Copper – Page 53 – Republic of Mining

In a land of wild cats and scarce water, a battle over mining heats up – by Douglas Main (National Geographic – April 25, 2019)

April 26, 2019

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/

The federally approved Rosemont copper mine could dry up a wet spot in Arizona rich with biodiversity, but faces precedent-setting lawsuits.

TUCSON, ARIZONAI’m perched on a ridge in the northern Santa Rita mountains, nearly 30 miles southeast of downtown Tucson. Rounded grassy hills speckled with mesquite rise to oak woodlands and rugged limestone peaks, and I can see for many miles in all directions.

The landscape is beautiful, but what’s most special doesn’t immediately announce itself. I am, for example, walking in the footsteps of the country’s rarest wild cats. In the gulch just to my southwest, a jaguar roamed during his three-year stay in the range, and an ocelot was recently spotted bounding through this spot.

To the east, miles in the distance, lays a broad valley, and within it a streak of dark green—the willows and cottonwoods of Cienega Creek, which flows all year.

Report: Going 100% renewable power means a lot of dirty mining – by Naveena Sadasivam (Grist.org – April 17, 2019)

April 18, 2019

https://grist.org/

Click here for full report: https://bit.ly/2L2wGdd

For more than a decade, indigenous communities in Alaska have been fighting to prevent the mining of copper and gold at Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery and a crucial source of sustenance.

The proposed mine, blocked under the Obama administration but inching forward under the Trump administration, has been billed by proponents as necessary to meet the growing demand for copper, which is used in wind turbines, batteries, and solar panels.

Similar stories are playing out in Norway, where the Sámi community is fighting a copper mine, and in Papua New Guinea, where a company has been mining the seabed for gold and copper.

Hissing snakes and ‘predatory schemes’: How the fight for Hudbay Minerals descended into name-calling – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – April 17, 2019)

April 17, 2019

https://business.financialpost.com/

So far, investors appear to love the fight

The battle for the future of one of Canada’s oldest mining companies, Hudbay Minerals Inc., has spilled into the courtroom, and turned into a mud-slinging contest as the company and one of its largest shareholders lash out at each another.

So far, investors appear to love it: The company’s stock has nearly doubled in the past six months, soaring from $5.17 on Oct. 1 to $10.01 on the Toronto Stock Exchange near close on Tuesday.

That surge began the same day mining-focused private equity firm Waterton Global Resource Management, which controls 12 per cent of Hudbay’s shares and has been leading a campaign to replace most of the board and the chief executive, filed a lawsuit accusing the company of depicting it as “snakes” in a circular sent to other investors.

Canada’s Lundin Mining still seeking assets after $1 billion mine purchase: CEO – by Nichola Saminather (Reuters U.S. – April 15, 2019)

April 17, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Canada’s Lundin Mining Corp is looking to buy more mining assets, Chief Executive Marie Inkster told Reuters on Monday, after the company announced its purchase of a Brazilian copper-gold mine from Yamana Gold Inc for more than $1 billion.

The Toronto-based company is seeking a project where exploration is complete, which it can take over and build, Inkster said. Lundin prefers a copper asset, but would also consider a zinc poly-metallic mine, with nickel a distant third option, she said.

“Our leverage will still be extremely low after we close this deal, and we have great mines that are cash flowing,” Inkster said in an interview. “But there’s a scarcity of copper assets right now, and we have to be patient.”

RPT-COLUMN-Funds hold their fire on confused copper market – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – April 15, 2019)

April 16, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, April 15 (Reuters) – Funds have this year played copper from the short side and from the long side but with little success either way. They are now broadly neutral as they and everyone else try to work out where Doctor Copper is heading next.

In part this is a reflection of copper’s lack of directional impetus in recent weeks. The London Metal Exchange (LME) contract has since late February been treading water in a $6,300-6,550 range with an absence of clear chart signals. On Monday, it was trading around $6,470 per tonne.

That has muted activity from the black-box funds that feed off momentum and other technical indicators. But copper’s well-trod trading range is itself a sign of how confused the broader market is right now with no clear consensus on the short-term outlook.

