https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/44989383

This may be an older article from 2018, but I think it sums up the future climate of the global nickel sulphide market quite nicely. Except for its underestimation on nickel and the lack of talk about EVs; IMO. Take note though, the article appears to be from an Australian perspective.  Who, for the most part, are not known for their sulphides....see below.

https://www.australianmining.com.au/features/the-nickel-laterite-challenge/

..IMO The take-off, not take away, message here is "Strike before the Metal is Hot"....Not after.

• 21 Jun, 2018

Nickel hopefuls attracting more off-take interest as LME inventories fall

• AuthorAnthony Barich

• ThemeMetals

Surging optimism from falling LME nickel inventory levels and a barren project pipeline has made ASX-listed hopefuls more enticing for off-takers who are reportedly offering better prices for the concentrate the juniors plan to produce compared to just 18 months ago.

Poseidon Nickel Ltd. COO Michael Rodriguez said stocks of nickel in LME warehouses are expected to fall below 200,000 tonnes by the end of the year, with what was previously a "gradual decay" now having "accelerated in the last six to nine months" to reach their lowest end-of-month level in four years in May when they hit 291,000 tonnes.

The price of nickel rose 8.9% in May to US$15,067/tonne despite supply surging in a nickel industry which Deloitte said in its latest WA Index report is morphing into two clear supply chains — "one supplying the stainless steel sector nickel ore, and the other comprising of higher purity metal to be used in super alloys and lithium batteries."

"Chinese nickel ore and refined nickel imports also continued to grow in May following steep growth over the past year, with Indonesia exports rapidly accelerating after the country partly lifted its previous ban on ore exports. As a result, Indonesia has overtaken the Philippines as China’s top supplier," Deloitte said.

Comment: Remember, the Philippines and Indonesia are also not known for nickel sulphides; laterites instead.  This much is true.

Meanwhile, consensus commodity prices forecasts as revealed by S&P Global Market Intelligence say nickel  is projected to climb from US$4.72/lb in 2017 to about US$6/lb by 2020, and Rodriguez says it is only going to get better for future miners as "the pipeline is empty" for new projects.

Comment: IMO, US$6/lb by 2020 is a huge underestimation.

This is exacerbated by what Rox Resources Ltd. Managing Director Ian Mulholland described as the "market re-education" process that needs to occur on nickel exploration which has until recently been quite barren.

Mulholland maintains that "the corporate knowledge of nickel sulphide exploration [is] 30 years old. The last time we had a real concentration of nickel exploration was the nickel boom of the 1970s." Rox discovered its biggest nickel project, Fisher East, in December 2012.

"People forget what a good nickel sulphide drill intercept is, so the expectation is that it has to be 10 meters at 10% [grade] otherwise it's no good. In the old days they were mining grades at the mid to high 1%. Yet we have resources at 2% and we're not getting the recognition," he said.

"Now that we've come out of the trough in the nickel price, we have more confidence to go forward and spend more money."

Strong market for off-takes

Mulholland said he has only recently been receiving genuine interest among buyers for joint ventures and off-take agreements, while Rodriguez said Poseidon has received offers of between 4% and 8% higher for its concentrate as an intermediate product than when the company went to market 18 months ago.

"We're seeing that there is a lot more competitive tension around," Rodriguez said. "About 15 years ago at the last peak of the market there was a huge pipeline," Rodriguez told S&P Global Market Intelligence. "Everybody was in the queue — Ramu, Ambatovy, Taganito, Koniambo, all laterites, huge projects, all 40,000 tonnes to 50,000 tonnes, and all banked in the early turn of the century.

"As many of those projects were delayed and had long ramp-ups, they've been operating for about five years — including Goro — and are producing at or close to nameplate, which has caused some of the overhang in the nickel market."

His point is that nickel projects are long-lead items, taking between five to seven years to develop as greenfield projects, with "capital intensity likely to be north of US$50,000 a tonne, and plus-US$8/lb to even think about justifying it."

Rodriguez also said the growth in the stainless steel market "should not be underestimated", particularly as it rose by close to 8% in 2016 and 2017, and two-thirds of the total primary nickel produced goes into the stainless steel industry...

Comment:  This comment by Rodriguez does not take into account the EV market, where only sulphide nickel resides.  All laterites for use in EVs must be further processed into nickel sulphates; energy intensive process. The LME is on the verge of separating their contracts into nickel classes.  Mainly due to the EV market demand that is anticipated.  Noront may be in Canada's somewhat far north, but with our nickel sulphides by no means are they off the map.  I think those who matter know exactly where we are.

TM.