https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/
Glencore’s Nickel Rim South Mine is winding down operations with an eye on closing in 2024. Vice-president Peter Xavier said the mine has been important to the company since its inception in 2010.
He said exploration extended the mine’s lifespan from 2021 to 2024, but Glencore has been planning its closure for some time. This will create an opportunity to partner with the city’s other mining giant, Vale.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
International miners creates spinoff company to market treated tailings as ‘sustainable sand’ for construction, road projects
Vale SA, the international parent company of Vale Canada, has had difficulty with the safety of some of its tailings dams, said it has created a new company to sell and distribute sand from its iron ore tailings properties.
Two dams operated by Vale SA failed in recent years, leaving hundreds of miners and civilians dead and creating significant environmental damage. Vale said the new company, named Agera, will be based in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil and is planned to develop and expand what Vale calls the Sustainable Sand business.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/
SOROWAKO, Indonesia — Red hot sparks fly through the air as a worker in a heat-resistant suit pokes a long metal rod into a nickel smelter, coaxing the molten metal from a crucible at a processing facility on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
The smelter run by global mining firm Vale and powered by electricity from three dams churns out 75,000 tons of nickel a year for use in batteries, electric vehicles, appliances and many other products.
For nearly five decades, the Inco Employees Club served as a hub for community, entertainment and more in the city’s downtown core
If a person turns off Elm Street onto Frood Road in downtown Sudbury, they will very quickly come across our city’s nod to the Art Deco form. A grey building that appears triangular at first (not unlike the downtown’s other flatiron buildings) but behind that street-level facade lies an expansive facility that served the community’s needs for nearly 50 years.
Let us now step through its front doors and back in time to immerse ourselves in a little bit of the history as well as some of the special events that were held within the hallowed walls of the Inco Employees Club.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/
An economist says Sudbury’s recovery is on the way but won’t reach pre-pandemic levels until 2026
Nickel prices and rising demand for the mineral will help Sudbury’s local economy ride out a slowing national economy and carry it to pre-pandemic prosperity by 2026. In its most recent report, the Conference Board of Canada says nickel prices jumped nearly 72 percent between 2020 and 2022 buoyed by the war in Ukraine and strengthening nickel demand.
Senior economist Rob Wiebe says it’s precisely that demand and heightened exploration for nickel to produce batteries for electric cars that will fuel investment across different sectors in the city.
https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/
Vale Base Metals (VBM) Ltd. has signed deals worth $3.4 billion with two Saudi Arabian-owned entities as the company works to develop its base metals operations as a separate entity. The agreement will help Vale fund billions of capital projects in the base metals unit planned across its global holdings. The base metals unit is focused on increasing production of minerals needed for the conversion of the auto industry from gas-powered to electric vehicles.
“This strategic partnership will fast-track VBM’s expected US $25-$30 billion capital program over the next decade,” Vale said on its website in announcing the agreement.
Analysts say deal is part of a Vale strategy to grow value of its nickel and copper holdings ahead of electric vehicle demand .
Vale has confirmed it is selling off part of its newly formed Vale Base Metals unit in two separate agreements.
Ten per cent of the company going to Saudi Arabia’s Mining Co (Ma’aden) and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), and three per cent being sold to U.S. investment firm Engine No. 1. The entire deal is valued at $3.4 billion according to a report from Reuters.
(Bloomberg) — A $2.6 billion deal announced last week has set the stage for a potentially landmark shift in the metal and mining investment landscape: the arrival of Saudi Arabia as a pivotal player. The agreement with Vale SA gives the kingdom a 10% slice in one of the world’s crucial suppliers of nickel and copper — essential metals needed to decarbonize.
It’s also held other talks, including with Barrick Gold Corp. about investing in a big Pakistan copper mine, according to people familiar with the matter. Speaking privately, executives at top miners said the value of Thursday’s deal made clear that the Saudis are ready to splash cash around.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Reports say Vale poised to sell 10 per cent stake with nickel and copper production on the rise
International and Sudbury nickel miner Vale is ready to sell off 10 per cent of its base metals division to Saudi Arabia, according to reports in the business media.
The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and BNN Bloomberg have reported that the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) is regarded as the leading bidder to acquire a stake in Vale SA’s multibillion-dollar nickel and copper operations. Vale Base Metals is headquartered in Toronto, and is one of the world’s largest producers of responsibly sourced nickel, copper, cobalt and platinum group metals, said the company website.
BHP (ASX: BHP) and Vale (NYSE: VALE) faced off in a London court on Wednesday as part of one of the largest class action lawsuits in history, which could see them fined £36 billion ($44bn) for their role in a mining disaster in Brazil that killed 19 people.
The case, brought to trial by around 720,000 Brazilians, centres on who should accept legal and financial responsibility over the deadly 2015 collapse of a dam. The incident at the iron ore mine, owned by BHP and Vale’s joint venture Samarco, became the country’s worst ever environmental disaster.
The appointment of Mark Cutifani as chair of the newly formed Energy Transition Metals Board with Vale Base Metals takes effect this month
A well-known former Sudbury mining executive is back in the news and is taking on a new role as chair of the newly formed Energy Transition Metals Board with Vale Base Metals, which calls itself one of the world’s largest producers of responsibly-sourced nickel, copper, cobalt and platinum group metals.
Mark Cutifani was previously chief operating officer (COO) at CVRD Inco, but he left Sudbury in 2007 to become chief executive officer (CEO) of AngloGold Ashanti, and then became CEO of mining giant Anglo American, one of the largest mining companies on the planet.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is leading the bid to acquire a $2.5 billion stake in Vale’s nickel and copper operations, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
The report said PIF might strike the deal for a roughly 10% stake through a joint venture it set up in January with Ma’aden, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Hundreds of residents attend open house to see what the future holds for Sudbury’s largest mining company
Hundreds of Sudbury residents got a close-up look June 20 at how the largest mining and refining company in Sudbury is moving forward with new technology. The event was the annual Vale community open house, an event that had been cancelled for a couple of years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The venue was Vale’s North Atlantic operations headquarters building in Copper Cliff, also known as the former engineering building.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/
Health and safety in the mining industry in Greater Sudbury has come a long way over the past 95 years, so much, in fact, that where fatal mining accidents were once commonplace, they are now a rarity, according to a retired electrician at Falconbridge Limited.
“Since 1929, 100 men lost their lives,” Tom Rannelli said at the 39th-annual Workers’ Memorial Day service held at the Royal Canadian Legion branch in Falconbridge on Tuesday. “That’s approximately one a year. That’s just at Falconbridge.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/
Chrystia Freeland touts new budget’s incentives at nickel processing plant
The head of mining giant Vale Canada says the most recent federal budget will be a “game changer” for her company’s operations — including its nickel processing plant in Long Harbour, N.L., which Chrystia Freeland, the finance minister and deputy prime minister, toured on Wednesday.
Vale Canada president and CEO Deshnee Naidoo said the credits and announcements in the budget will be key for the mining industry’s race to lower carbon emissions even further. “It’s an absolute game changer for us,” Naidoo said.
