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Copper

Copper’s vital role in low-carbon economy – by Nolan Peterson (North of 60 Mining News – February 11, 2022)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

When most people think about the metals driving the alternative energy revolution, lithium, vanadium, cobalt and rare earths spring to mind. As recently reported by EE Times Europe, “Copper is an important raw material for the electronics industry, being the most widely used conductor for PCB, wiring, and connector manufacturing.

The average person, however, might not realize this, thinking that copper is some kind of old metal on which there is no progress to be made.” There is no more omnipresent and vital metal to the low-carbon economy than copper.

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Two decades and $30 million later, a B.C. mine proposal is officially dead – by Matt Simmons (The Narwhal – February 9, 2022)

The Narwhal

They say that history repeats itself because nobody was listening the first time. B.C. rejected a proposed open-pit copper, gold and molybdenum mine for the second time Monday, spelling the likely end of a saga that lasted nearly 20 years, cost tens of millions of dollars and exposed flaws in B.C.’s environmental assessment process along the way.

Plans for the Morrison mine, proposed for the shores of Morrison Lake, known as T’akh Tl’ah Bin, about 65 kilometres from Smithers on Lake Babine Nation territory, go back to the ‘90s — although miners have been eyeing the area for its gold and copper since as far back as the ‘60s.

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MMG to halt Las Bambas copper mine amid fresh blockade – by Cecilia Jamasmie February 7, 2022 (Mining.com – February 7, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

MMG (HKG: 1208) said on Monday that it will have to halt production at its Las Bambas copper mine in Peru by February 20, following a new and ongoing blockade of the road used by the company, which has already forced the Chinese miner to curtail operations.

Residents of the Chumbivilcas province have been blocking the main access to Las Bambas on and off since November 20. They demand jobs and economic contributions from the company, a unit of state-owned China Minmetals, which they say has failed to benefit residents despite its great wealth.

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After Twin Metals mining lease cancellation, Ely residents weigh future – by Christa Lawler and Jennifer Bjorhus (Star Tribune – January 30, 2022)

https://www.startribune.com/

ELY, Minn. — This northwoods town is quiet and closed up for the winter — no throngs of tourists, the snowy streets largely empty. But there’s a range of emotions running among residents from hope and excitement to angry defiance.

The Biden administration’s decision last week to cancel the leases for the Twin Metals copper-nickel mine marked another dramatic turn in a dispute that has roiled this Iron Range community for decades: Does mining play a role in its future or is it firmly in the past?

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Politics turning against copper mining – Freeport’s Adkerson – by Staff (Mining.com – January 26, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

The copper market has cooled since touching record levels above $10,000 a tonne in May, but longer-term fundamentals for the bellwether metal remain bullish thanks to a global effort to electrify transport and shift to renewable power generation.

While there is consensus on demand growth, the supply side outlook is murky. Some 40% of the world’s copper production is controlled by just two countries – Chile and Peru – and political developments in South America are turning the tide against copper miners, Freeport-McMoRan CEO Rich Adkerson told investors in a conference call on Wednesday.

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Biden Administration Cancels Mining Leases Near Wilderness Area – by Hiroko Tabuchi (New York Times – January 26, 2022)

https://www.nytimes.com/

The leases, reinstated during the Trump years, would have allowed a Chilean mining conglomerate to dig for copper and nickel near the Boundary Waters wilderness in Minnesota.

The Biden administration said Wednesday that it had canceled two mining leases that would have allowed a copper mine to be built near an area of pristine wilderness in Minnesota.

The Interior Department said it had determined that the leases, held by Twin Metals Minnesota, a subsidiary of the Chilean mining conglomerate Antofagasta, were improperly reinstated by the Trump administration in 2019.

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US needs to develop its own copper resources, says Pebble owner – by Mariaan Webb (MiningWeekly.com – January 20, 2022)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Northern Dynasty, the owner of the contentious Pebble copper/gold mine, in south-west Alaska, says that the US must develop its own copper resources to ensure a successful energy transition to a zero-carbon economy.

Citing forecasts from major banks about a looming deficit and higher copper prices, CEO Ron Thiessen says that the “only realistic way to meet demand is to increase production”.

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Zambia has more than copper, and offers unexplored potential – by David Whitehouse (The Africa Report – January 19, 2022)

https://www.theafricareport.com/

With billions of dollars worth of African gas, gold, copper and cobalt to hit the markets in 2022, industry players are focused on the next big deals. The election of a new government in Zambia in August 2021 has led to optimism that the country is the stand-out player in African minerals exploration for 2022.

