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Nickel

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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Mining billionaire Forrest urges China to demand greener nickel – by Joe Leahy, Nic Fildes and A. Anantha Lakshmi (Financial Times – April 7, 2024)

https://www.ft.com/

Australian magnate points finger at ‘irresponsible’ standards for processing in Indonesia

Australian mining billionaire Andrew Forrest has called on China to demand higher environmental standards from its global supply chain, particularly its companies conducting nickel processing in Indonesia, an industry he accused of “complete environmental irresponsibility”.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Forrest — the chair and largest shareholder of Fortescue Metals Group — said electric vehicle manufacturers should be wary of Indonesian nickel, which he said was being extracted at immense cost to the environment.

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Russia’s Nornickel: Some EU clients refuse to buy products made of Russian metal (Reuters – March 30, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

MOSCOW, March 29 (Reuters) – Russia’s Nornickel, the world’s largest palladium producer and a major producer of high-grade nickel, said on Friday that some clients in the European Union had refused to buy products made with Russian metals.

Although Nornickel itself and its metals is not a target of Western sanctions some consumers are voluntarily shunning deals for its metals and of products made from Russian raw materials, said Anton Berlin, vice president for sales.

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Sudbury developer to test mine former INCO property – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – March 13, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Magna Mining moves into advanced exploration at Crean Hill Project

Magna Mining, a home-grown Sudbury mine developer, is putting the paperwork in place to test mine a former INCO mine. The company said it filed an amended closure plan for its Crean Hill Project with the provincial mines ministry in late February.

This opens the door for Magna to begin an advanced exploration program that will shape the project’s economics and life of mine. Crean Hill is located in the southwest corner of the Sudbury basin. Under the Inco flag, it ran from 1900 to 2002. Magna acquired the asset from Vale in November 2022 and put 19,000 metres of drilling into the property last year.

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Two major mining prospects could put B.C. on the nickel mining map – by Nelson Bennett (Business In Vancouver – December 6, 2024)

https://www.biv.com/

The Baptiste and Turnagain mines would represent $8 billion in capital investments and would contribute significantly to Canada’s nickel production

Canada is the world’s sixth-largest nickel producer, with roughly 130,000 million tonnes of nickel produced in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and Labrador annually. There are currently no nickel mines in B.C., but a growing demand for the metal from the electric vehicle market, and a federal strategy that promotes critical mineral self-sufficiency in Canada, could change that.

There are now two very large nickel mines proposed for B.C., representing a potential investment of roughly $8 billion: The FPX Nickel Corp. (TSX-V: FPX, OTCQB: FPOCF) Baptiste project near Fort St. James and the Giga Metals (TSX-V: GIGA) Turnagain project near Dease Lake in northwest B.C.

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Sudbury developer to test mine former INCO property – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – March 13, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Magna Mining moves into advanced exploration at Crean Hill Project

Magna Mining, a home-grown Sudbury mine developer, is putting the paperwork in place to test mine a former INCO mine. The company said it filed an amended closure plan for its Crean Hill Project with the provincial mines ministry in late February.

This opens the door for Magna to begin an advanced exploration program that will shape the project’s economics and life of mine. Crean Hill is located in the southwest corner of the Sudbury basin. Under the Inco flag, it ran from 1900 to 2002. Magna acquired the asset from Vale in November 2022 and put 19,000 metres of drilling into the property last year.

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Green premium won’t save Australian nickel – by Elouise Fowler (Australian Financial Review – March 10, 2024)

https://www.afr.com/

The boss of acquisitive copper producer Metals Acquisition says the nickel market has “fundamentally shifted” and it is unlikely the world’s largest buyer, China, will pay a “green premium” for the commodity.

Even if nickel miners could fetch a green premium, it may not be enough to make nickel mined outside Indonesia attractive, said Mick McMullen, who is scouring the globe for mines to add to his portfolio.Indonesian nickel has flooded the market, crashing the price of the metal required for steel-making and batteries.

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Nickel from China, Indonesia could face tariffs over market manipulation concerns, Ottawa says – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – March 7, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says Canada and other Western countries could consider imposing tariffs against Indonesia and China because of the potential for market manipulation stemming from their stranglehold on the global nickel market.

Indonesia has gone from supplying 7 per cent of the global supply 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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