First Nickel committed to Lockerby Mine -by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 12, 2015)

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

First Nickel wouldn’t be planning to invest as much as $900,000 in exploration drilling in 2015 if it didn’t believe Lockerby Mine had a future longer beyond a year or two.

The company made tough decisions in December, bringing in a new vice-president of Sudbury operations, developing a plan to cut expenses and employees, and resuming mining its ramp development between the 6,800-foot level, says FNI’s Thomas Boehlert. FNI issued layoff notices to about 25% of its own employees and cut 75% of the contractors it was employing so it could save 130 other jobs at the mine formerly owned by Falconbridge Ltd.

The economics of the market, the low price of nickel and the cost of running the mine forced the company to stop ramp development in 2014. But it decided to resume mining below that level, mining the ore it believes will last until 2016, as it invests in diamond drilling to define and “prove up” other ore bodies at the mine, says Boehlert, the president and chief executive officer of First Nickel.

If cuts to expenses, including some at FNI’s Toronto office, hadn’t been made, the company would have quickly mined out the remaining reserves at and above the 6,800-foot level and had to close the mine, said Boehlert in a recent interview.

Read more

‘Full speed ahead’ for Victoria Mine, says KGHM manager – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life -February 11, 2015)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Project still waiting for full funding from KGHM

It’s still “full speed ahead” for KGHM’s Victoria Mine project in Sudbury, said a senior manager with the company in Sudbury.

Trevor Eagles, KGHM’s manager of engineering in Sudbury, said the project is finalizing a feasibility study, and is on schedule to complete a mining shaft by 2019.

In 2014 KGHM completed timbering at the site, located about two kilometres south of the historic Victoria Mine, which was first developed in the 1890s and then closed in the 1920s.

The former Inco reopened the mine in the 1970s, and made a deal with KGHM’s predecessor, FNX, in 2002, to take control. A long and thin ore body – about 50 kilometres long – was discovered in 2010, which the company now wants to bring into production.

KGHM estimates the new mine site contains 14.2 million tonnes of resources. The inferred resources include 700 million pounds of copper, 700 million pounds of Nickel and 3.5 million ounces of platinum group elements. “Everybody working on the project is fully confident we have a world-class ore deposit and a very strong business case,” said Eagles.

KGHM’s original plan was to sink two mine shafts at the site – an initial exploration shaft, and a second larger shaft for production – but in the last six to eight months, the company decided instead to go with one larger mine shaft.

Read more

INTERVIEW-Vale’s CEO rules out nickel IPO, writedowns – by Stephen Eisenhammer and Marta Nogueira (Reuters U.K. – February 11, 2015)

http://uk.reuters.com/

Feb 10 (Reuters) – Vale’s chief executive said on Tuesday that a possible initial public offer of part of its nickel division was off the cards for now due to low prices for the commodity, but that other asset sales could be expected over the coming year.

The Brazilian miner is under pressure to resolve a cash-flow squeeze this year as it wrestles to fund mega-projects in the midst of a price slump in its core product: iron ore. But Chief Executive Murilo Ferreira said that the option of spinning off part of its base metals division, which had been outlined in December, was no longer attractive.

“We’re not going to sell it on the cheap … You can forget that possibility,” Ferreira said in an interview at the Rio de Janeiro offices of the world’s largest iron ore producer.

He added that a sale of the entire division was not being considered, and dismissed reports that former Xstrata CEO Mick Davis might be looking to buy it through his startup, X2. “It has been at least two years since I have seen our friend Mick Davis,” he said.

Cash will be raised through other means and Ferreira said the market could expect an announcement of some form of divestment in March and another in the second half of the year. He did not elaborate.

Read more

COLUMN-Nickel’s bull story; just a simple matter of timing? – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – February 10, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

Feb 10 (Reuters) – Good things, they say, come to those that wait. Just ask a nickel bull.

The nickel market went on a super-charged rally over the first half of last year, the benchmark London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month price racing up from below $15,000 per tonne to a May high of $21,625.

The trigger was the well-flagged but widely unexpected decision by the Indonesian government to ban the export of unprocessed minerals in January. At the stroke of a presidential pen, China’s massive nickel pig iron (NPI) sector lost its main source of feed.

Great expectations, however, were dashed by reality, specifically a compensatory surge in nickel ore supply from the Philippines.

The subsequent price collapse was as spectacular as the original rally. And here we are again, the London nickel market kicking its heels around the $15,000 level.

But the bull story hasn’t gone away. It has merely been postponed. Nickel is still metal analysts’ favoured upside pick over a two-year time horizon.

