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Latin America Mining

Immersed in crisis, Peru neglects Amazon rainforest’s destruction (Nikkei Asia – June 3, 2022)

https://asia.nikkei.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Peru has descended into one of the worst political crises in its history and protection of its Amazon rainforest is failing, according to a report published on Thursday. Peru is home to the second-largest portion of the Amazon rainforest after Brazil. The country had pledged to stop deforestation by 2021.

The South American country has been immersed in political turbulence since 2016. Corruption scandals and disputes between the executive and legislative branches of government have led to intense turnover – four presidents in five years. Peru’s current President, leftist outsider Pedro Castillo, has already survived two impeachment attempts since he took office in July 2021.

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Eramet plans more lithium plants in South America – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – May 31, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

France’s Eramet said on Tuesday it aims to expand its lithium footprint in South America, where it is already developing a production plant, as part of the miner’s strategy to shift towards minerals used to power electric vehicles (EVs).

The company owns a large lithium deposit in the Centenario-Ratones salt flat located in north-west Argentina, which attracted last year Chinese steel group Tsingshan as a partner. This agreement covers the plant construction, with commissioning scheduled for early 2024.

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Two fires hit key copper projects in Peru amid protests -sources – by Marcelo Rochabrun (Reuters – June 1, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

LIMA, May 31 (Reuters) – Two fires broke out at key copper projects in Peru, sources told Reuters, hitting MMG Ltd’s (1208.HK) Las Bambas copper mine and Southern Copper Corp’s (SCCO.N) planned Los Chancas project, amid escalating local protests.

Peru, the world’s No. 2 copper producer, is suffering increasingly violent community protests against mines in recent months, as communities demand higher benefits from the industry and prices for the red metal remain high.

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In Bolivia’s silver mountain, artisanal miners turn to coca and the devil – by Marcelo Rochabrun and Santiago Limachi (National Post/Reuters – May 30, 2022)

https://nationalpost.com/

CERRO RICO — Next to one of Bolivia’s poorest cities lies one of the richest silver mines in the history of mankind – Cerro Rico, Spanish for ‘Rich Mountain – a once-legendary source of wealth for the Spanish Empire that is now being dug out by artisanal miners.

The miners – independent workers who labor in dangerous conditions in dark and poorly-ventilated tunnels – live off what they earn from the scraps of silver they find in Cerro Rico, which is slowly sinking and collapsing onto itself.

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Chaotic Chile Convention Defies Odds on New Charter, Experts Say – by Eduardo Thomson and Valentina Fuentes (Bloomberg News – May 20, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — After months of 18-hour days, radical proposals and growing public disillusionment, Chile’s Constitutional Convention has managed something that some deemed nearly impossible: a “reasonable” document that embraces the nation’s new fervor for social rights without undermining its famously free-market economy, according to experts questioned by Bloomberg.

The Constitutional Convention presented its draft charter Monday, and will now spend the next month fine tuning the wording. “It’s kind of a miracle that it got this far,” Tom Ginsburg, a professor of international law at the University of Chicago, said in an interview with other constitutional experts.

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Mining companies back away from Brazil’s Indigenous areas – by Fabiano Maisonnave (Associated Press/Los Angeles Times – May 20, 2022)

https://www.latimes.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO — Some of the world’s biggest mining companies have withdrawn requests to research and extract minerals on Indigenous land in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest and have repudiated Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s efforts to legalize mining activity in the areas.

The Brazilian Mining Assn., which represents about 130 companies, conducted an internal survey of its members earlier this year, according to Raul Jungmann, its president. For the first time in decades, none of the companies has current research or mining applications for gold, tin, nickel, iron or other ores in Indigenous areas, he said. Neither the survey nor its results have been reported previously.

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Legendary lithium riches from Bolivia’s salt flats may still just be a mirage – by Marcelo Rochabrun (Reuters – May 23, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

SALAR DE UYUNI, Bolivia, May 23 (Reuters) – On Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, a vast white salt flat that feels almost otherworldly, Karina Quispe is watching from the sidelines a global resource race for the world’s largest – and almost untapped – trove of battery metal lithium.

Her village on the edge of the salar – from where most of the men have migrated to Chile to find work – has so far seen few jobs or benefits from the mineral wealth beneath the plains.

