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Nickel

Australia’s Kambalda faces future with no nickel output – by Josh Chiat (The West Australian – February 22, 2017)

https://thewest.com.au/

Kambalda has run on nickel dust since it kicked off the base metal’s Australian boom in the 1960s. It is now facing having virtually no nickel production in the town by February next year, with Independence Group saying reserve life extensions at the harvesting phase Long nickel mine have proved unsuccessful.

Long — which delivered 2365 tonnes of nickel to the BHP Billiton Kambalda concentrator in the December quarter — and RNC Minerals’ Beta Hunt, which is now largely a gold operation, are the only producing nickel mines in Kambalda, where a series of operations have been put on care and maintenance amid low prices for the stainless steel ingredient since 2015.

Independence Group managing director Peter Bradford, who is also grappling with lagging development at the company’s flagship Nova nickel- copper mine 160km east of Norseman, said drilling at Victor West had proven unsuccessful.

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‘GROUND ZERO’ IN ELY: CITY IS AT THE CENTER OF THE COPPER-NICKEL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTS – by Jerry Burnes (Mesabi Daily News – February 21, 2017)

http://www.virginiamn.com/

ELY — Ely has always been a mining town. It was in the days when 177 people moved from the village of Florence in 1880 after ore was discovered and the community was mined through. It was when those residents named the town after mining executive Samuel B. Ely, a Michigander, who as legend has it, never stepped foot in the Vermilion Range.

And Ely cemented itself as a mining town when the Pioneer Mine — and 41 million tons of ore — opened in 1889. By the time it closed in 1967, 11 mines opened near the city’s limits.

What makes Ely unique from the others situated on the old Vermilion Range and the current Iron Range is that it has always been a tourist town, too. Even before 1978, when Congress established the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, people flocked to the northern edge of Minnesota for its pristine lakes and access to nature largely unbeknownst to the urban jungle of the metro.

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Road to the Ring of Fire – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – February/March 2017)

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Noront is eager to begin development at Eagle’s Nest, the first of many mines

Spirits were high in March 2015 when the Ontario government announced at the PDAC it was moving forward with an allweather road into the Ring of Fire. Here we are almost two years later, and what do we have for the more than $750,000 in tax dollars that were spent? The answer: Not much. The province has consulted with various First Nations who would welcome a road. It has yet to announce a plan, route or schedule for construction.

Seeing the politicians make a decision and actually build a road is the one thing Alan Coutts, president and CEO of Noront Resources, says is vital to get the Eagle’s Nest nickel-copper-platinum-palladium development under way. The company discovered the deposit in 2007 and sparked a staking rush that made the Ring of Fire the most written about new camp since Hemlo.

The Ring of Fire lies about 500 km northeast of Thunder Bay, Ont. The area is centred on McFaulds Lake on the edge of the James Bay Lowlands. As many as nine First Nations may be impacted by mineral development, making consultation complex.

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Industrial Pollution, The Kola Mining and Metallurgy Combine: Pollution cuts from Norilsk Nickel could quiet Norwegian rebels – by Charles Digges (Bellona.org – February 7, 2017)

http://bellona.org/

Norilsk Nickel head Vladimir Potanin announced plans to spend $17 billion in the company’s modernization during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin last week, about a quarter of which will go toward environmental improvement, by 2023.

The money would add up to a giant slash in sulfur dioxide emissions from the Kola Mining and Metallurgy Company that have been wafting in the hundreds of thousands of tons across the Norwegian border since before the fall of the Soviet Union.

In the meeting, which was described on the Kremlin website, Potanin reiterated promises that the company would slash emissions of sulfur dioxide by 75 percent from its Norilsk facilities in northern Siberia, and by 90 percent at its daughter Kola Mining and Metallurgy Company near Murmansk.

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COLUMN-Nickel market doubles up on political uncertainty – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – February 7, 2017)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Feb 7 Last month Indonesia rocked the nickel market. This month it is the turn of the Philippines. Indonesia’s decision to allow the partial resumption of exports of nickel ore sent the London Metal Exchange (LME) nickel price spiralling to a six-month low of $9,350 per tonne.

What Indonesia giveth, the Philippines apparently taketh away. The country’s eco-warrior-turned-mining-minister Regina Lopez has ordered the closure of 23 mines and the suspension of five others, most of them nickel producers.

