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Latin America Mining

Impossible for Panama’s next government to ignore mining, says First Quantum CEO – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – February 13, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

Canadian miner holds out hope May elections will bring change in fortune for its besieged Cobre Panama mine

The Panamanian government’s order to shut down Toronto-based First Quantum Minerals Ltd.‘s lucrative copper mine in December seemed like the final straw for the company, which has faced several issues in the Central American country in recent years.

Panama and First Quantum initially tussled over the terms of a new contract to run the mine. Although a deal was reached, thousands of protestors demonstrated against it on environmental grounds. The nation’s Supreme Court then intervened and annulled the deal, which led to the order to close the Cobre Panama mine, about 120 kilometres west of Panama City.

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Mexican president proposes ban on open-pit mining – by Staff (Mining.com – February 10, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known as AMLO, presented before parliament a series of constitutional reforms among which there’s a proposal to modify Article 27 so that it prohibits open-pit mining.

In detail, his proposal calls for banning the granting of open-pit mining concessions and activities related to the exploration, exploitation, benefit or use of minerals, metals or metalloids using the open-pit method. To argue his case, López Obrador said that open-pit mining causes severe environmental damage and uses excessive water that could be supplied to water-scarce communities.

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Chile’s mining sector needs 34,000 new professionals by 2032 – report – by Staff (Mining.com – February 4, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

The mining industry in Chile, the world’s top copper producer and second-largest lithium producer, will need more than 34,000 new workers by 2032, according to a study released this week.

The report by the CCM-Eleva Alliance, a joint initiative between the Mining Council and Fundacion Chile, analyzed workforce trends and challenges of 27 mining and supplier companies in the country, representing 96% of the sector.

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Closure of Panama copper mine threatens e-transition – by Jack Mintz (Financial Post – February 2, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

Forced shutdown of $10-billion mine signals to companies: invest in rule-of-law countries only

Canada’s First Quantum Minerals, sixth largest copper producer in the world, has learned the hard way: a US$10-billion mining project can be cancelled after several years in operation with the support of several successive governments.

In December, the Panamanian government ordered the closing of FQM’s Cobre Panamá mine, which produced 350,000 tonnes of copper in 2022. This represents 1.5 per cent of global copper supply and five per cent of Panama’s GDP, neither a trivial number.

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Activists, Hollywood take down top 50 mining company – by Frik Els (Mining.com – January 31, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

The ranks of the most valuable mining companies in the world were throughly scrambled in 2023 as governments intervened, lithium and nickel prices tumbled, gold hit records and a new listing went ballistic.

At the end of 2023, the MINING.COM TOP 50* ranking of the world’s most valuable miners reached a combined $1.42 trillion, up a healthy, if far from spectacular $48.7 billion over the course of 2023. Mining’s top tier is also worth $330 billion less than in March 2022.

Metal and mineral markets are volatile at the best of times – the nickel, cobalt and lithium price collapse in 2023 was extreme but not entirely unprecedented. Rare earth producers, platinum group metal watchers, iron ore followers, and gold and silver bugs for that matter, have been through worse.

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Rob McEwen Seeks $100 Million for Argentina Copper Mine as Milei Boosts Prospects – by James Attwood and Jonathan Gilbert (Bloomberg News – January 30, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Canadian entrepreneur Rob McEwen is in talks to raise about $100 million for a copper project in Argentina, at a time when miners are betting that deregulation by the new government of Javier Milei will boost prospects for the industry.

His closely-held firm, McEwen Copper Inc., is speaking with existing holders — which include automaker Stellantis NV and a Rio Tinto Group venture — as well as prospective new investors, he said in an interview.

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Third Mine Disaster in a Decade Tests ESG Boundaries in Brazil – by Vinícius Andrade, Giovanna Bellotti Azevedo and Mariana Durao (Bloomberg News – January 29, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Investors were swift to dump debt of Braskem SA after the Brazilian petrochemicals maker’s salt mine partially collapsed in December — a situation that has forced tens of thousands to evacuate the city of Maceio since 2019.

The selloff lasted less than a month before the prices recovered. It was a rebound reminiscent of what happened in the wake of Samarco’s tailings dam collapse in 2015 and the rupture of a Vale SA dam in Brumadinho that killed 270 people in 2019: Any punishment levied by the debt markets was short lived.

