BHP Suspends Nickel Operations – What Does This Mean for Global Markets?
In breaking news, BHP is to suspend its Australian nickel operations. What does this mean for the nickel market? Join Giga Metals' President, Martin Vydra, and CEO, Mark Jarvis, for a live discussion and Q&A.
Mr. Jarvis has more than 30 years of experience in exploration and development of mineral resources, both in oil and gas and metals. After a career in financing exploration projects as a stockbroker, Mr. Jarvis moved to the corporate side of the business in 1996. He joined the Board of Ultra Petroleum, which at the time was a small oil and gas exploration and development company with a large, unconventional gas deposit. As Director responsible for Corporate Finance, he raised the equity capital necessary to prove the concept and to establish enough production to finance further growth with debt. Ultra Petroleum grew from an exploration play to 3 TCF of proven gas reserves.
Mr. Jarvis became CEO of Giga Metals Corporation's predecessor company in January 2004. During his tenure, the company has drilled off a giant nickel/cobalt deposit, worked out a reliable metallurgical circuit, and published a Pre-Feasibility Study.
Martin Vydra joined Giga Metals after a 31 year career with Sherritt International Corporation, a leader in the mining, processing and refining of lateritic nickel and cobalt with operations in Canada, Cuba and Madagascar. Martin is widely recognized as an expert in nickel and cobalt extraction, processing and refining including the development and application of advanced technologies to maximize the recovery of valuable metals such as nickel and cobalt from a variety of feeds. While at Sherritt, Martin’s technical accomplishments spanned four continents and over 20 operations including postings in Australia where he was integrated in Murrin Murrin’s refinery start up; Finland for the design of Harjavalta’s nickel reduction circuit; and, in Chile where he oversaw the design, construction and commissioning of a major pressure oxidation operation.
Most recently, Martin served as Sherritt's Senior Vice President, Commercial and Technologies, where he had oversight for the sales and marketing of nickel and cobalt, and marketing and commercialization of Sherritt's proprietary technologies.
Replay transcript excerpt
Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, depending on where in the world you're signing in from. Today I'm very happy to introduce GigaMetal CEO Mark Jarvis and President Martin Weidner to discuss the nickel market, with a focus on BHP's decision to temporarily shutter their Australian nickel operations, as recently announced. Before I allow these 2 gentlemen to dive into the issue, just a bit of quick housekeeping. Today's event is being recorded. The replay will be available later this afternoon. Also want to say this is an interactive event. There's a little chat button in the bottom right corner of the screen. That should be the bottom right most button. Please ask questions at any time during the event. And we'll try to tackle them once the primary conversation has concluded. Now, that being said, we'd ideally like to keep this event targeted to the nickel markets. There is an additional event on Thursday with Giga Metals Lyle Tritton regarding the Turnagain project specifically, where we can tackle any project-specific questions. That is enough out of me. Mark and Martin, I'll leave it to you. The floor is yours. Well, thank you very much, Romeo. And I also want to thank you, Martin, for taking the time for this. Nobody knows better than I do how busy you are. So I just want to, before we get into the market, I just want to get a little bit into your background because it's quite interesting. You come from an operating background. You've got a lot of, you're an engineer. You've got a lot of experience with various industry organizations and a deep, deep understanding both of how nickel is mined and processed into various things, but also the end uses of nickel. So if you could just get into a bit of your background. Oh, thanks. Yeah, thanks Mark. And yeah...
