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Don’t underestimate world demand for Nickel, CEO says – by Nicole Stoffman (Timmins Press – June 7, 2024)

https://www.timminspress.com/

Mineral remains a resilient investment for both stainless steel and batteries: Selby

The ever-ebullient CEO of Canada Nickel Company, Mark Selby, is bullish on Nickel, despite Canadian’s growing skepticism about electric vehicles.

According to an April survey from AutoTrader, the number of Canadians interested in buying an EV fell from 68 per cent in 2022 to 46 per cent in 2024. People are concerned about inadequate charging infrastructure, the cars’ limited range, higher cost, and performance in cold weather.

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Australian miners at the forefront of the robotics revolution – by Smruthi Nadig (Mining Technology – June 7, 2024)

https://www.mining-technology.com/

As robotic technology advances, Australian mining companies such as Rio Tinto and BHP are among the leaders in deploying automated systems to enhance operational efficiency and safety.

Australia has a strong robotics industry that focuses on automation in both the manufacturing and agricultural sectors, which sets it apart from other robotics markets. GlobalData research indicates that 29% of robotics companies in Australia cater to the mining sector. Besides the robotics industry itself, the main industries served by robotics suppliers are metal and machinery, with 47% of suppliers serving these industries.

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China’s PBOC Halts Gold Purchases After Price Hits Record – by Yvonne Yue Li and Sybilla Gross (Bloomberg News – June 7, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Gold fell the most in more than two years as surprise strength in a key US jobs report dashed hopes that the Federal Reserve will be able to start lowering borrowing costs soon.

Treasury yields and the dollar surged after the US government’s May employment report showed job growth exceeded expectations and wages were hot. Bullion slumped as much as 3.1%, the most since March 2022, while base metals also tumbled.

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Government regulation top threat facing British Columbia mining industry — report – by Staff (Mining.com – June 6, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Both opportunities and threats facing British Columbia’s burgeoning mining sector are revealed in a new report by PWC, as the province “primes itself to become one of the most reliable and sustainable suppliers of critical metals in Canada and globally.”

Critical metals are a key economic driver for the province, accounting for 26% of total revenue — C$3.8 billion ($2.78bn), according to PWC’s BC Mine Report 2023, with exploration and development driving growth in the sector, contributing most significantly to the 24% increase in capital expenditure year-on-year.

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Metals expert warns of shortage of high-grade nickel near 2030 – by Erwida Maulia (Asia Nikkei – June 7, 2024)

https://asia.nikkei.com/

Comes amid surging demand from EV battery producers

JAKARTA — Demand for the kind of high-grade nickel used to make electric vehicle batteries is set to outpace supply in the coming years, a metals expert said at an industry conference in Indonesia this week.

Allan Ray Restauro, a metals and mining analyst at energy researcher BloombergNEF, told the Indonesia Miner event in Jakarta that output of so-called Class 1 nickel is unlikely to accelerate rapidly enough to catch up with growing demand, even as production of lower-quality varieties of the metal surges.

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The other legacy of D-Day: A Canada that built stuff. So much stuff – by Tony Keller (Globe and Mail – June 7, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

On the 80th anniversary of D-Day, we memorialize the sacrifice, in blood and lives, of the Canadians who liberated Europe. Largely forgotten, however, are the economic, technical and industrial achievements that made victory possible – how Canadian business retooled, innovated and threw up new factories overnight, and the mind-boggling quantities of stuff they churned out.

Canada didn’t just clothe, feed, equip and arm the more than one million Canadians in uniform (out of a population of just 11 million). Stimulated by unprecedented federal spending and borrowing, industry shook off the Great Depression, and was soon building and exporting massive quantities of, well, everything.

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JCK Las Vegas Reflects Patchy Diamond Market – by Joshua Freedman (Rapaport Magazine – June 5, 2024)

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SI-clarity goods performed well, but overall trading was mixed.

Diamond trading at JCK Las Vegas set a cautious tone as the US consumer market remained uncertain, exhibitors reported.

The important fair, which ended Monday, mirrored the mixed trends visible in the sector. Loose-diamond suppliers gave varied reviews, with lab-grown competition continuing to impact sales. Certain categories of natural — chiefly stones with SI clarity — performed well.

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New resources boom in Western Australia’s north likely to lift rents further as housing supply is stretched – by Charlie McLean (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – June 6, 2024)

https://www.abc.net.au/

As Western Australia’s mining and energy sectors shape up for their latest boom, residents in the state’s mining heartland are scrambling to keep a roof over their heads. Rents in the Pilbara’s two biggest mining towns, Karratha and Port Hedland, have increased by more than 120 per cent in five years, driven by an influx of resource workers and a shortfall of homes.

