Nickel was the element on every traders’ radar this week as fears over supplies from Indonesia caused a leap in the price of the metal - seen as having a hot future as the key component of modern electric vehicle batteries.
The metal dubbed ‘devil’s copper’ is now up almost 40% in 2019, with the latest jump caused by an Indonesian pledge to stick with plans to ban exports of unprocessed nickel ore by 2022. The country wants to encourage further domestic involvement in the value chain, including through stainless steel production - nickel’s other big demand driver.
The price of nickel has been notoriously volatile in recent years but Neil Hume, natural resources editor of the Financial Times, said that with inventories having been run down for several years and the need to switch to cleaner forms of transportation growing, the future for nickel looked bright.
In a column in the newspaper he said: “Of course, after such a strong run it is probable that nickel — a notoriously volatile metal — will pull back as the northern hemisphere heads into a summer lull. However, if Chinese demand remains and Indonesia does not backtrack on its export ban, the risk/reward in nickel looks favorable.”
Even the old internal combustion engine has been getting cleaner, of course, and that fact is not lost on investors either. 21C Metals (CSE: BULL), the exploration company focused on the acquisition and development of deposits of production grade metal which are critical components to current and future vehicle technology, is interested in palladium - critical for catalytic converters - among other metals. It announced the acquisition of the Agnew Lake property in Ontario this week in what it say should be a significant boost to its palladium holdings.
”The company believes this acquisition will position it to be one of the larger non-producing palladium explorers in North America,” it said.
Located 80 kilometres west of Sudbury - home of Glencore and Vale’s Canadian Nickel-Copper-Platinum Group Elements mining and smelting operations - Agnew Lake is comprised of over 260 claims and is part of the larger East Bull Lake-Agnew Lake mafic-ultramafic complex.
In other Canadian mining news, John Cumming penned his final editorial for The Northern Miner as he prepares to depart to join gold miner Agnico Eagle Mines as a senior geologist in their Toronto head office.
Among the insights he shared on covering the junior mining and metals exploration scene in remote parts of the Canada, Cummins observed: ”One of the defining features of the most successful mining entrepreneurs I’ve met over the years is not only do they realize that downturns last longer than most people expect, but they retain the capacity to take swift and decisive action during the worst of that downturn, picking up company-building assets for cents on the dollar, while their competitors are broke and curled up in a fetal position.”
While junior gold stocks continued to bask in a glut of positive reports regarding the gold price, at the other end of the scale Canada’s Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX) finally reached an agreement to buy out Acacia Mining. Following a long and acrimonious struggle, Barrick will buy the roughly 36% stake in Acacia it doesn’t already own for about 232 pence per Acacia share, a 24% premium to the closing price on Thursday.
The news came just days after Barrick, the world’s second largest bullion miner, said it expects production of the precious metal this year to hit the upper end of its forecast range of 5.1 million to 5.6 million ounces. Announcing figures for the second quarter to June 30, the Toronto-based miner said strong performance from Loulo-Gounkoto in Mali and Veladero in Argentina – where production increased 14.8% and 7%, respectively – was likely to offset lower output elsewhere.