Archive | Copper

2020 was supposed to be copper’s year to shine. Now everything is uncertain – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – May 23, 2020)

May 26, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Copper

https://business.financialpost.com/

Earlier this month, Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals Inc. injected US$115 million in cash to its balance sheet, shoring up the company’s finances just as a veil of uncertainty settles over the copper market.

The cash came from an agreement by Hudbay to pre-sell 80,000 ounces of gold from its Manitoba operations at an average of US$1,682 per ounce over the course of 2022 and 2023. As chief executive Peter Kukielski told shareholders, “it looks like gold is flying.”

By pre-selling gold, which has risen 15 per cent since January to US$1,737 as of Friday, Hudbay was able to preserve its access to a revolving line of credit, as clouds build over its copper business — which along with other base metals accounted for 80 per cent of its revenue in 2019. Continue Reading →

COPPER-SILVER: Rio Tinto preps plans for 2020 at Janice Lake – by Staff (Canadian Mining Journal – May 20, 2020)

May 22, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Copper, Rio Tinto, Saskatchewan Mining

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

SASKATCHEWAN – Following up on a positive 2019 exploration program, Rio Tinto is planning 2,000 metres of drilling, plus mapping, prospecting and geophysical surveys this year at the Janice Lake copper-silver project in northern Saskatchewan.

The major is earning up to an 80% interest in the project from Forum Energy Metals, which has optioned the property from Transition Metals.

Last year’s program at the sedimentary copper-silver project, located 55 km southeast of Key Lake, included 21 drill holes totalling 5,209 metres. Continue Reading →

‘A complete disaster’: Investors take aim at Teck CEO Don Lindsay after commodity cycle misses – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – May 20, 2020)

May 20, 2020 in British Columbia Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Coal, Copper, Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

https://business.financialpost.com/

Days after Teck Resources Ltd. publicly pulled the plug in February on Frontier, a proposed $20.5-billion mine in the oilsands, one of the company’s largest investors started a campaign to oust the company’s chief executive, Don Lindsay.

Bob Bishop, founder of Impala Asset Management, a Florida-based resource focused hedge fund, which has been a shareholder since 2016, wrote a letter in late February to the board; and then a few days later, just before coronavirus halted all air travel, he flew to Toronto to deliver his message in person to the company’s chair Sheila Murray: It’s time for Lindsay to go.

For Bishop, whose firm owned 1.9 per cent of Teck’s Class B shares at year end, oil was proving to be another mistake in a long line of miscalculations: Teck invested $1.1 billion in Frontier, one of the largest greenfield oil projects ever imagined in Canada, before it abruptly withdrew from the permitting process. Continue Reading →

Eurobattery to buy Finland battery metals project – by Donna Slater (MiningWeekly.com – May 13, 2020)

May 19, 2020 in Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals, Copper, Europe Mining, International Media Resource Articles, Nickel

https://m.miningweekly.com/

The option under the investment and shareholders agreement is linked to an obligation to provide successive cash financing for investments in the Hautalampi project.

Eurobattery will pay about €8.6-million over 48 months for the VHOy shares and the option premium, as well as the cash financing component.

The Hautalampi project is located at the same site as the Keretti (Outokumpu) copper mine, which operated during 1912 to 1989. The Hautalampi nickel/cobalt/copper orebody is located parallel to, and above, the exploited copper deposit. Existing surface and underground infrastructure provide significant location advantages in what is already a Tier 1 mining jurisdiction. Continue Reading →

Teck CEO defends strategy at mining conference as investors launch criticism – by Dan Healing (Canadian Press/Global News – May 12, 2020)

May 14, 2020 in British Columbia Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Coal, Copper

https://globalnews.ca/

The CEO of Teck Resources Ltd. defended his company’s growth strategy on Tuesday as dissident shareholders criticized what they called “underperforming” investments in coal and oilsands.

“Our strategy is very straight forward,” said CEO Don Lindsay in a webcast speech at the online Bank of America Securities Global Metals, Mining and Steel conference.

