and storing renewable energy.

Baptiste has the distinction and advantage of hosting a specialized nickel mineral known as awaruite, which is a nickel-iron alloy formed when sulfur is not present during mineralization. Nickel concentrates produced from mining awaruite do not require smelting or high-pressure acid leaching.

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After Trump’s win, mining near BWCAW back in play – by Jimmy Lovrien (Duluth News Tribune – November 11, 2024)

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

In July, President-elect Trump vowed to reverse Biden’s mineral withdrawal on 225,000 acres of federal land in the same watershed as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in “about 10 minutes.”

ELY — President-elect Donald Trump has promised to reverse the Biden administration’s 20-year mining ban on federal land within the same watershed as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, bolstering the hopes of copper-nickel mining industry supporters but worrying environmentalists who fear pollution to the downstream wilderness area.

The mineral withdrawal, which bans mining on 225,000 acres of the Superior National Forest until 2043, and non-renewal of key federal mineral leases to Twin Metals’ proposed copper-nickel mine effectively killed the company’s plan to build an underground mine and tailings-storage facility processing plant along Birch Lake, which flows into the BWCAW via the Kawishiwi River.

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NEWS RELEASE: NORWAY HOUSE CREE NATION IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THAT IT HAS PURCHASED THE MINAGO NICKEL PLATINUM GROUP ELEMENTS PROJECT FROM FLYING NICKEL MINING CORP. (November 1, 2024)

Economic Benefits of over $700M and Approximately 500 Direct Jobs for Manitoba First Nations  

The Chief and Council of Norway House Cree Nation (NHCN) has been working with Flying Nickel for 4 years to advance this project. The NHCN purchase of the project was supported by 99% of all Flying Nickel shareholders in the Special Meeting held on October 21, 2024.

Chief Larson Anderson of NHCN confirms that “By taking full control with 100% ownership and management, we can drive this project forward, focus on the environment, maximize employment, and build economic opportunities for our people.”

The Minago Project is located on the NHCN Resource Management Area, 107 km north of Grand Rapids and 450 km north of Winnipeg, Manitoba, adjacent to Highway 6. The Minago project property comprises 94 mining claims, covering 192.36 km2, and two mining leases, covering 4.25 km2 along with the core storage and management facility in Grand Rapids.

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Ontario chamber boss bullish on Sudbury, Northern Ontario – by Hugh Kruzel (Sudbury Star – October 28, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

‘What is produced here is essential to our economic future,’ Daniel Tisch Echevarría says, referring to the mining sector

Northern Ontario and Sudbury are keys to the province’s economic prosperity, the president and CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce says. Daniel Tisch Echevarría made the observations last week during the 129th annual general meeting of the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce.

“When you sit in Toronto you see a lot of data,” Tisch said. “When asked if businesses across the province are confident in themselves they say yes.

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‘We believe Canada needs more nickel,’ Wyloo boss says – by Nicole Stoffman (Sudbury Star – October 13, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Nickel produced and processed in Northern Ontario and the Ring of Fire would be destined for the EV market

Kristan Straub, CEO of Wyloo Ring of Fire, provided an update on the Eagle’s Nest Mine at the State of Mining luncheon in Timmins recently. The mine site in the Ring of Fire in northwestern Ontario has a ‘small footprint’ of one square kilometre or half the size of the Timmins Airport, Straub said.

The site contains a deposit of 17 million tonnes at 3.3 per cent nickel, copper and platinum group elements. It also has some of the world’s largest chromite deposits outside of South Africa, Straub said.

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Moore brothers reflect on nickel boom and now bust as BHP’s Kalgoorlie smelter shuts down – by BJarrod Lucas (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – October 10, 2024)

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

A profile image of a man with dark, spiky hair.

Brothers Donald and Tim Moore lived through the country’s first nickel boom in Western Australia’s resources-rich Goldfields. The metal’s discovery near Kambalda in the 1960s sparked a modern-day renaissance for the historic mining region built on its 1890s gold rush.

It set the brothers on different paths that were heavily influenced by the “magic metal” of the day. Donald, 60, worked extensively in gold mining and spent 13 years at the Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter, while his 59-year-old brother Tim has documented the region’s ups and downs as a historian with the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

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