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Dr. Copper hints mining sector officially out of intensive care – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – November 24, 2016)

http://www.mining.com/

Prices for the metal soared again Thursday to more than $5,700 a tonne

Copper, until recently one of the worst performing commodities in the past two year, is having a great month, with prices up about 20% to more than $5,700 a tonne Thursday.

The rally, which began on the heels of Donald Trump winning in the US presidential election, has been partly based on speculation regarding the impact of the President-elect’s $500 billion infrastructure plans on demand for the metal.

It has also been fuelled by a pick-up in Chinese imports, responsible for some 49% of global copper demand, which is seen a good omen for the industry’s health.

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[Codelco] Corporacion Nacional del Cobre de Chile History (1909-2000) – by International Directory of Company Histories

For a large selection of corporate histories click: International Directory of Company Histories

Company Perspectives: Codelco’s mission is to maximize the long-term generation of profits and its contribution to the national treasury.

Key Dates:

1909: U.S. mining engineer William Braden sells controlling share of his Braden Copper Co. to the Guggenheim Exploration Co. (Guggenex); the site of the operation is El Teniente in the Andes Mountains north of Santiago.

1910: Another Guggenheim-owned company purchases rights to the Chuquicamata site, in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert.

1915: The Chuquicamata and El Teniente copper mines are in operation.

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COLUMN-Is the copper mine supply wave peaking? – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – November 21, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Nov 21 Copper’s recent turbo-charged rally has upended the market’s narrative of supply surplus. Too much supply was supposedly the reason why copper, until this month, was the worst performer among the base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange (LME).

But right now the market is struggling to work out where all that extra copper actually is. LME stocks are low and falling. Stocks registered with the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) are rising but still low.

The shuffle of metal between the two exchanges has blown a smoke-screen around the stocks signals this year but the much-feared wall-of-copper is proving surprisingly elusive. The best bet is that it is still working its way down the supply chain with this year’s surge in mine production yet to be converted into refined metal.

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World’s Top Miner Expects Iron Ore, Coal Price Surge to Cool – by David Stringer (Bloomberg News – November 17, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest miner, expects soaring prices of iron ore and coking coal to moderate even as China pushes ahead with efforts to restructure its steel sector.

Prices have been supported in recent months by restocking and short-term supply disruptions, Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mackenzie told reporters Thursday in Brisbane following the company’s annual meeting. Iron ore has jumped 66 percent this year to rebound from three straight annual declines, while coking coal has surged about 295 percent.

China’s determination to push through with restructuring in its steel and coal sectors, and the nation’s increasing willingness to favor imports over domestic material, has buoyed prices alongside other short-term catalysts, according to Mackenzie.

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Kidd doesn’t foresee extension of mine beyond 2022 – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – November 17, 2016)

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – As much as the closure of the Kidd Mine will have an impact on the loss of assessment for the city hall treasury in Timmins, there will also be a dramatic impact on Kidd’s annual payroll in Timmins which is more than $100 million a year.

Some details of the closure plan for Glencore Kidd Operations in Timmins were revealed this week, ironically at a city council meeting where the company was honoured for the contributions it has made the community in the last half century.

“Exactly 50 years ago this week, in fact on the 16th of November, Kidd Creek officially went into production,” said Kidd Operations general manager Steve Badenhorst Monday night.

He said it has been a proud history for more than 20,000 past and present employees who have worked in one of the world’s best base metal deposits.

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Copper executives cast doubt on ‘irrational’ price rally – by Josephine Mason and Melanie Burton (Reuters U.S. – November 16, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

Global copper markets will be oversupplied for at least two years, executives at some of the world’s major producers of the metal and traders said on Wednesday, casting doubt on the chances of a prolonged rally in prices.

That tempered assessment of the market at an industry conference in Shanghai came after benchmark copper prices last week recorded their biggest weekly gain since 2011, largely fuelled by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s promises of infrastructure spending.

“In 2017, it will still be a relatively oversupplied market. In 2018 it will not be better than 2017,” said Yuneng Wu, vice president of Jiangxi Copper Co, China’s largest copper producer. Global markets for the metal, used in everything from wiring to construction, have been burdened by oversupply as mines ramp up output in places such as Chile and Zambia.

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Copper to enter ‘substantial’ supply deficit starting from 2021: Sonami – by Yuka Obayashi (Reuters U.S. – November 14, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

The copper market will start to enter a “substantial” supply deficit from 2021, pushing prices of the industrial metal higher, the head of Chile’s national mining association Sonami said on Monday.

“In the near term, mining companies are not investing in additional capacity and copper demand is growing at a pace of around 2 percent a year,” Sonami Chairman Diego Hernandez told the Copper 2016 industry conference in Kobe, Japan.

Supply growth will likely begin to fall from around 2019 and the market will face a substantial deficit from around 2021 as it coincides with a recovery in demand growth, driven by population growth and urbanization in China and other emerging countries, and less fossil fuel use amid climate change, Hernandez said.

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Man or machine? Explaining copper’s extraordinary rally – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. November 11, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – It will probably go down in the history books as the Trump Rally. Copper is on course to record its biggest weekly rally in 35 years. It’s a stand-out even amid the turbulence that has rocked the broader financial universe. Trading volumes have gone super nova.

The London Metal Exchange (LME) has seen over 205,000 lots trade on its benchmark three-month contract since Monday, already an all-time weekly record and the week isn’t over yet. On the CME copper traded 256,017 contracts on Wednesday, also an all-time daily record.

The entire global copper market, it seems, has been repositioned from bear to bull territory in a matter of days. And while there is no doubt the election of Donald Trump as U.S. President has acted as an accelerator, there is more to this explosive price action than as yet vaguely-defined promises of infrastructure spending and reflation.

