North American Nickel forecasts Greenland project launch by 2024

NexMetals Mining

01/11/2017 09:36

BEIJING, Nov 1 (Reuters) - North American Nickel  NAN.V  
should start producing at its flagship Maniitsoq project in 
Greenland by 2023 or 2024, when demand for nickel from electric 
vehicle (EV) batteries should be in full swing, the company's 
chief executive officer (CEO) said on Tuesday. 
    The Toronto-based exploration company, which acquired the 
Maniitsoq licences five years ago, has invested over $50 million 
in exploration so far, CEO Keith Morrison told Reuters in an 
interview in Beijing, where he was attending the annual 
Greenland Day at the Danish embassy. 
    It will be at least another five years before it has 
finished exploration, completed feasibility studies and 
construction, and started selling its metals output.  
    "If we're extremely lucky that's a five-year process, if not 
six or seven. But that drops up right in the middle of the 
impact on the scalability of electric vehicles," Morrison said. 
    Asked if a 2023 or 2024 launch was a realistic time frame, 
Morrison answered: "We should be there by then." 
    The most-traded nickel contract on the Shanghai Futures 
Exchange  SNIcv1  rose 6 percent on Wednesday - its daily limit 
under the Shanghai bourse's trading rules - to 99,340 yuan 
($14,967) a tonne, the highest in nearly 11 months. 
    The contract surged as nickel on the London Metal Exchange 
gained overnight because of the prospect of new demand from the 
EV battery makers.  
    Morrison, who also has experience of mining in Mongolia, 
describes Maniitsoq, located 125 km (78 miles) north of the 
Greenlandic capital, Nuuk, as a "big-scale nickel sulphide 
opportunity."  
    The 2,985 square km (1,153 square miles) area also contains 
copper, cobalt and platinum group metals but is only accessible 
for about 100 days per year. North American Nickel also has 
nickel assets in Michigan and Sudbury, Ontario, Morrison said.  
    A lack of investment in base metals since 2008 has left 
global nickel markets facing a deficit of 200,000 to 250,000 
tonnes of refined nickel and concentrates over the next five to 
10 years, equivalent to 10 new mines, he said.  
    "And that doesn't include the impact of the electric vehicle 
battery consumption," which could mean an extra 300,000 to 
600,000 tonnes per year of demand, he added. 
     
 
 (Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Christian Schmollinger) 
 ((tom.daly@thomsonreuters.com;)) 
 
Keywords: GREENLAND METALS/NICKEL