In London the price shot up to a three-week high of $10,500 on the news and is currently trading around $10,400. Over the coming weeks nickel’s fortunes are likely to be beholden to the uncertain implications of government policy in both countries.

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Sherritt’s nickel-price boost capped by debt, ‘confusing’ U.S. signals on Cuba – by Sunny Freeman (Financial Post – February 7, 2017)

http://business.financialpost.com/

David Pathe knows what it’s like to be banned from the United States. The chief executive of Toronto-based Sherritt International Corp. received a letter from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security three years ago saying he was no longer welcome in the U.S. because of the miner’s business dealings in Cuba.

“There’s frankly a certain random element to it,” said Pathe, who has been with the company for 10 years and CEO for five.“I tell people that and they’re flabbergasted — a lot of Americans I tell this to can’t believe it.”

Sherritt is a joint owner, along with the Cuban government, of the Moa nickel and cobalt mining, processing and refining operations, and also produces about two-thirds of Cuban oil. The company has been operating under the status quo — including crippling U.S. economic embargo.

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UPDATE 1-Russia’s Nornickel sees nickel, palladium output up in 2017 (Reuters U.S. – January 31, 2017)

http://www.reuters.com/

Jan 31 Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel) , one of the world’s largest nickel and palladium producers, plans to increase output of its main metals from Russian raw material this year, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

Nornickel, which competes with Brazil’s Vale SA for the rank of the world’s top nickel producer, experienced falls in production of nickel, copper and platinum group metals in 2016.

The lower output was mainly due to scheduled decommissioning of an old nickel plant and ongoing reconfiguration of downstream production facilities in northern Siberia.

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Contract for Mine Millers ‘a tough one’ – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – February 1, 2017)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Union representatives were confident a tentative deal with Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations would be approved Tuesday as production and maintenance workers packed a conference room at the Radisson Hotel to place their votes.

And indeed it was, by a 79 per cent margain. The four-year deal, recommended by the bargaining committee for Mine Mill Local 598 Unifor, will see a two-percent wage increase over the length of the contract and a couple of tweaks to dental and drug plans, but no major concessions.

“This one was a tough one, I have to say,” said chief negotiator Richard Paquin, a veteran of four previous rounds of bargaining. “With the price of nickel hovering around $4.20 or $4.30 (per pound), versus what it was four years ago, around $8, it makes bargaining a lot different.”

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Nickel price picked as 2017 winner – by Frik Els (Mining.com – January 30, 2017)

http://www.mining.com/

Nickel fell to a 13-year low of $7,725 a tonne ($3.50 a pound ) in February last year; then rallied to more than $11,700 by mid-November only to fall back nearly 20% to trade at a six-month low on Friday.

Nickel, mainly used as an anti-corrosive in steel alloys, rallied in 2016 on the back of a clampdown on mines in the Philippines which took over as the main supplier to China following an ore export ban in Indonesia in place since 2014.

The market was rocked earlier this month when Indonesia abruptly announced a partial lifting of the ban allowing exports of up to 5.2 million tonnes of nickel ore this year.

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Sudbury INO, Mine Mill have contract – by Staff (Sudbury Star – January 31, 2017)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Glencore and its production and maintenance employees in Sudbury have reached a tentative collective agreement. Workers will vote on the deal Tuesday. The negotiations team for UNIFOR Local 598, Sudbury Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union, is unanimously recommending ratification of the tentative agreement.

The current contract expires Jan. 31 at midnight. Peter Xavier, vice president of Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations (Sudbury INO), a Glencore company, praised the agreement in a release.

“We are very pleased that the parties have reached a tentative agreement that is competitive, fair and represents a balance of interests in securing a longer term future for Sudbury INO, particularly at this time of prolonged market uncertainty,” Xavier said.

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Throwback Thursday: A tribute to the Superstack – by Callam Rodya (Sudbury Northern Life – January 26, 2017)

 

https://www.sudbury.com/

Earlier this week, mining giant Vale made headlines when it announced that, beginning in the year 2020, it will decommission and dismantle the Superstack and replace it with two smaller stacks.

The 381-metre smokestack, the second tallest in the world, has been an iconic symbol of Sudbury since the 1970s and, on our website, many readers expressed their sadness that the towering chimney may soon vanish from the landscape.

