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Nickel

Deep in the nation’s only nickel mine, industry fights to green its image – by Hannah Northey (E&E News – September 16, 2024)

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Biden officials point to the Eagle mine as proof that mining critical minerals in the U.S. can gain public support while avoiding pollution and trampling Indigenous rights. Not everyone is convinced.

MICHIGAMME TOWNSHIP, Michigan — In the sun-drenched forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula stands the black, gaping mouth of the nation’s only operating nickel mine.

Hundreds of feet below in the darkness, heavy machinery blasts, scrapes and prepares to haul up to the surface rock rich with tiny flecks of high-grade nickel and copper formed more than 1 billion years ago.

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Magna Mining makes a bold $33-million move in Sudbury – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – September 12, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Sudbury mine developer will put its local knowledge to the test in asset deal with KGHM

Magna Mining, a fast-moving Sudbury mining startup company, has taken a giant leap forward by acquiring a working copper mine in the Sudbury basin along with a raft of promising properties from Polish-headquartered miner KGHM International.

Magna, known locally for its redevelopment of the former Crean Hill mine, has signed an agreement to acquire the operating McCreedy West copper mine and a stable for exploration and development properties across the Sudbury basin in a $33.3-million cash-and-share deal.

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Putin says Russia should consider restricting exports of uranium, titanium and nickel (Reuters – September 11, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

MOSCOW, Sept 11 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Moscow should consider limiting exports of uranium, titanium and nickel in retaliation for Western sanctions. Putin’s remarks to government ministers prompted a rise in nickel prices and drove shares in uranium mining firms higher.

In televised comments, he said such restrictions could also be introduced for other commodities, and noted that Russia was a major producer of natural gas, diamonds and gold.

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Environment solution: New metals refinery for nickel and cobalt opens in Ohio – by Isabella O’Malley (September 7, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

In a step forward for efforts to acquire the metals crucial to addressing climate change, on Monday a new plant that can extract nickel and cobalt from scrap material opens in Fairfield, Ohio. The resulting metals will be used in new batteries and other clean energy markets.

Extracting metals out of old material avoids the environmental damage of open pit mining and prevents the metals from ending up in the landfill. Many see this as the future, even if it takes decades to become reality.

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Canada Nickel may net $500m Ottawa loan for giant Crawford project – by Colin McClelland (Mining.com – September 6, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Canada Nickel (TSXV: CNC) says a Canadian government agency might loan it $500 million for its Crawford project in northern Ontario, which could become the world’s largest nickel-cobalt sulphide development. Its shares rose.

Export Development Canada (EDC), which finances and offers other help to domestic companies, sent a letter of intent to Canada Nickel in late August, it said on Friday. It would be combined with $600 million in tax credits expected from Ottawa to help build the C$3.5 billion capex project near Timmins over two stages, the company said.

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Premium Nickel eyes 2025 prefeasibility at Selebi mine in Botswana – by Blair McBride (Northern Miner – September 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Results from infill drilling at Premium Nickel Resources’ (TSXV: PNRL) past-producing Selebi North mine in Botswana continues to build confidence, less than a month after the company posted an initial resource for the project.

Hole SNUG-24-106 in the South Limb target returned 26.3 metres of 1.09% copper, 1.56% nickel, and 0.08% cobalt from 515.7 metres depth, including 16.1 metres of 1.54% copper, 2.1% nickel and 0.11% cobalt, the company reported Thursday. The infill drilling is aimed at upgrading inferred resources, part of a 20,000-metre underground drill program whose assays weren’t included in the new resource.

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NEWS RELEASE: Copperstack and superstack dismantling marks final chapter of $1 billion Clean AER project (September 4, 2024)

Stan Sudol Photo

(Photo by Stan Sudol From 1990s)

Sudbury, Ontario (September 4, 2024) – Today, Vale Base Metals (VBM) announces it is moving forward with the dismantling of the copperstack and superstack at the Copper Cliff Smelter Complex.

These structures have been decommissioned following the successful completion of the approximately $1 billion Clean Atmospheric Emissions Reduction (Clean AER) Project, which was a cornerstone initiative in our ongoing, long-term environmental stewardship program for Sudbury. The dismantling of the copperstack and superstack marks the final chapter of this ambitious initiative.

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BHP has nothing good to say about nickel prices – by Frik Els (Mining.com – August 27, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

BHP’s relationship with its Western Australian nickel operations has been something of an on-and-off affair. In 2014, Melbourne-based BHP excluded Nickel West from its South32 spin-off, created to house the company’s non-core assets. Today South32 is worth $9.5 billion, 50% more than on its debut, and senior management in Perth may well feel that in the end that was a blessing.