CRU-CESCO-Copper industry to see more disruptions in 2019 -Antofagasta CEO – by Dave Sherwood and Fabian Cambero (Reuters U.S. – April 12, 2019)

April 12, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

SANTIAGO, April 12 (Reuters) – The global copper industry will be rocked by more disruptions this year than in 2018, contributing to a supply deficit as demand for the red metal continues to grow, the top executive of Chilean miner Antofagasta told Reuters.

Antofagasta CEO Ivan Arriagada said labor strife, extreme weather and unexpected project delays will knock as much as a million tonnes off the year’s total copper production, versus 600,000 the previous year.

“We think this year there will be bigger disruptions than last, which was unusually tranquil,” said Arriagada in an interview on the sidelines of CRU’s World Copper Conference in Santiago.

KGHM’s mines in Canada face uncertain future – Staff (Sudbury Star – April 11, 2019)

April 11, 2019

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Poland’s KGHM, which operates mines in Sudbury, may freeze some projects in Canada or the U.S. if they require big investments, its chief executive told Reuters on Wednesday.

“We are not currently thinking about selling foreign assets,” said Marcin Chludzinski told Reuters. “We’re considering strategies for the next few years.” All of KGHM’s foreign mining projects except those in Chile have been put under review, he said.

“It’s not that we want to or have to sell,” Chludzinski told the news agency. “It’s more that we are looking at these assets as a strategic reserve. We’re considering actions similar to those we took at the Morrison mine (north of Sudbury), which is to freeze a project.”

From turbines to thermostats: Copper miners eyes high-tech demand – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters U.S. – April 10, 2019)

April 10, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Growing demand for smart thermostats, wind turbines and other high-tech devices is expected to keep copper the dominant material used in electrical components, industry players said, offsetting rising use of aluminum, a cheaper alternative to conduct electricity.

That bodes well for the likes of Chilean producer Codelco, Rio Tinto Plc and other major copper miners, who are investing billions of dollars to bring new supplies of the metal online during the next 20 years.

Copper is used to make motors, batteries, wiring and other goods as it is the best electrical-conducting metal, after silver. Aluminum, which is lighter and cheaper than copper, shares some of these traits, but is more corrosive and brittle than its red rival and only about 60 percent as conductive.

SolGold scores again, finds greater resource potential at Ecuador project – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – April 10, 2019)

April 10, 2019

http://www.mining.com/

Ecuador-focused miner SolGold (LON, TSX:SOLG) said drilling at its Cascabel copper-gold project in the country’s north, one of the few new red-metal bearing ones expected to come online in the near future, has revealed previously unknown mineralization.

Together with high-grade find, over 1.5% copper equivalent, the company has also detected mineralization within the inferred resource area at the Alpala resource, as well as some medium grade mineralization of between 0.7% copper equivalent and the high-grade threshold of 1.5%.

“The drilling campaign continues to deliver to our expectations with these latest results revealing previously unknown mineralization and providing a clear indication of the growth potential that exists through the extension of the Alpala resource,” chief executive Nick Mather said in the statement.

Revitalizing its copper mines may not be sufficient to keep Chile at the fore – by Dave Sherwood (Reuters U.S. – April 10, 2019)

April 10, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Codelco and other copper mining giants are set to plow billions of dollars into the revitalization of Chile’s mines, but that may not be enough to keep the country from losing ground to competitors elsewhere in the world.

Demand for copper is widely expected to take off by the mid-2020s amid a boom in electric vehicle production, but Chile is saddled with mines facing crippling declines in ore grades and a system that allows the bulk of its exploration concessions to sit idle.

“Chile is a fantastic country to work in. The question then comes, if it has all this potential, why are we not seeing growth in exploration?” said Anthony Amberg, of Los Andes Copper, a Canada-based junior with prospects in Chile.

Top 10 Deepest Mines In The World: Most Of Them Are Gold Mines – by Vikas Shukla (Value Walk.com – April 10, 2019)

April 10, 2019

https://www.valuewalk.com/

South Africa is home to eight of the world’s top 10 deepest mines. The country has been one of the world’s largest gold producers for decades, even though gold production there has been declining in recent years. A mine is an artificially made pit from where minerals and other resources are extracted. The depth of a mine represents the elevation from the entrance to the deepest excavation point.

