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150 years of Butte spirit [Copper Mining History] – by Matt Hoffman (Montana Standard – October 5, 2014)

http://mtstandard.com/

In 1874, a scant decade after Butte’s founding, the boom town was already on the verge of a bust. It’s population, which had climbed to about a thousand, may have dropped as low as 61. The town was down – but, if you know anything about Butte, far from out.

A few prospectors renewed their interest in the settlement over the next year and found deposits of gold, silver and copper the first wave of miners had overlooked.

“These were daring, innovative individuals,” Chief Executive Matt Vincent said. The character traits of those first rugged miners came to embody the legendary spirit of Butte, an ethos unlike anywhere else in Montana. In this city’s 150-year history, generation after generation of Butte residents have faced new challenges and — somehow — always found a way to thrive.

Sometimes, with a little luck. In those early days, copper was the most abundant but also the least valuable of the findings – until the world changed. The telephone and light bulb were invented over the next few years, and suddenly copper went from an afterthought to a maker of fortunes.

Those who put their faith and sweat into the town were richly rewarded. By 1917, Butte was one of the largest cities in the Northwest, and one of the wealthiest. As the town was built, so was something else.

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Campaign to World Heritage List Cornish mining sites gaining momentum – by Lauren Waldhuter (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – October 6, 2014)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/

An international campaign to have South Australia’s Cornish mining sites World Heritage listed is gaining momentum. In the mid 1800s thousands of Cornish miners flocked to Burra in the state’s Mid North and shortly after to Moonta on the Yorke Peninsula to mine two of the largest copper deposits in the world, at that time.

Philip Payton, a professor of Cornish and Australian Studies from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, says the sites deserve global recognition by the United Nation’s heritage organisation (UNESCO).

Cornwall’s own mine sites are already World Heritage listed but Professor Payton says that only tells part of the story. “It’s not really complete until people recognise that actually there’s an international linking,” he says.

“That it’s a global story and if places like Burra and the copper triangle don’t feature in that somehow, the experience in Cornwall is diminished.”

It’s estimated 500,000 Cornish migrants left England between 1815 and the start of World War I, as the once booming mining industry on their home soil slowed down. But their advanced mining skills were an asset to other projects emerging all over the world. “They were cutting edge,” said Professor Payton.

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No rebound in copper till after 2016 – by Rowan Callick (The Australian – October 2, 2014)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business

THE falling copper price — which has held its value much better this year than its metal peers, down just 8 per cent so far — will not bounce back any time soon, due to a series of one-off developments in China, which consumes 40 per cent of the world’s production.

That is the verdict of Michael Komesaroff, a leading Australian expert on China’s mining industry — a former Rio Tinto executive in Asia, who then worked for a major Chinese resource corporation — writing in new analysis for China-based GavekalDragonomics.

Over the past 10 years, he says, China’s consumption of ­refined copper has almost trebled, while consumption in the rest of the world has contracted by 6 per cent.

The metal’s high value to density ratio and the ease with which it can be stored for long periods has resulted in its widespread use as collateral in China, being pledged against relatively low interest hard currency loans.

This practice was driven by the People’s Bank of China raising in 2010 the reserve requirement for the commercial banks, effectively tightening domestic credit.

Mr Komesaroff says: “Speculators, mainly small and medium-sized companies with access to copper, pledged their stocks as collateral against US-denominated letters of credit issued by the domestic banks.

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Arizona judge recommends Curis’ Florence aquifer permit be rescinded – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – October 1, 2014)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Despite explicitly stating facts to the contrary, Arizona administrative law judge Diane Milhasky on Wednesday recommended that the Arizona Department of Water Quality (ADEQ) rescind a temporary individual aquifer protection permit (APP) granted to Florence Copper, the proponent of the in-situ copper recovery, solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW) Florence copper project.

The judge made a nonbinding recommendation in the appeal of ADEQ’s decision to issue an APP to Florence Copper during July last year, which would be submitted to the Water Quality Appeals Board (WQAB) to make the final determination on the permit.

The town of Florence, legal representatives, Johnson Utilities and Pulte Home Corporation filed an amended notice of appeal with the WQAB to appeal the ADEQ’s issuing of the temporary APP to Florence Copper’s parent, Curis Resources.