So, will this be nickel’s year (again)? Possibly, but there are many moving parts to this bull story and at its core lies one of the least transparent parts of the global industry.

Read more

Sudbury needs premier needs to act boldly [turn Laurentian in global Harvard of hardrock mining] – by Stan Sudol (Sudbury Star – February 9, 2015)

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

Note: this is the second of two parts.

Sudbury: Paris of the Mining World

While I can’t remember who coined the phrase, “Sudbury, the Paris of the Mining World” – I wish I had been that clever – there is an amazing amount of truth to the statement. Obviously, in no uncertain terms, does any part of Sudbury remind anyone – even in a drugged or drunken state – of Paris.

However, my lake-filled, mid-sized hometown does have a wide variety of retail, tourist, educational and other amenities that most tiny isolated mining towns do not and it is located only 400 km north of Canada’s largest city, Toronto.

A few years ago, a colleague who moved from Red Lake to Sudbury almost considered herself in “mining heaven” with the abundance of amenities not found in that tiny gold mining centre.

In addition to the Ontario government’s new differentiation and international student outreach policies, there are many other reasons why all post-secondary mining programs should be relocated to Sudbury’s Laurentian University.

Read more

[Minnesota] Copper/nickel hearing passionate – by Julia Van Susteren (Mesabi Daily News – February 3, 2015)

http://www.virginiamn.com/

Iron Range nonferrous mining issue in St. Paul

ST. PAUL — Proposed copper/nickel/precious mining on the Iron Range, always controversial and stirring strong passions on both sides, once again visited the State Capitol on Tuesday.

Citizens and mining industry supporters all had their say at a Mining and Outdoor Recreation Policy Committee hearing in the Senate Office Building. The small meeting room was crowded wall-to-wall with attendees, including many anti-mining advocates, supporters of nonferrous projects, and even a few interested lawmakers.

Executive Director of MiningMinnesota Frank Ongaro opened the meeting by citing various economic and long-term environmental benefits mining contribute to the state, local communities and the world.

Representatives from PolyMet, which is in the environmental impact statement process in advance of permitting for its project at the former LTV Mining Co. site near Hoyt Lakes, and Twin Metals Minnesota, which is not as far along for their projects near Ely and Babbitt, further testified about the importance of their ventures.

Representatives of various citizens’ groups argued passionately against the proposed mining projects, citing loss of tourism interest, contamination of pristine environments, and loss of personal property.

Read more

Russia’s biggest miner faces Arctic prices challenge – by Polina Devitt (Reuters India – January 30, 2015)

http://in.reuters.com/

NORILSK, Russia – Reuters) – Russia’s financial crisis is posing a stark challenge to the country’s largest mining company. How can Norilsk Nickel protect the living standards of thousands of workers cut off inside the inhospitable Arctic while also satisfying its shareholders?

The slump in the ruble and a resulting rise in inflation could have an outsize effect in Norilsk, a town 300 km inside the Arctic Circle where more than a quarter of the 220,000 population work for the company, and it’s hard to shop around.

Winter temperatures in Norilsk plunge to levels that visitors can find distinctly uncomfortable, but for the isolated workers who live there any hint of a rise in the cost of living is equally unwelcome.

With the rouble down 50 percent against the dollar since early last year and Russian food inflation above 15 percent, it falls partly to the company to bear the cost of holding down prices in the grimy industrial city where it is based.

Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest producer of nickel and palladium, owns a loss-making chain of seven shops called “Sunflower”, which have sold staples such as milk and bread more cheaply than other stores in the city since 2011.

The company also helps other retailers bring food supplies to the city and subsidizes their transport costs. It increased its workers’ salaries on Jan. 1 and plans another review on April 1, said Vladimir Potanin, chief executive and co-owner.

Read more

Metals supercycle remains intact, says Bay Street analyst Ray Goldie – by Peter Kennedy (Stockhouse.com – January 28, 2015)

http://www.stockhouse.com/

One of Canada’s most seasoned commodities analysts says the long term outlook is bright for key base metals, including nickel, copper and zinc.

Raymond Goldie, Vice-President, Commodity Economics with Salman Partners was in Vancouver Tuesday to talk about the “super cycle,” a term that was often used in the early part of this century when metal prices kept going up in a seemingly relentless fashion.

“We have been in a super cycle since 2004,’’ Goldie told the CFA Society of Vancouver during a lunchtime speech.

But even though the price of key metals has weakened in the past two years, it doesn’t mean the current supercycle is over. Rather it is caught in a “mid-cycle trough,” he said. “The rebound lies ahead.”

