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Copper

Massive deal with Saudis will help Vale fund nickel, other mining projects – by Darren MacDonald (CTV News Northern Ontairo – July 31, 2023)

https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/

Vale Base Metals (VBM) Ltd. has signed deals worth $3.4 billion with two Saudi Arabian-owned entities as the company works to develop its base metals operations as a separate entity. The agreement will help Vale fund billions of capital projects in the base metals unit planned across its global holdings. The base metals unit is focused on increasing production of minerals needed for the conversion of the auto industry from gas-powered to electric vehicles.

“This strategic partnership will fast-track VBM’s expected US $25-$30 billion capital program over the next decade,” Vale said on its website in announcing the agreement.

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Hudbay’s Snow Lake discovery could stretch mine life past 2038 – by Henry Lazenby (Northern Miner – July 28, 2023)

https://www.northernminer.com/

The first discovery in a decade at Hudbay Minerals’ (TSX: HBM; NYSE: HBM) Lalor mine in Snow Lake, Man., has given it a run at finding another anchor deposit to extend the life of its operations beyond 2038.

The company’s winter drilling program had uncovered a trove of new mineralized zones, Hudbay said late Thursday in a news release. One drill rig exploring a geophysical anomaly northwest of Lalor has yielded strong results outlining a series of base metal and copper-gold zones, including a high-grade copper-gold-silver zone. The find indicates the potential to enhance near-term production and significantly extend the mine’s life.

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Glencore buys Pan American’s stake in Argentinean copper project – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – July 31, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

Glencore (LON: GLEN) is buying out a 56% stake in Argentina’s MARA copper project from its partner Pan American Silver (TSX, NYSE: PAAS) for $475 million, as part of the miner and commodity trader’s push to increase exposure to the metal.

Pan American acquired a controlling stake in MARA as part of it recent acquisition of Yamana Gold, which closed in March. The project, located in Argentina’s northwestern Catamarca province, was set in December 2020 by integrating Minera Alumbrera’s plant and mining infrastructure with the Agua Rica copper-gold deposit.

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Quebec copper mine builder is on the fast track in northern Michigan – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – July 27, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Highland Copper inks a mine development partnership deal with Kinterra Copper USA

A Quebec-based junior miner with a copper deposit in northern Michigan has brought aboard a deep-pocketed partner to advance it to production.

Longueuil-headquartered Highland Copper has entered into a joint venture with Kinterra Copper USA to bring cash and technical expertise to turn its White Pine North project into a mine. Kinterra made a cash payment of $30 million to take a 66 per cent ownership stake in the project. White Pine North is one of two copper projects owned by Highland. Copperwood is the other, located 60 kilometres (37 miles) to the southwest.

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Teck lowers outlook at biggest copper project as it eyes shift away from coal Naimul Karim (Financial Post – July 27, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

Profit slumps on lower commodity prices

Teck Resources Ltd. lowered its annual production guidance for copper this year due to delays in construction and commissioning at its most significant copper property, the Quebrada Blanca 2 (QB2) project in Chile.

The Vancouver-based company now expects to produce about 80,000 to 100,000 tonnes of copper from QB2 as opposed to the previously announced 150,000 to 180,000 tonnes. As a result, its overall guidance for copper has been cut to 330,000 to 375,000 tonnes from 390,000 to 445,000 tonnes.

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Alaska asks US Supreme Court to undo EPA Pebble mine veto (Reuters – July 26, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

The state of Alaska on Wednesday asked the US Supreme Court to vacate a Biden administration veto blocking Northern Dynasty Minerals’ proposed Pebble copper and gold mining project, arguing the move violated a decades-old land swap deal and the state’s sovereignty.

The lawsuit asked the high court to reverse the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water Act veto. The agency’s January decision determined the Pebble project would cause large-scale loss and damage to the Bristol Bay watershed, and prohibited the project from dumping mining waste into those waters.

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Vale Base Metals preparing to sell part of the company to Saudis – by Len Gillis (Northern Ontario Business – July 26, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Reports say Vale poised to sell 10 per cent stake with nickel and copper production on the rise

International and Sudbury nickel miner Vale is ready to sell off 10 per cent of its base metals division to Saudi Arabia, according to reports in the business media.

The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and BNN Bloomberg have reported that the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) is regarded as the leading bidder to acquire a stake in Vale SA’s multibillion-dollar nickel and copper operations. Vale Base Metals is headquartered in Toronto, and is one of the world’s largest producers of responsibly sourced nickel, copper, cobalt and platinum group metals, said the company website.