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Copper goes crazy as Trump promises US building revolution – by Thomas Biesheuvel and Jesse Riseborough (Mineweb/Bloomberg – November 10, 2016)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Mining shares surge, with Antofagasta jumping as much as 19%.

President-elect Donald Trump promised to revitalise America’s aging airports, roads and bridges, and investors are betting he’s going to need a lot of copper.

Since Trump’s surprise victory yesterday, copper surged 8.1%, heading for the biggest two-day gain in more than five years. And it’s not the only winner, with lead, zinc and aluminum advancing along with the companies that produce them.

“All that we see for President-elect Trump is that he will focus on building, he will focus on the infrastructure,” said Tom Albanese, a New Jersey native and chief executive officer of Vedanta Resources. “That is what the market is reacting to.”

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Copper hits 15-month high after Trump wins White House – by Clara Denina (Reuters U.S. – November 9, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – Copper surged to a 15-month high on Wednesday, pulling most other metals up too on technical buying and as some investors speculated that a Donald Trump presidency could herald a period of significant fiscal stimulus and boost demand for metals.

In his victory speech, Trump said he would embark on a project to rebuild American infrastructure and would double U.S. economic growth. “The Republicans have control of both houses of Congress and that means there is a possibility that those kind of programs could become reality,” ICBC Standard Bank analyst Tom Kendall said.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose as much as 3.4 percent to its highest since July 22, 2015 at $5,443 a tonne and traded 2.2 percent higher at $5,352 in official rings.

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$2M federal loan helps secure future of Baie Verte copper mine – by Curtis Rumbolt (CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador – November 7, 2016)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

Rambler Metals and Mining says a $2-million loan from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency announced last week will help secure the long-term future of its copper mine on the Baie Verte Peninsula.

Rambler chief executive officer Norman Williams said the repayable loan is the last piece in a financial package that will extend the life of the mine to more than 20 years and eventually secure more than 200 direct jobs from the gold and copper mine’s operations. “It’s about setting up those 200 jobs for the long-term prosperity up on the peninsula,” CEO Norman Williams told the Central Morning Show Monday.

“[It’s] about 20 years of mining. When you have employment to that level, and that magnitude, hopefully we’re going to see lots of people come and go and retire and stay on the Baie Verte Peninsula.”

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Ecuador Says BHP, Billionaire Rinehart Join Metals Chase – by David Stringer (Bloomberg News – November 8, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s largest miner, and billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting Pty. are among commodity producers to have held talks over a potential entry into mining and exploration projects in Ecuador, according to the nation’s government.

Both producers had discussions with officials on the prospects of making investments or securing exploration leases, Mining Minister Javier Cordova Unda said Tuesday in an interview in Melbourne. Cordova has met with BHP personally, he said.

BHP has shown interest in a number of copper projects, including in a potential partnership with state-owned miner Enami and Chile’s Codelco in their joint Llurimagua copper and molybdenum project, Cordova said. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd.

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Anglo American sees ‘bright future’ as metals industry hopes for strength in China – by Jon Yeomans (The Telegraph – October 31, 2016)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

The mining and metals industry has a “bright future”, the boss of Anglo American has said, as the sector weighs up the future of China, the biggest consumer of raw materials. Mark Cutifani told the LME Week conference in London that commodities had seen “extreme price volatility in the last few months” but that “the future still looks pretty bright”.

The Anglo boss admitted that the mining industry had earned a reputation for “overextending itself”. “Companies have been rescued by a timely uplift in prices – relying on a ‘get out of jail’ card,” he said.

Mr Cutifani said that Anglo was now looking to “enhance the demand for our products” by becoming an active marketer of the commodities it produces. In particular, he said the FTSE 100 miner would look to promote new uses for platinum, used in catalytic converters and jewellery, such as in fuel cells for cars.

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Big Miners at Odds Over Whether Worst Has Passe – by Rhiannon Hoyle (Wall Street Journal – October 31, 2016)

http://www.wsj.com/

Rio Tinto is ready to dig again while BHP and others hold back major investments

SYDNEY—Global mining companies face an urgent dilemma in the grip of a prolonged commodities downturn: whether to bet heavily on new projects absent firm signs of an upturn—or wait until a recovery in prices gathers pace.

At the heart of each company’s decision is whether China is finished as an engine of torrid resources demand, or about to ramp up spending, this time on consumer goods such as air conditioners and refrigerators. If the latter, it will require commodities not at the forefront of China’s industrialization so far.

For mining executives, it means navigating a commodity cycle that experts say is different from any in the past 100 years. Mining typically follows an about four-year boom-to-bust cycle, although some industrial-led supercycles can last decades.

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Sudbury reflects on 10 years since foreign takeovers of Inco and Falconbridge (CBC News Sudbury – October 23, 2016)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

Many in Sudbury feel a merger between the two local mining companies would have been best

It has been 10 years since the foreign takeovers of Sudbury’s two homegrown mining companies. And the debate continues over whether or not this has tarnished the Nickel Capital over the last decade.

Vale — then known as CVRD — officially took over Inco on Oct. 24, 2006, three months after Falconbridge was bought by Swiss-based Xstrata.John Fera was president of Steelworkers 6500 when Inco became Vale in 2006.

He says the Brazilian company promised to make things better — but that hasn’t happened.
“It doesn’t seem to be the family atmosphere it used to be. I mean we had our fights with Inco and Falconbridge, but when the fight was over, the fight was over,” he says. “I don’t see our workplaces being better. I don’t see our workplaces being safe than before these people came.”

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