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Mincor up with nickel sprint

he nickel price was fit at the time of print
Tand David Southam was running as fast
as he could to keep up with it.
News that Indonesia was fast-forwarding
its export ban to January 2020 and the de-
cision by the Government of Bangsamoro
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao
(BARMM) to suspend mining operations in
the high-grade nickel-producing region of
southern Philippines saw prices in excess
of $US17,370/t in late September.
Last year, Philippines was second in the
world only to Indonesia for nickel produc-
tion, of which China was the major buyer.
There is little in the way of immediate
supply to fill the void being left by producers
in Indonesia and Philippines, further em-
phasising the importance of companies like
Mincor Resources NL. David Southam
Mincor has ticked a number of boxes
in its comeback trail this year, including a some underground development at Long eas Ltd and Poseidon Nickel Ltd have been
binding ore tolling and concentrate agree- and at Durkin. So, we’ll need a contractor some of the other nickel players to have
ment to process up to 600,000 tpa of nickel who is able to do that. The DFS is due at the seen appreciation in their stock during the
sulphide ore at the BHP Nickel West con- end of December, but generally there is not same period.
centrator in Kambalda. a lot of people around. So, we are working “The rise in the nickel price has been very
Such success has somewhat raised ex- on the timing of that.” quick and very drastic,” Southam said. “I
pectations and now the market is keen to Cassini is being primed to be the first cab think from an industry perspective it would
know how quickly can Mincor press the but- off the production rank for Mincor. be good to see some consolidation around
ton on production. Following a 33% increase in resources these levels because it shows it is a sustain-
The change in nickel market fundamen- at Cassini reported in August (985,000t @ able price at these levels.
tals has been sudden, but has not altered 3.8% nickel for 37,800t, with 91% indicated), “You’ve got some factors around major
Mincor’s course back to Kambalda nickel Mincor struck 6.3m @ 7.1% nickel, including suppliers looking to curb exports and if you
sulphide producer. 4.5m @ 9% in drilling at the deposit. have a look around the globe there are very
“If you rush into things, errors will be Furthermore, the appearance of millerite few nickel sulphide discoveries or develop-
made,” Mincor managing director Southam (highest grade nickel sulphide species) was ments in the pipeline. That is a sweet spot
told Paydirt. detected for the first time at Cassini through for us, you’ve got a structural element there
“We are running as fast as we can, as we an intercept of 0.4m @ 16.1% nickel. and then the sizzle is the EV space.”
sit here today we have got tenders out, we While conducting resource drilling, Min- Southam’s exposure to the EV space in
are still working on our resource definition cor doesn’t plan on providing constant a non-executive capacity on the board of
drilling, we have mine plans and we have updates, however, the information from Wesfarmers takeover target Kidman Re-
shapes around those orebodies.” Cassini in early September was material sources Ltd and as former Western Areas
Seven parties have tendered for con- enough to reveal and came amid a rising finance director, has allowed him good in-
tracts relating to Mincor’s Kambalda opera- nickel market. sights into what OEMs and car manufactur-
tions, with an early start to work in the 2020 Following Diggers & Dealers, Mincor ers are thinking.
calendar year the aim. reached a high of 70c/share last month and “They are concerned about where to
“That will be the box cut at Cassini, a lot at the time of print was trading at 60c/share. get nickel sulphate. The easiest way to get
of the surface infrastructure at Cassini and Independence Group NL, Western Ar- sulphate is from a sulphide, which is what
we are in. There are strategic procurement
Mincor has ticked a number of boxes in its comeback trail this year heads of these vehicle companies who are
ex-nickel executives and I don’t think they
are there for any other reason than to se-
cure nickel ultimately,” Southam said.
“All the battery mixes head towards high
nickel content so we have got a number of
factors playing to our advantage. If you look
at a 30-year nickel price graph we are prob-
ably in the middle, with the Australian dollar
weak against the US making the Australian
dollar nickel price quiet high. There are a
number of elements there that give confi-
dence that this price can be sustained, give
or take $2,000/t either way.”
– Mark Andrews

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT OCTOBeR 2019 Page 87