“Teck is implementing a copper growth strategy financed by the strong cash flows from steel-making coal and zinc. We are focused on rebalancing our portfolio to ultimately make our copper business bigger than our coal business, beginning with QB2, which will double our copper production on a consolidated basis.” Continue Reading →

What are Joe Biden’s views on two of the most controversial environmental projects in Minnesota? – by Walker Orenstein and Gabe Schneider (MinnPost – May 11, 2020)

May 12, 2020 in Copper, International Media Resource Articles, Minnesota Duluth Complex and Iron Range, Nickel

https://www.minnpost.com/

In late April, former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign held a virtual event with Minnesota supporters to promote the Democrat’s plans to address climate change and a clean environment.

But while U.S. Sen. Tina Smith and other Biden surrogates talked about carbon-free energy, clean water, agriculture and electric cars, they did not touch on perhaps the two most controversial environmental issues in the state: copper-nickel mining in Northern Minnesota and the proposed Line 3 oil pipeline.

Many of the major Democratic candidates in the presidential race said they would oppose the Line 3 project, the proposed Twin Metals mine near Ely, or both if elected in the fall of 2020. Those stances heartened the environmentalist wing of the party and roiled trade unions and rural DFLers. Continue Reading →

SolGold scores $150m in funding from Franco Nevada – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – May 11, 2020)

May 11, 2020 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Copper, Gold and Silver, Latin America Mining

https://www.mining.com/

Ecuador-focused miner SolGold (LON, TSX:SOLG) has secured up to $150 million from streaming company Franco Nevada (TSX, NYSE: FNV), which it will use to develop its Alpala copper-gold project.

The company said the net smelter return (NSR) agreement includes an initial $100 million. Franco-Nevada, which provides natural resource companies with upfront cash in exchange for future production, will receive a perpetual 1% NSR.

The total amount could increase by $50 million, at SolGold’s discretion. The move would also increase the NSR for Franco Nevada to 1.5%. Continue Reading →

Copper takes aim at COVID-19 with virus-killer coatings – by Melanie Burton (Reuters U.S. – May 8, 2020)

May 8, 2020 in Copper, International Media Resource Articles

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – At an outer suburban manufacturing plant, engineer Byron Kennedy is resetting a machine to spray-print a layer of copper on to a door handle, aiming to use the metal’s antiviral properties to counter the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.

His firm Spee3D is better known as a producer of 3D printers for copper and aluminium, used by customers including the Australian defence force and U.S. Marines to rapidly print new parts to get broken equipment back in action without waiting days for spares to arrive.

“Up until the end of last year, our business was building the 3D printers, which were then used to build parts,” Spee3D co-founder Kennedy told Reuters. “Come 2020, and the epidemic hits. We know about the antimicrobial properties of copper, so we thought ‘Can we do something, can we help out here?’” Continue Reading →

Rockcliff makes new Nickel-PGE discovery at [Flin Flon, Manitoba] Tower property (Resource World – May 6, 2020)

May 7, 2020 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Copper, Manitoba Mining, Nickel

https://resourceworld.com/

Rockcliff Metals Corp. [RCLF-CSE; RO0-FSE; A2H60G-WKLN] has made a new high-grade nickel-PGE (platinum group element) discovery on its 100%-owned Tower property in the Snow Lake area of central Manitoba. This new discovery, termed the TGR nickel-PGE prospect, has returned significant assay results.

TGR is located only 600 metres south of the company’s high-grade, copper-rich Tower deposit. The TGR mineralization was discovered in a previously unexplored area and is associated with ultramafic rocks of the Thompson nickel belt (TNB).

The TNB is a world-class over-300-kilometre-long mining belt with over 60 years of production from high-grade nickel mines with associated copper and cobalt. Continue Reading →

Gold price boosts Barrick profit as miner eyes copper deals – by Arundhati Sarkar, Zandi Shabalala and Helen Reid (Reuters U.S. – May 6, 2020)

May 7, 2020 in Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Copper, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles

https://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO) (GOLD.N) reported a nearly 55% rise in quarterly profit on Wednesday as gold prices surged, bolstering its ability to snap up mines including in copper, its chief executive said.

Investors’ anxiety about a global economy brought to its knees by the coronavirus pandemic has boosted “safe-haven” gold XAU= by 12% so far this year, while copper CMCU3, seen as a bellwether for economic growth, is down about 15%.

