Twitter

Nickel

[Newfoundland and Labrador] A BOOM GOES BUST – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – March 19, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

After riding the oil boom for more than a decade, Newfoundland and Labrador has fallen on hard times. Multibillion-dollar projects have dried up, iron ore mines have shuttered and the fallout of crude’s price plunge has pushed the deficit to a record $2-billion. How the province is grappling with a return to ‘have-not’ status

ST. JOHN’S – Rick Farrell was among hundreds who lost their jobs in December when the shipyard where they worked finished making a gigantic module for Newfoundland and Labrador’s fourth offshore oil field – Hebron.

Unlike previous years when unemployed tradespeople could easily find work in Alberta, that was no longer an option with oil prices plunging.

The layoffs hit Mr. Farrell’s hometown of Marystown hard and rippled across Newfoundland’s Burin peninsula, hurting the local businesses and small communities that dot the province’s southern coast.

Read more

PoV: Ted Szilva made Sudbury a better place – by Don MacDonald (Sudbury Star – March 16, 2016)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Don MacDonald is the editor of the Sudbury Star.

Ted Szilva will be best known as the creator of the Big Nickel, an iconic landmark that now helps define Greater Sudbury for many Canadians.

Szilva, who died last week at the age of 81, was much more than the Big Nickel, however. He was a bit of a visionary who helped the city re-imagine itself.

A firefighter and not quite 30 when he opened the Big Nickel (a nine-metre or 30-foot replica of a 1951 Canadian nickel) in 1964, he went on to build an underground mine at the site, located on hill overlooking the intersection of Municipal Road 55 and Big Nickel Drive. He did so mostly on his own and with no support from municipal leaders at the time.

Read more

Output cuts halt nickel price fall, more mine closures needed – by Louise Heavens (Reuters U.S. – March 16, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – Nickel’s freefall may have halted as output cuts move the chronically oversupplied market towards deficit, but prices are unlikely to recover sharply unless more loss-making mines close.

Prices for the metal used to make stainless steel have crashed more than 40 percent since the start of 2015 on rising stockpiles and weak Chinese demand, leaving around 70 percent of producers losing money, according to consultants at CRU Group.

But cutbacks, at a time when demand is steadying, should boost benchmark prices on the London Metal Exchange, which recently hit 13-year lows at $7,550 a tonne. It is now around $8,525.

Read more

Norilsk calls for nickel production to be reduced – by Henry Sanderson (Financial Times – March 13, 2016)

http://www.ft.com/

London – The world’s biggest nickel producer, Norilsk Nickel, has warned that prices for the metal are unlikely to rise unless lossmaking producers start to shut mines and close production.

Up to a quarter of global nickel producing capacity needs to shut, Pavel Fedorov, vice-president of the company, said in an interview.

“If other producers are rational we shall see a market readjustment — but if other producers don’t behave rationally then prices will remain low until rational behaviour returns to the market,” he said.

Read more

[Sudbury Big Nickel Iconic Landmark] Ted Szilva has passed away – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – March 11, 2016)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

The man responsible for the creation of one of Canada’s best-known landmarks has died at age 81. Ted Szilva was an ambitious young firefighter when he came up with the idea of producing a giant coin as a symbol for the world’s nickel capital.

The replica 1951 nickel, which cost $35,000, led to the creation of Big Nickel Mine, an attraction of Science North, and eventually Dynamic Earth.

Szilva went against public opinion when he set out to produce the Big Nickel. He raised the funds to create the Big Nickel monument by selling medallions and coins he developed.
”I would get $6,000 to $7,000 in one day through the sale of the medallions,” he said told The Sudbury Star’s Harold Carmichael in 2003. He could not get bank financing because he was told his was a “crackpot” idea.

Read more

Vale making strides towards underground mine in Labrador – by Terry Roberts (CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador – March 10, 2016)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

Plans to expand Vale’s mining operations in Labrador are progressing as the Brazilian-based mining giant prepares for construction at the Voisey’s Bay site.

A company official says a project team is being assembled in St. John’s, the procurement process is underway, and the process of selecting an engineering and project management contractor is in the final stages.

Civil construction will begin this summer, Vale’s Bob Carter explained in a statement to CBC News, and the new mine is expected to produce first ore in four years. “Next year we will begin the actual underground mine development work,” he wrote.

Read more

Unexpected headwinds keep commodity prices lower for longer – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – March 7, 2016)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – A faster-than-expected slowdown in demand for commodities in 2015 has placed a damper on broad-based commodity price recoveries in 2016, compounded by lacklustre global economic growth and record inventories, which will take time to work down as production cutbacks and mine closures take effect.

Analysts representing the world’s top market intelligence firms were talking about commodities and the market outlook in Toronto on Sunday, on the first day of the yearly Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s convention – the largest mining show on earth.

Kicking off the afternoon session was Randgold Resources chief executive Mark Bristow, who outlined future strategic paths for mining companies in today’s new environment. He examined the challenges inherent in reconciling the industry’s essentially long-term nature with the market’s short-term demands and explained that the definition of growth was not immutable but changed from stakeholder to stakeholder and at different points in the price cycle.

Read more

A plan for Minnesota’s first copper-nickel mine has passed a major milestone – by Steve Karnowski (Vancouver Province – March 3, 2016)

http://www.theprovince.com/

ASSOCIATED PRESS-MINNEAPOLIS – A plan for Minnesota’s first copper-nickel mine passed a major milestone Thursday with the Department of Natural Resources approving the project’s final environmental review, meaning the company can now start pursuing the long list of permits it needs to move forward.

DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr said he determined that the 3,500-page environmental impact statement for the proposed PolyMet mine in northeastern Minnesota meets all the legal requirements. If the project is built as described, he said, “we will meet standards … intended to protect public health and the environment.”

The approval lets PolyMet Mining Corp. begin applying for the more than 20 permits it needs to build the mine near Babbitt and processing operations six miles away near Hoyt Lakes, at the site of the former LTV Steel taconite plant that has been closed since 2001.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: Little Growth Expected in Sudbury and Thunder Bay this Year

OTTAWA, March 3, 2016 /CNW/ – Sudbury and Thunder Bay can expect positive but modest growth of around 1 per cent in 2016, according to The Conference Board of Canada’s Metropolitan Outlook: Winter 2016.

“Sudbury and Thunder Bay faced difficult economic conditions in 2015 and weak resources prices will continue to weigh on their economies this year. Though both cities will see positive economic growth this year, it will be modest at best,” said Alan Arcand, Associate Director, Centre for Municipal Studies.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Following two years of declines, Sudbury’s economy is forecast to expand by 1 per cent in 2016.
  • Thunder Bay’s economy will continue to expand in 2016, albeit by a modest 1.1 per cent.
  • Vancouver will be the fastest growing metropolitan economy in Canada in 2016, with growth of 3.3 per cent.

Read more

Western’s not fickle on nickel, but losing dimes – by Paul Garvey (The Australian – February 26, 2016)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

Western Areas — the last man standing in Australia’s nickel sector — says it is still a long way from following its peers in shutting down its nickel mines, with the company instead pushing ahead with exploration studies despite recording a first-half loss.

The Perth-based miner yesterday axed its dividend and revealed a 10 per cent cut in salaries to its board and senior management after posting a $20 million loss, down from a $23.5m profit one year ago.

Western Areas is the last pure-play nickel company still in production, following the recent decisions by Panoramic Resources and Mincor Resources to shut their remaining mines. The price of nickel, which is used in the production of stainless steel, has fallen to its lowest level in a decade due to a combination of weakened demand and continued oversupply.

Read more

World Bank lowers nickel price projection, Terrafame sticks to optimistic forecast (Ujtkset News – Feburary 23, 2016)

http://yle.fi/uutiset/

The state-owned company Terrafame, which now owns and operates Talvivaara’s mining operations in Sotkamo, eastern Finland, says it’s sticking to optimistic price forecasts for its business and financial planning. The World Bank however, has forecast a 15-percent drop in market prices for nickel, one of the mine’s main outputs.

Shortly after it acquired the mining operation Talvivaara last August, the state-owned company Terrafame said that it would be basing its business plans on “conservative nickel price forecasts” issued by the World Bank.

“Our business plan is based on it [nickel prices] rising to about 16,000 dollars [per ton] by 2020, which it the World Bank’s forecast. If we stick to this framework, then we will be able to achieve a positive cash flow by the end of 2017 into 2018,” Terrafame board chair Lauri Ratia said in mid-August.

Read more

UPDATE 3-Brazil’s Vale posts record iron ore, nickel output even as prices slump – by Jeb Blount (Reuters India – February 18, 2016)

http://in.reuters.com/

Feb 18 Brazilian miner Vale SA produced record amounts of iron ore, nickel, copper, cobalt and gold as it battled a slump in global metals prices by boosting output in search of greater market share.

Results, though, were below what some analysts expected even as they helped Vale, the world’s third-largest mining company, meet some of its own output targets.

Fourth-quarter iron ore production rose 2.4 percent year on year to 88.4 million tonnes, its largest ever fourth-quarter total, the company said on Thursday. Output was down 3 percent compared with the third quarter.

Read more

Vale freezes hiring in Sudbury – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 18, 2016)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Vale Ltd. has implemented a hiring freeze at its Sudbury operations as the company faces the challenge of nickel prices that dipped lower than $3.50 a pound this year.

The freeze has been in effect since early January, said Vale spokeswoman Angie Robson, “but even before that, through 2015 given market challenges, we have been very selective in terms of hiring.”

The only exception to the freeze is those roles critical to run the business safely and productively, said Robson.

Low metal prices are putting the squeeze on mining companies everywhere including Sudbury.

Read more

As pressure on BHP and Glencore grows, Australia cuts may signal nickel revival – by Melanie Burton (Reuters U.S. – February 10, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE – Australian nickel miners are under increasing pressure to suspend or cut production, with investors eyeing key announcements in coming weeks after rival producers in New Caledonia won a pledge of support from France.

Benchmark prices of the steel-making material have fallen more than 45 percent since early 2015 to their lowest since 2003, and are seen grinding lower amid ample global stocks and slowing property growth in top consumer China.

Glencore and BHP Billiton, whose high-cost Murrin Murrin and Nickel West facilities are struggling to sustain operations, are both due to make production and profit reports in coming weeks. News of any output cuts could buoy prices.

Read more

Nickel price crushed by weight of ghost stocks – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – February 8, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – Another day, another landmark low for the nickel price.

London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month nickel traded down to $7,900 per ton on Monday morning. Forget the troughs of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008. Nickel is now trading at levels last seen in April 2003.

And there may be worse to come.

Might the price of nickel fall below that of copper, which is currently trading on the LME around $4,600 per ton? “Not an inconceivable prospect by any means,” according to one analyst, Leon Westgate of ICBC Standard Bank. (“Commodities Weekly”, Feb. 4, 2016).

Read more