The veteran Bay Street analyst, who was widely known for his coverage of iconic Canadian mining companies like Falconbridge and Inco Ltd. before they were swallowed up in the globalization process, said the near term outlook is brightest for nickel.

He said supply is constrained by an Indonesian ban on exports of raw ore, which is affecting China’s ability to produce nickel pig iron, a low grade ferronickel invented in China as a cheap alternative to pure nickel for the production of stainless steel.

Read more

CORRECTED-Weak rouble helps Russia’s Norilsk weather metals fall – CEO – by Polina Devitt (Reuters U.S. – January 23, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

NORILSK, Russia, Jan 23 (Reuters) – Falling metal prices are being more than offset by the rouble slide, allowing Russia’s Norilsk Nickel to maintain margins despite lower foreign currency earnings, its chief executive said.

CEO and co-owner Vladimir Potanin, Russia’s eighth richest man with a $12.6 billion fortune from the world’s largest nickel and palladium miner, said if metal prices remained at current levels, Norilsk’s 2015 foreign currency revenues would decline from a year earlier to $10 billion.

But he said lower metal prices would not affect the company’s earnings before interest, tax and depreciation (EBITDA) margin, which would exceed 40 percent this year. He did not provide data for 2014.

Many Russian companies have been hit by a downturn in the economy, suffering from weak oil prices and Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, but exporters are enjoying the 50 percent drop in the rouble since the beginning of last year.

Potanin said more important for his core business, based 300 km (186 miles) inside the Arctic Circle where it is dark for more than a month in winter, were prices for the company’s main metal products.

Read more

Canadian ore carrier makes historic journey to China via Northwest Passage – by Richard Desgagnes and Andrew Godfrey (Canadian Mining Journal – January 2015)

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Richard Desgagnes is a Senior Partner and Andrew Godfrey is an Associate with Norton Rose Fulbright.

Shipping history was recently made in Canada when Fednav’s MV Nunavik sailed from Deception Bay, Quebec to Bayuquan, China via Canada’s Northwest Passage.

The ship carried 24,000 tons of nickel concentrate and became the first commercial vessel to transit the Northwest Passage westward, unescorted, with an Arctic cargo and with Canadian expertise. In doing so the transit time was reduced by about 18 days (or about 5,800 miles) than had it been routed through the Panama Canal.

This and other developments are opening new frontiers of coastal mining transportation in Canada. Wherever a mining project is located, however, there are some key issues that have to be addressed when looking at maritime transportation.

FLAG CONSIDERATION: If the transportation needs are purely domestic (from one point in Canada to another), due to coasting trade restrictions, the vessel must be Canadian flagged and manned by Canadian seafarers. As such, manning costs are much higher compared to some other foreign flag operations. For carriage to a destination outside of Canada however, there is no restriction on the nationality of the vessel or the crew used on-board. All vessels are regulated by the standards of the IMO (International Maritime Organization).

Read more

Nickel miners shrug off sluggish prices – by Paul Garvey (The Australian – January 22, 2015)

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

NICKEL miners Western Areas and Panoramic Resources have shrugged off the sluggish nickel price with respective pieces of good news, with Western Areas flagging a big improvement in its guidance for 2015 and Pan­oramic surging on the back of a new discovery.

Western Areas said production costs at its high-grade Flying Fox and Spotted Quoll mines in Western Australia had fallen to their lowest in four years, clearing the way for the company to upgrade its guidance at its half-year result.

Each pound of nickel produced by Western Areas cost the company $2.23, compared with its guidance for the full year of between $2.70 and $2.80 a pound.

The lower production costs reflected higher nickel grades, a renegotiated contract with mining contractor Barminco, and optimisation efforts by the operations team.

Net cash at the company increased from $44.7 million to $53.7m, despite the falling nickel price and the payment of a dividend during the quarter. Western Areas executive director David Southam said the miner had outperformed during the December quarter.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: Antofagasta Investment Company Limited completes acquisition of Duluth

TORONTO, Jan. 21, 2015 /CNW/ – Duluth Metals Limited (“Duluth” or “Duluth Metals”) (TSX: DM) (TSX:DM.U) is pleased to announce that it has completed its previously announced proposed arrangement (the “Arrangement”) with Antofagasta Investment Company Limited (“Antofagasta”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Antofagasta plc. Under the Arrangement, Antofagasta has acquired all of the outstanding common shares of Duluth (the “Duluth Shares”) (other than Duluth Shares held by Antofagasta and its affiliates) at a price of CDN$0.45 per Duluth Share in cash (the “Cash Consideration”).

