Twitter
Boston-Bay-Mines-Announcement

Nickel

Finnish nickel mining execs on trial for environmental damage (AFP – August 4, 2015)

https://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/

Four former executives with a Finnish nickel mining company accused of contaminating lakes with uranium, cadmium and other toxic elements went on trial Tuesday charged with aggravated environmental damage.

Talvivaara Sotkamo, the bankrupt operator of the European Union’s biggest nickel mine, is also named among the defendants in the highly-publicised case in Kainuu, east-central Finland.

The prosecutor asked the district court to seize 13.3 million euros ($14.6 million) in illegal profits from Talvivaara Sotkamo’s estate and the four executives, according to court documents.

Situated around 500 kilometres (300 miles) north of Helsinki, the mine opened in 2008 amid expectations it would usher in a new era in nickel mining in Finland.

But the operation ended in environmental disaster and economic failure after toxic levels of nickel, cadmium, uranium, aluminium and zinc were detected in nearby lakes and rivers in 2012, and again in 2013 after waste water began to leak from the mine.

Read more

Zinc, nickel add a little lustre to Diggers – by Tess Ingram (Sydney Morning Herald – August 4, 2015)

http://www.smh.com.au/business

As Diggers and Dealers delegates rolled in for day two of the annual mining conference, heavy heads from a late night in Kalgoorlie’s famous watering holes were unlikely to be relieved by an injection of optimism.

Commodity prices are down across the board. Since last year’s conference, base metals are down between 20 and 40 per cent, while gold is down about 15 per cent and iron ore has plummeted nearly 50 per cent during the year.

Australian domiciled gold producers, buoyed by the falling local currency, are a shining centre of attention at the conference but there are some other bright spots.

Despite a recent price slide that has forced some analysts to downgrade their price forecasts, zinc-focused companies at the conference attracted a considerable level of interest from analysts and investors at their marquee booths.

Zinc for delivery in three months has fallen to around $US1893 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange.

Read more

Nunavik nickel firm wants to nearly double Raglan’s lifespan (Nunatsiaq News – July 27, 2015)

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

Glencore proposing to dig four new underground mines at Raglan

The operators of Nunavik’s Raglan nickel mine hope to expand its lifespan well beyond 2019, with the addition of five new underground mines across the region’s nickel belt.

Glencore, the corporation that operates Raglan and its four current underground mines, has submitted the project to the Kativik Environmental Quality Commission, which reviews the social and environmental impact of development in the region.

With current operations scheduled to wind down by 2019, Glencore completed a scoping study last year, the company said, which confirmed viable nickel deposits on the eastern half of the Raglan property. The first phase of the expansion would include two underground mines, called Mine 14 and Donaldson, which would operate from 2019 to 2032.

The exploitation of three new underground mines, Mine 8, Boundary and Boundary West, could extend production from 2023 to 2039, Glencore said in a preliminary information document submitted to the KEQC in 2014.

Read more

Vale’s Nickel IPO Chances Wane as Fires, Shutdowns Hurt Output – by Juan Pablo Spinetto(Bloomberg News – July 23, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

A fire in Canada, disruptions in Indonesia and shutdowns in Brazil and New Caledonia: it was tough getting nickel out of the ground last quarter for Vale SA.

Output of the metal at Vale, the world’s largest producer, missed estimates for a second consecutive quarter. The lower-than-expected production comes as a plunge in metal prices makes the Rio de Janeiro-based company’s plan to sell as much as 30 percent of the unit in an initial public offering less likely.

Vale said in its second-quarter output report Thursday that nickel production rose less than 9 percent to 67,100 metric tons, missing a 73,900-ton average forecast by seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The result, called “poor” by BMO Capital Markets in a research note, puts production for the first half at 136,000 tons, or less than 45 percent of the company’s annual target of 303,000 tons.

Operations in the quarter were affected by a fire at its operations in Sudbury, Ontario, which reduced nickel and copper production by 5,000 tons each, furnace maintenance in Indonesia and a “brief shutdown” for plant improvement at the Onca Puma project in Brazil, Vale said. The miner is planning to close facilities at Sudbury and Thompson in August for maintenance, it said.

Read more

[Vale] World’s Top Iron-Ore Miner Presses on Output as Price Slide – by Juan Pablo Spinetto (Bloomberg News – July 23, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Vale SA boosted iron-ore production last quarter to the second-highest ever for the company, exceeding analyst estimates and worsening a supply glut that saw prices of the steelmaking ingredient collapse.

Iron-ore output rose 7.4 percent to 85.3 million metric tons in the quarter through June 30, compared with 79.4 million tons a year ago, the company said in a statement Thursday. The result, which excludes third-party purchases and operations at a venture with BHP Billiton Plc, topped the 82.5 million-ton average of eight analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

The Rio de Janeiro-based company, the world’s top iron-ore producer, is expanding supply to a record 340 million tons this year while seeking to replace low-quality ore with premium products to improve profits. The expansion by Vale and its main rivals BHP and Rio Tinto Group coincides with an unexpected decline in demand from China, the biggest iron-ore buyer, prompting Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to forecast weaker prices in incoming quarters.

