Copper – Page 67 – Republic of Mining

Tribes sue feds over Rosemont Mine, citing ‘irreversible’ damage to sacred sites – by Tony Davis (Arizona Daily Star – April 14, 2018)

April 16, 2018

The proposed Rosemont Mine will “irreparably sever” three Indian tribes’ connection to the Santa Rita Mountains and devastate a rich cultural tradition dating to 7500 B.C., the tribes say in a new lawsuit.

The lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service says the mine would deprive tribal members of access to ancestral praying grounds, destroy a critical part of their heritage including burial grounds and stop members from engaging in important cultural practices and religious traditions.

The Tohono O’odham, Pascua Yaqui and Hopi tribes filed the suit Thursday in U.S. District Court, about 10 months after the Forest Service approved the $1.9 billion mine project.

Copper supply crunch earlier than predicted — experts – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – April 10, 2018)

April 10, 2018

http://www.mining.com/

Copper demand will surpass supply earlier than expected, with the first clear signs coming as early as next year, experts attending the 17th World’s Copper Conference being held this week in Santiago, Chile, said.

According to Arnaud Soirat, chef executive for copper and diamonds at Rio Tinto, increased consumption from new technologies, including electric vehicles, will drive demand for the metal and its by-products, he said.

“We anticipate global market supply and demand will keep close to balance in 2019 and 2020,” he said, noting that after that the deficit will become increasingly evident.

CRU/CESCO-Electric cars no game changer for copper demand in short term – by Peter Hobson (Reuters U.S. – April 9, 2018)

April 10, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

SANTIAGO, April 9 (Reuters) – Copper bulls predicting a rapidly changing demand landscape due to the electric vehicle (EV) revolution and supply shortages are likely to be disappointed, as the amount of extra metal needed is expected to be small, at least over the next few years.

For some years now, copper producers have pushed the idea of surging copper demand as EV sales gain momentum due to governments and consumers around the world looking to cut carbon emissions from fossil-fuel cars.

The theme is likely to be a focus again at CESCO, consultancy CRU’s annual copper conference in Santiago this week, a gathering of senior executives from producing and consuming industries.

Relations Sour at Giant Copper Pit With Automation Looming – by Laura Mllan Lombrana (Bloomberg News – April 9, 2018)

April 9, 2018

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Just as labor tensions ease at BHP Billiton Ltd.’s giant Escondida mine, the copper industry has another iconic mine to worry about.

Relations between the world’s largest copper producer, Codelco, and unions in its Chuquicamata division have reached the lowest point in years as the mine transitions from open pit to an underground model that will use more automation and employ fewer workers.

The five unions representing more than 5,000 workers at Codelco’s oldest open pit are threatening to dial up protests. They say the Chilean state-owned company is transitioning to underground without a prior agreement with unions on retirement plans, contracts and other benefits.

Prospect of growth intensifies debate about PolyMet tailings dam – by Josephine Marcotty (Minneapolis Star Tribune – April 7, 2018)

April 9, 2018

http://www.startribune.com/

Questions over whether the state is demanding the highest possible environmental and safety standards in the rebirth of a 1950s-era tailings dam are growing more urgent just as Minnesota’s first proposed copper nickel mine is reaching the final stage of regulatory approval.

Throughout the last decade of environmental review and bitter debate, the $1 billion project by PolyMet Mining Co. has always been anchored to a 2.5-square-mile taconite basin near Hoyt Lakes that would eventually hold hundreds of millions of tons of ore processing waste — perhaps for centuries.

Environmental groups, which have long argued that the design is risky, have now made it a primary focus of their request for a legal review of the project that is now awaiting a decision by state officials.

Rio Tinto’s Mongolian comfort zone is shaken – by Matthew Stevens (Australian Financial Review – April 9, 2018)

April 9, 2018

http://www.afr.com/

Confirmation that Mongolia’s anti-corruption authority has opened an “investigation” of the historic 2015 $US4.4 billion project financing deal for the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine has sucked Rio Tinto into the vortex of a controversy that started with a Swiss investigation into the contents of a bank account connected to a former Mongolian finance minister.