In her recommendation, Judge Milhasky noted that Florence Copper’s proposed production test facility (PTF) would not have any impact on the drinking water wells in Florence, nor would it impact the wells owned and operated by Johnson Utilities located north-west of the project.

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UPDATE 2-Workers to strike at Chile’s Escondida copper mine next week – union (Reuters U.K. – September 16, 2014)

http://uk.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – The union at the world’s largest copper mine, Chile’s Escondida, has called a strike for Sept. 22 and 24, aiming to paralyze activity to win improved working conditions, the union said on Monday.

In a surprise announcement on Monday evening, the Sindicato No. 1 union said it would call on its 2,800 members to stage two 24-hour strikes at the mine, which is controlled by global miner BHP Billiton Plc .

The union, which represents the vast majority of workers at the mine, said the stoppage would affect mining and port operations. Escondida, in northern Chile’s copper belt, produced 1.19 million tonnes of copper last year, about 20 percent of the output from Chile, the world’s top copper producer.

The union carried out a similar 24-hour stoppage over pay and conditions last year, without causing any long-term impact on copper production. However, it stunned the copper market in 2011 by staging a two-week strike that sent the mine’s output tumbling.

Escondida “systematically infringed on labor norms,” the union said in a statement on Monday, citing overtime, holidays, hygiene and safety issues. It said on its blog that it held a series of meetings with company representatives on Thursday.

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No Apology From Mining Tycoon German Larrea For Worst Ecological Disaster In Mexico’s History – by Dolia Estevez (Forbes Magazine – September 2, 2014)

http://www.forbes.com/

Grupo Mexico, the mining giant owned by German Larrea Mota Velasco, Mexico’s second richest man, has been in the center of a political storm since one of its mines in northern Mexico caused the worst ecological disaster in Mexican history.

According to Mexico’s federal environmental protection agency, Profepa, on August 6 Grupo Mexico’s subsidiary Buenavista del Cobre mine spilled 10 million gallons (40,000 cubic meters) of copper sulfate acid into the Sonora and Bacanuchi rivers, 25 miles south of the border with Arizona.

The contamination turned the waterways orange and affected the water supply of 24,000 people in seven communities along the rivers, forcing schools to close for several weeks while environmental authorities clean up the mess; 322 wells were shut down and more than 3 million liters of water have been distributed in trucks and bottles. Authorities place the cost of the total cleanup in the “hundreds of millions or billions” of Mexican pesos.

“This is the worst natural disaster provoked by the mining industry in the modern history of Mexico,” said Mexican Environment Minister Juan José Guerra Abud on August 26. Profepa said the mine’s leach solution yard is where the spill originated and ordered it partially shut,citing “imminent risk to the environment.”

The government has taken preliminary action to fine Grupo Mexico more than $3 million for the spill and Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office has opened a criminal investigation into top officials at the Buenavista mine, the world’s fourth largest copper mine by output.

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CHART: Copper price could follow iron ore over a cliff – by Frik Els (Mining.com – August 28, 2014)

http://www.mining.com/

The price of copper has been swinging wildly since hitting a near four-year low in March. This week is no exception and the red metal is down 3% in since Tuesday erasing most of the gains from a surge in the price last week.

In midday New York trade on Thursday, December copper fell more than 1.5% to a low of $3.1425 a pound without any fresh news that can be blamed fro the sharp pullback. Weak economic news out of China, consumer of 45% of the globe’s copper, is the number one factor for the weakness in the price.

Manufacturing activity in the world’s second largest economy slowed sharply in August and is nearing contractionary levels, a reading of the country’s services industry dropped to nine-year lows in July while bank lending is at financial crisis levels.

Probably most worrying is weakness in China’s property sector – construction accounts for 60% of copper demand.

Latest monthly data show home sales declining by almost a fifth, the sharpest downturn since December 2008. At the same time unsold inventories of real estate in China have risen by more than 25% this year.

The outlook is bleaker still and some economists are predicting a property bust after years of overbuilding that will make the US subprime mortgage crisis seem puny.

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COLUMN-China may lose pole position as copper price driver – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – August 27, 2014)

http://www.reuters.com/

Clyde Russell is a Reuters columnist. The views expressed are his own.

