“Prices will average around the $20,000/mt level due mainly to the Indonesian nickel ore ban and an expected shortfall in supply in early 2015,” Alto Capital research analyst Carey Smith said Friday. The average price for 2014 is expected to be $18,000/mt.

Around six to 10 nickel pig iron plants were currently waiting for approval in Indonesia, Smith said, adding that he did not, however, expect all the projects to go ahead. The earliest the plants will come online will be the end of 2015, he said.

Read more at: http://www.platts.com/latest-news/metals/melbourne/nickel-price-to-average-20000-mt-in-2015-on-ore-26890518

“The high quality of submissions we have received throughout the Off-Grid Energy Challenge is a testament to the incredible innovation and entrepreneurship that is happening across the continent,” said president and CEO of GE Africa, Jay Ireland. “GE has a rich history in Africa that spans more than 100 years and we are very pleased to be a part of this Challenge to help identify and accelerate projects that will help Africans to compete in the global economy.”

Read more at: http://allafrica.com/stories/201409251519.html

On Sept. 19 the MV Nunavik embarked on a historic 29-day journey from Deception Bay in Quebec’s far north to deliver 21,000 tonnes of nickel concentrate to Bayuquan, in China’s Liaoning province. The voyage is the first unescorted commercial trip through the Northwest Passage, according to Montreal-based shipping firm Fednav, which owns the 31,700-tonne icebreaker. –

See more at: http://www.northernminer.com/news/fednav-sends-nickel-through-the-northwest-passage/1003269245/?&er=NA#sthash.BvRc6yZL.dpuf

Having played host to one of the earliest gold mines in the country, a small dusty town in Mbeya Region is poised to become a significant producer of rare earth elements.

Some 189 kilometres from the district centre in Chunya, to the east of the Lake Rukwa, on the edge of the East African Rift Valley, there lies one of the largest and highest grade rare earth deposits in the world. Rare earth is a mineral that contains more rare earth elements as major metal components.

Read more at: http://allafrica.com/stories/201409250780.html

Russia’s Norilsk Nickel and a group of private investors are in talks to buy palladium worth up to $2 billion from the country’s Central Bank, Norilsk’s chief executive and co-owner Vladimir Potanin said.

Potanin, Russia’s eighth richest man, said he was so convinced the market will be in a supply deficit that he would put his own money into palladium if the company ruled there was no conflict of interest.

Read more at: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/norilsk-in-talks-to-buy-russian-central-bank-s-palladium/507732.html

Where is all this metal coming from?

There is a steep 15 percent tax on exports of refined nickel, which strongly suggests this metal has been stored in bonded warehouses within China. It wouldn’t have paid any import duties or value-added tax and can therefore be re-exported without paying the export tax.

It’s possible that some of this metal has been flushed out of China’s bonded zones by the tightening of credit supply in the wake of the Qingdao port scandal.

Read more at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-2766504/China-throws-cold-water-nickel-bulls-Andy-Home.html

Jakarta. Nickel will probably advance next year as Indonesia’s ban on ore exports boosts processing costs and the global market shifts to a deficit, according to Jim Lennon, a senior consultant to Macquarie Group.

“We are not going to see a $50,000 price [like] we saw in 2007, but certainly I think the price direction will be up based on the movement of the market into deficit next year and higher processing costs,” Lennon told a conference in Jakarta.

Read more at: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/nickel-advance-2015-shift-deficit/

Outotec has signed a contract with Norilsk Nickel for the delivery of minerals processing technology and equipment to the Bystrinskoe copper concentrator in the Chita Region in Russia. The parties do not disclose the contract price, but the value of comparable deliveries is typically EUR 40-60 million. The order has been booked in Outotec’s third quarter 2014 order intake.

Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/outotec-to-deliver-minerals-processing-technology-to-norilsk-nickel-in-russia-20140923-00100#ixzz3E8eBAjN0