Global mining heavyweight Glencore says the future of its nickel and cobalt operations in Australia will hinge on keeping a lid on labour and energy costs and access to infrastructure.
In what shapes as another blow to Anthony Albanese’s critical minerals ambitions, Glencore warned it was closely monitoring the situation and the future of its Murrin Murrin mine in Western Australia, which employs about 1500 people and is the nation’s biggest source of cobalt.
The closure of mining giant BHP’s nickel operations in Western Australia will have ripple effects far and wide and could signal “the end of the Australian nickel industry”, according to a prominent mining analyst.
BHP announced yesterday it would begin suspending operations at the Kwinana nickel refinery in Perth, the Kalgoorlie smelter and its major mines at Mt Keith and Leinster in the state’s Goldfields from October. BHP said market conditions were to blame for its decision to either redeploy or offer redundancies to 1,600 of its frontline workers, while hundreds more contractors would be impacted.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Mark Selby is the founder and CEO of Canada Nickel Co.
Blood diamonds, blood cobalt, and now blood nickel. Governments leading the global shift toward electric vehicles promise cleaner cities and a new era of sustainable energy and improved resource usage.
But just as governments promote EVs on environmental grounds, manufacturers are forced to source nickel from a region enabling the wanton destruction of ecologically sensitive lands, reckless treatment of workers, and the fundamental deterioration of living conditions. There is only one solution to this problem: the world needs more Canadian nickel.
(Bloomberg) — Vale SA has selected veteran mining executive Shaun Usmar to take the helm of its base metals division as the Brazilian metals producer seeks to boost copper and nickel production, according to people familiar with the matter.
The board of the Rio de Janeiro-based company chose Usmar to head Vale Base Metals, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The appointment has yet to be confirmed and it’s possible things could change, one of the people said.
Retired Cambrian College mathematics instructor and longtime peace advocate David Starbuck is behind a petition which aims to ban the sale of Canadian nickel to Israel
Condemning the State of Israel’s sustained bombardment of Gaza, local man David Starbuck helped launch a federal petition to ban the sale of Canadian nickel to Israel. Nickel, he clarified in conversation with Sudbury.com, is used in armaments.
Through the local mining of nickel, there’s no telling how much the Greater Sudbury area has inadvertently aided in Israel’s “unrelenting Israeli assault on occupied Gaza,” as United Nations Human Rights Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanese put it earlier this year in finding reasonable grounds to determine Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Canadian explorer Power Nickel (TSX-V: PNPN) has closed its recent C$20 million ($15m) “oversubscribed” financing round, backed by well-known personalities including billionaire investor Robert Friedland and mining veteran Rob McEwen.
The Toronto-based junior said the funds will be use to expand exploration on its 80%-owned NISK property in Quebec, adding it hopes to take advantage of Canada’s federal tax credit for critical mineral exploration.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/
Petition also targets those who sell arms to Israel; Israel’s supporters say it will do nothing to bring peace to the region
A pro-Palestinian group in Sudbury wants the federal government to ban the sale of Canadian nickel to Israel and the arms manufacturers supplying weapons to Israel.
The No Nickel For Genocide Working Group of Palestine Solidarity (Sudbury) has also launched a petition campaign to back its demands. Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus launched the petition on the House of Commons website and in its first week, obtained more than 200 signatures, the group said in a release.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Aki-eh Dibinwewziwin LP awarded advanced exploration contract for Magna Mining’s Crean Hill Project
Sudbury’s Magna Mining decided to buy local in picking an Indigenous contractor to extract a bulk sample from its emerging Crean Hill nickel and copper mine project.
Aki-eh Dibinwewziwin Limited Partnership (ADLP) has been awarded an advanced exploration contract that involves pulling a 20,000-tonne surface bulk sample that’s part of Magna’s early test mining scheduled for later this year. The sample will be trucked to Glencore’s Strathcona mill in Sudbury for processing.
https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/
In 1854, the land surveyor A.P. Salter noticed the needle on his compass wiggle in strange way, a signal that the bedrock on which he stood contained a huge deposit of nickel (one of the few ferromagnetic minerals that affects the orientation of old-school magnetic compasses).
Owing to its remoteness, Salter’s discovery was ignored at the time and soon forgotten. The construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway through the Sudbury basin in the early 1880s brought an influx of newcomers and a transportation link to the region.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/
Jonathan Wilkinson says city in a position to provide critical minerals but also process them to help make batteries for electric vehicles
The Nickel City is in a great position to benefit from the push for greener transportation, not only by supplying the ingredients for batteries but also by hosting plants to process them, according to Canada’s energy and natural resources minister.
“For a community like Sudbury, which is an historic mining town, I think that critical minerals are an enormous opportunity,” said Jonathan Wilkinson during a visit to the city on Monday. “It’s an opportunity for mining, yes, but it’s also an opportunity for great manufacturing jobs.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/
The idea is they can be used to help make batteries for electric vehicles while reducing the environmental impact of tailings areas
A research arm of Laurentian University will get $5 million to find ways of recovering nickel, cobalt and copper from mine waste in Sudbury that can be used to make batteries for electric vehicles. Jonathan Wilkinson, the federal minister of Energy and Natural Resources, made the announcement in Sudbury on Monday.
The money will go to the Mining Innovation Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corp – or MIRARCO – based at Laurentian University.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/
Construction of a road to the mine site needs to start now
Without a doubt, the Ring of Fire camp and its many strategic minerals that include nickel, copper, platinum group metals, chromite and titanium – just to mention a few as explorers have just scratched the proverbial surface – is the most important mining discovery in Canadian history. It may even exceed the legendary Sudbury Basin someday.
Discovered in 2007, the region is located approximately 450 km northeast of Thunder Bay in the isolated and vast peatlands of Hudson Bay, which itself is roughly the size of Norway but with only about 10,000 people. Contrary to fanatical ENGOs, sustainable mineral development and exploration practices will have minimal impact on the environment and provide the critical minerals needed to stop global warming.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/
And about half those trees came from seedlings grown by Vale and its greenhouse in Copper Cliff
More than 10 million trees have been planted as part of Greater Sudbury’s regreening efforts, and Vale (formerly Inco) is responsible for nearly half of those seedlings. They started out tinier than a thumbnail, but 50 years later, the first trees that were planted are now soaring into the sky, covered in needles or leaves, and providing shade, nourishment and homes to all kinds of critters.
About five million of those seedlings got their start at the Vale greenhouse in Copper Cliff. A large group, including children from the nearby elementary school, gathered at the greenhouse on Thursday to celebrate its 50th birthday.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Stakeholders champion city as leader in critical minerals production
The Sudbury Basin has been a mining hotspot for more than a century, but as demand grows for critical minerals like nickel, there’s never been a more exciting time for the industry than right now.
That’s according to Gord Gilpin, the director of Ontario operations for Vale Base Metals, who led off a Sudbury-themed panel discussion at the BEV In Depth: Mines to Mobility conference May 30 at Cambrian College.
Mineral remains a resilient investment for both stainless steel and batteries: Selby
The ever-ebullient CEO of Canada Nickel Company, Mark Selby, is bullish on Nickel, despite Canadian’s growing skepticism about electric vehicles.
According to an April survey from AutoTrader, the number of Canadians interested in buying an EV fell from 68 per cent in 2022 to 46 per cent in 2024. People are concerned about inadequate charging infrastructure, the cars’ limited range, higher cost, and performance in cold weather.