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Aug 27 (Reuters) – China has in recent years been viewed as the main driver of the global copper market, and while its influence remains strong, it’s possible that the rest of the world will take over in the short term.

Copper is currently one of the more divisive commodities among analysts, with opinions split over whether the industrial metal will continue its recent rally or lose ground over the rest of 2014.

The point is that considerable uncertainty exists over copper’s direction and much of that comes down to whatever view is held about the economic outlook for China, which consumes roughly 45 percent of the world’s copper.

While this is obviously a huge chunk of the market, it still means that the other 55 percent could exert a bigger influence, especially if its demand trend is changing.

London copper prices gained 3.4 percent between Aug. 14 and Tuesday’s close of $7,054 a tonne, although they are still down 4.2 percent since the start of the year.

The recent gains have largely been attributed to an improving outlook for growth in the United States and hopes that Europe may take steps to stimulate its struggling economies.

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Peru to become world’s second-largest copper producer – by Andres Schipani (Financial Times – August 26, 2014)

http://www.ft.com/intl/companies/mining

Lima – Peru is set to become the world’s second-largest copper miner, behind neighbouring Chile, thanks to a $20bn pipeline of Chinese mining projects, according to senior officials in Lima.

Last month’s $7bn acquisition of Glencore’s Las Bambas copper project in Peru by China Minmetals’ MMG subsidiary has reinforced the links between the two countries, as Beijing seeks to secure more resources to drive economic growth.

MMG’s Las Bambas deal means Chinese backers are now behind one-third of all Peru’s new mining investments by value, estimated by the country at $61bn.

While US companies – including Newmont Mining and Freeport-McMoRan – have been among the biggest investors in Peruvian mining, Chinese projects in the country are now worth more than those from the US and Canada combined.

Eleodoro Mayorga, Peru’s energy and mining minister, said: “We have excellent relations with the Chinese; China has evolved as a partner. There is more openness, not only at a financial level, [but] also at trade and social responsibility levels.

“It is not the closed, traditional, governmental China, but transnational companies playing the market game,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times.

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MiedziCopper loses concessions in Poland – by Northern Miner (August 13, 2014)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry. 

Ross Beaty isn’t the type of businessman who normally airs his grievances in public. But when two of his copper concessions in Poland were apparently revoked by the Polish government, he felt he had no choice.

On July 30 Poland’s Minister of the Environment revoked two concessions awarded to MiedziCopper, a private copper exploration company in which Beaty’s Lumina Capital investment group has a large stake. The ministry also cancelled a third concession that it awarded to MiedziCopper’s rival KGHM Polska Miedzi (WSE: KGH), Poland’s largest copper producer and a company in which the government owns 63.6 million shares or about 31.79% of the share capital.

Beaty alleges that KGHM brought political pressure to bear on the Ministry of Environment to reverse its decision awarding two of the concessions to his group and MiedziCopper is now suspending all new investment in Poland.

MiedziCopper has invested about $35 million on exploration in the country since 2010 and had planned to spend a further $65 million over the next few years. The company continues to hold 11 concessions in the country on which it has carried out extensive geochemical, geophysical, geological and drilling activities.

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Former Chilean president slams Codelco’s governance, calls for greater autonomy – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – August 14, 2014)

http://www.mining.com/

Former Chilean president Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006) has called for a more independent Codelco, the state-owned copper company that is the world’s No.1 producer of the industrial metal.

Speaking at the 30-year anniversary of local mining think tank Cesco, Lagos said the miner’s corporate governance should be similar to that of the country’s central bank, La Segunda reports (in Spanish).

Chile’s monetary authority has its own legal framework and The President is responsible for appointing its five directors for a 10-year period, with the consent of the senate.

A nine-member board currently rules Codelco, with of three of the directors named by the President, four selected from a shortlist provided by the senior public management council, and two workers’ representatives.

“If you compare Codelco’s current corporate structure to that of the central bank, the degrees of autonomy are clearly different, which is based on the importance the company plays in the country’s public finances,” Lagos was quoted as saying.

Budget battles

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[India]‘Madhya Pradesh copper mine threatens local communities’ – by Shuriah Niazi (Vancouver Desi.com – August 9, 2014)

http://www.vancouverdesi.com/

Malajkhand (Madhya Pradesh), Aug 10 (IANS) — What is said to be Asia’s largest copper mine in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has become a threat for the tribals and the indigenous communities living in the area, environmentalists charge.

