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Nickel

Journo’s new book shines light on nickel – by Josh Chiat (Kalgoorlie Miner – September 6, 2018)

https://thewest.com.au/

A pioneering mining journalist who bore witness to the Goldfields’ first nickel boom as a reporter at Kalgoorlie’s ABC bureau believes there is a bright future for the cyclical base metal.

Ross Louthean came to Kalgoorlie-Boulder as a young journalist from Port Pirie in the late 1960s and witnessed the onset and development of the famous Kambalda nickel district.

He also lived in the region through the Poseidon crash — the nickel exploration boom in the 1970s which prompted the regulation of Australia’s stock markets after a reported find near Laverton fuelled by speculation pumped shares in penny stock Poseidon Nickel to more than $280 a share in a matter of weeks.

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Changes at Vale contribute to uncertain mood in Thompson (Thompson Citizen – August 29, 2018)

https://www.thompsoncitizen.net/

As Thompson reaches the end of the month that it was dreading for years, if not quite since the smelter and refinery closure plans were first announced in 2010, there’s a feeling that we might not be through the worst of the adjustment yet.

Over this summer, Vale has announced changes to its Manitoba Operations, including the elimination of Mark Scott’s former role as the vice-president in Thompson and the shifting of responsibility for overseeing the mine to Alistair Ross, the company’s new North Atlantic mines director.

A few weeks later, the maintenance shutdown was extended by three to four weeks to preach the importance of safety after some potentially dangerous incidents.

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Battle brewing over mine south of Bancroft – by Timothy Meeks(Belleville Intelligencer – August 29, 2018)

https://www.intelligencer.ca/

LIMERICK TOWNSHIP – There’s a battle brewing in this tiny cottage community south of Bancroft over a proposed nickel, cobalt and copper mine.

Monica Nikopoulos of the Limerick Area Conservation Coalition (LACC) claims there has been no written notification of the activities being undertaken by Dr. Derek McBride, P.Eng, an international mineral deposit specialist with Derek McBride Geological & Management Services, who owns the mineral rights to the area south of Hwy 620, west of Old Hastings Road near Ormsby and stretching east to Hwy 62.

A public meeting and information session is being hosted by Pancontinental Resources Corporation (Pancon) Sunday, Sept. 9 at 4 p.m. at the Limerick Community Centre.

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Four things that need to happen before PolyMet mine’s future can be written – by Dan Kraker (Minnesota Public Radio News – August 28, 2018)

https://www.mprnews.org/

PolyMet Mining moved a tiny step closer to its goal of opening the first copper-nickel mine in Minnesota last week when the state Department of Natural Resources declined an environmental group’s petition for additional environmental review on the proposed mine.

But the controversial project, nearly 15 years in the works, still faces several hurdles before construction can begin, including lawsuits, potential administrative hearings, several key permits PolyMet still needs to obtain — and the significant funding the company needs to raise to build the nearly $1 billion project, which would include a mine just south of the Iron Range town of Babbitt, Minn., and a processing facility a few miles south in Hoyt Lakes.

The PolyMet proposal — and the prospect of a new copper-nickel mining industry amongst the forests and lakes of northeast Minnesota — is the most divisive environmental issue the state has faced in decades.

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“… nickel sulphide discoveries in places like Ontario are very infrequent” (Mining Journal – August 28, 2018)

https://www.mining-journal.com/

Balmoral Resources (TSX: BAR) is bolstering its renewed nickel focus with plans to acquire the Gargoyle nickel sulphide project in Ontario, which it says has similarities to the prolific Kambalda nickel camp in Western Australia.

Balmoral last week said drilling at its Detour Gold Trend project had begun but the biggest component of its summer-fall programme would be expansion drilling at its Grasset nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE deposit, which had been put on hold in 2015 due to low metal prices.

The LME spot nickel price had slumped below US$7,500/t in early 2016 but last traded above $13,338/t, a similar level to September 2015.

“The Gargoyle property acquisition supplements our renewed focus on nickel exploration and nicely complements the recently announced drill programme at Grasset,” president and CEO Darin Wagner said yesterday.

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Meet the Canadian miner that plans to shake up the nickel industry – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – August 25, 2018)

https://business.financialpost.com/

If Royal Nickel Canada succeeds, it would show how Chinese demand for raw materials can stimulate the expansion of Canadian mining

To hear Mark Selby tell it, the Canadian nickel industry is actually an “oligopoly,” in which a few large companies control the smelters, and grab an outsized share of the profits.

Selby, chief executive of Toronto-based Royal Nickel Corp., which is raising money to build a mine in Quebec, thinks he can break that pattern.

On Thursday, his company announced it has devised a way to reverse-engineer a product that resembles nickel pig iron — a lower grade, cheaper form of the metal derived from ores found in tropical areas.

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Twiggy signals nickel revival with Poseidon move – by Stuart McKinnon (The West Australian – August 23, 2018)

https://thewest.com.au/

Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest will boost his stake in Poseidon Nickel and help fund the restart of its Silver Swan and Black Swan nickel mines 50km north-east of Kalgoorlie as part of a $75 million raising by the company.

The explorer this morning responded to a $67 million takeover offer from a US private equity firm by announcing its own recapitalisation plan backed by its major shareholder. Texas-based Black Mountain Metals has withdrawn its cash offer for Poseidon in response to the news.

Poseidon said it had raised $5.8 million in a placement and would raise a further $68.8 million in a rights issue priced at 5¢, representing a premium to the company’s last traded price.

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Conference board report projects modest growth for Sudbury – by Mary Katherine Keown (Sudbury Star – August 23, 2018)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

A new report from the Conference Board of Canada says Sudbury is looking at modest growth for the rest of 2018 and into 2019.