The increase in Vale’s three main production systems was driven by better-than-expected weather and expanded operations at the N4WS mine and Plant 2 unit in the Carajas complex, Vale said in the statement. Output for the first-half reached a record 159.8 million tons, 6.2 percent more than last year.

Read more

Chinese Nickel Imports Jump to 6-Year High as Shortage Looms (Bloomberg News – July 21, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

China imported the most refined nickel in six years in a further sign that the world’s biggest consumer is drawing on global supply. Futures rose 2.4 percent in London.

Inbound shipments of the metal used to produce stainless steel surged 67 percent to 38,545 tons in June from the previous month, the highest since July 2009, and were more than three times the level a year earlier, Chinese customs data show.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. are bullish on prices amid prospects for rising Chinese demand. Macquarie Group Ltd. sees a global shortage which may cut inventories further from a record. Stockpiles in London Metal Exchange sheds have already fallen to the lowest in almost two months. Some imports may have been for delivery against the first nickel contract to expire on the Shanghai bourse, said Celia Wang from Tianjin Zhongwei Group’s investment department.

“Huge imports arrived in China from LME warehouses as traders seek profits by delivering against the first settlement of a Shanghai nickel futures contract,” said Wang, the general manager. “Refined nickel imports are expected to remain at a high level into July.”

Read more

AUDIO: Vale expects to miss 2015 sulpher dioxide emissions target (CBC News Sudbury – July 20, 2015)

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

Company says it has some emissions credits banked from past improvements to its process

Nickel giant Vale doesn’t expect to meet its sulphur dioxide emission targets this year, a decade after they were set.

Vale was granted a five-year extension, and has until the end of this year to get its annual emissions down to 66 kilotonnes.

The company reports it’s currently emitting about 150 kilotonnes, but is aiming to be down to 20 kilotonnes by 2018 — when $1 billion worth of upgrades are completed at its Copper Cliff smelter.

“There’s going to be a couple steps,” said Dan Legrand, Vale’s director of process technology. “The big one will occur in 2018 when we start capturing all of the converter gas.”

Vale has made other changes to its emissions process — racking up government credits that allow it to miss the emissions deadline without penalty. The Ministry of the Environment is keeping a close watch.

Read more

Slump in nickel prices rattles small Australian miners – by Melanie Burton and James Regan (Reuters U.S. – July 15, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

A 30 percent slump in nickel prices this year has piled pressure on small Australian miners, forcing some of them to delay new projects and expansions as they wait for the market to recover.

Poseidon Nickel became the latest miner to succumb when it said on Thursday it would put its Lake Johnston mine on care and maintenance – a sign casualties were mounting amid near record metal stockpiles and weak demand from key consumer China.

Exchange stockpiles of the metal used to make stainless steel nearly doubled in the 18 months to June, pressuring benchmark prices to six-year lows of $10,430 per tonne last week, down 32 percent since the start 2015.

“When you’ve got 70 percent of an industry at break-even or loss making you’re going to see people defer projects and shut down,” said UBS analyst Daniel Morgan in Sydney.

“I think you’ll see a steady stream of these type of announcements for the next several months,” he added.

Read more

Nickel’s fightback begins but obstacles loom – by Pratima Desai (Reuters U.S. – July 15, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) – Prospects for tighter nickel supplies may have put a floor under prices but any real recovery will need Chinese stainless steel mills to step up their orders and global stockpiles to fall.

Benchmark nickel on the London Metal Exchange fell to six-year lows of $10,430 a tonne last week on worries about demand, particularly after a tumble in Chinese equities.

Prices have climbed back to around $11,500 yet remain at just half the $21,625 hit in May 2014 after Indonesia banned nickel ore exports.

The sell-off that followed that peak was triggered by suppliers in the Philippines who moved to supply ore to Chinese smelters, which produce nickel pig iron, a cheaper alternative to refined nickel that costs around $15,000 a tonne to make.

Chinese nickel pig-iron producers are losing money and have cut output. Analysts estimate China’s nickel pig-iron production fell about 25 percent year on year between January and May to below 170,000 tonnes.

Read more

Several rounds of layoffs expected at Lockerby Mine: union – by Jonathan Migneault (Northern Ontario Business – July 8, 2015)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

First Nickel Inc.’s Lockerby Mine in Sudbury will see several rounds of layoffs in the coming months, says the union representing the workers.

Anne-Marie MacInnis, the president of Mine Mill Local 598/Unifor, said the company sent out layoff notices to around 26 workers last week, and is expected to reduce its workforce more in the next few months.

