Nickel Mining in Canada

Thursday August 1, 2013, 4:10am PDT
By Staff Writer - Exclusive to Nickel Investing News

Canada is one of the world’s top five nickel-producing countries. Companies are exploring for the metal in most of the nation’s provinces, but the largest nickel deposits are the Thompson Nickel Belt in Manitoba, Ontario’s Sudbury Basin and the Ungava Peninsula in Quebec.

Nickel was first discovered in Canada in 1883, but the ore was not properly mined until the 1890s, according to the Canadian government. Currently, the majority of Canada’s nickel supply comes from the Sudbury Basin.

Below is a list of some of the companies that are actively mining nickel in Canada.

Vale Canada (NYSE:VALE)

Vale Canada, originally the International Nickel Company of Canada, is the Canadian division of Brazil-based mining giant Vale. Vale is the second-largest producer of nickel in the world and has seven nickel-mining sites in Canada, including one in the mineral-rich area of Sudbury, the company’s website states. Vale also owns nickel assets in Brazil, Indonesia and New Caledonia.

In 2012, Vale Canada produced 9,869,000 of tonnes of nickel, supplying 14 percent of global primary nickel consumption. Its Sudbury operation alone produced over 59,000 tonnes of nickel in 2011.

​Xstrata Nickel (LSE:GLEN)

Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Xstrata Nickel operates nickel mines in Ontario and Quebec. The company’s other global nickel assets are located in the Dominican Republic and Australia.

Xstrata notes on its website that it is the fourth-largest nickel producer in the world. Its annual managed production of the metal is more than 106,000 tonnes. Both of the company’s Canadian nickel mines are underground operations. The Ontario operation is located in the Sudbury Basin and produces nickel and copper; its annual production capacity of nickel-in-concentrate as of 2011 is 69,459 tonnes. The company’s Raglan mine in Quebec has an annual nickel-in-concentrate output of 27,274 tonnes as of 2011.

Prophecy Platinum (TSXV:NKL)

This Canadian mining company is focused on the acquisition and development of platinum-group metals projects in various countries around the world. Prophecy Platinum has three different nickel assets in Canada.

Its Lynn Lake property is located in Northern Manitoba, and estimates put its measured, indicated and inferred nickel resource at 0.35 billion pounds. The Shakespeare reserve in Ontario has an indicated and inferred nickel resource of 38 million pounds. Finally, Prophecy’s Wellgreen project, located in Yukon Territory, has indicated and inferred nickel reserves of 2.21 billion pounds. It is one of the largest undeveloped nickel-sulphide projects in the world, Prophecy’s website states.

First Nickel (TSX:FNI)

Located in Canada, First Nickel is a mining and exploration company that is concentrated on base metals. Its primary asset is the Lockerby mine, located in Ontario’s Sudbury Basin; it is expected to produce about 10 million pounds of payable nickel per year.

The company acquired the mine in 2005 from Falconbridge and extracted 364,000 tonnes of ore from it between 2006 and 2008. First Nickel also operates nickel exploration projects in the Timmins and Belmont regions of Ontario.