“All eyes are on Zambia,” says Peter Major, director of mining at Mergence Corporate Solutions in South Africa. Major spoke in Cape Town in October as he prepared for a mining investment trip to Zambia. In the new president, Hakainde Hichilema, he says, the country has “a real businessman” in charge.

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Copper Majors Are Taking Another Look at Argentina, McEwen Says – by James Attwood (Bloomberg News – January 20, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Vast deposits and more welcoming policies have turned Argentina into a lithium hot-spot in recent years. Now the global copper industry is taking another look at the South American nation.

That’s the view of Rob McEwen, whose namesake company is drilling a property in San Juan province near the border with Chile. Called Los Azules, it’s attracted the attention of large producers such as Vale SA, Anglo American Plc and Barrick Gold Corp. as a potential acquisition, he said. All three companies declined to comment.

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First Quantum agrees to pay $375m a year in royalties to Panama – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – January 18, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

First Quantum Minerals (TSX: FM) has reached a deal with Panama’s government to increase royalty payments at the giant Cobre Panama copper mine, the company’s flagship operation.

The Canadian miner’s subsidiary, Minera Panama, said it considered “reasonable” the $375 million a year-figure the country has asked for. In return, the company asked authorities to guarantee the continuity of operations during the mine’s productive life. The Vancouver-based miner had been in talks with Panama since September last year, a period during which copper prices have traded at record levels.

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Proposed northern Minnesota nickel mine signs deal with Tesla – by Mike Hughlett (Star Tribune – January 10, 2022)

https://www.startribune.com/

Under the deal, Tesla would buy about half of Tamarack Mine’s projected production.

Talon Metals, the company behind a proposed Minnesota nickel mine, said Monday it has made a major supply deal with Tesla.

The electric vehicle giant has committed to buy 75,000 metric tons of nickel concentrate over six years from Talon’s planned mine in Tamarack, about 50 miles west of Duluth. Tesla would also have rights to go above that amount.

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West needs to step up supply of copper for the energy transition – by John Dizard (Financial Times – January 7, 2022)

https://www.ft.com/

Does the energy transition need a “Circular 5”? Back in the late 1940s the US Atomic Energy Commission fretted that it could not procure enough uranium on the private market to meet the requirements of its nuclear weapons production programmes.

The initial supply of Congolese uranium for the wartime Manhattan project had been scavenged in late 1942 from a warehouse in Staten Island, NY, where it had been sent in 1940 by an anti-Nazi Belgian businessman.

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Chile’s mining industry unfazed by leftist Gabriel Boric’s victory – by Camille Erickson and Kip Keen (S&P Global Market Intelligence – December 21, 2021)

https://www.spglobal.com/

The mining industry brushed aside risks posed by left-leaning politician Gabriel Boric’s resounding victory in Chile’s runoff presidential election Dec. 19, despite the president-elect’s campaign promises to rein in the sector and raise fees.

After winning roughly 56% of the vote in the second round of elections, 35-year-old Boric underscored his opposition to Minera Andes Iron’s Dominga iron-copper-gold project, and on the campaign trail, Boric promised to create a state-run lithium company and supported mining tax hikes and royalties. Boric is looking to squeeze miners to bring in cash for public services while protecting the environment.

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Australia’s Wyloo Metals hopes to have Ring of Fire nickel mine, access road by 2026 – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – December 23, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Wyloo Metals Pty Ltd., the winner of a fierce bidding war for Noront Resources Ltd., hopes to have a large nickel mine in operation in the Ring of Fire, and an access road built into the remote minerals district in northern Ontario, within five years.

Earlier this week, BHP Group Ltd. said it was not willing to improve upon Wyloo’s offer of $617-million ($1.10 a share) for Noront, ending a seven-month battle. Wyloo, a private equity firm based in Perth, Australia, that specializes in investing in large resource projects, is backed by billionaire Andrew Forrest, founder of iron ore giant Fortescue Metals Group.

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Young environmentalists plan a rewrite of Chile’s copper mining rules – by James Attwood and Alvaro Ledgard (Bloomberg News – December 22, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Environmental activists like Constanza San Juan have been peripheral figures at best in Chile’s emergence as the dominant supplier of copper over the past few decades. Now, she and others like her are rewriting the rules, with tens of billions of dollars in investments riding on the outcome.

The 35 year old, who’s been fighting mining ever since Barrick Gold Corp. arrived to her region two decades ago, is on a committee that will decide how the environment and natural resources will figure in a new constitution to replace the one that dates back to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

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