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Latin America Mining

How one community in Chile is blessed and cursed with lithium – by John Bartlett (NPR.org – February 23, 2025)

https://www.npr.org/

ATACAMA DESERT, Chile — At the top of a craggy path in Socaire, a hilltop village deep in Chile’s Atacama Desert, a black flag whips in the wind above Jeanette Cruz’s house. The desert sun has bleached it to a dark gray blur, but the defiance it represents remains strong.

Above each house in the village, shimmering in the evening sun, these black flags represent the Indigenous Lickanantay people’s resistance to the lithium mining that many say is tearing their communities apart. The lithium in the brine beneath the brilliant white Atacama salt flat, which stretches out across the valley floor, has become a global resource.

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Column: China’s grip on global nickel supply tightens with Anglo sale – by Andy Home (Reuters – February 24, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

Anglo American’s sale of its Brazilian nickel business to China’s MMG Ltd is a corporate win-win. Anglo gets to deliver on its promise to shareholders to simplify its portfolio and pockets up to $500 million.

MMG, which is already a major producer of copper, cobalt and zinc, gets to diversify into another metal and expand its geographic footprint into Brazil. It is also buying into the one part of the nickel market that is showing signs of price resilience amid a glut of over-supply.

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Anglo American and Codelco strike $5B copper deal – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – February 20, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

Anglo American (LON: AAL) and Chile’s state-owned Codelco have signed an agreement to jointly develop their neighbouring Los Bronces and Andina operations, a move that will see the partners produce 2.7 million tonnes of additional copper over 21 years from 2030.

The joint mine plan is projected to generate a net present value pre-tax boost of at least $5 billion, which will be shared equally between the two companies. Despite the collaboration, both Anglo American and Codelco will retain full ownership rights over their respective assets, including mining concessions, plants, and ancillary operations, and will continue to extract resources separately.

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Teck signals it’s open to deal with Glencore around combining QB2 and Collahuasi copper mines – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – February 21, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Teck Resources Ltd. chief executive Jonathan Price indicated he is open to a tie-up with former foe Glencore PLC that would combine its giant QB2 copper mine in Chile with Glencore’s neighbouring Collahuasi operation.

QB2 is the mine that underpinned Teck’s revamp to become a fully focused critical-minerals company after it sold its legacy coal business to Glencore. Glencore co-owns another giant copper mine near QB2 called Collahuasi. Billions in cost savings are potentially on the table if QB2 and Collahuasi can be brought under the same ownership and operated as one gigantic facility.

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Exclusive: China’s BYD holds mining rights in Brazil’s Lithium Valley, documents show – by Fabio Teixeira (Reuters – February 14, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO-Chinese electric carmaker BYD acquired mineral rights for two plots of land in a lithium-rich part of Brazil in 2023, entering the mining business in its biggest market outside of China, according to public records reviewed by Reuters.

The EV producer’s acquisition of mineral rights in Brazil is its most concrete step so far toward mining strategic minerals in the Western Hemisphere. The previously unreported acquisition of the mineral rights in late 2023 was made by BYD subsidiary Exploracao Mineral do Brasil, which was created in May of that year, documents showed.

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Ecuador’s mining future uncertain as socialist party gains traction – by Staff (Mining.com – February 11, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

Ecuador’s mining industry is bracing for potential changes as the nation’s main socialist party gains momentum in the presidential race.

Luisa González, a protégé of former President Rafael Correa, is leading a strong push fuelled by public discontent over a struggling economy, gang violence, and widespread blackouts. Her platform, which reflects the policies of the influential Citizen Revolution movement, could significantly reshape mining policies if she wins the runoff on April 13.

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Where are the critical minerals flashpoints in 2025? (Thomson Reuters Foundation – February 6, 2025)

https://www.eco-business.com/

M23 rebels’ advance in mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo puts green minerals rush in the spotlight.

The conflict playing out in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where Rwandan-backed M23 rebels have sed vital mines in a lightning advance, spotlights the global race for access to critical minerals and the risk to local populations.

The race for minerals needed for renewable technologies – including coltan, lithium, cobalt and nickel – is set to ramp up this year as Europe and North America compete to secure access and break China’s grip on the supply chain.

