Recording date: 6th July 2023

Nickel popped back up away from $20,000 level to $20,500 to $21,000 level.  Again, still expect some near-term weakness and break below $20,000, but nickel continues to be resilient.

Good news is earlier drop in nickel prices have continued to lead to “Great Compression” – sulphate discount dropped by more than half as sulphate prices increased as LME prices dropped and NPI discounts also shrank despite less than stellar stainless market with NPI prices dropping slightly and not following larger drop in nickel prices.

Grab bag of items

Clean Air Metals doing reset after having to restate resource.  Updated metallurgical test program consisted of locked cycle tests on a variety of composite samples with a range of head grades from both the Current and Escape deposits and delivered recoveries of 70.2% to 80.9% Platinum (Pt) and 74.0% to 86.9% Palladium (Pd) and copper recoveries from 89.9% to 96.3% and nickel recoveries from 55 to 57%. Testing ability to produce separate nickel-PGE and copper concentrates

Glencore Plc said on Monday it had proposed to buy the remaining stake in copper miner PolyMet Mining it does not already own for about $71 million. The Swiss commodity trader already owns 82.26% of PolyMet.  In June, The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced they are revoking NewRange's permit to develop its NorthMet copper-nickel mine, formerly known as PolyMet, near Hoyt Lakes. The Corps claims NewRange failed to meet EPA clean water standards.

Toyota discussed solid state battery by 2027: its “technological breakthrough” will resolve durability issues, allowing an EV powered by a solid-state battery to have a range of 1,200km and a charging time of 10 minutes or less.  People get worried that a new battery -  Solid state just refers to form of electrolyte doesn’t change which anode or cathode you would use.

Queensland State announced that it would invest A$245M (US$164M) into helping expand its critical minerals sector. The amount includes a fund of A$100M that will support new investment into mining projects in the region alone.  The new announcement states that the Queensland government will help mining companies in a multitude of ways. First, the state will allocate A$55M for investments to reduce rent for new and existing exploration minerals permits to A$0 for the next five years.  One of the main highlights of the announcement was that there will be a A$100M Critical Minerals and Battery Technology Fund, which will support new project investment.  Additionally, Queensland will also spend approximately A$75M to establish critical mineral zones, initially in the cities of Julia Creek, Richmond, and around Mount Isa, to help advance critical minerals projects. Along with these initial investments, Queensland will also establish an integrated office to oversee the critical mineral sector development and help attract international investment. The state government will also invest A$5M for critical minerals mining waste and tailings, as well as A$8M to fund scientific research including circular economy initiatives, with A$1M to be used for advance research and ESG.

Stellantis battery plant which had halted construction in Ontario, Canada as felt that government hadn’t lived up to matching IRA benefits. Province of Ontario agreed would provide up to $5 billion in tax breaks based on production over a 10-year term. He said the other $10-billion in tax breaks would come from the federal government. Ontario minister Vic Fedeli - "It's not like the incentive money that the province and the feds delivered to the battery company," he said. "We invested $500 million in capital. This is like a performance incentive or a tax break. It's not a cheque per se.

Horizonte Minerals Plc (AIM/TSX: HZM) (“Horizonte” or the “Company”), a nickel company developing two Tier 1 assets in Brazil, is pleased to announce that it has received its mining approval permits allowing it to commence mining. Araguaia Nickel Project Line 1 remains on-schedule for production in Q1 2024 with over 50% of the construction programme completed to date. FS for doubling production to 29ktpa on track for 2nd half 2023.

Posco Holdings announced earlier this week its plans to invest $93bn into battery materials, hydrogen and its green steel business by 2030.

Wyloo reached 90% ownership of Mincor and can now mandatory close to 100%.  Also made clear that not done doing nickel acquisitions.