Nickel – Page 89 – Republic of Mining

Sudbury PoV: City’s politicians must work together – by Don MacDonald (Sudbury Star – January 13, 2016)

January 14, 2016

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Don MacDonald is the editor of the Sudbury Star.

The thing about commodity prices is you can never be sure when they are going to drop and, when they do, how long it will take for them to recover.

Nationally, Canadians are seeing the effect of low oil prices on the Alberta and Canadian economies: thousands of jobs lost, alarming drops in capital spending, a decline in the value of the loonie and the inflation that causes, and billions in government revenues gone.

Sudbury is experiencing something similar as the prices of nickel, copper and other metals fall. This time last year, nickel was selling for close to $7 a pound U.S. Today, it’s selling for less than $3.80. Experts had predicted nickel would recover by the end of 2015, but that never happened.

This Bet Requires Stubborn Faith After Nickel’s Epic 2015 Fail (Bloomberg News – January 13, 2016)

January 13, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

This year will be different. That’s what some analysts are saying about the price of nickel, a metal used in making stainless steel that was supposed to surge last year but instead plunged to a 12-year low.

While the slump of 2015 has continued this month, the consensus forecast is that the long-expected reduction in supplies will finally materialize.

The bet is that users will draw down inventories, mine output will shrink because most of the industry is losing money, and demand will improve in China, the world’s biggest consumer. That should spark a rally, albeit from prices that are 44 percent lower than a year ago, the bulls contend.

Copper, Nickel Rebound as China Intervenes in Stock Market – by Agnieszka De Sousa and Luzi-Ann Javier (Bloomberg News – January 5, 2016)

January 6, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Copper climbed the most in two weeks and nickel gained after China sought to support its stock market following Monday’s rout that sent metal prices tumbling.

State-controlled funds in China bought equities and regulators signaled a selling ban on major investors will remain beyond this week’s expiration date, according to people familiar with the matter. Most metals traded in London and a gauge of mining shares rose.

On Monday, copper fell the most in three weeks, helping take an index of six main contracts on the London Metal Exchange to its biggest slump since September after a plunge in mainland China shares triggered a trading halt.

KGHM seeks global status amid commodities downturn – by Henry Foy (Financial Times – December 30, 2015)

January 4, 2016

http://www.ft.com/

Lubin – A kilometre below the rolling countryside of south-west Poland, scores of men labour in hot, cramped tunnels mining copper that has made KGHM Europe’s second-largest producer of the red metal.

Yet the future of the Polish miner lies halfway around the world, in the rocky hills of Ontario, Canada, and the Atacama Desert of northern Chile.

There, the success of two big investments will determine whether KGHM becomes Poland’s first truly global company, or an overambitious regional player that failed to achieve international status.

The state-controlled group has already spent more than $7bn on acquiring and developing the Canadian and Chilean mines, assets that give it control of the world’s fourth-largest copper deposits.

Boliden, Lundin Said to Weigh Final Bids for First Quantum Mine – by Dinesh Nair and Brett Foley (Bloomberg News – December 17, 2015)

December 18, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Boliden AB and Lundin Mining Corp. are among companies considering final bids for First Quantum Minerals Ltd.’s Kevitsa mine as the Canadian explorer looks for ways to cut debt, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Kevitsa, one of the largest nickel reserves in Finland, may fetch at least $1 billion in a sale, the people said, asking not to be identified as the negotiations are private. First Quantum expects to receive final bids by early next year, one of the people said.

Mining companies globally are slashing costs and selling assets to counter a drop in commodity prices. First Quantum said in October that it plans to reduce debt by $1 billion through measures such as asset sales, as well as job and capital-spending cuts.

State of mine: trainers help Inuit get jobs at Nunavik’s Raglan mine – by Sarah Rogers (Nunatsiaq News – December 17, 2015)

December 17, 2015

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

RAGLAN MINE — The December sun has yet to peak over the tundra when three young men, bundled in orange one-piece suits and safety gear, are ushered into the room.

Each from a different Nunavik community, these are Raglan mine’s newest recruits: apprentice miners, looking nervous and keen. Samwillie Grey-Scott welcomes them, switching between Inuktitut and English. Grey-Scott, an apprentice trainer at Raglan, is preparing them for their first trip underground.

That first trip will determine a lot: if the new apprentices can stomach the feeling of being 1,300 metres down, and if they can adapt to a dark environment and commit to working long hours in those underground tunnels.

NEWS RELEASE: Royal Nickel Completes Dumont Bulk Test and Successfully Produces World’s Highest Grade Nickel Sulphide Concentrate

December 15, 2015

http://www.royalnickel.com/

Toronto, Ontario, December 15, 2015 – Royal Nickel Corporation (“RNC”) (TSX: RNX) has
successfully completed a large scale bulk test which generated approximately 2 tonnes of nickel concentrate from 300 tonnes of ore from the Dumont Nickel Project.

The sample was produced at a pilot plant at SGS Minerals Services in Lakefield, Ontario. The concentrate will be further treated though a roasting process and sent to potential customers in Asia and Europe which will allow RNC to continue to advance its offtake and financing discussions.

The average grade of the sulphide concentrate, as measured from the pilot plant surveys, was over 31% nickel, consistent with the previous test work performed as the basis of the feasibility study.

