The surge in commodity prices has been impressive since mid-2020, predictably resulting in calls that a new “supercycle” is underway. We have questioned that narrative, given the apparent supply-demand imbalances plaguing the globe and boosting prices in the process.
But one theme we do agree with is the long-term secular tailwinds behind a number of commodities required in the transition to a green economy in order to address climate change.
https://www.northernminer.com/
Well before Wyloo Metals began its fight with BHP (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP; ASX: BHP) for Noront Resources (TSXV: NOT), the Australian company signed a definitive agreement with Toronto-based junior Orford Mining (TSXV: ORM) for its West Raglan nickel project in Quebec’s Nunavik region.
The deal, signed in January, sees Wyloo earning up to 80% of the West Raglan project by spending $25 million on exploration over the next seven years. Wyloo was expected to spend $1 million of the $25 million this year, but has already spent $1.7 million.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
BHP extending the initial expiry of its offer from Nov. 9 to Nov. 16
The two leading Australian bidders for Noront Resources and its Ring of Fire nickel and metal assets are discussing a “mutually beneficial arrangement” regarding the sale of the Far North junior mining company.
Currently, Wyloo Metals, a subsidiary of Tattarang, led by Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest, is the largest shareholder of Noront at 37 per cent.
Kelly Osborne is chief executive, Twin Metals Minnesota.
The Star Tribune Editorial Board recently lauded the federal government’s announcement that it would be reinitiating a mineral withdrawal study on nearly a quarter-million acres of land in northeast Minnesota that could lead to a 20-year ban on mining in this area (“A win for Boundary Waters Stewardship,” Oct. 25).
The question I pose to the board, to our nation’s leaders and to mining opponents is this: Do you value smartphones, medical technology, clean energy solutions, broadband, electricity, roads, buildings and infrastructure? If you’re like most common-sense Americans and answered unequivocally yes, then do you realize that the hardworking people of the mining industry produce the raw materials critical to all these things?
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Lacking Wyloo counteroffer, deal remains best option for Ring of Fire assets
Noront Resources is urging its shareholders to tender their shares to BHP by Nov. 5, which would give the Australian miner control over a massive undeveloped metals project in the mineral-rich Ring of Fire.
BHP put its latest offer on the table on Oct. 20, increasing its previous bid by 36 per cent and including a 7 per cent premium to that of a rival Australian suitor, Wyloo Metals, which offered $0.70 per share just two days earlier.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/
No new nickel mines and the world’s decarbonization initiative to stop global warming will absolutely fail
The thunder from down under has been reverberating through Ontario’s Ring of Fire mining camp – located roughly 500 km northeast of Thunder Bay – as Australian mining giants BHP and Wyloo Metals are fighting a bruising bidding war for Noront Resources. The junior exploration company owns the Eagle’s Nest nickel/copper potential mine, as well as extensive world-class chromite deposits and other mineral-rich promising ground.
BHP is the largest mining company in the world, whose current CEO, Mike Henry, is a Canadian, while Wyloo Metals is owned by Fortescue Metals, founded by mining billionaire Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, and is the world’s fourth-largest iron ore miner.
The U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday proposed a 20-year ban on mining in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters region, a step that would block Antofagasta Plc’s Twin Metals copper and nickel mine project.
The announcement reversed a decision by former President Donald Trump and set off a review of how mining could affect the popular outdoor recreational area. It freezes issuance of new mining leases or permits in the region for two years.
South Africa-based Sibanye-Stillwater (JSE: SSW) (NYSE: SBSW) is buying two nickel and copper mines in Brazil from private equity firm Appian Capital Advisory in a $1 billion deal that boosts the company’s growing battery materials portfolio.
The acquisition of Atlantic Nickel and Mineração Vale Verde from Appian is Sibanye’s fourth battery metal investment this year, and follows a buy in September of a 50% stake in ioneer Ltd’s (ASX: INR) lithium-boron project in Nevada.
https://www.miningmagazine.com/
Brazil-based Vale reported increased production of iron ore and nickel in the third quarter, while nickel and copper production declined due to labour disruptions.
Iron ore production was up by 18.1% to 89.4 million tonnes, due to better weather in the Northern System, increased production at the Vargem Grande dry processing plant, and Itabira’s improved performance, Vale said.
https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/
In the dog days of summer in 1916, directors of the International Nickel Co. — or Inco — met to discuss the acquisition of land in Port Colborne, with its abundance of access to hydroelectricity and transportation, as the site for the company’s first Canadian nickel refinery.
With that the die was cast and Port Colborne, then a sleepy little village at the entrance to the Welland Canal, would never be the same. “It changed the whole of Port Colborne; it refined and defined Port Colborne,” said Port Colborne Historical and Marine Museum assistant co-ordinator Michelle Mason.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/
Both companies looking to buy out Noront Resources
Two Australian mining giants are doing their best to convince investors they have the superior deal, to takeover Noront Resources and its properties in the Ring of Fire.
The mining area, about 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, Ont. has chromite, nickel and copper deposits. The two Australian companies, BHP and Wyloo Metals have been engaged in a battle to have the mineral rights in the remote mining area, to which one analyst compares to the long producing Sudbury basin.
The pessimism about the Ring of Fire is extraordinary. With two multi-billion-dollar Australian mining corporations fighting tooth and claw over this valuable mineral-rich camp, with one confirmed nickel/copper mine and one of the largest chromite deposits in the world, it is unjustified.
Many of the most prominent geologists in the country privately say that this is Sudbury Basin 2.0. For those outside the mining world, Sudbury’s polymetallic mineral deposits – nickel, copper, platinum group metals, cobalt, gold and silver – is the richest, multi-generational ore body in Canada and one of the most important integrated – mine, mill, smelter, refinery – mineral complexes in the world.
For much of the history of the last century, the city’s mines were the main source of nickel to the western world, a strategic metal vital for military weapons. In fact, the old Inco had long-standing connections to key people in the American Military Industrial Complex.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/
Driven in part by troubles with Vale’s Sudbury operations, nickel surged to a seven-year high on Wednesday. Nickel – the key mineral found in Sudbury – topped US$9.53 a pound, the highest it’s been since 2014.
Bloomberg News said concerns that there’ll be less supply of the key industrial metal to meet resilient demand from economies reopening as the pandemic retreats sparked higher prices.
Australia’s BHP Group Ltd, one of the world’s largest miners, on Wednesday offered 75 cents in cash for each share of Toronto’s Noront Resources Ltd., as a bidding war erupts for control of the mineral claims on land around northern Ontario’s remote James Bay lowlands, colloquially known as the Ring of Fire.
That offer beats a bid of 70 cents per share that Wyloo Metals Ltd, backed by Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest, placed on Monday. Even as BHP offers $419 million in cash for Noront — and Wyloo could still raise its own offer before shareholders vote on whether to accept a proposal on Nov. 9 — a larger question looms about whether its projects in the Ring of Fire would ever be developed into mines.
BHP has raised its offer for Canadian nickel explorer Noront Resources by $128 million as it tries to wrest control of the company off billionaire Andrew Forrest.
BHP told Noront investors on Wednesday it was willing to pay C75¢ for each share in the company, under a proposal that values Noront at about $C443 million ($480.7 million).