And with more than $160 billion in new mining and energy projects in the pipeline, the influx of mining work and mining money is leaving other residents behind. “I love the weather … the scenery, the people here are amazing,” Karratha mother Debbra Duff said.

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UN chief warns of ‘highway to climate hell’ as global temperatures rack up 12th straight heat record – by Kate Allen (Toronto Star – June 6, 2024)

https://www.thestar.com/

As the planet notched a new hot streak and scientists predicted another grim milestone on the horizon, the secretary-general of the UN warned Wednesday that the world needs “an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell.”

Europe’s climate agency announced that May marked the 12th consecutive month of record-breaking global temperatures, a fevered year that startled many scientists because of the dramatic margins by which old records were broken. At the same time, the World Meteorological Organization predicted that at least one of the next five years is likely to temporarily break the 1.5 C warming threshold.

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NEWS RELEASE: Vale Base Metals Greenhouse Celebrates 50th Anniversary (June 7, 2024)

Sudbury, June 07, 2024 – Yesterday in Copper Cliff, representatives from Vale Base Metals and the community joined to mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Vale Base Metals’ greenhouse. Over its long history, the greenhouse has been responsible for growing approximately 5 million seedlings within the City of Sudbury.

The Greenhouse opened on February 14, 1974, to provide a space to house tropical plants for use in displays and temperate plants for indoor and outdoor use. It also helped facilitate agricultural research, including studies on the effects of chemical growth on tailings and the germination of legumes for use in land reclamation.

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Emerging Sudbury nickel-copper miner strikes milling deal with Glencore – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – June 5, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Magna Mining will extract, ship 20,000 tonne bulk sample to Strathcona mill

Sudbury upstart Magna Mining has signed a toll milling agreement with Glencore in preparation for early-stage test mining at its Crean Hill Project.

The nickel and copper mine development company issued a June 4 news release of its plans to transport a 20,000-tonne surface bulk sample across town to Glencore’s Strathcona mill to make into a concentrate material. The bulk sample is being extracted from a mineralized area at Crean Hill called the 109 Footwall Zone.

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Gold’s attractiveness to criminals forces market participants to shoulder the AML-KYC burden – by Ernest Hoffman (Kitco News – June 4, 2024)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – The biggest gold-smuggling bust in Hong Kong’s history has brought the challenges of detecting illegal movements and transactions of precious metals into sharp relief, according to a June 2 report from consulting firm Alvarez and Marshall.

“On 27 March 2024, the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department made its largest ever gold-smuggling bust — approximately 146kg, with an estimated market value of HKD 84 million — at the Hong Kong International Airport,” the report stated. “The gold was not smuggled as ingots or jewelry with serial numbers as one might expect, but was disguised as parts for air compressors.”

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Can the West ‘friendshore’ enough critical minerals? – by Gregory Wischer and Shubham Dwivedi (Asia Times – June 6, 2024)

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Western nations have sufficient reserves to decouple from China but mining those deposits at a market profit won’t be easy

Over the coming years, Western countries will require tremendous volumes of critical minerals given the demand for mineral-rich technologies like electric vehicle batteries.

A popular policy proposal for supplying and de-risking this mineral demand in industrialized Western countries is “friendshoring,” where partner countries source extracted minerals from each other instead of relying on geopolitical adversaries, namely China.

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Fueling the Future: Sudbury conference focuses on critical minerals – by Hugh Kruzel (Sudbury Star – June 5, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Those who attended also talked about the supply chain to deliver them

Once again, Cambrian College was the site of the BEV In-Depth: Mines to Mobility conference. This third annual conference, held last week, gathered players in the Battery Electric Vehicle future of Ontario to listen, learn and exchange ideas.

“It is a natural fit for us – and Sudbury – to step forward into this future,” said Shawn Poland, Cambrian’s vice president of External Partnerships, Strategic Enrollment. “Cambrian and other Sudbury institutions can play an important role in research and development.”

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Traders Are Desperate for Copper Deals and Miners Are Cashing In – by Archie Hunter and Jack Farchy (Bloomberg News – June 5, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — A heated competition for copper among some of the biggest commodity traders is creating opportunities for miners to negotiate favorable terms ranging from huge upfront payments to extra-long contracts.

Recent moves by cash-flush energy traders including Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. to expand in metals — a market long dominated by Glencore Plc and Trafigura Group — are raising tensions and sparking a scramble for contracts, at a time when the industry is already facing an unprecedented supply squeeze in copper ore.

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