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Bolivia’s Lithium Window Is Closing Rapidly – by Joseph Bouchard (Real Clear World – February 2025)

https://www.realclearworld.com/

In 2023, Bolivia signed multi-billion dollar deals for lithium extraction with Chinese and Russian state-owned companies, including the CBC consortium and Rosatom/Uranium One. Since then, despite these deals expanding further, very little progress has been made, with extraction and production stalling despite promises from all stakeholders about “rapid industrialization.”

Given Bolivia’s increasingly friendly relationship with American adversaries, the continuous problems plaguing Bolivia’s mining sector, and the growing alternatives for lithium development, it may be time for the U.S. and other democratic states to look elsewhere.

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Chile Keeps Faith in Lithium Expansion Even as Glut Worsens – by James Attwood (Bloomberg News – January 23, 2025)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Chile, home to the world’s biggest lithium reserves, is confident that investors will compete for licenses to drill new deposits even amid a worsening global glut that’s squeezing the battery-metal industry.

“We’re convinced that there’s interest,” Mining Minister Aurora Williams said in an interview late Wednesday — a day before Chile warned that global oversupply is set to increase this year, despite some industry cutbacks.

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Bolivia steps up lithium dealmaking despite growing opposition – by Sergio Mendoza and James Attwood(Bloomberg News – January 21, 2025)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Bolivia is stepping up efforts to tap the world’s biggest lithium deposits, readying deals with new investors to build processing plants despite low prices and growing opposition from lawmakers and citizen groups.

The Andean nation opened its first industrial-scale plant in late 2023, built by a Chinese group, and last year signed deals for further investments with Russia’s Uranium One Group and a Chinese consortium, which are awaiting congressional approval.

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Codelco eyes $800M extension to keep Gabriela Mistral open until 2055 – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – December 23, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Chile’s state-owned copper producer Codelco said on Monday it has applied for an environmental permit to extend the life of its Gabriela Mistral mine by over 25 years, pushing the current closure date from 2028 to at least 2055.

The $800 million proposal aims to sustain production at the open-pit mine in Chile’s Antofagasta region, which has been operational since 2008. A key component of the plan is the transition away from using domestic land-based water by 2035. Instead, the mine will rely on third-party water sources that comply with environmental standards. In exchange, Codelco has pledged to supply an equivalent amount of water to the local community.

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Rio Tinto’s $2.5 Billion Lithium Plan Is a Win for Milei – by James Attwood and Jonathan Gilbert (Bloomberg News – December 12, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Rio Tinto Group plans to invest $2.5 billion in a new lithium mine in Argentina in a win for President Javier Milei’s efforts to deregulate the country’s economy and lure foreign investment.

The UK company plans to build a processing plant at the Rincon mine with an annual capacity of 60,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate, it said Thursday in a statement. Work on the facility, subject to permitting, will start in the middle of next year.

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Lithium leap: Brazil makes journey to become a leading supplier – by Anne Barbosa and Adriana Carvalho (S&P Global – August 15, 2024)

https://www.spglobal.com/

Brazil’s legislative overhaul in lithium export regulations has transformed the country into a burgeoning hub for lithium production, unlocking vast economic potential and attracting global investments.

“Thanks to a legislative change made four years ago regarding lithium exports, we can now transform this mineral asset into an economic resource,” Fernando Passalio, secretary of state for economic development of Minas Gerais, told S&P Global Commodity Insights.

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Chile Copper Firms Begin Talks on Combining Smelter Efforts – by James Attwood (Bloomberg News – December 11, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Codelco and Enami, Chile’s two state copper companies, are discussing the possibility of combining their respective efforts to expand smelting capacity into a single project, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

A new working group is looking into collaboration between a project to overhaul a shuttered Enami smelter and a separate proposal to build a new plant being organized by Codelco, said the people, who asked not to be identified given the talks are private and at an early stage.

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Indigenous Mining Complicates Brazil’s Fight Against Illegal Gold – by Ricardo Brito and Adriano Machado (U.S. News/Reuters – December 2, 2024)

https://www.usnews.com/

JACAREACANGA, Brazil (Reuters) – The involvement of Indigenous people in illegal gold hunting, lured by the prospect of easy money due to record prices, has made Brazil’s task of cracking down on wildcat mining in the Amazon far harder, environmental agents and police say.

The Munduruku territory, a reservation the size of Switzerland on the Tapajos river, a major Amazon tributary, has become a hot spot for illegal mining, which Brazilian law bans on Indigenous land. But increasingly, Munduruku tribe members are entering the illegal trade that is backed by organized crime.

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