CMJ Daily Tape
OFFTAKE | NICKEL
Vale Base Metals (VBM) said on October 16 it completed a transaction that makes Exiro Nickel Company the owner and operator of the Thompson Mine Complex in Manitoba, Canada. Exiro Minerals Corp., Orion Resource Partners LP and Canada Growth Fund Inc. together hold 81.1% of Exiro Nickel; VBM, through Vale Canada Limited, keeps 18.9%. Exiro Nickel has committed to invest up to US$200 million (about CAD$280 million) in Thompson. VBM signed a multi-year offtake agreement for nickel concentrate from the Thompson mill; the release gives no volumes or pricing. The complex has two underground mines and an adjacent mill on the 135-kilometre Thompson Nickel Belt. The deal closes the strategic review VBM launched in January 2025.
Vale sold control of Thompson but kept the piece its refineries need: the concentrate. The release gives no tonnage, no price basis and no term for that offtake, and "up to US$200 million" is a ceiling, not a mine plan. A new operator spending on two underground mines needs the mill running full; Vale needs feed that already fits its refinery specifications. Watch whether Exiro's first dollars go to development headings or to the mill, and whether the offtake carries a minimum volume.
PRODUCTION | RARE EARTHS
Lindian Resources, listed on the ASX, is on track for first monazite concentrate production in December at the Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi, Mining Weekly reported on October 16. The ore stockpile stands at 149,000 t, up from 24,000 t in September. Site energisation is expected to conclude in the first week of November. Stage 1 is designed for 15,300 t/y of monazite concentrate at 55% total rare earth oxides (TREO); later phases could lift output to 120,000 t/y. Stage 1 mine life is 45 years.
Ore on the pad is the easy part. Kangankunde's 149,000 t stockpile sits ahead of a plant that gets power only in the first week of November, leaving about four weeks to first concentrate in December. A 55% TREO monazite concentrate is a feedstock, not a product: it needs a cracking and separation plant that will accept it, and qualification runs take months. The article names no buyer. Until one appears, December output is inventory, not supply.
TAX ENFORCEMENT | COPPER
Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) reported on October 16 that authorities in China sharply increased "reverse invoicing" inspections of scrap-using enterprises. Non-tax-inclusive scrap cannot provide compliant deduction vouchers, SMM said, so secondary copper rod and anode producers raised their share of tax-inclusive purchases, and demand for non-tax-inclusive scrap "plunged to a freezing point." Rod makers cut spot buying and asked traders to hold stock on consignment; traders mostly demanded spot cash. The cathode-to-scrap price spread narrowed from 3,979 yuan/mt to 2,794 yuan/mt over the week.
A 2,794 yuan/mt cathode-scrap spread should pull scrap into rod mills. This week it did not, because the binding constraint is the invoice, not the price. Rod makers that cannot book untaxed scrap as a deductible input either pay up for tax-inclusive material or run on cathode. Smaller mills without clean invoice chains lose the scrap discount that kept them running. Watch secondary rod operating rates, and whether rod plants buy more cathode while scrap piles up with traders.
FINANCIAL RESULTS | NIOBIUM
NioCorp Developments said on October 16, in preliminary unaudited results furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, that it held $405.1 million in cash at September 30, 2026. Net income for the quarter was $3.7 million, or $0.03 per share, mainly from about $8.5 million in non-cash gains on earnout shares and liability-classified warrants after its share price fell. Operating cash outflows were $6.1 million and investing outflows $5.9 million, mainly for mine portal construction at the Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project. The 10-Q is due on or before November 16.
$405.1 million in cash and $5.9 million of quarterly investing spend says Elk Creek is still a portal, not a build. The profit line is a warrant revaluation, not niobium. The constraint is the debt package: the release mentions an EXIM commitment only as a risk, and its offtake language covers non-binding MOUs and term sheets. Until those become signed debt and binding offtake, the cash funds headings underground, not a processing plant.
M&A | TUNGSTEN
Nexcel Metals Corp. (CSE: NEXX) said on October 16 it agreed to buy a 100% interest in 180 mineral claims from Northex Capital Partners Inc., an arm's length party. The claims cover about 3,994 hectares in York County, New Brunswick, in two blocks, McLean Brook 001 (about 666 hectares) and Burnthill North (about 3,328 hectares), and surround the historic Burnt Hill tungsten mine claim on three sides. Nexcel will issue 1,000,000 shares at a deemed $0.472 each; Northex keeps no royalty. Closing is due by October 31, subject to CSE acceptance.
About 3,994 hectares for 1,000,000 shares is a land position, not a resource. Nexcel calls the claims early-stage and defers their exploration history to a later release. Ground around a historic mine shortens the map, not the path to a concentrate: any tungsten found here still needs a concentrator, metallurgical test work and a converter willing to qualify the product. Until drilling and test work report, this is acreage.
