Mirabela Nickel Ltd. (MRBAF)

[Belek]

Nickel Rally

Nickel has advanced about 40 percent this year in London after Indonesia, the biggest producer of the metal, banned raw-ore exports in January to encourage local refining. BHP Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mackenzie has said he wants to run a smaller collection of assets with long lifespans.

X2 Resources, led by former Xstrata Plc CEO Mick Davis, had its bid for BHP’s Australian nickel business rejected as too low, the Globe & Mail reported last month. Glencore said in March it was assessing a bid for the assets.

BHP booked impairment charges on the Nickel West assets of almost $1.6 billion in the past two financial years after prices for the metal fell. The operations produced 103,300 metric tons in financial 2013. The unit includes the Mt Keith, Cliffs and Leinster mines and concentrators, the Kalgoorlie smelter, Kambalda concentrator and the Kwinana refinery.