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Focus: Smaller miners’ hunger for cash grows as copper prices fall, sparking M&A bets – by Divya Rajagopal and Melanie Burton (Reuters – July 24, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

A fall in copper prices is having an outsized impact on small and mid-sized miners, forcing many to cut output, and some are now open to raising funds from new investors to ride out the current downtrend, several company executives told Reuters.

Copper is set to play a crucial role in the transition to a greener economy and cashed-up bigger miners are seeking assets with longer mine life and high-quality grade ore to meet the growing demand for the red metal.

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Column: Funds don’t buy into Doctor Copper’s green credentials – by Andy Home (Reuters – July 18, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, July 18 (Reuters) – Copper’s electrical conductivity makes it a core component of the green energy transition, whether it be in the form of solar panels, electric vehicles or wind turbines. As far as analysts at Citi are concerned, all this makes copper “THE bullish energy transition trade within commodities.” (“Commodities Strategy”, July 17, 2023)

Except no-one appears to have told the fund community, which continues to give Doctor Copper a wide berth. Copper’s bull narrative of looming supply shortfall as investment in new mine capacity fails to match the green demand booster has been put on hold.

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Rio Tinto chairman bullish on Mongolian copper story – by Brad Thompson (Australian Financial Review – July 10, 2023)

https://www.afr.com/

Rio Tinto chairman Dominic Barton says the mining giant is committed to building its footprint in Mongolia, even as capital gets more expensive, and intense competition fuels high prices in the critical minerals mergers and acquisitions space.

Mr Barton also acknowledged that Rio had not always lived up to expectations in Mongolia, where it is counting on Oyu Tolgoi to become the world’s fourth-largest copper mine by 2030. “We are committed to learning from that,” he told the Mongolia Economic Forum in Ulaanbaatar on Monday.

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Glencore moves to take full control of PolyMet, developer of Minnesota copper-nickel mine – by Steve Karnowski (Associated Press – July 3, 2023)

https://apnews.com/

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Swiss commodities giant Glencore moved Monday to take full ownership of PolyMet Mining, a company that’s developing a copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota with one of Canada’s largest miners, Teck Resources.

Glencore already owns 82% of PolyMet Mining and has long been the project’s main financial backer. It offered Monday to pay around $71 million to raise that stake to 100%, which would take St. Paul-headquartered PolyMet private. Glencore’s proposal represents around a 167% premium over PolyMet’s closing stock price on Friday, and shares surged on the news in Monday’s trading.

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Column: Global exchange copper stocks sink to 15-year lows – by Andy Home (Reuters – June 7, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) – There’s a renewed scramble for copper sitting in London Metal Exchange (LME) warehouses. Headline LME copper stocks have slid from 100,100 tonnes to 77,050 over the last three weeks despite almost 30,000 tonnes of arrivals.

What’s arriving is just as quickly turning around and going out again. Available tonnage stands at just 31,900 tonnes, enough to supply the global market for around 11 hours. Unsurprisingly, the stocks raid has ignited LME time-spreads, the benchmark cash-to-three-months period closing Monday valued at a backwardation of $31 per tonne. It’s the highest premium for cash since November last year.

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Billionaire Miner Friedland Warns of a Copper ‘Train Wreck’ as Supply Stalls – by James Attwood and Jacob Lorinc (Bloomberg News – June 26, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Copper is poised to follow other commodities upended by recent price surges as the mining industry struggles to expand ahead of accelerating demand, warns the man behind some of the world’s biggest mines.

Demand for critical raw materials is set to jump as nations mandate clean energy and transport while clambering to develop their own supply chains. But a combination of factors suggests supply won’t keep pace, according to billionaire Robert Friedland.

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The Drift: Nickel and gold driving the Timmins exploration boom – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – June 19, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Exploration snapshot of the Timmins camp shows land acquisition, expansion drilling, and mine permitting

The Drift is an ongoing editorial series by Northern Ontario Business about the people, companies, technologies, and innovation that encompass the mining industry in northeastern Ontario. The arrival of summer means exploration activity around Timmins accelerates into high gear for gold and nickel junior miners and project developers.

South of the city, a pair of exploration companies continue to tie into high-grade nickel, particularly Canada Nickel. The Toronto mine developer keeps hitting high-grade nickel near the surface at its Texmont Project.

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Yukon government raised red flags about copper mine before owner abandoned site – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – June 21, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Yukon government raised red flags about a copper mine’s environmental infractions days before the owner abandoned the site last month, an inspection report shows.

The new report filed this month by two employees of the territory’s Department of Energy, Mines and Resources says they inspected Minto Metals Corp.’s mining site on April 26, finding that its storage capacity for contaminated water in an open pit and tailings waste management were unsatisfactory.

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