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Latin America Mining

Glencore buys Pan American’s stake in Argentinean copper project – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – July 31, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

Glencore (LON: GLEN) is buying out a 56% stake in Argentina’s MARA copper project from its partner Pan American Silver (TSX, NYSE: PAAS) for $475 million, as part of the miner and commodity trader’s push to increase exposure to the metal.

Pan American acquired a controlling stake in MARA as part of it recent acquisition of Yamana Gold, which closed in March. The project, located in Argentina’s northwestern Catamarca province, was set in December 2020 by integrating Minera Alumbrera’s plant and mining infrastructure with the Agua Rica copper-gold deposit.

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Bolivian indigenous group declares local emergency over protected area zoning – by Florence Jones (Mining Technology – July 31, 2023)

https://www.mining-technology.com/

The group has criticised the environmental and social impact of small-scale gold mining operations.

The Indigenous Peoples of La Paz Central Group (Central de Pueblos Indígenas de La Paz, CPILAP) have declared a local state of emergency following an attempt by gold mining cooperatives to modify the zoning of protected areas in Bolivia.

Areas in the north of the La Paz region are rich in gold. Production in the area is largely conducted by small and medium-sized operations known as cooperatives. These enterprises receive certain privileges from the state, including low royalties for the gold they mine.

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China Goes After South America’s New Treasure: Lithium PART I – by Sabina Nicholls (Dialogo Americas – July 29, 2023)

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With its vast salt flats, Latin America is rich in a metal that has become more sought after than gold: lithium. Known as white gold or the oil of the 21st century, this metal is now essential for energy transition and the booming market for electric cars.

The so-called Lithium Triangle, located in the Andean highlands and comprising Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile, covers 52 percent of the world’s lithium reserves, which has aroused the interest of the world’s main economic players and has spurred a race to acquire this metal in South America. Having access to lithium is now synonymous with power.

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Bolivia boosts lithium resources estimate, cementing spot as global leader (Associated Press – July 20, 2023)

https://apnews.com/

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — The total of Bolivia’s confirmed lithium resources has increased 2 million tons to 23 million tons, the Andean country’s president said Thursday.

The new estimate further cements Bolivia’s position as the country with the world’s biggest known deposits of lithium, which is in high demand for use in batteries.

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How Chile’s progressive new plan to mine lithium faces Indigenous hurdles – by Alexander Villegas (Reuters – July 20, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com

ATACAMA DESERT, Chile, July 20 – Chile’s millennial president, Gabriel Boric, promised to mine differently. He would turn the world’s largest copper producer and second largest lithium miner into a country that focused on environmental and social responsibility.

When Boric announced his ambitious plan in April to take state control over the country’s lithium industry and expand extraction of this essential component of electric car batteries, he pledged to so with pioneering environmentally-friendly technology, and personally talk with local Indigenous communities.

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Brazilian Gold Rush 1693 (Minas Gerais) – A Defining Moment in Brazil’s History – by Liam Williams (Gold Fundamentals.org – June 12, 2023)

https://goldfundamentals.org/

Brief Overview of the Brazilian Gold Rush

In 1693, a significant event unfolded in Brazil, then a Portuguese colony – the Brazilian Gold Rush. This period was more than just a discovery of gold; it was a transformative era that shaped the nation’s destiny.

Ten Facts about the Brazilian Gold Rush

The Discoverer of Gold: It’s believed that the Brazilian Gold Rush began in 1693 when a group of bandeirantes, Portuguese colonial scouts, found gold in a tributary of the Rio Doce. Bartolomeu Bueno de Siqueira is often credited as the initial discoverer.

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Rio Tinto flags cost hike at Argentina lithium project – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – July 19, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

Rio Tinto (ASX, LON: RIO) has flagged a likely cost estimate and schedule review for its Rincon lithium project in Argentina’s Salta Province, an emerging hub for greenfield projects.

The world’s second largest miner, which released an operational update for the three months to June 30 on Tuesday, said the $140 million cost estimate and schedule to develop a starter plant at Rincon was under review in response to cost escalation.

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BHP and Vale square off in London court – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – July 12, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

BHP (ASX: BHP) and Vale (NYSE: VALE) faced off in a London court on Wednesday as part of one of the largest class action lawsuits in history, which could see them fined £36 billion ($44bn) for their role in a mining disaster in Brazil that killed 19 people.

The case, brought to trial by around 720,000 Brazilians, centres on who should accept legal and financial responsibility over the deadly 2015 collapse of a dam. The incident at the iron ore mine, owned by BHP and Vale’s joint venture Samarco, became the country’s worst ever environmental disaster.