The ranking below includes only operational mines, not the ones that are no longer in operation. For instance, the Empire Mine in California has a depth of 2.08 miles, but it’s no longer in operation. Similarly, the Kolar Gold Fields in India, which was 2 miles deep, was shut down in 2001 due to low levels of output after producing gold for centuries.

When they run out of minerals at existing levels, mining companies prefer to go deeper in existing mines to extract more minerals instead of digging a new mine.

Copper producer KGHM may freeze more mines in Canada, U.S.: CEO – by Agnieszka Barteczko (Reuters Canada – April 10, 2019)

April 10, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s KGHM, one of the world’s biggest copper and silver producers, has no plan to sell its foreign assets but may freeze some in Canada or the United States if they require big investments, its chief executive said.

State-run KGHM, which for many years had focused only on Poland, accessed Chilean, Canadian and U.S. metal deposits through its almost $3 billion purchase of Quadra FNX in 2012, the largest foreign acquisition by any Polish company.

Since then, KGHM’s foreign assets have struggled with rising costs, falling copper prices, technical problems and higher-than-expected capital spending, which raised questions over KGHM’s plans regarding their potential sale.

Anglo American says tech overhaul to boost productivity by 30 percent – by Dave Sherwood and Fabian Cambero (Reuters U.S. – April 8, 2019)

April 9, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Anglo American, one of the world’s top miners, says productivity could jump by as much as a third at its Chilean copper mines within three years as it rolls out new technologies, the head of the company’s copper division said in an interview.

Copper chief Hennie Faul said Anglo American was re-tooling its smaller, lower output El Soldado mine in central Chile this year for use as an experimental technology center, allowing it to conduct full-scale testing of new products and ideas in real-time.

“This is not just incremental. It can have increases in productivity of between 20 to 30 percent,” he said, adding the technologies were still in the testing stage and that their effectiveness would vary by deposit.

Mining City History: Augustus Heinze and the Panic of 1907 – by Richard I. Gibson (Montana Standard – April 8, 2019)

April 8, 2019

https://mtstandard.com/

Local geologist and historian Dick Gibson has lived in Butte since 2003 and has worked as a tour guide for various organizations and museums. He can be reached at rigibson@earthlink.net

Butte’s riches and people have had some far-reaching impacts. Brooklyn-born F. Augustus Heinze arrived in Butte in 1889, and with help from a $50,000 inheritance, soon established the Montana Ore Purchasing (M.O.P.) Company and by 1894 had opened a huge new mill-smelter complex just south of Meaderville on the east side of the hill.

The MOP bought ore from smaller companies to process until Heinze had his own mines, including the Rarus. It’s well known that Heinze went on to exploit the rule of the apex to allege that veins reached the surface within his claim boundaries, winning huge riches in the courts to add to his other mining ventures.

In 1902, Heinze combined all his interests in the United Copper Company, which had a production capacity of about a third of that of the Amalgamated (Anaconda) Company.

A Million Tons of Copper Is on the Way: It May Not Be Enough – by Laura Millan Lombrana and Jack Farchy (Bloomberg News – April 8, 2019)

April 8, 2019

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Giant mines currently under construction will churn out an additional 1 million tons of copper through 2023, but that won’t be enough to fully close an expected gap between supply and demand in the next few years.

Industry analysts and executives descending on Santiago this week for the Cesco conference, one of the industry’s biggest events, are in bullish spirits: a key indicator of the market for semi-processed copper ore — known as concentrates — is pointing to the tightest market in more than five years, and banks and brokers such as Morgan Stanley and Macquarie Group Ltd. rank the metal as one of their top picks.

“We are looking at a classic resource cycle,” said Colin Hamilton, managing editor for commodities at BMO Capital Markets. “No one has copper coming now, when it is needed, but everyone has projects coming 2022-2023 –- potentially after we’ve had to drive some substitution.”