Nickel – Page 73 – Republic of Mining

NEWS RELEASE: RICUS GRIMBEEK APPOINTED VALE’S CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER OF CANADA, UK AND ASIAN REFINERIES

May 17, 2018

May 15, 2018 – Vale today announced Ricus Grimbeek as Chief Operating Officer for Canada, the UK and Asian Refineries; a role based out of Sudbury, Ontario.

“I’m very excited to take on this new role, and am humbled to be leading some of the most historic and prolific mining operations in the world,” said Grimbeek. “I’m also energized by the enormous potential I see in front of us, and look forward to working with our employees, union partners, regulators and local communities to co-create the future I believe to be possible”.

Ricus most recently worked for South 32 – a global mining company – in roles including Chief Technology Officer as well as President and Chief Operating Officer. He has also worked for BHP Billiton and Lonmin in a variety of senior level safety and operational positions in Australia, South Africa and Canada.

Russian billionaires take boardroom battle to London High Court – by Barbara Lewis (Reuters Africa – May 14, 2018)

May 15, 2018

https://af.reuters.com/

LONDON, May 14 (Reuters) – Russia tycoon Oleg Deripaska gave evidence in the London High Court on Monday in a case challenging the sale of shares in Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel) by soccer club owner Roman Abramovich.

Deripaska, making his first public appearance since being made a target of U.S. sanctions, wants to stop Abramovich selling Nornickel shares to another Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin, saying it violates a 2012 shareholder deal.

The hearing, which is expected to last four days, is part of a long-running battle for control of the mining firm, one of the world’s biggest producers of nickel.

Tanzania cancels license of Barrick, Glencore nickel project – by Fumbuka Ng’wanakilala (Reuters U.S. – May 12, 2018)

May 14, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) – Tanzania has revoked a retention license for an undeveloped nickel project jointly owned by Barrick Gold Corp and London-listed miner Glencore Plc as part of enforcement of a new mining regime.

The license for the Kabanga nickel project in northwestern Tanzania was among 11 retention licences canceled by the government under the Mining (Mineral Rights) Regulations of 2018, which were approved in January.

A retention license is granted to holders of a prospecting license after they identify a mineral deposit within the prospecting area which is potentially of commercial significance but cannot be immediately developed due to technical constraints, adverse market conditions or other economic factors.

Scotiabank’s Metals Market Outlook Q2 update: NICKEL: MUCH NEEDED SUPPLY DEFICITS REDUCING EXCESS STOCKS (May 10, 2018)

May 11, 2018

https://scotia.bluematrix.com/

The nickel market is still trying to find its way after a decade of surplus (chart 7) pushed prices down from a peak of $25/lb in 2007 to $3.50/lb in early 2016, with prices currently trading around $6.25/lb. Nickel demand has outpaced supply since last year, but the market will require multi-year deficits to draw down the significant glut of excess metal that has been built up in the storage sheds of global exchanges.

While supply shortages have reduced exchange-listed inventory levels by more than 30% since early 2016, stocks still represent more than 70 days of global nickel demand compared to sister base metals: aluminium at 13 days, copper at 11 days, and zinc at 7 days (chart 8).

Nickel prices are expected to gradually move higher over the next half decade as inventories normalize, averaging $6.00/lb in 2018 and $6.50/lb in 2019. Nickel prices are undeniably benefitting from a recent sentiment boost related to feverish EV forecasts, with many viewing nickel as one of the primary beneficiaries of the battery industry build out alongside other metals more commonly associated with the electric revolution like copper, cobalt, and lithium.

Tesla delivers bad news for cobalt price, boost for rare earths – by Frik Els (Mining.com – May 3, 2018)

May 3, 2018

http://www.mining.com/

Wall Street is aghast at Elon Musk’s dismissive attitude toward analysts’ probing following a quarter of record (but less than expected) losses for Tesla, but the electric vehicle maker did provide some answers to questions that’s been vexing the mining industry.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a provider of price information and research on battery supply chains, parsed the numbers after Tesla gave a rare indication of the relative proportions of raw materials used in its latest lithium-ion battery for its Model 3.

At first blush it’s not good news for miners of cobalt, a crucial ingredient in batteries used in electric vehicles and cellphones that’s been trading near decade highs above $90,000 a tonne.

Stainless steel glut builds in China as Indonesia ups output – by Maytaal Angel (Reuters U.S. – May 3, 2018)

May 3, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – An abundance of stainless steel in China following the ramp up of new production in Indonesia is threatening stainless mills globally and the nickel producers that supply them.

Marking a major structural shift, China, which makes and consumes around half of the world’s stainless, became a marginal net importer of hot-rolled stainless coil in December for the first time in more than seven years, data from the International Steel Statistics Bureau and from consultants CRU showed.

This is after Chinese-owned stainless giant Tsingshan started production last August at a giant plant in Indonesia that should, by the end of 2018, have an annual capacity of 3 million tonnes.This is equivalent to 6 percent of last year’s global flat stainless capacity, CRU says, and there is more to come, with China’s Delong Holdings set to start production at its Indonesian stainless plant in 2019.

Polluter Norilsk Nickel forced to clean up its act – by Henry Foy (Financial Times – April 30, 2018)

May 1, 2018

https://www.ft.com/

Miner plans $1bn plant to convert sulphur dioxide into gypsum to meet environmental rules

For the best part of 80 years, Russian miner Norilsk Nickel has been one of the world’s biggest metal producers, tapping vast reserves of nickel, copper and palladium in the country’s Arctic. But soon its future survival could depend on producing a vastly different product: gypsum.