Things are looking up in the Nickel City, thanks in large part to our namesake mineral. The Conference Board of Canada released its Metropolitan Outlook Wednesday, detailing economic forecasts for 16 medium-sized cities.

Greater Sudbury will see modest growth throughout 2018-19. But with unemployment set to spike temporarily, it is not all good news.

“Greater Sudbury’s real GDP growth will hit 1.2 per cent in 2018 and a similar 1.1 per cent in 2019,” the report notes.

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Minnesota think tank wades into debate on economics of mining – by By Josephine Marcotty (Minneapolis Star Tribune – August 20, 2018)

http://www.startribune.com/

Just as election season gets into full swing this fall, a Twin Cities think tank will wade into the fierce economic debate about copper-nickel mining in northern Minnesota with a statewide advertising campaign that promotes the potential of the new industry.

John Hinderaker, president of the Center of the American Experiment in Golden Valley, said the $270,000 campaign announced Monday will start after Labor Day. It will include highway billboards, TV and radio spots, YouTube videos and other social media ads that highlight the billions in economic benefits the state will reap from mining, according to a new report from the center.

“If voters understand the huge benefit of mining, they will want to see it happen,” Hinderaker said. “And an election is a good time to be talking about it.”

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New technology from Finland will clear the smog in Nikel – by Thomas Nilsen (The Barents Observer – August 20, 2018)

https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/

New equipment for mineral processing has arrived to Zapolyarny, where Nornickel’s subsidiary Kola Mining and metallurgical Company’s concentrator plant is located. The equipment is made by Outotec in Finland and includes processing technology for filtration, thickening, flotation and analyzer equipment.

When is full operation, the new technology will make it possible to separate rich quality materials from ore with less nickel. By separating out the nickel-rich concentrates, much of the sulfur will be removed before shipped to the smelter in the town of Nikel.

Consequently, the emission of sulfur dioxide (SO2) will be reduced substantially. The run-down plant in Nikel has for decades been a torn in cross-border relation in the Barents Region as the pollution hits neighboring Norway and Finland as well as the fragile taiga-forest on Russia’s own Kola Peninsula.

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Ex Glencore bosses try to snatch nickel asset – by Sarah Thompson and Anthony Macdonald (Australian Financial Review – August 19, 2018)

https://www.afr.com/

Mining giants Glencore and Barrick could have a prospective nickel and cobalt project taken from under their nose, if plans being hatched by ASX-listed Jervois Mining come to fruition.

As first reported by Street Talk on Sunday, Jervois has been making moves to win control of the Kabanga nickel and cobalt project in Tanzania, after the host government cancelled Glencore and Barrick’s joint hold of it in January.

The January cancellation was part of a broader push by the government to get a bigger share of its mineral wealth, but Glencore and Barrick have been upbeat in recent times about their chances of winning a fresh permit to explore and develop the asset.

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‘The north is truly hurting’: Thompson mayor frustrated he can’t get meeting with premier (CBC News Manitoba – August 16, 2018)

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

Dennis Fenske says city’s economic crisis warrants face time with Brian Pallister

The mayor of Thompson says he’s frustrated that he can’t get a meeting with the premier despite the grave economic challenges his community is facing.

Dennis Fenske says he and his council have been trying to arrange a sit down Premier Brian Pallister for months.

They put in a request to meet with Pallister when the premier was in Thompson last week for an announcement that Bell MTS would be awarded the contract to connect first responders across the province.

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Someone bought a rare nickel for $4.5 million in Philly – by Marielle Mondon (Philly Voice.com – August 16, 2018)

https://www.phillyvoice.com/

Dating back to 1913, the coin was sold at the World’s Fair of Money auction

Many consider nickels the unspoken worst coin in American currency.

They have that unnecessary thickness and awkward size that makes them comparable to the fading SEPTA token, plus there’s an irrelevant depiction of Thomas Jefferson’s personal Monticello estate on the back – it’s like a colonial version of having Mar-a-Lago on your change.

Despite the obvious and highly scientific flaws of nickels, one rare coin at a Philadelphia auction just went for one of the heftiest price tags ever: $4.5 million.

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UPDATE 1-Russian miners explore payment schemes eschewing dollar – by Polina Ivanova (Reuters U.S. – August 15, 2018)

https://www.reuters.com/

MOSCOW, Aug 15 (Reuters) – Two of Russia’s biggest mining companies said on Wednesday they were investigating rouble-based payments schemes, amid calls from Moscow to reduce the role of the U.S. dollar in Russian trade and so limit the impact of U.S. sanctions.

The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia favoured bilateral trade with all countries in their national currencies, rather than the dollar, but that the idea needed detailed work before being implemented.

Russia’s Norilsk Nickel, which vies with Brazil’s Vale SA to be the world’s biggest nickel producer and is the world’s top palladium producer, said on Wednesday it was discussing the possibility of settling payments in roubles with foreign customers that had signalled their readiness for such an arrangement.

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Commentary: Nickel is dancing to a new electric (vehicle) beat – by Andy Home (Reuters U.K. – August 15, 2018)

https://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – The world used almost 2.2 million tonnes of nickel last year. Around two thirds of that metal was absorbed by the stainless steel industry, which uses it as a key alloying agent.

Stainless steel production has been booming. Global output rose by 5.8 percent last year and accelerated by another 9.5 percent in the first quarter of 2018, according to the International Stainless Steel Forum.

This has been good news for nickel. The International Nickel Study Group (INSG) estimates that global first-use nickel usage jumped by 7.8 percent last year and by another 9.7 percent in the first five months of this year.

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