The Duluth Shares are expected to be de-listed from the Toronto Stock Exchange as soon as practicable.

In order to receive the Cash Consideration in exchange for their Duluth Shares, registered shareholders must complete, sign, date and return the Letter of Transmittal that was mailed to each registered shareholder. The Letter of Transmittal is also available from Duluth’s depositary, Equity Financial Trust Company, by telephone at: (i) 1 (866) 393-4891 (North American Toll Free); or (ii) under Duluth’s issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Shareholders whose Duluth Shares are registered in the name of a broker, investment dealer, bank, trust company, trustee or other intermediary or nominee should contact that intermediary or nominee for assistance in depositing their Duluth Shares and should follow the instructions of such intermediary or nominee in order to make their election and deposit their Duluth Shares.

Read more

Eagle GM: Nickel a ‘good place’ – by Christie Bleck (The Mining Journal – January 20, 2015)

http://www.miningjournal.net/ [Michigan]

MARQUETTE – The business of producing nickel is in good shape, Michael Welch, general manager of Lundin Mining Corp.’s Eagle Mine, told the Economic Club of Marquette County Monday.

Welch was the guest speaker at the club’s monthly program at the Ramada Inn. He joined Eagle Mine in January 2014, coming from Xstrata’s Raglan operation, a large nickel mine in northern Quebec situated in subarctic conditions and facing challenges similar to Eagle.

Eagle Mine in Michigamme Township – a Lundin subsidiary – employs more than 400 people and is producing nickel, copper and small amounts of other metals over its expected duration of eight years.

“Short term, nickel has a very good supply-and-demand outlook,” said Welch, who noted 2015 will be a transition year as demand for nickel will outstrip supply. “Bottom line is, nickel’s going to be a good place to be.”

Laptops, cell phones – items used by just about everybody in the room, according to an impromptu poll by Welch – use nickel battery technology, he pointed out.

Read more

Zinc and nickel price upside ‘imminent’: Clarus – by Peter Koven (National Post – January 20, 2015)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

There has been a lot of bullish talk in the metals community about zinc and nickel over the past couple of years, as many insiders believe those commodities are poised for a rally. You can include Clarus Securities analyst Mike Bandrowski in that group.

He published a detailed note on Tuesday that suggests zinc and nickel have “imminent” upside and will perform very strongly over the next two years as inventories disappear.

In the case of zinc, Mr. Bandrowski noted the market is already in deficit, and that deficit should get bigger following the closures of the Lisheen and Century mines this year. He said exchange inventories have fallen by more than half over the last two years and should be at “critical” levels later in 2015.

“We believe the lack of funding in zinc mine development and exploration has now caught up with the marketplace and zinc prices will respond in 2015,” he said in a note. “Despite the broad commodity sell-off, zinc has held up quite well, likely an indication of the favourable supply/demand fundamentals.”

Nickel has received more attention than zinc due to an Indonesian export ban on raw ore that was imposed a year ago, which removed about 25% to 30% of global nickel supply.

Read more

Ex-Xstrata CEO Seeks Second Act With Vale’s Nickel Assets in Mind – by Firat Kayakiran, Dinesh Nair and Jesse Riseborough (Bloomberg News – January 14, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Mick Davis, who built Xstrata Plc into one of the world’s biggest mining companies, is trying to do it again.

Davis, a 56-year-old South African, is considering a bid for the nickel business of Vale SA (VALE), the world’s top producer, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Davis’s investment vehicle X2 Resources values Vale’s nickel business at $5 billion to $7 billion, said two of the people, who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private.

Through a decade of 40 mergers and expansions, the onetime cricket umpire Davis increased Xstrata’s market value more than 80 times to $50 billion, and became the world’s biggest exporter of power-station coal. After it agreed to be acquired in 2012 by its largest shareholder Glencore International Plc in a $30 billion deal, Davis was to lead the combined company. The power-sharing agreement collapsed when Glencore Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg demanded the title.

Davis’s X2 has since raised about $4.8 billion from equity investors and has been hunting for assets to buy from the world’s largest miners such as Vale, BHP Billiton Ltd. and Anglo American Plc.

“Mick Davis is a strong and a driven individual who has been very successful,” said Vince Gauci, who was managing director of M.I.M. Holdings Ltd. when Xstrata acquired the Australian metals and coal producer for $3 billion in 2003. “I’ve no doubt that he’s still got the fire in his belly to start again.”

Read more