“They’re going to be on care and maintenance in November,” MacInnis said. Under care and maintenance, the company would only need a skeleton crew to maintain infrastructure at the mine site.

MacInnis said the company has agreed, as per the collective agreement, to set up a re-adjustment centre for employees who have received layoff notices. The centre would give them resources to find new jobs.

“They said they would provide a couple computers to allow people to do job searches,” she said.

Read more

BNN Reporter Andrew Bell Interviews Royal Nickel CEO Mark Selby About the Quebec Dumont Nickel Project (July 6, 2015)

  http://www.bnn.ca/ Toronto-based Business News Network (BNN) is a Canadian cable television specialty channel. BNN airs business and financial programming and analysis. BNN reporter Andrew Bell hosts the Commodities program. From aluminum to zinc and everything in between, BNN highlights the hot world of commodities and the companies that produce them, including interviews with mineral and …

Read more

RUSSIAN HEARTLAND: Cossacks on the run to protect nature – by Marc Bennetts (Politico – July 5, 2015)

http://www.politico.eu/

In Russia’s fertile Black Earth region, eco-activists struggle to protect their communities from a state-backed nickel-mining project.

NOVOHOPYORSK, Russia — It’s almost midnight when I arrive in the town of Novokhopyorsk, located deep in the bucolic heart of central Russia’s Black Earth region, so-called for its famously fertile soil. The curtains in a nearby home twitch as I step out of the car — late-night visitors are a rare sight in the rural community.

Surrounded by lush countryside and rolling fields, Novokhopyorsk, population 6,380, has become the unlikely setting of what is arguably modern Russia’s most stubborn protest movement.

The Kremlin may have quashed the mainly middle-class political demonstrations that rocked Moscow in 2011 and 2012, but environmental issues are stirring dissent in Russia’s heartland, creating new problems for the authorities as the war in Ukraine rumbles on and economic instability rises.

Read more

Wallbridge Mining reports promising find near Capreol – by Staff (Sudbury Star – July 3, 2015)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Wallbridge Mining Company says it has uncovered what it is calling massive sulfide nickel-copper and platinum group metals mineralization on one of its Sudbury properties.

“The Parkin properties have high quality near-surface exploration targets and also have significant potential at depth evident from the presence of a surface resource and a past producing mine, as well as significant mineralization intersections at depth in the Milnet 1500 Zone,” Marz Kord, president and CEO of Wallbridge, said in a release.

“We are working to attract new partner financing to advance the Parkin properties and in the meantime we add value by further exploration on the properties.” The Parkin properties are located north of Capreol.

Wallbridg said the properties (Parkin, Milnet, CBA Parkin, and Parkin East) cover a 9.4-km strike length of the Parkin Offset dyke, which hosts nickel, copper, and platinum group metals mineralization, including:

Read more

Fickle nickel stocks poised for a comeback – by Trevor Hoey (Australian Financial Review – July 1, 2015)

http://www.afr.com/

Nickel takes the prize for being the most volatile of the base metals and while it is hovering around the low point of where it has traded since 2004 it seems to have finally found a base.

Nickel takes the prize for being the most volatile base metal, and while it is hovering around the low point of where it has traded since 2004, when the mining boom started to gain traction, it does seem to have found a base in the vicinity of $US5.70 a pound.

Analysts at UBS noted last week London Metals Exchange’s (LME) nickel inventory stood at about 460,000 tonnes and that over the past two weeks stocks had eased a total of 12,000 tonnes in 11 straight days of declines.

The broker also said cancelled warrants could potentially be a lead indicator of physical metal demand. A substantial increase in April imports from China strengthens nickel’s macroeconomic case.

UBS is forecasting a significant increase in price in 2016 and sees the current sub-$US6 a pound price as representing good value.

Read more

Environmental groups pressure Dayton to wade into debate on copper, nickel mine in Minnesota (Associated Press/Minneapolis Star Tribune – June 29, 2015)

http://www.startribune.com/

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Environmental advocates trying to stop a proposed copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota launched an ad campaign on Monday aimed not at the company behind the project but at Gov. Mark Dayton, hoping to persuade the Democrat to require stronger environmental protections.

The latest environmental review of PolyMet Mining Corp’s open-pit mine, released by the Department of Natural Resources last week, did little to assuage concerns of a coalition of environmental groups called Mining Truth, despite finding that the mine likely wouldn’t significantly impact water quality. In a statewide ad expected to begin airing this week, the group shows video of a massive spill of mining waste in Canada and calls on Dayton to reject the mine’s waste storage system they say could result in a similar accident in Minnesota.

“Future generations will be cleaning up the mess left behind,” said Aaron Klemz, a spokesman for the group, referring to the site of the 2014 spill in Canada.

Last week’s report was the latest in a decade-long review for PolyMet’s project, which would be Minnesota’s first copper and nickel mine and could add hundreds of jobs in a region wracked by recent layoffs at iron ore mining operations.

Read more