SMM1, March 19: this month, three power towers powered by the Tagaung Taung nickel processing plant in Sagaine Province of Myanmar were blown up, forcing production to stop.
The people's Defense Forces of the town of Tigyaing, (PDF), said it blew up the tower on January 7.
The nickel project began in July 2008, and Myanmar's first mining company signed a 20-year production-sharing contract with Chinese state-owned non-ferrous metals mining company (CNMC).
According to the joint venture Myanmar medium Color Nickel, the project, with an investment of US $800 million, is the largest nickel production base in Myanmar, with an annual output of 85000 tons of nickel and iron.
About 5000 tons of nickel-iron ore are transported daily from the Mt Tagaung mine in the town of Thabeikkyin in Mandalay to Tigyaing, where nickel is smelted.
It is reported that the Chinese Embassy in Rangoon has complained to the parallel government of national unity about the explosion, but the details are not yet clear.
Nickel futures rebounded in intraday trading today, rising 0.73 per cent as of 11:01, boosted by the news.
According to SMM understanding, the recent LME nickel inventory to maintain a rapid removal of the state, but the domestic delivery is still relatively small. At present, domestic pure nickel is in a state of weak supply and demand. The price of nickel pig iron peaked and fell, and the upward pressure on the price of nickel sulfate before the festival was greater, and the acceptance of the lower reaches was difficult to keep up quickly for the time being.
Today, the average price of electrolytic nickel in SMM Portugal is 166400 yuan / tonne. Nickel prices have been on the rise since mid-December and have risen 14.8 per cent as of today.
"Click to view the historical spot price of SMM nickel.