Ever since it became clear last month that Swiss authorities were taking serious interest in Bayartsogt Sangajav and how he came to fill a Swiss bank account with $US10 million back in September 2008, Rio has been able to take public comfort in the fact that whatever the circumstances were, they occurred at a time before the multinational miner had the capacity to influence negotiations between the government of Mongolia and Oyu Tolgoi’s Canadian-listed developer, Ivanhoe Mines.

At the time the claimed payment was made, Rio owned about 10 per cent of Ivanhoe. The Anglo-Australia stepped its way to control by 2012 and, to announce the changed circumstances, it changed Ivanhoe’s name to Turquoise Hill.

Teck doubles down on Chile copper mine investment with an eye on electric vehicle demand – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – April 6, 2018)

April 6, 2018

http://business.financialpost.com/

Vancouver’s Teck Resources is buying out a minority partner in a major copper project in Chile at a cost that could reach as high as $262.5 million.

The total price tag, however, will depend on copper prices — often considered a barometer for global macroeconomic growth because it is used in so many products — and which at the moment are sliding as the U.S. and China slap tariffs on one another, and fears of a trade war escalate.

“A company’s decision to build or not build (a mine) — these are long term forward-looking decisions,” said Alex Terentiew, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets who monitors Teck.

Canada’s First Quantum expected to pay $1-billion in Zambia tax dispute: Wall Street analyst – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – March 28, 2018)

March 28, 2018

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canadian copper producer First Quantum Minerals Ltd. will ultimately pay around US$1-billion to settle its tax spat with Zambia, according to a Wall Street analyst.

Last week, the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) slapped First Quantum with a US$7.9-billion tax bill, claiming the miner had drastically underpaid certain import duties over a period of five years.

In a subsequent conference call with analysts, First Quantum’s chief executive officer Philip Pascall declined to speculate how much the company may end up paying, saying it wouldn’t be prudent to comment in a public forum.

Rio Sees $5 Billion Copper Expansion on Track Amid Probe – by David Stringer and Tom Mackenzie (Bloomberg News – March 26, 2018)

March 26, 2018

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Rio Tinto Group has yet to be contacted by Swiss authorities over a bribery investigation related to Mongolia’s giant Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine and the site’s $5.3 billion expansion remains on track, according to the producer’s top executive.

The attorney general of Switzerland is examining whether the world’s second-biggest mining company paid bribes in the development of the project, the Office of the Attorney General said last week by email. The office also opened criminal proceedings against a former Mongolian finance minister on suspicion of bribery and money laundering, it said.

London-based Rio, its Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. unit and other partners are advancing an expansion aimed at more than doubling output at Oyu Tolgoi, targeting an eventual rate of more than 500,000 metric tons of copper a year.

Global copper deficit widens 21% in 2017 as refined supplies stagnate – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – March 21, 2018)

March 22, 2018

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – The latest data from the Lisbon, Portugal-based International Copper Study Group (ICSG) points to a 21% year-on-year widening in the global deficit of refined copper, as refined supplies remain stagnant.

During 2017, the global refined copper balance slid to a deficit of 163 000 t of red metal, compared with the 135 000 t recorded during 2016, which has been adjusted for changes in Chinese bonded stocks.

According to the ICSG, global mine output in 2017 fell 2% year-on-year to 20-million tonnes, which was mainly attributable to a 1% decline in Chile production – the world’s largest producer of the red metal – which was negatively affected by the strike at the Escondida mine in the first part of the year and lower output from State-owned Codelco mines.

Congo State Miner Curbs Expectation About Code Concessions – by William Clowes (Bloomberg News – March 19, 2018)

March 20, 2018

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo won’t secure substantial concessions in talks with the government about changes to the industry code, the head of the state mining company said.