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Chile rejects Anglo American’s $3 billion Los Bronces expansion – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – May 3, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

Anglo American (LON: AAL) said on Tuesday a Chilean environmental regulator had formally rejected the company’s application for a $3 billion expansion of its flagship Los Bronces copper mine.

The 377-page decision follows last week’s recommendation by the same office, the Environmental Assessment Service of Chile (SEA), to deny the permit due to lack of information on the potential risk to public health.

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Mexican president to fast-track nationalization of lithium if power reform thwarted – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – April 13, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) is ready to send a bill to Congress next week declaring lithium a “strategic mineral” and reserving future exploration and mining for the government if lawmakers fail to pass his constitutional reform tightening state control of the electricity market.

The country’s lower house is set to vote on Sunday on a constitutional energy overhaul that includes nationalizing lithium and guaranteeing state-owned utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad, or CFE, 54% of the market.

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A South American Lithium Cartel Faces Long Odds – by Thomas Graham (World Politics Review – April 11, 2022)

https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/

LA PAZ, Bolivia—With the swearing-in of Chilean President Gabriel Boric last month, the three countries of Latin America’s so-called lithium triangle—Chile, Bolivia and Argentina—all have leftist leaders who want their governments and citizens to benefit more from the extraction of their countries’ natural resources.

At first glance, this could present an opportunity for the three countries to push for the creation of an OPEC-style price-setting cartel for lithium. They are all rich in the coveted resource, and there has been speculation about them banding together to form such an organization for years.

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Chile sues BHP, Albemarle, Antofagasta over water use – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – April 8, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

The Chilean government of ecologist and feminist President Gabriel Boric is suing mines operated by giants BHP (ASX: BHP), Albemarle (NYSE: ALB) and Antofagasta (LON: ANTO) alleged environmental damage caused in the northern Salar de Atacama salt flats, the world’s driest place on earth.

The State Defense Council’s (CDE) legal action singles out BHP’s Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine, Antofagasta and Barrick’s 50-50 Zaldívar operation and Albemarle’s lithium assets.

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With court’s backing, Ecuador’s indigenous block Amazon mining – by Alexandra Valencia (The Star – April 1, 2022)

https://www.thestar.com.my/

SINANGOE, Ecuador (Reuters) – Armed with spears, their faces painted, members of the A’i Cofan community’s indigenous guard prepare to patrol the banks of the Aguarico River in Ecuador’s Amazon, ready to confiscate equipment and call in the police if they find miners on their ancestral land.

“We go down (the river) and document all the people who have entered,” guard coordinator Nixon Andy, 24, said. “When we come across strangers on our territory we speak peacefully, but if there isn’t respect there are authorities to whom we can report.”

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Lithium Americas CEO says more private-sector lithium funding needed despite Biden’s best efforts to stimulate industry – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – April 2, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Jonathan Evans, head of Canada’s biggest lithium company, is hopeful that U.S. efforts to ignite domestic critical-minerals production will help fill the gap in private-sector lithium investment, as he searches for a partner to build a major new mine in Nevada.

U.S. President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act this week, which opens up the spigot further on the already extensive U.S. government funding for critical-minerals industries, including lithium.

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Miners Gather in Copper Capital Facing ‘Another World’ of Tumult – by James Attwood (Bloomberg News – March 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The last time the copper industry gathered in Santiago, prices were below $3 a pound amid concerns over a slowdown in Chinese demand, and there was little talk of supply-chain woes or inflation.

Now the executives, bankers and traders drifting in to the Chilean capital for the first in-person version of the Cesco-CRU event in the pandemic era are facing an entirely different set of circumstances.

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Mexico cartels target growing role in mining supply chain (BNAmericas.com – March 21, 2022)

https://www.bnamericas.com/en/

Mining companies in Mexico are facing increasingly complex challenges operating alongside the country’s powerful cartels, as criminals seek a growing role within the supply chain. With revenues hit by a slump in heroin prices and the government’s crackdown on fuel theft, criminal gangs have diversified into other activities, such as extortion.

But another growth area for cartels has been lucrative contracts in mining, with criminal groups establishing or taking control of local firms providing services, such as transport or construction.

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