Indonesian MHP Nickel and High-Grade Nickel Matte Prices Drop, Cobalt Remains Unchanged

PT Central Omega Resources (DKFT), an Indonesian nickel miner, told the IDX it will submit an RKAB revision in July to secure additional nickel ore quota, after its initial 2026 allocation was cut by about 35%. The company still targets 9.5% net profit growth to IDR 629 billion for 2026, and has trimmed its ore sales target to 1.9 million mt from 3.02 million mt realized in 2025, while optimizing output toward 4 million mt. In Q1 2026, ore output fell about 44% YoY and sales about 19%, yet revenue rose around 20% to IDR 506 billion and net profit jumped 72.9% to IDR 238 billion—price and margin gains offsetting RKAB-driven volume cuts. The July RKAB outcome is the swing factor for the full-year target.

Fathom Nickel (CSE: FNI) said Phase-2 drilling at its Gochager Lake project in Saskatchewan, Canada, identified two new zones of gabbro-hosted nickel-copper-cobalt mineralization, roughly 100 meters northeast and 150 meters southwest of the historic deposit. The intercepts, guided by borehole electromagnetic (BHEM) targeting, carried visible pentlandite and chalcopyrite in semi-massive to disseminated sulphides, consistent with the historic deposit style. With about two-thirds of the 3,000-meter program done, drilling is set to wrap by 30 June, with assays due in early August. Grades are not yet reported, so the result is a footprint expansion rather than a resource update; the August assays are the next catalyst for this North American magmatic-sulphide explorer.

[SMM Nickel Flash] June 25 – Today, the futures fell sharply, combined with the bearish news of relaxed export quotas, the overall bearish sentiment in the market heated up, the supply-demand divergence in nickel pig iron widened further, and prices were under pressure.