The operators, including Glencore Plc and Randgold Resources Ltd., are pressing the government to row back on some of the reforms President Joseph Kabila signed into law this month. The modifications will raise taxes and other costs for miners in Congo, Africa’s top copper producer and the world’s main source of cobalt.

“There can be no renegotiation on any point once the code has been promulgated,” Albert Yuma, chairman of state-owned mining company Gecamines, said in an emailed response to questions on March 17.

Zambia slaps miner First Quantum with $8 billion tax bill – by Nicole Mordant and Chris Mfula (Reuters U.s. – March 20, 2018)

March 20, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

VANCOUVER/LUSAKA (Reuters) – First Quantum Minerals said on Tuesday that Zambia’s tax agency had slapped it with 76.5 billion Zambian kwacha ($8.04 billion) bill for unpaid import duties, a potentially huge blow for the Canadian miner that earns most its profit in the southern African country.

First Quantum, which owns two copper mines in Zambia and has a market value of $11 billion, denied it owed the funds.

The tax assessment would be a “new significant risk for the company”, Jefferies analyst Christopher LaFemina said in a client note, as almost half of First Quantum’s estimated value and around 80 percent of its estimated pre-tax earnings in 2018, come from its Zambian copper assets.

Newcrest dealing with tailings challenges in NSW and PNG – by Matthew Stevens (Australian Financial Review – March 18, 2018)

March 19, 2018

http://www.afr.com/

Newcrest finds itself uncomfortably poised at the polar extremes of the mining industry’s relentless waste management dilemma.

Unhappy serendipity sees the accident-prone copper and gold miner working to recover the integrity of a thoroughly conventional tailings dam at a mine in distant western New South Wales while promoting plans for a big new mine in Papua New Guinea whose viable future relies on dumping waste directly into the Solomon Sea.

Production at the gold and copper miner’s most consistently profitable operation, the Cadia mine in NSW, was bought to an unexpected halt on March 9 by a “limited” breach in the walls of one of its two tailings dams.

Copper could be the solution for displaced coal miners on the Navajo Reservation – by Ryan Randazzo (Arizona Republic – March 15, 2018)

March 16, 2018

https://www.azcentral.com/

With the impending closure of the Navajo Generating Station coal-fired power plant near Page in December 2019, hundreds of power plant workers and coal miners will need new jobs. Arizona’s copper mines could offer them opportunity.

Thanks to rebounding copper prices, copper mines across Arizona have hundreds of job openings today. The major companies, Freeport-McMoRan Inc., Resolution Copper and Asarco, all said they would be interested in hiring displaced workers from Peabody Energy’s Kayenta Mine should it close.

“Increasing copper prices, from $2 in January 2015 to $3.20 in February, has driven increased production and exploration, and additional employment is sure to follow,” said Steve Trussell, executive director of the Arizona Mining Association.

A Trump-Kim Summit Could Unfreeze Mining Riches on the Korean Border – by Dexter Roberts (Bloomberg News – March 14, 2018)

March 15, 2018

https://www.bloomberg.com/

UN sanctions have hurt minerals businesses where China meets North Korea. The talks could change that.

Sun Hongtao, the youthful-looking president of Sino-Mining International Ltd., is in a funk, sitting in a cold, empty office in the Chinese town of Changbai in Jilin province. Two miles from where he sits, across the border in North Korea, is the huge Hyesan Youth Copper Mine.

Sun’s company has invested more than $123 million in upgrading equipment at the mine with the aim of tapping its rich reserves. But for more than a year, because of United Nations sanctions imposed in 2016 targeting North Korean minerals, all production at the mine has stopped.

“What can we do?” Sun asks. “We can’t just leave all our equipment and the money we’ve invested behind in North Korea.” President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un are considering holding what would be an unprecedented summit meeting.