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Copper

Copper’s Biggest Mystery Is Finally Cracking – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – November 26, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The warnings keep getting louder: the world is hurtling toward a desperate shortage of copper. Humans are more dependent than ever on a metal we’ve used for 10,000 years; new deposits are drying up, and the type of breakthrough technologies that transformed other commodities have failed to materialize for copper. Until now.

In what could prove a game changer for global supply, a US startup says it’s solved a puzzle that has frustrated the mining world for decades. If successful, the discovery by Jetti Resources could unlock millions of tons of new copper to feed power grids, building sites and car fleets around the globe, narrowing and possibly even closing the deficit.

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Chinese Mining Deals Under Review as Congo Targets Windfall Profits – by David Malingha (Bloomberg News – Novemeber 22, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The Democratic Republic of Congo wants a mining deal it signed with China more than a decade ago to be reworked, with a view to securing all the funding that was pledged for infrastructure projects and a share of windfall profits.

A review of the 2008 minerals-for-infrastructure contract that includes the Sicomines copper-cobalt mining project should ideally be concluded by year-end, Congolese Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde said in an interview in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, during the COP27 climate summit. Additional payments were warranted because the project was making super-profits due to a surge in commodity prices, he said.

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Rio to pursue Turquoise bid after ending talks with minority shareholders – by Melanie Burton (Reuters – November 18, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE, Nov 18 (Reuters) – Rio Tinto Ltd (RIO.AX) said on Friday it would plough ahead with a $3.3 billion bid to buy the 49% of Canada’s Turquoise Hill Resources (TRQ.TO) that it does not already own, after it ended separate talks with dissenting minority shareholders.

The Anglo-Australian miner is seeking to simplify its management of the giant Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia that it operates, but shares ownership through Turquoise Hill and the Mongolian government.

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First Nation strikes benefits deal with Marathon mine builder – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – November 15, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Generation Mining anticipates construction start of open-pit project in early 2023

The developers of Marathon-area open-pit project have struck a community benefits agreement (CBA) with a neighbouring First Nation on the north shore of Lake Superior.

Toronto’s Generation Mining announced Nov. 14 that the membership of Biigtigong Nishnaabeg (formerly Pic River) has approved a community benefits agreement involving the construction and environmental safeguards of the proposed Marathon Palladium-Copper Project owned by Generation PGM.

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SolGold CEO leaves after less than a year in the top job – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – November 10, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

Ecuador-focused SolGold (LON, TSX: SOLG) said on Thursday its chief executive and managing director, Darryl Cuzzubbo, had left the company effective immediately, after less than a year in the top job.

The former BHP executive’s departure comes just two days after the company unveiled a $50 million royalty financing deal to advance its giant Cascabel copper-gold project in Ecuador.

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Turquoise Hill delays vote on Rio Tinto acquisition indefinitely, as Quebec regulator studies side deal with dissidents – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 10, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. is indefinitely postponing the shareholder vote on the proposed $4.2-billion takeover of the company by Rio Tinto PLC as Quebec’s top securities regulator, the Autorité des marchés financier (AMF), studies whether a backdoor deal Rio cut with dissident shareholders is legal.

“The AMF considers the transaction as currently structured to raise public interest concerns,” Montreal-based Turquoise Hill said in a release on Wednesday.

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The copper gap: According to a study from S&P Global, even in the most optimistic scenario, much needs to be done for copper supply to meet upcoming demand – by Matthew Parizot (CIM Magazine – November 08, 2022)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

Copper has an outstanding importance in the race to reach net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. Massive amounts of copper will be required to wire the technologies needed to transition the world away from fossil fuels but, according to a report released by S&P Global titled “The Future of Copper,” the supply gap created by the increasing demand for the critical mineral might be too wide to fill.

According to the study, copper demand is expected to grow from 25 million tonnes in 2022 to 50 million tonnes by 2035. This could lead to a potential supply gap as large as 9.9 million tonnes, 20 per cent of the required copper to meet the energy transition goals. Electric vehicles, solar power, wind power, all require copper to function.

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Rio Tinto’s Turquoise Hill takeover in doubt as Quebec’s securities regulator studies fairness of side deal negotiated with dissidents – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 7, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. is postponing its shareholder vote on Rio Tinto PLC’s proposed takeover of the Canadian copper company yet again, as Quebec’s securities regulator considers whether a side deal negotiated with dissident shareholders is legal, injecting even more uncertainty into the market.

