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WoodMac urges automakers to ‘get out their chequebooks’, secure energy metal supplies – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – January 17, 2018)

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Auto manufacturers are ramping up strategies to cash in on the accelerating worldwide acceptance and demand for electric vehicles (EVs), prompting advice from research and consultancy group Wood Mackenzie for automakers to ‘get out their chequebooks’ and take stakes in mines or new mine projects to lock-in future supply.

WoodMac issued a statement on Tuesday, following news that Ford will boost its investment in EVs to $11-billion between 2015 and 2022 – a sharply higher figure than a previously announced target of $4.5-billion by 2020.

Ford also revealed plans to expand its electrified portfolio to include 40 electrified vehicles globally, including 16 full-battery EVs by 2022. It outlined plans to accelerate investment in EVs and sportd utility vehicles (SUVs).

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Top China Nickel Producer Joins BHP in Prepping for EV Boom (Bloomberg News – January 18, 2018)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

China’s top nickel supplier aims to boost output of a material used in car batteries by 40 percent this year, joining the ranks of global producers ramping up operations to meet demand from electric vehicles.

Jinchuan Group Co. expects to raise production of nickel sulphate to 70,000 metric tons from 50,000 tons in 2017, Simon Bao, vice general manager of its marketing unit, said in an interview in Shanghai. The country is already the world’s largest automotive market and sales of new-energy vehicles may hit 1 million in 2018 after topping 700,000 last year, according to manufacturers.

“While physical demand hasn’t picked up too significantly yet, it may surge in about two years,” Bao said Tuesday. The company is able to raise sulphate production without any technical barriers, he said, adding that nickel cathode output will be kept at 135,000 tons this year. Cathode is used in stainless steel.

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Car makers may need to take a stake in mines: Wood Mackenzie (Mining Journal – January 17, 2018)

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

Car makers may need to “get out their chequebooks” and take a stake in mines to guarantee materials for their shift to electric vehicles, according to research and consultancy group Wood Mackenzie.

The comments follow automotive giant Ford’s announcement yesterday it would invest US$11 billion by 2022 in electrification, and expand its line-up to 40 EVs globally including 16 full battery EVs by 2022.

Wood Mackenzie director metals markets Gavin Montgomery said Ford planned to use NMC lithium-ion batteries in its EVs and it would be a challenge securing supply of the key raw materials, namely lithium, nickel and cobalt.

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NEWS RELEASE: RNC Minerals Plans Initiatives To Allow Decision To Begin Construction Of Dumont Nickel-Cobalt Project In 2019; Highlights Large Nickel And Cobalt Reserves

http://www.rncminerals.com/

TORONTO, Jan. 15, 2018 /CNW/ – RNC Minerals (TSX: RNX) (“RNC”) expects to undertake a series of initiatives during 2018 to position the company to make a decision to begin construction of the Dumont Nickel-Cobalt Project, which contains the world’s largest undeveloped reserves of both cobalt and nickel, in 2019.

With many market participants expecting explosive growth in nickel and cobalt demand from the electric vehicle market over the coming decade, RNC continues to be approached by a number of potential strategic investors, offtake partners and financiers who could provide the financing required to begin construction.

“The Dumont Nickel-Cobalt Project, one of the world’s premier battery metals projects, contains the world’s largest undeveloped reserves of both cobalt and nickel. It also contains the 2nd largest nickel reserve and the 8th largest cobalt reserve of any deposit in the world,” said Mark Selby, President and CEO of RNC Minerals.

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Short-term shutdown at Vale’s Coleman Mine extended (CBC News Sudbury – January 12, 2018)

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

Mining company Vale says the Coleman Mine is expected to be back in production in mid-February, after being shut down last year for critical repair work.

The company originally said the repairs would be done in December. The union representing the workers said in December the repair work would continue until the end of January. Now, a spokesperson with the company says — based on recent inspections — the mine won’t re-open in mid-February.

“Some maintenance employees have been recalled to support the repair work to the shaft,” Danica Pagnutti with the company said. “In order to mitigate impacts to our people at Coleman, who have been temporarily laid off, we have recalled and transferred more than 200 production and maintenance employees to temporarily work at Coleman and other mine sites.”

