{"id":1198347,"date":"2020-07-28T05:26:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T10:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1031015"},"modified":"2020-07-28T05:26:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T10:26:00","slug":"new-century-vale-delay-nickel-mine-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1198347","title":{"rendered":"New Century, Vale delay nickel mine deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Century Resources (ASX: NCZ) and Vale (NYSE: VALE) have delayed the deadline for closing the sale<\/a> of the Brazilian miner\u2019s nickel and cobalt operations\u00a0on the Pacific island of New Caledonia by 45 days.<\/p>\n

The Australian zinc producer\u00a0entered into a 60-day exclusivity agreement<\/a> to acquire a 95% stake in Vale Nouvelle Cal\u00e9donie (VNC), the operator of the troubled Goro nickel-cobalt mine on the French territory,\u00a0on May 26.<\/p>\n

New Century said on Thursday it had made \u201csignificant progress\u201d in evaluating the technical and commercial aspects of the transaction, but has not yet finished a definitive binding agreement.<\/p>\n

VCN has proven a financial burden for Vale since it began operations<\/a> two years behind schedule in 2010.<\/p>\n

The Rio de Janeiro-based miner first announced its intention to exit operations in New Caledonia in December<\/a>. The decision came after it had to write down $1.6 billion in the fourth quarter related to the ailing mines, the world\u2019s biggest nickel operation.<\/p>\n

Vale cut in April its 2020 nickel production guidance<\/a> to 200,000 \u2013 210-000 tonnes per year from 240,000 tpy to account for the anticipated loss of VNC\u2019s 60,000-tpy output.<\/p>\n

Shortly after, the miner revealed it had received non-binding offers for VNC<\/a>, which includes the Goro mine, a processing plant and the port of Prony.<\/p>\n

The timing of this deal couldn\u2019t be better. Tesla boss Elon Musk recently\u00a0announced\u00a0the company was searching for sustainable nickel supply<\/a> for the batteries that power its electric vehicles (EVs)<\/p>\n

Analysts estimate the silvery-white metal could face a shortage as soon as 2023.<\/p>\n

Goro\u2019s potential<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Goro operation includes a mine, processing facility and port, located on the island of New Caledonia, a French territory which is a top nickel producing region globally.<\/p>\n

While the mine has the capacity to produce 60,000 tpy of nickel in the form of nickel oxide, it has never performed to full capacity due to design flaws and operational commissioning issues.<\/p>\n

Las year, Goro churned out just 23,400 tonnes of nickel, slightly over a third of its annual capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe due diligence process has outlined a logical and technically robust solution for Goro\u2019s operation, which is expected to deliver improved production rates and reduced costs,\u201d New Century said.<\/p>\n

The Melbourne-based miner noted if the transaction goes through, it would become a major supplier of nickel and cobalt sourced from outside the Democratic Republic of Congo. The African country is currently the world\u2019s biggest supplier of cobalt for the EV sector.<\/p>\n

\"New
Goro location. (Image courtesy of New Century Resources.<\/a><\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Century Resources (ASX: NCZ) and Vale (NYSE: VALE) have delayed the deadline for closing the sale of the Brazilian miner’s nickel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1016,949,369,4,2640],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198347"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1198347"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1198419,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198347\/revisions\/1198419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1198347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1198347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1198347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}