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Congo Copper Deal With China May Draw $2 Billion of Investment – by Thomas Wilson (Bloomberg News – August 15, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Gecamines, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s state-owned mining company, said China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group may invest as much as $2 billion to develop its most prospective copper asset.

The Congolese miner in June described the agreement, through which CNMC will finance, build and operate a copper-processing facility at the Deziwa concession before transferring full ownership back to the state-owned miner, as a “new type of partnership” designed to increase revenue for the state, but has yet to provide full details of the arrangement.

“It’s not a partnership, it’s a financing agreement, a loan to be reimbursed,” Kandolo Mafuta, Gecamines’ director of partnerships, told a mining conference Aug. 11 in the capital, Kinshasa. “Total investment could be $2 billion,” he said in an interview at the meeting.

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Exclusive: Glencore shelves plan to sell Chilean copper mine – by John Tilak and Barbara Lewis (Reuters U.S. – August 11, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO/LONDON – Glencore has shelved plans to sell a copper mine in Chile that was expected to fetch about $500 million, after failing to achieve a high enough price, according to people familiar with the situation.

Along with other big mining companies, Glencore has been seeking to offload a range of assets to reduce debt following a commodities price crash, but a rally on raw materials markets and in the value of share prices of mining companies this year has taken away the need for urgent sales at any price.

Glencore began a process to sell its Lomas Bayas copper mine in Chile late last year, when anxiety about the health of some mining firms’ balance sheets was high.

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Goldman warns ‘supply storm’ to engulf global copper market (Mineweb/Bloomberg News – August 5, 2016)

http://www.mineweb.com/

A storm’s about to hit the global copper market, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which forecasts that the price may slump to $4,000 a metric ton over 12 months as mine supply picks up, producers enjoy lower costs and demand growth softens.

“Company guidance and our estimates suggest that copper is entering the eye of the supply storm,” analysts including Max Layton and Yubin Fu wrote in an e-mailed report received on Friday. A drop to $4,000 would be a 17 percent slump from Thursday’s close on the London Metal Exchange.

Copper has lagged gains seen in other raw materials so far this year, especially zinc and nickel, which have benefited from forecasts for global shortages. For copper, there’s been solid growth in global mine supply in the first half and that trend is expected to pick up in the coming quarters, according to Goldman.

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Bougainville fury over Rio Tinto grows (Radio New Zealand – August 1, 2016)

http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/

The government in the autonomous Papua New Guinea region of Bougainville is to press the global mining giant, Rio Tinto, on several fronts after it last month divested itself of its majority shareholding in Bougainville Copper Ltd.

The company split its shares between the autonomous provincial government and the national government in Port Moresby.

But Bougainville is furious that it was not given all the shares, and that Rio Tinto said it is was no longer obliged to do anything about the damage caused by the Panguna mine, which sparked a civil war that lasted through the 1990s.

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Arizona appeals panel upholds Rosemont Mine air permit – by Tony Davis (Arizona Daily Star – July 13, 2016)

http://tucson.com/

The proposed Rosemont Mine won a big legal victory Tuesday when an Arizona Court of Appeals panel overturned a lower court ruling blocking the mine’s air-quality permit.

The three-judge panel ruled that a Maricopa County Superior Court judge erroneously ruled in March 2015 that the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality’s approval of the air permit was “arbitrary and capricious” and “an abuse of discretion.”

The appeals panel concluded that, contrary to arguments made by the mine’s opponents and the lower court judge, that “substantial evidence supported the department’s determination that the proposed Rosemont Mine will not exceed air quality standards.”

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U.S. Brings WTO Challenge Against China Over Copper, Graphite, Other Minerals – by William Mauldin (wall Street Journal – July 13, 2016)

http://www.wsj.com/

Complaint says China failed to eliminate export duties as agreed

The U.S. on Wednesday accused China of failing to remove export duties on certain raw materials, as agreed when it entered the World Trade Organization 15 years ago, the latest in a series of trade disputes between the two countries.

China has kept export duties ranging from 5% to 20% on antimony, cobalt, copper, graphite, lead, magnesia, talc, tantalum and tin, U.S. officials said in a new WTO case filed against Beijing.

The duties, levied on shipments out of China, have the effect of making the minerals cheaper within the country, promoting manufacturing there in areas ranging from electronics to automobiles, while making the minerals relatively more expensive outside China.

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[Minnesota mining] Both sides steeled for Twin Metals hearings – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – July 11, 2016)

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

The debate over federal mineral leases at the proposed Twin Metals mine near Ely isn’t just a philosophical discussion over copper mining in Northeastern Minnesota. Twin Metals officials say the leases mean life or death for their project and any other future mining in the Rainy River watershed.

The federal leases in question “are really the foundation of our project,” said Bob McFarlin, spokesman for Twin Metals, a Minnesota company wholly owned by Chilean mining conglomerate Antofagasta.

Twin Metals and its predecessor companies already have spent more than $350 million toward the project, McFarlin told the News Tribune, and all of that could be for naught if the U.S. Forest Service withholds the leases.

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Copper Rises on Prospects for Japanese Stimulus, U.S. Jobs Data – by Thomas Biesheuvel and Joe Deaux (Bloomberg News – July 11, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Copper helped lead a rally of industrial metals as prospects for stimulus in Japan and better-than-estimated U.S. jobs data boosted the outlook for commodities demand. Mining stocks in the Americas rose to the highest in a year.

An election win by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition on Sunday raised speculation the government will spur growth through new spending. Better-than-expected U.S. payrolls figures on Friday also eased concerns about the U.S. economy.

