Greetings Contrarian,

This is The Next Big Rush, your daily drop of mining/energy investing news. Where we come together and wish we owned all the company with positive hits this week.

Here are the initial ones:

🏆 China Closing Lithium Spigot

🏆 The Nickel Market is Broken

🏆 Juicy Hit In The Yukon

🚰 China Closing Lithium Spigot

The lithium industry in China, responsible for over 10% of the world's supply, is facing closures due to a government investigation into environmental violations.

Lithium mines in Yichun, Jiangxi province have been shut down as part of the investigation. The crackdown targets mining without permits or with expired licenses and aims to guide the industry's “healthy development” - whatever that means.

The closures could last for an indefinite period, leading to a reduction in output equivalent to 8-13% of the world's total lithium supply, according to analysts.

The crackdown comes as demand for lithium from the fast-growing electric vehicle battery industry is outpacing production.

Prices in China have fallen by over 30% from last year's peak due to a slump in demand for lithium from the Chinese car industry.

The.Plot.Thickens. 

😵‍💫 The Nickel Market Is Broken

According to the International Nickel Study Group (INSG), the global nickel market has transitioned from a deficit to a surplus in 2022.

Supply of nickel, a key input for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, exceeded demand by 112,000 tonnes last year, marking the largest surplus since 2014.

However, the London Metal Exchange's (LME) registered nickel stocks have decreased by almost 20% since January, and the three-month price remains high at $25,000 per tonne, which doesn't reflect the physical supply chain.

The surplus is due to the Indonesian nickel boom, which led to a production surge in nickel pig iron and intermediate nickel products.

However, Indonesian production is not in the form that is deliverable against either the LME or the Shanghai Futures Exchange, which trade Class I refined metal.

As a result, about 70% of the physical nickel supply chain is now priced at a discount to the LME benchmark.

An increasingly diverse physical market needs a better hedging toolkit as Indonesia's ever-rising production drives deeper wedges into the global pricing system.

There is no longer one nickel price but many.

Will the LME be able to have a Class II market, or will chaos reign?

🚨 Fireweed Metals High-Grade Hit

Fireweed Metals (TSXV: FWZ) (OTCQB: FWEDF) came out with amazing results at the Boundary Zone, Macmillan Pass zinc-lead-silver project, Yukon, Canada

Highlights

• A high grade and wide intersection of zinc mineralization in NB22-021 for 105 metres (m) of 8.4% zinc and 12.1 g/t silver starting from surface.

• A new stratiform zone in NB22-018 returned 8 m of 11.5% zinc, 1.7% lead, and 61 g/t silver.

• All holes completed hit zinc mineralization.

• Results from the last five (5) holes from Boundary Zone and nine (9) holes from the Tom deposit are pending.

These will surely be followed up in their upcoming summer drill campaign as they’re cashed up to further explore the area.

How amazing is this week going to be? Yeah, we have no idea either.

The Editor

DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.