Manufacturing the chalky mineral will not make money. The company admits that it does not even know what it will do with it. But come 2023, when it starts producing 5m tonnes a year, the superfluous piles of dusty aggregate will be worth billions of dollars.

That is because Nornickel, as the company is also known, is one of Russia’s biggest polluters, spewing some 1.67m tonnes of harmful sulphur dioxide each year into the air around the city of Norilsk.

Nickel Fundamentals Come Back to the Fore – by Stuart Burns (Metal Miner – April 30, 2018)

April 30, 2018

https://agmetalminer.com/

As my colleague Fouad Egbaria wrote last week, the U.S. administration’s relaxation of the timescale for implementation of sanctions against Rusal has had the effect of taking the panic out of the market.

As a result, prices have fallen for several days, not just for aluminum but for other metals that the market feared could face the same threat — most notably nickel, in which Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska has an interest. But the vagaries of Washington policy aside, the underlying fundamentals for the nickel market remain firm.

Reuters reports that according to the International Nickel Study Group, world stainless steel melting production rose by 5.8% last year, while projecting that global nickel production and usage is expected to rise to 2.344 million tons (MT) in 2018.

Plays mine Sudbury’s past – by Laura Stradiotto (Sudbury Star – April 30, 2018)

April 30, 2018

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Prepare to delve into the heart and history of Northern Ontario this week during Pat The Dog’s sixth annual Playsmelter Festival. Featuring creators from the region and afar, Playsmelter offers audiences the chance to see Canadian theatre in all stages of development. The festival, which features Sudbury-inspired narratives, starts today and runs until Saturday at the Sudbury Theatre Centre.

Adric Cluff usually writes about zombies and vampires, yet penning a play based on American inventor Thomas Edison and his influence in Sudbury at the turn of the 20th century was more extraordinary than any fiction he ever encountered.

Cluff explores the famous inventor’s visit to the Sudbury region in the early 1900s, his mining exploration and influence on the founding of Inco Limited. Cluff dug into the city’s archives and found plenty of supporting evidence of the inventor’s influence at the time, including an invitation from the mayor to visit the booming mining town.

Vale not happy with nickel prices – by Staff (Sudbury Star – April 30, 2018)

April 30, 2018

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Vale officials say they have confidence in the nickel market in the long run, but for now they aren’t happy with the metal’s prices. In December, Vale dialed back nickel output forecasts for the next five years even as it praised the metal’s future prospects.

Last week, Reuters reported Vale was curbing base metal production to boost returns, though the world’s biggest nickel producer hopes the area will one day represent a greater part of earnings.

Vale executives said they hoped to find a partner for the struggling New Caledonia nickel mine by the end of the year, but it was not clear whether the world’s largest nickel producer would continue nickel operations there, Reuters said.

BATTERY MATERIALS CONF: Nickel intermediates can fill class one supply gap – Vale – by Charlotte Radford (Metal Bulletin.com – April 26, 2018)

April 26, 2018

https://www.metalbulletin.com/

Nickel intermediates could provide the most cost-effective means of bringing on-stream additional class one nickel units to serve the growing battery market, according to Frank Nikolic, head of base metals intelligence at Vale.

Nickel demand from the battery sector could increase to 1.8 million tonnes by 2030 from 700,000 tonnes by 2025, according to Vale’s upside forecast. Its more conservative forecast suggests demand of 350,000 tonnes in 2025 and of 1 million tonnes by 2030.

“Can the nickel market respond to such massive demand drivers? Look at intermediates – it’s something that is going to serve the market,” Nikolic said at Metal Bulletin’s inaugural Battery Materials conference in Shanghai last week.

Layoff notices sent to 169 Vale employees in Thompson, Man. (CBC News Manitoba – April 25, 2018)

April 26, 2018

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

Vale is entering its “most significant phase” of layoffs in the lead up to the planned shut down of the company’s smelting and refining operations in Thompson, Man., later this summer. The company has sent layoff notices to 169 employees, said Ryan Land, manager of corporate affairs and organizational development with Vale.

Vale has been planning to stop nickel smelting and refining in Thompson for years, and the operations will officially cease July 31, the same day the layoffs are to take effect.

Vale plans to continue its mining and milling operations in Thompson, which had a population of just under 13,000 people in 2016. The city is 650 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

COLUMN-Sanctions fever grips nickel as market rethinks Russia risk – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – April 20, 2018)

April 20, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) – Sanctions fever has spread to nickel. With Russian aluminium producer Rusal imploding in the wake of U.S. sanctions against its oligarch owner Oleg Deripaska, attention is now turning to the status of another Russian industrial powerhouse, Norilsk Nickel.

Deripaska is a 27.8 percent shareholder in Norilsk, while the oligarch behind the world’s number two nickel producer, Vladimir Potanin, is himself on a U.S. Treasury Department list of Russians deemed to be close to the Kremlin.

Fears that Norilsk might follow Rusal down the U.S. sanctions path have sent London nickel prices on an extraordinary rollercoaster ride. But this was a market primed for an explosive breakout, with all sorts of technical drivers kicking in once it started rallying.

Is Norilsk Nickel too big to sanction? – by Henry Foy and Henry Sanderson (Financial Times – April 19, 2018)

April 20, 2018

https://www.ft.com/

Is Norilsk Nickel too big to sanction? That is a question on the lips of investors and analysts as they ponder which companies might be next on the White House’s Russian sanctions list.

The company, based in the world’s most northern city that gives the group its name, certainly thinks size might be a key factor in deterring US president Donald Trump from placing one of the biggest metal producers on the list.

Like the large banks in the financial crisis deemed too big to fail, the company may be right in thinking that size matters as its nickel and palladium supplies are crucial to western manufacturers for products from cars to batteries.