“You have the potential for additional stimulus there in Japan, and the payrolls report was good, which sends a better signal that things aren’t falling apart,” Mike Dragosits, a senior commodity strategist at TD Securities in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. “It’s adding to a bit of a risk-on bid, and that’s impacting base metals.”

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Copper’s $149bn mine pipeline stalls as deficit nears – by David Stringer (Mineweb.com/Bloomberg – July 7, 2016)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Lack of financing to scarcity of water delaying mine projects.

he $149 billion pipeline to expand the world’s copper supply is running into trouble.

Producers are counting on expansions and the development of new operations to meet supply shortages they forecast arriving toward the end of the decade. The plans are fraying as reluctant lenders, political wrangling, technical obstacles and a lack of water and electricity push back project deadlines from Papua New Guinea to Peru.

Only six major projects to build new mines or expand existing operations will be completed by 2020, with two of that total still at risk of potential delays, according to researcher CRU Group. That compares with a global slate of about 80 planned developments, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

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BHP Billiton digs deep at Escondida copper mine in Chile – by Matt Chambers (The Australian – July 5, 2016)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

BHP Billiton has approved an ­effective plant expansion at the giant Escondida mine in Chile that will provide an extra 150,000 tonnes of annual copper production for a development spend of just under $US200 million ($266m), in a prime example of chief Andrew Mackenzie’s push to unleash low-cost latent capacity.

The approval, which reverses a previous decision to demolish the Los Colorados concentrator at ­Escondida to gain access to high-grade ore, was revealed by BHP’s new head of American mining operations, Daniel Malchuk, in an interview with The Australian.

The Santiago-based Mr Malchuk said BHP remained keen on copper from a market perspective and would still be prepared to make acquisitions in the metal if the right assets came to market during the current downturn.

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Copper’s Political Risks Lie in Wait – by David Fickling (Bloomberg News – July 3, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Chief executives of global companies still lose sleep over political risks, but since the heyday of the British East India Company not many businesses can claim to have played a part in a country’s descent into civil war.

Rio Tinto is one. Protests by landowners about its Panguna mine on the Papua New Guinean island of Bougainville were among the triggers for a decade-long conflict in which as many as 15,000 people died between 1988 and 1998, according to an Australian parliamentary inquiry.

The company’s plan to give away its stake in the mine to landowners and Papua New Guinea’s government shows how times have changed. While the risk of violence has kept the site out of action for a generation, Panguna has about $51 billion of copper in its rock. It would probably count as one of the world’s biggest pits, if only it could be mined.

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RIO TINTO NEWS RELEASE: Bougainville Copper Limited shareholding

http://www.riotinto.com/

Rio Tinto has today transferred its 53.8 per cent shareholding in Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) to an independent trustee.

Equity Trustees Limited will manage the distribution of these shares between the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) for the benefit of all the Panguna landowners and the people of Bougainville, and the Independent State of Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Under the trust deed, the ABG has the opportunity to receive 68 per cent of Rio Tinto’s shareholding (which equates to 36.4 per cent of BCL’s shares) from the independent trustee for no consideration and PNG is entitled to the remaining 32 per cent (which equates to 17.4 per cent of BCL’s shares).

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Rio Tinto cuts mining links with Papua New Guinea (Reuters U.S. – June 29, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

Rio Tinto Ltd will sever mining links with resource-rich Papua New Guinea, relinquishing ownership of the Panguna copper mine on Bougainville island which has been closed for around 25 years after a secessionist rebellion.

The global miner said on Thursday that it would transfer its majority shareholding of 53.8 percent in Bougainville Copper Ltd to an independent trustee to manage the distribution of the shares to the Autonomous Bougainville Government and Papua New Guinea.

“By distributing our shares in this way we aim to provide landowners, those closest to the mine, and all the people of Bougainville a greater say in the future of Panguna,” Rio Tinto said in a statement. In 2013 Rio Tinto investigated restarting the mine after being run off the island amid a secessionist uprising that has since subsided.

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Congo Copper Miner Plans Chinese Joint Venture at Main Asset – by Thomas Wilson (Bloomberg News – June 16, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Gecamines, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s state-owned miner, is in talks to give China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group a majority stake in its most prospective copper asset.

CNMC will finance, build and operate a copper-processing facility at the Deziwa concession in return for a 51 percent stake in the project, Jean Dominique Takis, head of strategy, said in an interview Tuesday in the capital, Kinshasa.

CNMC will be reimbursed for its investment in the plant, which should have an initial capacity of 80,000 metric tons a year, through an off-take agreement over an agreed period that wasn’t specified, after which ownership of the project will be returned to Gecamines, Takis said. The agreement is a “new type of partnership” designed to increase revenue in coming years, Gecamines Chairman Albert Yuma said last week.

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PolyMet gets more cash from Glencore – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – June 15, 2016)

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

PolyMet Mining Corp. on Wednesday said it will get another $14 million in cash from its largest investor, Switzerland-based Glencore, to help the junior mining company advancing toward opening Minnesota’s first copper mine.

PolyMet announced the new loan in its quarterly financial report that shows the company continuing to spend money as it seeks state and federal permits to start the mine and processing center north of Hoyt Lakes.

PolyMet received $3 million on June 3, will get another $8 million in July and $3 million in August, with PolyMet paying Glencore 15 percent interest. Glencore also is asking for a PolyMet financing plan that will enable the company to repay Glencore in 2017 and have money to complete permitting.

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