Later that year the world’s top mining company, more than $30 billion clear of its nearest rival, also waved away bidders for Nickel West, said to be Glencore and Chinese nickel group Jinchuan, in a sale put as high as $1 billion.

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Sudbury’s mining operations impress US Consul General – by Hugh Kruzel (Sudbury Star – August 23, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

‘There is a lot of interest from US companies here,’ Baxter Hunt says

Visiting dignitaries are always asked why they are in Sudbury. This week, The Sudbury Star met with Baxter Hunt, US Consul General, during his multi-day tour of the area. Hunt had met Greater Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre at PDAC in Toronto earlier this year. Lefebvre invited him to visit.

“I promised him I was going to get up here soon,” said Hunt, who started in this role in the fall of 2023. It is a three-year assignment. Back in July, the Hunt family drove up to Lake Temagami. He called the area “spectacular” and since he has heard of Killarney, he seems keen to experience more of the north.

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Tesla supplier begins nickel drilling near remote Michigan lake – by Garret Ellison (Michigan Live – August 6, 2024)

https://www.mlive.com/

SKANEE, MI — The nickel hunt has come to Roland Lake. Talon Metals, a company developing the Tamarack Mine in Minnesota, began exploratory drilling for potential nickel deposits this summer in the western Upper Peninsula near a small lake in Baraga County’s Arvon Township.

In June, Talon announced the launch of drilling at the “Roland Target,” one of several areas in a roughly 425,000-acre swath of the U.P. the company considers “highly prospective” thanks to its location along a geologically unique mid-continental rift.

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Timmins nickel developer has a gold deposit to sell – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – July 30, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Aston Minerals taking calls on 1.5-million-ounce gold deposit to bankroll its nickel exploits

Aston Minerals, an aspiring nickel mine developer in the Timmins area, is looking to swing a deal on a gold deposit at its Eldeston Project.

The Australian junior miner has designs on developing an open-pit nickel mine, 60 kilometres south of Timmins and wants to use the money from a sale of the gold asset to put back into advancing its Bardwell nickel-cobalt deposit.

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Nickel sulfide shortage amid ESG evolution in market pricing – Wyloo CEO – by Anthony Barich (SP Global – July 2024)

https://www.spglobal.com/

Wyloo Pty. Ltd. is a wholly owned portfolio company of Australian private investment group Tattarang Pty. Ltd. Tattarang is owned by Andrew and Nicola Forrest, serving as a holding company for the Forrest family’s private business interests. Tattarang also has a 35.15% interest in iron ore major Fortescue Ltd.

At the end of May, Wyloo put its Cassini and North Kambalda operations on care and maintenance in a bid to weather market oversupply caused by Indonesia flooding the market with cheap nickel.

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In search of the elusive green nickel premium – by Andy Home (Reuters – July 24, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, July 23 (Reuters) – BHP Group’s ambition to create a green nickel hub in Western Australia is on hold after the world’s largest listed miner announced the entire division will go on care and maintenance later this year.

The company has invested $3 billion since 2020 to turn Nickel West into a major supplier of nickel sulphate for use in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. A supply deal with Tesla Inc. was signed in 2021 for what BHP pronounced was “one of the most sustainable and lowest carbon emission” brands of nickel in the world.

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Vale Base Metals names new CEO – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – July 23, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Former Barrick, Xstrata executive Shaun Usmar to steer Brazilian miner’s nickel, copper operations

Shaun Usmar, a mining executive with more than three decades of global experience, has been selected CEO of Vale Base Metals. He succeeds Deshnee Naidoo, who stepped down last March. Usmar will assume his new role at the end of this year and will be based in Toronto.

Vale Base Metals is a spinoff of Brazil’s Vale SA and runs its global base metals assets. It is one of the world’s largest producers of nickel, copper and cobalt with Canadian operations in Sudbury, Thompson, Man, and Voisey’s Bay, Labrador.

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Construction begins on Sudbury’s newest mine – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – July 19, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Development on phase one of Magna Mining’s Crean Hill project now underway

On an old brownfield site west of Sudbury, earth-moving equipment has started carving out the early structure of what will eventually become the city’s newest nickel-copper mine.

Work on Magna Mining’s Crean Hill project, located about a 30-minute drive west of Sudbury, got underway in mid-July. A warm, sunny afternoon on July 18 gave company executives the perfect opportunity to show off their development plans to a group of visitors.

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