Barrick CEO Mark Bristow has previously said the world’s No. 2 gold miner aims to increase its exposure to copper because of its expected higher use in electrification. He added on Wednesday the relative price performance between copper and gold made deals more attractive. Continue Reading →

NEWS RELEASE: Solaris Regrets to Announce Passing of David Lowell (May 5, 2020)

May 7, 2020 in Copper, Gold and Silver, Latin America Mining, United States Mining History

https://ceo.ca/

https://www.solarisresources.com

VANCOUVER, May 5, 2020 /CNW/ – Solaris Resources Inc. (“Solaris” or the “Company”) regrets to announce that J. David Lowell, a consultant and strategic partner of the Company, passed away at his home in Tucson, Arizona, earlier this week at the age of 92. David is survived by his wife, daughter and two sons.

Daniel Earle, President & CEO, commented, “We are deeply sorry to have learned of David’s passing and extend our thoughts and prayers to his family and everyone touched by this extraordinary person. David was the ‘World’s Best Mine Finder,’ discovering 17 major minerals deposits over a 50-year career. Our flagship project, Warintza, was a discovery he made while exploring in southeast Ecuador in the early 2000s, and our pipeline of grassroots exploration projects were his targets for future discoveries.”

Up until the very end of his life, David was busy designing programs to test his vision for the future of discovery in the Americas. Innovation and ingenuity were constants throughout his legendary career, which began with first defining the porphyry copper model with John Guilbert, a deposit type which is now thought to account for 60% of the world’s copper. Continue Reading →

Chile copper industry largely unscathed by coronavirus – minister – by Dave Sherwood (Reuters U.S. – April 29, 2020)

April 29, 2020 in Copper, International Media Resource Articles, Latin America Mining

https://www.reuters.com/

SANTIAGO, April 29 (Reuters) – Chile´s mining minister said on Wednesday the South American nation´s sprawling copper industry so far ranks among the least affected globally by the COVID-19 pandemic, citing official figures that point to a reduction in output of just 1%.

Mining minister Baldo Prokurica, in an interview with Emol TV, credited both public and private measures aimed at protecting workers with the industry´s resilience even as the virus has ravaged other parts of Chile´s economy.

“One realizes that Chile has been one of the countries that will be least hit by this pandemic,” Prokurica told the web news broadcast. Continue Reading →

Mining City History: ‘Angel’ of Skagway was laundress in Butte – by Richard I. Gibson (Montana Standard – April 26, 2020)

April 28, 2020 in Copper, International Media Resource Articles, United States Mining History

https://mtstandard.com/

As Butte grew from a mining camp to a huge industrial metropolitan city, amenities expanded to accommodate the needs and wants of a population with money to spend. Laundries popped up all over town.

Most were operated by Chinese, but with improved technologies, a growing population, and prejudice against the Asian community, both household laundries and large commercial operations thrived in Butte under white management.

In 1884 Butte had nine Chinese laundries. The first non-Chinese commercial laundry appears to have been the Butte Steam Laundry, in 1885 on West Granite across from the skating rink pavilion at Alaska Street. Continue Reading →

MMG sees copper output sink 20% in first quarter, confirms Peru force majeure (Reuters U.S. – April 23, 2020)

April 24, 2020 in Copper, International Media Resource Articles, Latin America Mining

https://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – MMG Ltd said on Thursday its copper output fell 20% year-on-year in the first quarter because of lower-than-planned production at the Las Bambas mine in Peru, where the miner has declared force majeure because of coronavirus-related curbs.

Las Bambas is among the world’s biggest copper mines and one of the major mining projects that has cut production, prompting Australia-based MMG to formally withdraw its full-year production guidance for the mine earlier this month.

Company-wide copper production for the three months ended March 31 totalled 91,911 tonnes, MMG – which is majority-owned by China Minmetals Corp [CHMIN.UL] – said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, down from 114,369 tonnes a year earlier. Continue Reading →

Cornish copper find raises hopes for once ‘richest square mile’ – by Steven Morris (The Guardian – April 22, 2020)

April 23, 2020 in Copper, Europe Mining, International Media Resource Articles

https://www.theguardian.com/

A fresh discovery of copper in an area once labelled the richest square mile on Earth because of its abundant metal deposits has raised the possibility of a revival for one of the UK’s most historic industries.

During exploration for lithium in hot underground springs in Cornwall, engineers came instead upon high-grade copper in a previously unmined area.

Further drilling will take place to confirm the extent of the discovery in the parish of Gwennap, near Redruth, but there is cautious optimism that the discovery could kickstart something of a comeback for the industry. Continue Reading →