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‘It’s probably one of the most difficult times in our history’ – by Kyle Darbyson (Thompson Citizen – January 6, 2018)

http://www.thompsoncitizen.net/

Union president braces for Vale cutbacks in 2018

After a rollercoaster year full of uncertainty and surprise announcements, Vale ended 2017 with more than 100 fewer jobs than it started the year with, which brings their total workforce in Thompson down to approximately 1,180 people.

Even though these job loses were announced well in advance, it doesn’t change the fact that the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6166, the union these affected employees were members of, is definitely going to feel the squeeze in 2018.

Vale Manitoba Operations plans on permanently closing down their smelter and refinery in the third quarter of the year, which will reduce their total workforce to around 837 people.

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State of Minnesota releases PolyMet’s draft permit to mine – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – January 5, 2018)

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

The state of Minnesota has given its preliminary blessing to the construction and operations plan for the state’s first-ever copper-nickel mine, releasing PolyMet Mining Co.’s draft permit to mine for public review Friday.

The draft permit from the Department of Natural Resources includes specific plans for how PolyMet would mine near Babbitt and process ore near Hoyt Lakes over the next 20 or more years.

The permit release signals the state is generally satisfied with how PolyMet plans to build, mine and then close the operations without harming the environment — especially without releasing potentially acidic mine waste into the St. Louis River ecosystem.

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Letter to the editor: A better suggestion for parkland in northern Manitoba – by Stephen Masson (Northern Miner – January 2, 2018)

Northern Miner

Stephen Masson is president of the Manitoba-Saskatchewan Prospectors and Developers Association (MSPDA).

The Manitoba Saskatchewan Prospectors and Developers Association (MSPDA) takes the strong view that while it agrees with Stephen Fletcher’s view that a creating a new national park on Manitoba’s Nickel Belt is an irresponsible action by the federal government (T.N.M., Nov. 16-Dec. 10/17), he should not have so quickly suggested a park in the Seal River area as an alternative.

Mr. Fletcher, Member of the Legislative Assembly for Charleswood-St James-Assiniboia and long-time federal Conservative Member of Parliament from 2004-15, is correct that establishing a park on the nickel belt only discourages further exploration in the province by its placement on an area of high mineral potential.

This is especially true given that northern Manitoba’s mining industry is in serious trouble. Vale in Thompson closed Birch Tree and in 2018 will close the smelter in Thompson. Add this to the closure in just three years of Triple 7 and Reed Lake mines operated by Hudbay Minerals.

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MLA Steven Fletcher: Don’t create national park on Thompson Nickel Belt extension (Northern Miner – December 2017)

Northern Miner

The following is an edited transcript of Steven Fletcher — Independent Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for Assiniboia and a Conservative Member of the Canadian Parliament from 2004–15 — speaking in the Manitoba Assembly on Nov. 9 on the subject of a proposal to establish a national park overtop an extension of the Thompson nickel belt.

This is an issue of urgency and of public importance. The federal Liberal government announced, in their 2017 budget, plans for a national park. Though we are all supportive of parks, it’s very important where the parks are located.

The federal government announced it, apparently without consulting anyone — First Nations communities, not sure if they consulted the provincial government or not. If they did, the provincial government should have said no. And if they didn’t, the provincial government should have said no immediately after the announcement.

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Nickel on the upswing – by Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star – January 3, 2018)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

“So, we should remember that the many sustainable mining
practices — lowering carbon emissions, mine safety and an
96 per cent reductions in sulphur emissions since 1970, just
to name a few — done in the Sudbury Basin to supply the
necessary nickel, copper and cobalt puts this community in
a leading role in the transition to a green auto future.

“Both the provincial and federal levels of government should
recognize this important fact and ensure none of their green
energy policies hinder the future growth of this strategic
sector.” (Stan Sudol – RepublicOfMining.com)

It looks like 2018 will be a very good year for nickel. Last month, world metal markets closed for the Christmas break with nickel on an upswing. The metal reached $5.46/pound U.S., more than $1 U.S. higher than the average price of $4.43/pound U.S. in the first half of the year..

The $5.46 U.S. price was also 23 cents higher than the $5.23U.S. recorded back on Nov. 27. The amount of nickel sitting in London Metal Exchange warehouses –another indicator of where prices are headed — is also showing signs of life. On Nov. 27, there were 382,362 tonnes of nickel in the warehouses. But as of Dec. 20, the total had fallen to 373,400.

