(Bloomberg) — BHP Group has been forced to walk back from comments about having “moved on” from its failed Anglo American Plc bid to prevent its hands being tied by the UK takeover panel from launching another buyout attempt.
Chairman Ken MacKenzie made the comments Wednesday at a shareholder meeting of the world’s biggest miner in Australia. Anglo shares fell as much as 4.5%, underperforming the wider sector.
When he was 16, Adam Lundin was lowered by helicopter into the remote wilderness of northern Canada. For the son of a wealthy mining mogul, this was something of an initiation. He spent the summer hunting for gold — shadowing grizzled prospectors and geologists, bushwhacking through the Boréal forest.
He even dug holes for where the outhouses would go. “I just wanted to be kept busy,” he said. Adam, 37, is now the chairman of Lundin Mining Corp., a publicly traded Canadian metals producer. His younger brother, Jack, 34, is the company’s chief executive officer.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Teck Resources Ltd. has cut its full-year copper forecast yet again owing to setbacks at multiple mines, including at its giant QB2 copper operation in Chile. Vancouver-based Teck said on Thursday that its 2024 copper production will be between 420,000 tonnes and 455,000 tonnes, about 6.5 per cent lower than predicted.
The downgrade was driven in part by issues with its haul trucks at its Highland Valley mine in British Columbia, including labour availability and problems with its autonomous system. Teck also cut its guidance for the QB2 mine in Chile, reducing its forecast by 6 per cent to roughly 205,000 tonnes.
Saudi Arabia’s Manara Minerals is closing in on a deal to buy a minority stake in Canadian miner First Quantum Minerals’ Zambian copper and nickel assets, three people familiar with the details told Reuters.
Manara, a joint venture between Saudi Arabian mining company Ma’aden and its $925 billion Public Investment Fund, is in advanced talks to acquire between 15% and 20% equity in the Zambian assets, the sources said.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Four northwestern Ontario mining proponents snag funding for road, transmission line and engineering work
Four copper and lithium mine developers in northwestern Ontario, collectively, will be pocketing almost $14 million in federal funding to build access roads and power lines into their future mine sites.
Federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson delivered the news in Thunder Bay, Oct. 7, that $13.8 million is earmarked for five mining-related projects – including two with Sudbury’s Frontier Lithium – that will facilitate the mining and movement of these critical minerals for processing and eventually to the electric vehicle supply market.
(Bloomberg) — Chen Jinghe was not long out of university when a government official handed him the assignment that would change his life. Go to Zijin mountain, he was told, and find gold.
It was 1982, and the geology graduate found himself on forested slopes in the remote, humid highlands of southeastern China. The bet paid off. The deposit his team eventually discovered became the nation’s biggest gold mine — and the foundation for a $67 billion state-owned behemoth that is today driving copper supply growth and gaining ground on some of the most established names in the global resources industry.
China’s significant stimulus measures have kicked the prices of key metals higher, and the gains have largely been sustained even amid a debate as to whether Beijing has actually done enough to boost the world’s second-biggest economy.
The raft of announcements last week, which included lower interest rates and easier home purchase terms, saw metals prices respond, especially those with a high degree of China exposure, such as iron ore.
Major diversified miners including Rio Tinto, BHP Group & Glencore are feeling the pressure of a slowdown in global economic growth and declining commerce
Some of the world’s biggest mining companies are struggling to balance investor expectations for hefty returns against the necessity of paying a premium to acquire pure-play copper companies. The challenge comes as global demand for the metal drives valuations to new heights, reports Reuters.
Major diversified miners, including Rio Tinto, BHP Group, and Glencore, are feeling the pressure of a slowdown in global economic growth and declining commodity prices. These factors have led to a significant decrease in their share prices, ranging from 10% to 15% this year.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
A Russian-British mining executive has launched an attempt to build an international copper-mining portfolio with the purchase of a Turkish mine and will soon set his sights on Canada.
Earlier this month, Artem Volynets, the chairman and CEO of ACG Metals Ltd., which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, announced an investment of US$290-million in the Gediktepe mine in western Turkey. In an interview with The Globe and Mail, he said the purchase marked the first step of his “company’s vision to roll up the copper sector through a series of acquisitions.”
A junior resource company’s place in the food chain is to acquire projects, make discoveries and hopefully advance them to the point when a larger mining company takes it over. Discoveries won’t be made if juniors don’t have boots on the ground, if they aren’t out in the bush poking around and breaking rocks.
Few exploration companies have the money or technical expertise to “go mining”. For many, the goal is to find a deposit that’s good enough to attract a major who will acquire the asset. Another pathway is for the junior to partner with a larger company. An option or joint venture (JV) agreement is a way for juniors to gain access to the financial and technical resources needed to build the mine.
R. Brent Murphy is senior vice president for environmental affairs at Seabridge Gold.
Having spent my entire career at the intersection of mining and sustainability, I have grown accustomed to the widespread misinformation surrounding our industry. Unfortunately, it’s a reality my colleagues and I face daily on a global scale, and if we responded to every instance, we would have little time left for the work that truly matters.
However, the sheer level of inaccuracy and hypocrisy regarding the Substantially Started Determination, or SSD, status for our proposed KSM project in Brian Lynch’s recent commentary demands a response. First and foremost, Lynch’s commentary failed to acknowledge several key facts regarding our two decades of dedicated efforts and nearly CAD $1 billion of investments to responsibly advance the KSM Project.
(Bloomberg) — In the dusty, treeless outback of Southern Australia, a brand new mining camp is home to a hundred workers, putting in 12-hour days, two weeks at a time. Dozens of trucks are scattered across the vast acreage, mounted with towering rigs drilling more than 2 kilometers (1.3 miles) underground. All are focused on the hunt for one of the world’s most coveted minerals: copper.
Oak Dam, discovered by BHP Group geologists in 2018, is a glimmer of hope for Chief Executive Mike Henry, who sees global copper demand doubling over the coming decades as the energy transition takes hold, and wants his company to produce more of it.
https://www.northernminer.com/
Osisko Metals (TSXV: OM; US-OTC: OMZNE) is advancing the giant Gaspé copper project in Quebec with an economic study planned for February amid efforts to land a 20% partnership with provincial financing agency Investissement Québec.
“No promises, but they’re interested in the project, and for us it would be ideal to get IQ as a partner,” CEO and chairman Robert Wares said in an interview. “That would be a big boost, and as partners obviously they can help us fund the whole project to a final investment decision.”
Sept 12 (Reuters) – Native American opposition to Rio Tinto and BHP’s Resolution Copper mine could prove crucial for the 2024 U.S. presidential vote in the battleground state of Arizona, underscoring the high tension over where best to extract critical minerals for the energy transition.
The mine would, if built, supply more than a quarter of America’s appetite for copper and be a key part of Washington’s efforts to eat into China’s role as the world’s largest copper processor and consumer.
Apache Stronghold, a nonprofit group comprised of Arizona’s San Carlos Apache tribe and conservationists, asked the court to overturn a March ruling from a sharply divided San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowing the federal government to swap acreage with the mining companies for their Resolution Copper project.
The appeal to the nine justices was delivered in person by a courier after the Apache held a ceremony of prayer and dancing on the court’s steps in Washington, the culmination of a months-long caravan from their Arizona reservation to the capital.
