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The company is exploring for nickel deposits on its Langmuir property near Timmins, Ontario; for nickel-gold-copper on its Cleaver and Douglas properties; and for molybdenum and rare earth elements at recently acquired Desrosiers property.
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Production cuts revive nickel futures
Posted By Leia Michele Toovey, Nickel Investing News
http://www.thesudburystar.com/Articl...
Posted 5 hours ago
Xstrata, the world’s fourth-largest producer of nickel, has suspended production at its plant in the Dominican Republic. This announcement led to supply concerns. The resultant speculative buying caused nickel futures to surge 1.23 per cent on India’s Multi-Commodity Exchange, the MCX, on Monday.
The most-active October contract for nickel traded 1.23 per cent higher at Rs 939.50 a kg. The September contract also went up by 0.83 per cent at Rs 923.20 a kg in a trading volume of 496 lots, while the near-month August contract moved up by 0.89 per cent at Rs 911.60 a kg with a volume of business of 1,490 lots. Nickel in spot market in Mumbai was higher at Rs 909.90 a kg.
Supply constraints for commodities have recently come to the forefront, as dropping metal prices and skyrocketing production costs have started making mining operations less profitable. This has been preceded by a relatively bad run in the price of commodities so far this year. Supply constraints are anticipated to turn this situation around.
Many analysts are suggesting a replay of the 2006 tumble that preceded a doubling of prices in the next 17 months as measured by the Standard & Poor’s GSCI index. Only this time, the driver is supply cuts rather than increasing demand.
Investor Jim Rogers extended his opinion on commodity prices. In April 2006, Rogers had correctly predicted that oil would reach $US100 a barrel and gold US $1000 an ounce. ”Over the course of time, it’s a bull market,” said Rogers, Chairman of Rogers Holdings, after an investors conference in Kuala Lumpur.
The tone on gold for the future is also bullish. This weekend, gold investing news offered a commentary on the drivers for gold’s future.
Norilsk Nickel plans to buy back as much as $2 billion worth of its own shares. Norilsk announced the buyback late on August 22 on its website.
“This should be positively received, although minority shareholders need to be aware that these actions are not necessarily in their best interests,” UralSib Financial Corp. analysts Michael Kavanagh and Dmitry Smolin said in a report.
The plan is a continuation of the conflict between Rusal and Norilsk’s biggest shareholder, Vladimir Potanin. United Co. Rusal, billionaire Oleg Deripaska’s aluminum producer that owns 25 per cent of the mining company, said it opposes the buyback because it doesn’t give value to all Norilsk investors.
Norilsk jumped as much as 6.7 per cent on the Micex Stock Exchange. It traded at 5,079.99 rubles, or 4.2 per cent higher, at 1:51 p.m. in Moscow, valuing Norilsk at 967 billion rubles. The ‘buy-back’ shares will be stored as treasury shares, which need to be sold or canceled within a year.
Still, Norilsk management loyal to Potanin will be able to mobilize the shares when needed. The shares can be used for mergers, sold to Metalloinvest, or even an offshore subsidiary. Less than a year ago, Norilsk sold 7.5 million of its shares to institutional investors for 11 per cent more than the buyback offer or US$285 a piece.
Independent Nickel has hired Paradigm Capital Inc, to assess the value of the takeover proposal issued last week by Victory Nickel. Paradigm Capital Inc. will work with a special committee of independent Nickel directors to evaluate Victory’s unsolicited takeover bid. Victory has offered to purchase all of the outstanding common shares of Independent Nickel, at a rate of one Victory common share for each Independent Nickel common share.
Once it has Paradigm Capital’s opinion, the committee will review the offer and consider “alternatives to maximize value for Independent Nickel shareholders, and make recommendations to the board of directors.”
The latter has stated that it will make a formal recommendation to Independent Nickel shareholders about the offer by September 3. For the time being, they are advising shareholders to not make any moves. Victory Nickel officials said merging the two companies would be good for shareholders.
”This transaction is a natural fit for our two companies which are focused on developing nickel projects in Manitoba,” said Rene Galipeau, Victory Nickel’s Vice-chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
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