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Norilsk, Stalin’s Siberian Hell, Thrives in Spite Of Hideous Legacy – by Robert G. Kaiser (Washington Post – August 29, 2001)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

Is there any stranger human habitation on Earth than this?

In Norilsk, 200 miles above the Arctic Circle, the sun does not rise for three months a year, the winter temperatures remain under 30 degrees below zero, and the air is, literally, the dirtiest on the globe. Yet there is a full-blown city of 230,000 here, whose citizens are fierce local patriots with a romantic sense of their own uniqueness.

They live in a place created by zeks, political prisoners who populated Joseph Stalin’s gulag — perhaps 100,000, or even 200,000 died in its building; the exact number is lost or buried in still-sealed archives. They were inmates in an unimaginable chamber of horrors, a community of prison camps designed to create nickel and copper industries, and to kill people. It succeeded impressively on both counts.

Modern Norilsk is populated by descendants of those prisoners, among many others, and the city remembers its horrific past. This is unusual in Russia, where forgetting is easier. On the busy streets of Norilsk in August, with pretty women on parade and children chasing each other on bikes and in-line skates, that past seems so remote as to be unreachable.

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Norilsk Journal; Comes the Thaw, the Gulag’s Bones Tell Their Dark Tale – by Steven Lee Myers (New York Times – February 24, 2004)

http://www.nytimes.com/

The bones appear each June, when the hard Arctic winter breaks at last and the melting snows wash them from the site of what some people here — but certainly not many — call this city’s Golgotha.

The bones are the remains of thousands of prisoners sent to the camps in this frozen island of the Gulag Archipelago. To this day, no one knows exactly how many labored here in penal servitude. To this day, no one knows exactly how many died. The bones are an uncomfortable reminder of a dark past that most would rather forget.

”Here it is generally thought that the history of the camps is an awful secret in the family,” said Vladislav A. Tolstov, a journalist and historian who has lived in Norilsk all his life. ”We all know about it, but we try not to think about it.”

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RPT-COLUMN-Blue skies, green cars and a year of revolution for industrial metals – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – December 21, 2017)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Dec 22 (Reuters) – A little bit of metals history was recorded on March 29 this year. The small Central American country of El Salvador became the first nation to ban all exploration, mining and processing of metals.

Don’t worry if you didn’t notice. El Salvador doesn’t have any operating mines. It was going to have a gold mine, but in a public debate pitting economic growth against clean water supply, water won. Such environmental push-back against mining has become an ever more common feature of the metals industry.

But this year has marked a tipping point with China, a dominant producer of so many industrial metals, launching its own clamp-down on pollution. Multiple supply chains from aluminium to zinc have been disrupted with largely bullish, albeit at times chaotic, price impact.

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Vale rep lays all the cards on the table during Thompson’s last chamber meeting of 2017 – by Kyle Darbyson (Thompson Citizen – December 20, 2017)

http://www.thompsoncitizen.net/

Throughout 2017, news about Vale’s cutbacks in Thompson has been on the minds of many local residents, especially after their Birchtree facility was put on care and maintenance back in October.

In an attempt to quell concerns about where the company is headed, Mark Scott, the vice-president of Vale’s Manitoba Operations, attended the Dec. 13 Thompson Chamber of Commerce meeting to provide an overview of the challenges the company will be facing in the new year.

Throughout his presentation, Scott made no bones about the continued work force reductions that will be coming to Vale at the end of 2017 and once the smelter and refinery closes down in the third quarter of 2018.

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Norilsk Nickel offers a sketch of how it will reduce its sulfur dioxide pollution – by Charles Digges (Bellona.org – December 20, 2017)

http://bellona.org/

Norilsk Nickel, which has time and again made its hometown one of the most polluted places on earth, has announced plans to slash dirty emissions – and finally has released a sketch of measures it will undertake to carry that out.

Norway would benefit too. An investment plan the industrial giant released in London late last month also presages a 50 percent cut in emissions wafting over Norway’s border from one of its smelting works in the Kola Peninsula industrial town of Nikel over the next several years.

That smelter is part of the Kola Mining and Metallurgy Company, a subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel, which has been a near constant source of pollution and worry for northern Norway and other Scandinavian countries.

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