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Canada Nickel aims for zero-carbon emissions at Crawford nickel project – by Trish Saywell (Northern Miner – July 27, 2020)

https://www.northernminer.com/

On Tesla’s second quarter conference call last week, Elon Musk entreated the industry to: “Please mine more nickel – Tesla will give you a giant contract for a long period of time if you mine nickel efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way.”

Musk’s comments couldn’t have come at a better time for Mark Selby, president and CEO of Canada Nickel (TSXV: CNC), which owns 100% of the Crawford nickel-cobalt sulphide deposit in Ontario.

The company has announced that it is setting up NetZero Metals, a wholly-owned subsidiary that will use existing technologies to produce zero-carbon nickel, cobalt, and iron products.

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As Elon Musk calls for more nickel production, a mining analyst has some suggestions – by Darren MacDonald (CTV News Northern Ontario – July 24, 2020)

https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/

SUDBURY — Earlier this week, Tesla boss Elon Musk called for global mining companies to boost their production of nickel, a key element in making batteries for electric cars.

“Tesla will give you a giant contract for a long period of time if you mine nickel efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way,” Musk said Wednesday, as the company announced second-quarter results. “Don’t wait for nickel to go back to some high point you experienced five years ago … Wherever you are in the world, please mine more nickel.”

Musk made the comments as Tesla is boosting its production of electric vehicles. Overall, demand for the type of nickel needed in electric car batteries grew by 28 per cent in 2019 alone.

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Sudbury Basin Nickel Deposits: An Enduring and Extraordinary Resource – by Stan Sudol (July 24, 2020)

Inco World War Two Poster

Notwithstanding the historical hype of the Klondike Gold Rush in Canadian society, the two most important mining events in our history are the discoveries of the Sudbury nickel mines in 1883 and the Cobalt silver boom of 1903.

Both were the result of railroads – the construction of the Canadian Pacific to British Columbia in Sudbury’s case and the building of the provincial Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway, going through Cobalt, which was for the colonization of northern Ontario.

But the similarities end there. Sudbury was built with U.S. capital and strategic technology. Cobalt was largely built and significantly financed by Canadian business and was the start of Canada’s global reputation as mine finders and builders. The two camps had much overlap but were also very distinct in their own rights.

Ohio-born businessman Samual J. Ritchie was the driving force who really started mining production in the Sudbury Basin with the founding of the Canadian Copper Company in 1886. A subsequent merger in 1902 with the New Jersey-based Orford Copper Company, which had the vital technology to separate the nickel from the copper in Sudbury’s complex ore, lead to the creation of the legendary International Nickel Company. (INCO)

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COLUMN: Advice to Elon Musk About Potential Nickel Shortages – Stan Sudol (July 23, 2020)

Elon Musk is practically begging nickel miners to boost production as potential future shortages would severely impact his ability to manufacture electric vehicles as the metal is a key component for the batteries Tesla Inc. depends on.

Historically, nickel has always been a boom/bust metal due to the fact the world only produces about 2.1 million metric tonnes of the material a year as opposed to a more commonly used metal like copper at 20 million metric tonnes. And roughly only half of nickel production is of the Class-1 type that is used in batteries that run electric vehicles.

Currently the cost of nickel is nearing a cyclical bottom, hence the reluctance of nickel miners to invest the possible near billion it takes to bring on a new mine.

Musk is a multi-billionaire and his company stock is at an all time high. Instead of whining to the mineral industry to invest “their shareholder money” in new nickel production at a time of low returns here are some suggestions to calm his fear of future shortages:

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Timmins could be hosting a monster nickel deposit – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – July 14, 2020)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Poised for a nickel rush, Canada Nickel is confident its Crawford nickel-cobalt sulphide project could be a global-scale producer

Does nickel in Timmins have the glamour of gold? There have been significant nickel finds in the rock formations around the famed northeastern Ontario mining camp but the production results always fell short of expectations.

Canada Nickel Company’s Crawford nickel-cobalt sulphide project could quickly be changing that narrative.

Helmed by one of the world’s foremost nickel experts, company chair and CEO Mark Selby believes the 4,900-hectare property, 40 kilometres north of Timmins, has the potential to be a world-class, district-scale deposit.

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Nickel Shuffle; Russians Go Home And BHP Moves In – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – July 3, 2020)

https://www.forbes.com/

An environmental incident in the far north of Russia has confirmed the case for nickel as a metal with strong investment appeal and might also play a role in the world’s biggest mining company, BHP, speeding up the sale of its thermal coal assets.

Linking those seemingly unrelated events are the contentious claims about climate change and the need to ween the world off fossil fuels, replacing coal and oil with alternative energy sources and battery storage of electricity.

The case for nickel has been explored in a number of my recent reports including one early last month headed “Nickel Rush Restarts As Steel And Battery Demand Rises”.

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Russian mining giant behind major Arctic fuel spill admits waste ‘violations’ (South China Post – June 29, 2020)

https://www.scmp.com/

Agence France-Presse – A Russian mining giant behind an enormous Arctic fuel spill last month said Sunday it had suspended workers at a metals plant who were responsible for pumping waste water into nearby tundra.

Norilsk Nickel cited a “flagrant violation of operating rules” in a statement announcing it had suspended employees responsible for dumping waste water from a dangerously full reservoir into wildlife.

The incident occurred at the Talnakh enrichment plant near the Arctic city of Norilsk, the company said, one month after the unprecedented fuel leak sparked a state of emergency declared by President Vladimir Putin.