London-based Rio last week said it had reached an agreement with Pentwater Capital Management LP and SailingStone Capital Partners LLC, under which they would be paid out 80 per cent of the takeover amount being offered to all Turquoise Hill shareholders and, after a ruling from an arbitrator, the remaining 20 per cent, plus interest, and potentially much more.

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Rio makes last-ditch appeal to copper miner’s shareholders – by Simon Johanson (The Age – October 26, 2022)

https://www.theage.com.au/

Mining giant Rio Tinto has made a last-ditch appeal to shareholders of Canadian miner Turquoise Hill Resources to back its takeover offer, while hitting out against proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services’ (ISS) objection to the bid.

Rio moved in September to take full control of the copper miner, offering investors C$43 per share in a deal worth $4.85 billion. A successful takeover would give the miner firm grip over one of the largest known copper and gold deposits in the world.

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WoodMac says climate goals will not realise at current mining investment rates – by Marleny Arnoldi (Mining Weekly – October 21, 2022)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Research and consultancy group Wood Makenzie (WoodMac) says the global energy transition presents an almost unattainable mine supply challenge, with significant investment and price incentives required.

In its latest report, titled ‘Red metal, green demand: copper’s critical role in achieving net zero’, WoodMac finds that 9.7-million tonnes of new copper supply will be needed over ten years, which is equivalent to almost a third of current refined consumption, if the industry is to meet the Paris Agreement target of containing global warming to 1.5 ˚C above preindustrial levels.

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‘Strikingly Tight’ Copper Market Belies Price Drop, Miner Says – by Yvonne Yue Li and James Attwood (Bloomberg News – October 20, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Copper prices don’t reflect a “strikingly tight” physical market, according to the world’s largest publicly-traded producer of the metal used in everything from computer chips to electric vehicles.

Macroeconomic headwinds have pushed copper futures down almost 30% from a peak in March, despite brisk demand and shrinking inventories that are nearing historical lows.

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Turquoise Hill’s fifth largest investor to reject Rio Tinto’s takeover bid – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – October 14, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

Sailingstone Capital Partners, the fifth-biggest investor in Turquoise Hill Resources (TSX: TQR) said on Friday it will vote against Rio Tinto’s (ASX, LON: RIO) intended $3.3 billion takeover of the Canadian miner, in a shareholder meeting on Nov. 1.

The activist investor said that Rio’s bid not only undervalues the target, but it also intends to take advantage of the “material governance failures” created by independent directors of both mining companies over the last decade.

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‘Beginning of a great clash’: Controversy over Canada’s last copper smelter highlights bumpy green transition – by Marisa Coulton (Financial Post – October 7, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

Residents harbour a love-hate relationship with the plant that simultaneously nourishes and poisons their community

For years, the residents of Rouyn-Noranda, Que., a picturesque city of 42,000, some 630 kilometres northwest of Montreal, have contemplated the twin smokestacks that simultaneously nourish and poison their community.

The Horne smelter is owned by Baar, Switzerland-based energy giant Glencore PLC, and is believed responsible for higher rates of lung cancer in the region. It also contributes to lower birth weights, as well as higher rates of diabetes and heart disease, a recent provincial health study showed.

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‘Good Samaritan’ bill aims to allow cleanup of abandoned, leaking mines – by Emilee Miranda (Cronkite News – September 30, 2022)

https://news.azpm.org/

A bill in Congress could help Arizona clean up old mines.

Arizona could have as many as 100,000 abandoned mines, many leaching toxic minerals into the state’s waterways, but state environmental officials said cleanup has been hampered by the fear of litigation.

That’s why Arizona Department of Environmental Quality Director Misael Cabrera was testifying Thursday in support of a proposed federal “good Samaritan” law aimed at addressing the issue. The bill would let organizations step in and clean up long-abandoned mines without fear of the legal liability that could have attached to their now-absent owners.

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Saudi Arabia Faces Challenges to Tap Its Vast Copper Reserves – by Yvonne Yue Li (Bloomberg News – September 25, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia says it has the potential to unlock enough copper to ease a looming shortage as the world makes an epic shift to clean energy, but the kingdom faces challenges that established mining countries already have solved.

Key among those challenges as the world’s largest oil producer seeks to unlock an estimated $1.3 trillion in mineral wealth are logistics and water supplies, according to Bandar bin Ibrahim Al-Khorayef, Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources.

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