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EU deal could forge shiny future for Canada’s low-carbon metals – by Chris Turner (Corporate Knights – September 16, 2020)

https://www.corporateknights.com/

he Canada Nickel Company is a fledgling Ontario mining firm with a handful of leases in mineral-rich northern Ontario and ambitious plans to dig for nickel, cobalt and iron.

So it represents a particularly audacious move that the company recently announced the creation of a wholly owned subsidiary called NetZero Metals, charged with the task of mining those metals without a carbon footprint.

Green boasts can be a little suspect, especially since the net-zero goal is one that established players in industries like steel and oil have placed at the far end of a 30-year ramp.

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Atlantic Nickel extends Santa Rita mine life to 34 years – by Carl A. Williams (Northern Miner – September 15, 2020)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Appian Capital Advisory’s Atlantic Nickel has released the results from a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of its wholly owned Santa Rita nickel-copper-cobalt mine in northeastern Brazil.

Santa Rita, one of the largest open-pit nickel sulphide mines in the world, was acquired by the private equity firm from Mirabela Nickel in a bankruptcy process in 2018.

Since open-pit operations restarted in August 2019, the mine has produced 48,000 tonnes of nickel concentrate. (Mirabela put the mine on care and maintenance due to low nickel prices in 2015.)

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BHP nears completion of Nickel West plant – by Salomae Haselgrove (Australian Mining – September 16, 2020)

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BHP has confirmed that it will open its Nickel West sulphate plant in Western Australia this financial year after the development was delayed.

The delay means the first product from the plant is now expected in the second half of the 2021 financial year, a year behind the original schedule.

The facility that is located at the Kwinana nickel refinery is expected to produce 100,000 tonnes of nickel sulphate per annum during its stage one development.

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Two new smaller stacks are ready, decommissioning of Sudbury’s Superstack about to begin – by Molly Frommer (CTV News Northern Ontario – September 10, 2020)

https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/

SUDBURY — Two new, 450-foot stacks are now fully installed and ready to replace the famous Superstack that has been in Sudbury for decades.

The $450 million project began in 2014, and managers with Vale say it was a companion effort to the Clean Atmospheric Emissions Reduction Project (AER).

“That Clean AER project was run in parallel to the service facilities upgrade,” said Darryl Cooke, Vale surface project and studies senior manager. “That was a billion-dollar project for atmospheric emissions reduction.”

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Tesla ‘In Talks’ To Establish Carbon-Neutral Nickel Mine – by Matthew Broersma (Silicon.co.uk – September 14, 2020)

https://www.silicon.co.uk/

Tesla reportedly in talks with Canada’s Giga Metals to establish environmentally friendly nickel mine in British Columbia as it expands battery production.

Tesla is reportedly in talks with Canadian mining company Giga Metals about developing a large mine to give it access to a ready supply of nickel and cobalt for its electric vehicle batteries.

The mine, located in north-central British Columbia, would also offer a way for Tesla to reduce its carbon footprint as it expands battery production, Reuters reported late on Friday.

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Saami Council urges Tesla to refrain from buying NorNickel metals – by Thomas Nilsen (The Barents Observer – Septmeber 8, 2020)

https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/

“Dear Mr. Elon Musk,” starts the letter from the indigenous peoples in northern Russia.

“We are respectfully requesting that you DO NOT BUY nickel, copper and other products from the Russian mining company NorNickel until the following is implemented,” the letter continues and then lists a number of environmental requirements to be fulfilled on the Taimyr- and Kola Peninsulas.

The campaign that started in northern Russia is now spreading in social media by other indigenous peoples communities globally under the hashtag #AnswerUsElonMusk.

The Saami Council this week voiced a strong support to the campaign.

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ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS MOUNT OVER USE OF NICKEL IN EVS – by Kieran Ahuja (Sunday Times Driving – September 7, 2020)

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OF COURSE, as something that has been widely touted as a more environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) cars, the green credentials of pure-electric vehicles have often been called into question.

A large amount of the conversation around this has revolved around the use of cobalt, which is used to aid conductivity and structural stability in lithium-ion batteries, enabling them to last for as long as they do.

However, production of cobalt is sometimes conducted in territories where a blind eye is turned to ethical mining practices, in places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which produces around 60% of the world supply.

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BHP maps out priorities in quest for ‘future-facing’ commodities – by Nick Toscano (Brisbane Times – August 31, 2020)

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/

The head of Australian mining giant BHP says new plans to boost exposure to the “future-facing” commodities nickel and copper will focus first on exploring for new deposits and finding ways to extract more from existing assets, rather than looking for acquisitions.

As BHP embarks on a clean-up of its portfolio by seeking to sell several coal mines, quit thermal coal and exit the Bass Strait oil and gas fields, it has also laid out plans to lift exposure to commodities that chief executive Mike Henry believes will be increasingly required to meet the world’s evolving needs, such as the manufacture of clean energy technologies.

Asked whether BHP would seek acquisitions to secure more options in commodities like nickel, copper and potash, Mr Henry said “maybe”, but only if the right opportunities presented.