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Noront still sold on the Ring of Fire – by Ben Leeson (Sudbury Star – January 27, 2017)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

When it comes to the Ring of Fire, Noront Resources Ltd. is in it for the long haul, president and CEO Alan Coutts said Thursday.

Speaking at Bryston’s on the Park in Copper Cliff as part of the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce President’s Luncheon Series, Coutts talked about the wealth pulled from the ground in the Sudbury area and how he sees similar potential in the Ring, a crescent rich in chromite and other minerals such as nickel and copper, located in the James Bay Lowlands, about 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, and dotted with five small Oji-Cree First Nations communities.

“We all know in this room the last 150 years has generated an incredible amount of wealth and prosperity from the Sudbury Basin,” Coutts said. “The Ring of Fire is almost identical in size, about 100 kilometres from tip to tail, and you can see there are already more than 20 deposits that have been discovered in that region, of various qualities and sizes.”

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DAUDT ASKS TRUMP TO GREEN-LIGHT MINING – by Jerry Burnes (Mesabi Daily News – January 23, 2017)

http://www.virginiamn.com/

In the first week of the new administration, Minnesota’s Iron Range could feel the impact of President Donald Trump, who on Monday took executive action to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Later in the day, Minnesota House Speaker Kurt Daudt sent a letter to Trump asking him to reverse the Obama administration decisions to end mineral leases for Twin Metals, and reverse course on a proposed mining moratorium in Superior National Forest.

“We believe very strongly that we can access those natural resources safely,” Daudt said at a news conference Monday. “We know that the economy and jobs are dependent upon us growing the mining industry and the Range. We think we’ve got really good, safe opportunities to do that.”

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Sudbury Superstack out of service by 2020 – by Ben Leeson (Sudbury Star – January 25, 2017)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

The Superstack, which has dominated the Sudbury skyline since 1970, will soon be no more.

Vale announced plans Tuesday to decommission the iconic smokestack, which rises some 381 metres from the company’s smelter in Copper Cliff, by 2020. The Superstack will be replaced by two smaller and more efficient stacks, about 137 metres each, and eventually torn down.

“This certainly marks an end of an era and a new chapter in our journey as a responsible and sustainable operation,” said Stuart Harshaw, vice-president of Vale’s Ontario operations, during a press conference at Dynamic Earth on Tuesday.

“This is very historic for our operations and for Sudbury. We know a lot of people view the stack as an icon, something you see coming over the hill or coming up from the south.

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NEWS RELEASE: VALE ANNOUNCES SUPERSTACK WILL BE TAKEN OUT OF SERVICE

(L to R) Dave Stefanuto, Vice-President of Vale’s North Atlantic Projects and Base Metals Technology; Chris Hodgson, President of the Ontario Mining Association; Paul Lefebvre Member of Parliament for Sudbury; Glenn Thibeault, Ontario Minister of Energy and Member of Provincial Parliament for Sudbury; Stuart Harshaw, Vice-President of Vale’s Ontario Operations; Marc Serrè, Member of Parliament for Nickel Belt; Al Sizer, Deputy Mayor of the City of Greater Sudbury; Rick Bertrand, President of United Steelworkers, Local 6500; Mike McCann, Director of Milling & Smelting for Vale’s Sudbury Operations.

Emissions to be reduced to the point that the Superstack will no longer be required

SUDBURY, January 24, 2017 – Due to the significant reduction of atmospheric emissions at Vale’s operations in Sudbury, Ontario, today Vale announced its plans to take the iconic 1,250 foot (381 metre) Superstack out of service by the second quarter of 2020. The Superstack will be replaced with two smaller and more efficient 450 foot (137 metre) stacks.

“We are proud to be reducing emissions to a point where the Superstack is no longer required,” said Stuart Harshaw, Vice-President of Vale’s Ontario Operations. “Taking the Superstack out of service is a great symbol of how far Vale has come in terms of shrinking our environmental footprint and making Greater Sudbury a better place to work and live.”

Stuart Harshaw, Vice-President of Vale’s Ontario Operations.

The two smaller and more efficient stacks will require far less energy to operate than the Superstack, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Vale’s Copper Cliff Smelter by approximately 40%. At the same time, Vale’s Clean AER Project will reduce particulate emissions by 40% and dramatically reduce SO2 emissions by 85%.

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