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Indigenous in Argentina appeal to Pope Francis amid mining protests – by Eduardo Campos Lima (Crux Now – July 5, 2023)

https://cruxnow.com/

SÃO PAULO – Two weeks after the northwestern Jujuy province in Argentina approved a broad constitutional reform, indigenous communities and labor unions, supported by an official arm of the Argentine bishops’ conference, are demonstrating against it and demanding its revocation.

Groups of protesters have been blockading roads and marching against the legal changes, which they say put in danger their right to occupy traditional lands, their access to water, and their right to manifest against the government.

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Chile Details Its National Lithium Strategy – by Catherine Osborn (Foreign Policy – June 23, 2023)

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The country’s moves are being closely watched amid the global scramble for critical minerals.

When Chilean President Gabriel Boric announced preliminary plans for a national lithium strategy in April—one that would increase government participation in the lucrative sector—details were scarce. Investors gained some clarity last week when the Chilean government released a 33-page document that expands upon its initial pledges with specific timelines and targets.

Chile is currently the world’s second-largest producer of lithium, a critical mineral that is used in electric car batteries and key to the global green energy transition.

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Inside the Dangerous, ‘Wild West’ World of Guyana’s Pork-Knockers – by Emiliano Ruprah (Atlas Obscura – January 27, 2022)

https://www.atlasobscura.com/

Deep in the country’s interior, the global gold and diamond trade begins with back-breaking labor, environmental destruction, and uncertain profits.

GUYANA’S PORT CITY OF Bartica sits where the Cuyuni, Essequibo and Mazaruni rivers meet. It has long served as a launching point for gold and diamond miners—known as pork-knockers—on their dangerous journey into the wilderness in search of fortune. Nicknamed after the pickled peccary, or wild hog, they often eat, the pork-knockers scatter throughout the dense jungle in small mining outfits of a dozen or so people.

Countless pieces of jewelry gleaming in shop windows around the world have their origins here, in the back-breaking labor of the pork-knockers and other unsung participants in the global gold and diamond trades. This is their story.

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The Mexican Mountain Town Feeding the International Crystal Market – by Dylan Taylor-Lehman (Atlas Obscura – May 18, 2021)

https://www.atlasobscura.com/

In Piedra Parada, amethysts are everywhere.

PIEDRA PARADA IS A SOMEWHAT obscure mountain town in the Mexican state of Veracruz that has carved out its own special corner of an international market. The region is known for its amethysts, a type of quartz crystal with color ranging from light to deep shades of purple, formed in sometimes impressive geometric shapes.

The men of Piedra Parada (“Standing Rock”) have mined these crystals for the past 70 years for buyers all over the world who covet them for both their beauty and purported metaphysical qualities. The stones from the town’s numerous mines and small excavations can be found at gem shows and in New Age stores around the world.

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Inside the race to remake lithium extraction for EV batteries – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – June 16, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana, June 16 (Reuters) – The global battle to reshape the lithium industry is sucking in oil producers, tech startups and entrenched mining giants, each jockeying to be the first to reinvent how a metal key to the green energy transition is produced.

A fleet of direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies are on the verge of tapping salty brine deposits across Europe, Asia, North America and elsewhere that the U.S. Geological Survey estimates are filled with roughly 70% of the world’s reserves of the metal.

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Appian seeks location for Brazil graphite processing, ‘supercycle’ continues: CEO – by Diana Kinch (SP Global – June 14, 2023)

https://www.spglobal.com/

UK-based private equity company Appian Capital Advisory is seeking a downstream location to process material produced at the graphite project it is developing in Brazil, as demand for the commodity grows apace, CEO Michael Scherb said in an interview.

Graphcoa, with various graphite deposits in Brazil, is moving into pilot production this year and should be in full production in two years, producing for the electric-vehicle batteries industry, Scherb said this week.

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Lithium boom comes to Brazil’s ‘misery valley’ (France 24 – June 15, 2023)

https://www.france24.com/en/

Araçuaí (Brazil) (AFP) – In a cloud of gray dust, a heavy-duty excavator loads a truck with stone blocks containing lithium, the “white gold” of the clean-energy revolution, which some hope will transform this parched, impoverished region of Brazil.

Sun-scorched and drought-prone, the Jequitinhonha valley, in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, is one of the poorest places in the country. But the region, nicknamed “misery valley,” is on the cusp of a boom: it is home to around 85 percent of the lithium reserves in Brazil, the world’s fifth-biggest producer of the metal, an essential ingredient in electric vehicle batteries.

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