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New lawsuit targets Minnesota’s copper-nickel mining rules – by Jimmy Lovrien (Minnesota Public Radio News – June 25, 2020)

https://www.mprnews.org/

Duluth News Tribune – Opponents of copper-nickel mining are urging Minnesota regulators to change the state’s copper-nickel mining rules to ban that type of mining within the same watershed as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

The Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters announced in a news release Wednesday it was filing a lawsuit under the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act asking a judge to order the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources “to initiate a public process to amend state non-ferrous mining rules that would fully protect the water and air quality, wilderness character and other irreplaceable natural resources of the Boundary Waters” and “to prohibit sulfide-ore copper mining and related surface disturbance in the Rainy River-Headwaters.”

If successful, the rule change would effectively kill Twin Metals’ proposed underground copper-nickel mine, processing plant and tailings storage facility along Birch Lake, which flows into the BWCAW via the Kawishiwi River.

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NEWS RELEASE: In Memory of Dr. Tony Naldrett (Platinum Group Metals – June 22, 2020)

http://www.platinumgroupmetals.net/

It is with sadness and condolences to his family, colleagues and many friends that we write of the passing of Dr. Tony Naldrett, “Tony” this past weekend, in England. We at Platinum Group Metals can trace the company founding all the way back to the teaching and enthusiasm of this amazing man.

President and CEO R. Michael Jones said: I met Tony as an undergraduate student, in 1984 at University of Toronto and he taught me Ore Deposits. His enthusiasm for Copper Nickel and Platinum Group Metals was obvious and we spent more time on this topic than other deposit types. Tony was a former RAF pilot and a leading academic with a background at Cambridge.

He was a gracious, generous and extremely friendly person who could speak to anyone at any level. In his 70’s, cane in hand, he climbed over outcrops with Frank Hallam (CFO and Co-founder of the Company) and I, in Northern Ontario. Tony was brightly explaining a chemical phase diagram he had likely taught me 20 years earlier, as he cheerfully climbed over logs and rocks.

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DNR deems Twin Metals’ plan for copper mine near Boundary Waters ‘incomplete’ – by Jennifer Bjorhus (Minneapolis Star Tribune – June 24, 2020)

https://www.startribune.com/

Minnesota environmental regulators have published nearly 800 comments on the Twin Metals plan to build a copper-nickel mine just outside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota, deeming the company’s project proposal “incomplete.”

The state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) says it needs the clarifications and extra information before it can start the required environmental impact statement on the proposed mine, one of the most contentious mine projects in the state’s history.

The comments, dated June 15, are posted on the Twin Metals section of the DNR’s website. The agency has “determined the initial submittal to be incomplete,” it said.

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Glencore donates $40K to United Way’s community response fund – by Darren MacDonald (CTV News Northern Ontario – June 22, 2020)

https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/

SUDBURY — Glencore in Sudbury has donated $40,000 to boost a special fund created by the United Way Centraide North East Ontario.

Dubbed the Local Love in a Global Crisis Community Response Fund, it now totals more than $300,000.

“We are grateful to Glencore and all of our supporters for their generosity and compassion during these uncertain times,” United Way executive director Mary Lou Hussak is quoted as saying in a news release Monday.

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Thompson bracing for job losses after northern Manitoba mine owner admits to bleeding $300K a day – by Ian Froese (CBC News Manitoba – June 17, 2020)

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

Vale says efforts to find ‘simpler and more nimble operating model’ will mean smaller workforce

A mining city in northern Manitoba is facing another setback as the owner of the community’s nickel mine is preparing to shed more jobs. Vale says it cannot continue to operate its Thompson mine under the status quo, after losing $300,000 per day in 2019.

“We need to find a simpler and more nimble operating model to ensure our future in Thompson,” said Franco Cazzola, manager of Vale’s Manitoba operations, in an email to media.

“This will mean a smaller workforce than we have today. We will consider every option available to us to ensure any job reductions are as limited as possible, and we will ensure they will not impact the safety of our ongoing operations.”

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Vale to resume operations at Voisey’s Bay in July – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – June 18, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Vale (NYSE: VALE), the world’s top producer of nickel and iron ore, is fine-tuning details to reopen its Voisey’s Bay open pit nickel mine and concentrator in Canada, next month.

Full capacity at the northern Labrador-based operation should be reached in August, the Brazilian mining giant said on Thursday.

Vale initially placed Voisey’s Bay mine on care and maintenance for four weeks as a precaution amid the fast-spreading coronavirus pandemic. It later extended the measure for up to three months, leaving an ongoing mine expansion project on hold.

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The Oil Spill From Russian Nickel Mine Is Moving Toward The Arctic Ocean (NPR.org – June 16, 2020)

https://www.npr.org/

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

There is an environmental disaster developing in the Arctic. More than 150,000 barrels of diesel oil from a mining complex spewed into a river in northern Russia late last month. It is the biggest oil spill in the Arctic to date. And now the oil slick is moving towards the Arctic Ocean. NPR international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam reports.

JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: Most Arctic experts agree that the three great concerns for the frozen north are climate change, stranded ships and oil spills.

VICTORIA HERRMANN: To get a response to an oil spill in the Arctic Ocean means that you have to move infrastructure, expertise, ships from more southern ports up to the Arctic.

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Column: Knives out for nickel market as restaurants close – by Andy Home (Reuters U.K. – June 12, 2020)

https://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – The knives may be out for the nickel market. Stainless steel knives specifically, together with stainless steel forks and spoons.

COVID-19 has hit just about every aspect of the global economy but the hospitality business is one of the worst affected.

A wave of restaurant closures in the developed world would generate a surge of unwanted cutlery. If 20% of restaurants closed, it would translate to around 80,000 tonnes of stainless steel scrap containing 24,000 tonnes of nickel, according to analysts at Citi.

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