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Falling production, increasing demand push nickel prices to a nine-month high – by Darren MacDonald (CTV News Northern Ontario – August 27, 2020)

https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/

SUDBURY — Following Telsa’s Elon Musk recent call for the world to produce more nickel, prices for the metal reached US$6.85 a pound this week, up from US$5 in March and their highest level since November 2019.

In addition to expected demand for nickel as more electric cars are built, a story on the website Mining.com said nickel production has been falling, adding pressure to prices.

“The Lisbon-based International Nickel Study Group reports global mined nickel fell 7.7 per cent in June compared to the same month last year, which still counts as something of an improvement from the sharp falls in April and May,” the story said.

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Sudbury base metal explorer lands a big-shot Toronto partner: Sudbury Platinum Corp raises $2.1 million for exploration in Sudbury Basin (Northern Ontario Business – August 25, 2020)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

A top mining investment firm is backstopping an emerging nickel player in the Sudbury Basin.

Toronto’s Dundee Goodman Merchant Partners (DGMP) has formed a “strategic relationship” with Sudbury Platinum Corporation to grow the exploration company and get it publicly listed by year’s end.

Sudbury Platinum (also known as SPC Metals) is a spinoff company of Transition Metals, a Sudbury-based exploration company overseeing more than 25 base and precious metals projects in Northern Ontario, the Maritimes and Western Canada.

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According To Tesla CEO Elon Musk, This Metal Is The New Gold – by Charles Morris(Inside EVs – August 24, 2020)

https://insideevs.com/

In the popular imagination, lithium is the element that powers EVs. However, as Elon Musk has pointed out, the term “lithium-ion batteries” is something of a misnomer, because they don’t really contain that much lithium.

“Although [they’re] called lithium-ion, the actual percentage of lithium in a lithium-ion cell is approximately 2%,” Musk explained at Tesla’s 2016 shareholder meeting. “Technically, our cells should be called nickel-graphite, because the primary constituent in the cell as a whole is nickel.”

More recently, Musk reiterated the importance of nickel, and made what sounded to some like an urgent plea for more of the stuff. “I’d just like to re-emphasise, any mining companies out there, please mine more nickel,” said Musk during Tesla’s latest quarterly conference call.

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BHP to fund Canada’s Midland nickel exploration – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – August 24, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Canadian junior Midland Exploration (TSX-V: MD) said on Monday it had struck a new funding deal with a subsidiary of BHP (ASX, LON, NYSE: BHP) for nickel exploration activities in the northern part of Quebec.

BHP’s unit Rio Algom Limited will fund 100% of Midland’s exploration for the battery metal within the Nunavik territory up to C$1.4 million ($1.06 million), on an annual basis, for a minimum of two years.

The objective, the junior said, is to identify, test and develop high-quality exploration targets towards the discovery of new significant nickel deposits within the targeted area.

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Elon Musk Is Going To Have a Hard Time Finding Clean Nickel – by Mark Burton, Libby Cherry and David Stringer (Bloomberg News – August 21, 2020)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Elon Musk promises a “giant contract” with the miner that can supply nickel for Tesla Inc. batteries at low cost with minimal environmental impact, yet the industry’s messy track record may make that deal difficult to clinch.

Recent accidents such as a diesel spill in Arctic Russia and a burst waste pipeline in Papua New Guinea suggest the industry will struggle to meet Musk’s request for a large quantity of the metal produced in an “efficient” and “environmentally sensitive” way.

As the world’s most-valuable carmaker extends manufacturing arms to China and Germany, its billionaire owner may have to rely increasingly on the biggest supplier of nickel: Indonesia.

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Noront CEO expects no delays in Ring of Fire road construction and mine start – by Ian Ross – Northern Ontario Business – August 13, 2020)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Federal regional review of Far North mineral development will have no bearing on pace of progress, says Alan Coutts

Ottawa’s new region-wide approach to Far North development shouldn’t interfere with Noront Resources’ timetable to put the first mine in the Ring of Fire into production by the middle of 2025, said the company CEO.

Alan Coutts said he has no reason to believe that the federal Regional Assessment process will delay the start of operations at the Eagle’s Nest Mine based on his conversation with Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan.

“In talking to Minister O’Regan, we’re being led to believe this could get done over a two-year period.”

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Russian indigenous peoples call on Elon Musk not to buy battery metals from Nornickel – by Thomas Nilsen (The Baren Observer – August 7, 2020)

https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/

The company that recently made international headlines for causing environmental disasters on the Taimyr Peninsula by spilling 20,000 tons of diesel fuel into a river in the fragile Arctic ecosystems is under increased pressure.

In a letter to Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, the Aborigen Forum urge him not to buy nickel, copper and other products from Nornickel until the company conducts a full and independent assessment of the environmental damage caused by its production.

This week, The Barents Observer could tell the story about dying tree leaves caused by massive air-pollution over a several square kilometers large area near Nornickel’s smelters in Monchegorsk on the Kola Peninsula.

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