Finding More Nickel

Worldwide demand for nickel hit a record 1.4 million tonnes in 2007. The main driver was the booming economy in China, which accounted for 22% of nickel demand, compared with 11% four years ago.

Nickel contributes to sustainable development in vital ways -- through water purification and distribution systems, air pollution abatement hardware, and renewable energy infrastructure -- so it’s little wonder demand for the “enviro-metal” is at an all-time high.

In this issue of Nickel Magazine we report on the increasing number of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects that use turbines made of high-temperature nickel alloys. Such projects are springing up not only in China but in India, Brazil and other developing countries (see page 4).

CDM projects generate electricity by burning bio-gases, which come from decomposing agricultural waste. Burning bio-gases prevents them from venting into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases, and the electricity created means fewer coal-fired electric plants are needed in developing countries.

CDM projects may not be a huge market for nickel, but it is a growing one, and they're a reminder of how nickel supports sustainable development.

More nickel was recycled in 2007 than in many previous years; nonetheless, supply still cannot keep pace with demand. The question then becomes: Can enough minable deposits of this valuable natural resource be discovered to meet demand? Or, more simply, is nickel a sustainable resource?

Judging from the number of junior companies exploring for the metal in Canada alone, the answer is yes. Most, if not all, of these companies were busy promoting their various projects to investors at the 2008 convention of the Prospectors and Developers’ Association of Canada, held recently in Toronto.

• International Nickel Ventures Inc. is drilling electromagnetic anomalies and coincident magnetic highs in the James Bay Lowlands of northern Ontario. As well, the company is completing geophysical surveys on a property adjacent to, and on the same geological trend as, Xstrata Nickel’s Montcalm mine, near Timmins, Ontario.
  
• Fletcher Nickel Inc. is drilling geophysical targets elsewhere in the Timmins district.
  
• Independent Nickel Inc. is re-examining former nickel producing properties at Lynn Lake in northern Manitoba in an attempt to expand mineral resources there.
  
• In the Sudbury area of northern Ontario, First Nickel Inc. is expanding the resource base at its Lockerby mine and expects to add 8-10 years to the operation’s lifespan. Meanwhile, production has commenced at First Nickel’s Premiere Ridge mine, not far from Xstrata Nickel’s Strathcona mill complex. First Nickel also manages two promising exploration projects in the Sudbury Basin.

The Precambrian Shield, which covers nearly half of Canada, clearly holds a good deal of untapped potential for the discovery of sizable nickel deposits, and exploration companies are awash in the cash needed to find and develop them.

Sadly, the last major nickel deposit discovered in Canada, Voisey’s Bay, in Labrador, took 10 years to reach production. But mineral exploration companies are striving to shorten lead times. Canadian Royalties Inc., for example, is negotiating impact and benefit agreements with native groups in an attempt to move its Nunavik nickel project toward production. The mine is only 20 km south of Xstrata Nickel’s Raglan mine in northern Quebec, and the cost of achieving production is estimated at $225 million, Canadian Royalties says.

In addition, the PDAC and Canadian native groups have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at fostering the co-operation needed to turn discoveries into producing mines.

All of which underscores the value of nickel as a sustainable resource.

Editor

Photos: International Nickel Ventures

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