Too much nickel being produced, analysts warn – by Staff (Sudbury Star/Reuters – December 15, 2015)

December 15, 2015

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

As much as 70 per cent of global nickel output is unprofitable, the chief executive officer Glencore says, amid calls to slash production.

Ivan Glasenberg said that in 2013, the biggest nickel producers “really screwed up” by expanding too fast. The Baar, Switzerland-based company has already cut output in copper, zinc and coal.

In Sudbury, Glencore operates the Nickel Rim and Fraser mines, a mill and a smelter and employs about 1,200 people.

“People are bleeding cash, and when I say bleeding, it’s big cash,” Bloomberg News reported Glasenberg as saying, adding that as much as 70 per cent of global nickel output is unprofitable.

UPDATE 2-Mining magnate Palmer seeks government support to save nickel plant – by Sonali Paul (December 8, 2015)

December 8, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

Dec 8 Australian mining magnate Clive Palmer said on Tuesday his Queensland Nickel refinery in Australia was seeking “minimal” government assistance to avert closure of the plant, hit by weak metals prices.

The businessman turned politician warned that the loss of the refinery would have serious consequences for the region around the city of Townsville in Queensland state, placing some 1,600 jobs in jeopardy.

The call for assistance from the Queensland state treasurer’s office comes a day after Palmer lost a bid to secure a $48 million advance from China’s CITIC Ltd in a West Australian court as part of an unrelated dispute over iron ore, having argued the funds were urgently needed for the Queensland business.

Nickel to rebound, Sudbury chamber told – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – December 4, 2015)

December 4, 2015

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

An economist who interprets economic trends and their impact on business delivered good news to about 130 members of the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce this week.

The price of nickel, which is at its lowest in a decade after falling 31 per cent this year to less than $4 a pound, is expected to rebound to a balanced market price by the end of 2016 as lower production worldwide brings the supply closer to the demand.

The price of copper, down 14 per cent in 12 months, is also expected to recover, although not so quickly. Pierre Cleroux said he expects to see a balanced copper market by the end of 2017.

Nickel’s hiatus may be brief without output cuts, stronger demand – by Pratima Desai (Reuters U.S. – November 27, 2015)

November 27, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Nov 27 Nickel’s spectacular fall since the middle of last year may have come to a halt, but without significant, enduring output cuts and stronger demand from China’s stainless steel mills the reprieve could be brief.

Benchmark nickel on the London Metal Exchange fell to $8,145 a tonne earlier this week, less than half the level seen in May last year and its lowest since the middle of 2003.

Funds reversing their bets on lower prices on the expectation that Chinese producers may cut output since then pushed prices back up to near $9,000 a tonne.

China’s Nickel Smelters Agree 20% Production Cut for 2016 (Bloomberg News – November 27, 2015)

November 27, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Nickel smelters in China, the largest producer, plan to cut output next year by at least 20 percent in a bid to shore up prices after the metal plunged to its lowest in 12 years.

Eight producers, including the largest refined metal supplier Jinchuan Group Co. and nickel pig iron maker Tsingshan Holding Group Co., also agreed to cut output next month by 15,000 metric tons, according to a statement circulated by the group on Wechat.

The smelters didn’t say how much of China’s total supply the 20 percent reduction would account for, but their statement suggests cuts of about 120,000 tons next year, according to Celia Wang, general manager at Tianjin Zhongwei Group Co.’s investment department.

Nickel goes below $4: Mining suppliers get hit – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – November 25, 2015)

November 26, 2015

http://www.northernlife.ca/

In a year that has seen two mine closures in Greater Sudbury, the low price of nickel has also resulted in a significant downturn in jobs available for the city’s mining supply and services sector, says the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA).

SAMSSA executive director Dick DeStefano said his members have been mum on the impact low nickel prices has had on their businesses, but said it has definitely resulted in fewer contracts with larger firms like Vale and Glencore.

Nickel hit a multi-year low of US$3.75 a pound Monday, and climbed slightly Tuesday to $3.92 a pound by 3:50 p.m.

Memories from the University of Inco – by Stan Sudol

November 23, 2015

I am an Inco brat. I was born and raised in the shadows of those tall industrial smokestacks that tower over the city of Sudbury, Canada. In the days when I turned 18 in the late 1970s, if you didn’t go to university, then it was almost a rite of passage to work for “Mother Inco,” as it was affectionately (or derisively) known.

For most students today, the prospects of a good-paying summer job to help finance post-secondary education has become an elusive dream. Skyrocketing tuition fees combined with minimum-wage work equals enormous debt at graduation.

I truly feel sorry for these students, as my own experiences in the decade of disco included a wonderful combination of affordable tuition fees and blue-collar union employment that made a major contribution to my post-secondary education costs.

Vale to shut Manitoba nickel smelting, refining in 2018 – by Rod Nickel (Reuters U.S. – November 19, 2015)

November 19, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

Nov 19 Brazilian miner Vale SA will close its nickel smelting and refining operations in the western Canadian province of Manitoba in 2018, but will continue mining and milling despite the plunge in the price of nickel, a company official said on Thursday.

Vale, the world’s biggest nickel producer, will cease smelting and refining in Thompson, Manitoba, once work is complete to allow it to produce and ship nickel concentrate from its mill, said Mark Scott, Vale’s director of mining and milling in Thompson.

Smelting and refining operations were originally scheduled for closure this year, until the company struck an agreement with workers and Canada’s environment department to keep them running until as late as 2019.