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Ontario beefs up supply chain funding for critical minerals – by Len Gillis (Sudbury.com – May 6, 2024)

https://www.sudbury.com/

Mines Minister George Pirie confirms additional funding will be added to the Critical Minerals Innovation Fund over the next three years to boost research into sustainable extraction of new metals required to support the battery electric vehicle industry

Ontario Mines Minister George Pirie said today Ontario is committed to strengthening the province’s critical minerals strategy in the global race to ensure there is a stable supply chain for battery electric vehicles by spending millions in new science and technology to help do that. He said the effort is already underway in Sudbury to develop new ways to procure more critical minerals.

Pirie said the Ontario government will be spending $15 million over the next three years to expand the Ontario Critical Minerals Innovation Fund (CMIF), which is a re-announcement of the funding increase that was announced as part of the Ontario budget earlier this year.

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Nickel 28 fires founders on ‘serious misconduct’ that they deny – by Jacob Lorinc (Bloomberg News – May 6, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Nickel 28 Capital Corp. said it has fired its founders, including chief executive officer Anthony Milewski, after an investigation uncovered “serious misconduct” — claims the ousted management team says are untrue and part of a years-long battle for control at the Canadian mining firm.

The nickel and cobalt producer removed Milewski, along with president Justin Cochrane and chief financial officer Conor Kearns, with immediate effect, it said Monday, after the board reviewed findings made by an independent special committee. The investigation found evidence the management team had breached their duties and repeatedly lacked judgment, the board said.

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Column: Mining giants Vale, Glencore failing Greater Sudbury – by John Caruso (Sudbury Star – May 1, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

John Caruso is a Sudbury businessman and a concerned citizen.

Canada and Ontario are willing to sell off our non-renewable resources with little concern for the host community

There is something wrong with this picture: As our city moves toward some historic investments in quality-of-life assets, concerns are being raised regarding long-term debts being incurred and their impact on residential taxes.

I strongly believe that the planned investments in a new event centre and cultural hub at Tom Davies Square are critical investments in our ability to attract and retain population and economic growth.

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First Quantum to shut Ravensthorpe nickel mine – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Northern Miner – April 29, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Canadian miner First Quantum Minerals (TSX: FM) has decided to close its Ravensthorpe nickel operation in Western Australia. The ceasing of operations at the mine this week will cut around 330 jobs, Australia’s ABC News reported on Monday, citing a company statement.

“Despite our best efforts to maintain operations by transitioning to a new operating strategy that involved ceasing mining activities, processing stockpiles and altering its approach to production, the site is incurring significant current and projected losses,” First Quantum said in a separate statement.

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INSG’s latest forecasts cold comfort for nickel producers – by Andy Home (Reuters – April 25, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

London, April 25 (Reuters) – Nickel has rallied hard this month, clawing back some of the territory lost during its relentless price slide over the course of 2023. London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month nickel touched $19,775 per metric ton on Monday, the highest it has traded since September last year.

Last at $19,045 per ton, nickel is up by 15% since the start of the year, the third strongest performance after tin and copper. Sentiment has improved as low prices have exacted a rising toll on nickel producers. Multiple operators have closed or curtailed capacity due to the rapid rise of lower-cost Indonesian production.

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Nornickel moves production to China to circumvent sanctions – by Thomas Nilsen (Barents Observer – April 24, 2024)

https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/

War sanctions bite hard on Russia’s Arctic mining and metallurgical giant producing nickel and copper on the Kola Peninsula and in Norilsk.

Vladimir Potanin, the main shareholder of mega-polluter Nornickel, admits in a remarkable statement with Kremlin’s information agency Interfax that Western sanctions reduces the company’s revenue by up to 20%.

To circumnavigate sanctions, Potanin says Nornickel plans to establish a joint venture with a Chinese company and move parts of the copper smelting to China. It was earlier in April that the United States and United Kingdom imposed sanctions on nonferrous metals from Russia.

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Magna gets the all-clear to begin test mining in Sudbury – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – April 23, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Hometown mine builder on a fast pace to put former INCO asset back into early production by year’s end

Seventeen months after acquiring a dormant INCO nickel and copper mine in Sudbury, Magna Mining said it’s ready to begin test mining later this year.

The hometown mine developer announced April 23 it has all the required approvals and permits in place to begin advanced exploration, both on the surface and underground, at its Crean Hill Mine project located in the southwest corner of the Sudbury basin.

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The nickel price crash and the road to recovery in Australia – by Annabel Cossins-Smith (Mining Technology – April 23, 2024)

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

Miners in Australia are feeling the brunt of the global nickel price crash, from mine closures to forecast reductions and government intervention. How did things get so bad and is recovery possible? Annabel Cossins-Smith investigates.