People in the Malajkhand area of the Balaghat district, some 370 km from state capital Bhopal, are suffering from the loss of farmland and the degradation brought about by the mining activities, environmentalists say. Now, the state-owned Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL) plans to more than double its production from two million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to five MTPA after it receives the necessary clearances from the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Environmentalists fear this will accelerate the destruction of forests and lead to further contamination of the surrounding environment.

The Malajkhand area, 20 km from the Kanha National Park, contains 70 percent of India’s copper reserves and accounts for 80 percent of HCL’s production.

The Centre of Environmental Science and Engineering at the Bhilai Institute of Technology had pointed out that the mineral processing plant in the area is causing serious damage to the environment and harming the health of both humans and animals.

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B.C. approves $5.3-billion copper-gold KSM mine – by James Keller (Globe and Mail – July 30, 2014)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

VANCOUVER — The Canadian Press – The British Columbia government has granted environmental approval for a proposed $5.3-billion mine in the province’s north, which would tap into one of the largest gold and copper deposits in the world and has already received support from local First Nations.

The provincial environment and mines ministers issued an environmental assessment certificate Wednesday to Seabridge Gold Inc. for the company’s KSM project, also known as Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell.

Seabridge has applied to open the project more than 900 kilometres northwest of Vancouver, where the company says it would be able to mine 38.2 million ounces of gold and almost 5 billion kilograms of copper – enough to produce 130,000 tonnes of ore per day for up to 52 years.

The company says the project would create 1,800 jobs during construction and more than 1,000 permanent jobs if it gets up and running, though Seabridge also notes it still must find a partner to fund and actually build the mine.

B.C. Mines Minister Bill Bennett said the project would be a boon to the province’s economy and First Nations in the region.

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KGHM Starts Copper Output in Chile After Record Takeover – by Maciej Martewicz (Bloomberg News – July 31, 2014)

http://www.businessweek.com/

KGHM Polska Miedz SA, the copper producer with the largest European output, began production in its Chilean mine, acquired two years ago as part of a record Polish takeover transaction abroad.

The Sierra Gorda mine will operate at full capacity at the start of 2015 and will produce 120,000 tons of copper a year, the Lubin, Poland-based company said in a regulatory statement today. KGHM will also produce 50 million pounds of molybdenum, used to toughen stainless steel, and 60,000 ounces of gold annually in the mine.

KGHM acquired the Sierra Gorda project as part of its $2.9 billion takeover of Canada’s Quadra FNX Mining Ltd. in 2012. The state-controlled company expands outside Poland as it seeks to cut production costs and raise output.

“The start of Sierra Gorda production will help us cut unit cost in the group,” Chief Financial Officer Jaroslaw Romanowski said in an e-mailed statement today. “This is mainly due to additional products from the site, like gold as well as molybdenum, whose price is currently one fourth above what we initially estimated.”

KGHM produced 666,000 tons of copper in its Polish and northern American sites last year at an average cost of $1.85 a pound, which includes $0.53-a-pound impact of Polish copper taxes imposed in 2012. The production cost at Sierra Gorda is estimated at $1.13 a pound, according to its presentation.

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Freeport Sees Indonesia Deal ‘Imminently’ on Export Curbs – by Liezel Hill (Bloomberg News – July 23, 2014)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) expects to sign a deal with the Indonesian government “imminently” to resolve a dispute that has curbed production at the world’s third-biggest copper mine.

The largest publicly traded copper producer and the government have developed a memorandum of understanding under which the company would commit to help develop a smelter, Phoenix-based Freeport said today in a statement. The agreement includes reduced export taxes and higher royalties for copper and gold.

The agreement, which would enable the immediate resumption of exports, also states that Freeport and Indonesia would start negotiations immediately on changes to the company’s contract to operate in the country.

Freeport reduced operating levels this year at its Grasberg copper and gold mine after Indonesia introduced restrictions and duties on mineral exports in a bid to increase local processing. Exports of concentrates, a semi-processed raw material, have yet to resume after months of negotiations between the company and government officials.

Freeport has been able to run Grasberg at about half of normal rates because it sends some concentrate to a domestic smelter it helped build in the 1990s.

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