The global nickel market has been volatile for years now. The price rollercoaster of 2022 saw prices for the metal soar, plummet and then soar again in the space of eight months. This instability prompted the London Metal Exchange (LME) to suspend nickel trading altogether in March 2022, when global prices initially rallied more than 250% in one day, and later to begin “enhanced monitoring” of nickel to ensure trading activity was fair and to prevent market distortion.

More recently, the nickel market has experienced an unprecedented, drawn-out price slump that has put operations around the world – and particularly in Australia – in jeopardy. A significant oversupply of cheap, low-grade nickel pig iron (NPI) coming almost entirely from China and Indonesia, is the key cause of the price slump. Combined, the two countries produce around 70% of the world’s nickel. Indonesia alone accounted for roughly half of global production in 2023, which is expected to rise significantly by the end of the decade.

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Chinese Nickel Billionaire Boosts Australian Miner in Indonesia – by Eddie Spence and Alfred Cang (Bloomberg News – April 22, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — A little-known Australian company is becoming the Western face of a Chinese nickel behemoth. In under a decade, Nickel Industries Ltd. has gone from a relatively small miner to the world’s sixth-biggest producer of a metal used in products from batteries to stainless steel.

Riding a Chinese-led boom in Indonesia’s nickel sector, it owns or has stakes in five plants in the country that churn out more of the commodity than household names like BHP Group Ltd.

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Canada and allies considering trade measures against China and Indonesia over manipulation of nickel market, Freeland says – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – April 24, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada and its allies are weighing taking trade action against China and Indonesia in the nickel market, as the two Asian countries tighten their collective grip in the critical mineral.

Indonesia has gone from supplying 7 per cent of the global output of nickel to 55 per cent in the past decade, with much of that new production controlled by China-based mining companies with ties to the authoritarian Beijing government.

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Nickel resources grow at Timmins exploration site – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – April 19, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Aston Minerals endowed with both gold and nickel deposits at its Edleston Project

A promising new nickel sulphide project in the Timmins area is growing in size and tonnage. Aston Minerals has released a new mineral estimate of its two deposits at its Edleston Project, showing a 44 per cent bump in the indicated nickel and cobalt resource over last year’s calculation.

The Australian company is carrying out technical work to determine if its leading Bardwell deposit can be economically mined. Edleston, situated 60 kilometres south of Timmins, is similar to Canada Nickel’s Crawford Project, north of the city, in that it’s a huge tonnage but low-grade ore property.

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Russia’s Nornickel says new Western sanctions raise risk of metals market disruption – by Anastasiya Lyrchikova (Reuters/XM.com – April 16, 2024)

https://www.xm.com/

This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine

MOSCOW, April 16 (Reuters) -U.S. and British sanctions imposed on Russian nickel, copper and aluminium will further increase price volatility and supply uncertainty, Russian metals-producing giant Norilsk Nickel said on Tuesday.

In their latest round of Ukraine-related sanctions, Washington and London on Friday prohibited metal-trading exchanges from accepting new aluminium, copper and nickel produced by Russia and barred the import of the metals into the United States and Britain in order to disrupt Russian export revenue.

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Nickel developer hires access road consultant – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – April 15, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Tartisan’s Kenbridge Project hold promise of nine years of mine life

Tartisan Nickel, a mine developer in the Kenora area, has retained a Thunder Bay mining services company to help with project management of its Kenbridge Project. Northwest Solutions specializes in catering to the forestry and natural resources sector since 2014. The family-owned Thunder Bay company helps with training, project management support and communication consulting services.

Tartisan said Northwest Solutions, specifically co-owner Kevin Shorthouse, will handle the design, permitting and construction of an access road to the site.

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New Sanctions on Russia to Drive Even More Metals Sales to China – by Alfred Cang (Bloomberg News – April 15, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

US and UK sanctions on Russian metals will cement China as Moscow’s buyer of last resort for key commodities, and enhance Shanghai’s role as a venue to set prices for materials crucial to the global economy.

The London Metal Exchange’s ban on newly produced Russian aluminum, copper and nickel is likely to drive Chinese imports even higher. It also leaves the Shanghai Futures Exchange as the only major commodities bourse in the world to accept Russian shipments of the three metals.

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Green Rush panel: Is there willingness to pay a premium for responsibly sourced minerals? (Kitco.com – April 9, 2024)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Environmental, social, governance (ESG) initiatives are further delaying mining projects while critical metals are in high demand, creating tension within the mining industry, says Matt Watson, founder of Precious Metals Commodity Management LLC.

The other problem is that metals necessary for the green transition are difficult to process, namely nickel, cobalt and rare earths. On April 3, Watson recorded an episode of Green Rush with guests James Gavilan, principal of Gavilan Commodities, and Lyle Trytten, president of Trytten Consulting Services. The subject was ESG in the context of scaling responsibly mined minerals.

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