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The rise of lithium mining threatens the Andean flamingo in Argentina – by Diego Jemio (El Pais – January 28, 2024)

https://english.elpais.com/

The mining boom — which is concentrated in the provinces of Salta, Jujuy and Catamarca — is affecting this species’ nesting places. There are less than 80,000 of these beautiful flamingos left

The Andean flamingo has an elegant stride, with a grace that hypnotizes you. Its plumage is impressive: a mix of hot pink, white and black. Reaching more than three feet in height, these creatures nest in colonies during the summer, in the shallow wetlands of Puna — the Atacama Plateau — and the Andes of Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. This area is also known as the “lithium triangle.”

In Argentina, the rarest of all flamingo species is found mostly in the northern provinces — Salta, Catamarca and Jujuy — during the warmer months. These birds can also be found in the center of the country, mainly in Córdoba and Santa Fe. According to the National Mining Secretariat, there are 38 lithium projects in the country, of which 17 are in the large salt flats of the province of Salta.

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Mining giants told to pay $9.7bn over Brazil dam disaster – by Peter Hoskins (BBC.com – January 26, 2024)

https://www.bbc.com/news/

A federal judge in Brazil has ordered mining giants BHP, Vale and their Samarco iron ore joint venture to pay 47.6bn reais ($9.67bn) in damages over a deadly dam burst in 2015.

The collapse of the Fundão dam in the south-east of the country caused a giant mudslide that killed 19 people. It also severely polluted the Rio Doce river, compromising the waterway to its outlet in the Atlantic Ocean. It was not immediately clear how much each company is required to pay.

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Bolivia Uyuni plant to yield first lithium by 2025-end – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – January 22, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Bolivian state-owned lithium company YLB has inked a new deal with a Chinese consortium to install a pilot plant at the vast Uyuni salt flat, which would use Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology.

The project will see the construction of a 2,500 tonnes-per-year lithium carbonate facility that will be operated by the CBC consortium, formed by CATL, BRUNP and CMOC.

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Barrick denies one of its executives recently met with First Quantum in Panama to talk M&A – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – January 19, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. ABX-T is disputing an account by a Panamanian official about an alleged meeting between one of its executives and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. in Panama to discuss a possible buyout deal. Vancouver-based First Quantum said this week it is considering a range of merger and acquisition options as it attempts to stem the financial damage caused by the closing of its giant Panama copper mine.

Ebrahim Asvat, a former adviser with the Panamanian government, told The Globe and Mail on Thursday that Juana Barceló, president of Barrick’s Pueblo Viejo operations in the Dominican Republic, was in Panama in early January, and met with people at First Quantum.

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Gold miners bring fresh wave of suffering to Brazil’s Yanomami – by Ueslei Marcelino and Anthony Boadle (Reuters – Janaury 18, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

Brazil is losing the upper hand in its battle to save the Yanomami Indigenous people, who are dying from flu, malaria and malnutrition brought into their vast, isolated Amazon rainforest reservation by resurgent illegal miners.

A year after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared a humanitarian crisis among the Yanomami and vowed zero tolerance for illegal mining, environmental enforcers warn that Brazil is jeopardizing last year’s hard-won progress, when about 80% of roughly 20,000 wildcatters were ousted from the Portugal-sized reservation.

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How did Vale tailings dam burst and kills hundreds? – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Northern Miner – January 17, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Construction details in the tailings dam at Vale’s (NYSE: VALE) Corrego do Feijao iron ore mine in Brazil may have caused the burst that killed at least 270 people when 10 million cubic metres of sludge destroyed neighbouring settlements and took out a railway bridge, according to Swiss researchers.

Why the dam broke in 2019 specifically – three years after the pond was last loaded with new tailings – and why no significant displacements had been detected before the collapse, is the focus of a new paper by scientists at the university ETH Zurich.

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First Quantum weighs asset sales as Cobre Panama shutdown takes toll – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – January 17, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. FM-T is considering a range of merger and acquisition options as it attempts to stem the financial damage caused by the closing of its giant Panama copper mine.

The Vancouver-based copper miner said in a release it is considering the sale of some of its smaller operations, as well as potentially selling stakes in its large mines. First Quantum has already been approached by at least one major mining company interested in pouncing as its stock flounders. First Quantum’s share price has fallen by more than two-thirds since last summer.

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Lithium Venture in Chile in Talks with EV Firms to Invest in Mine Project – by James Attwood (Bloomberg News – January 17, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — A joint venture valued at $1.5 billion to $2 billion that wants to become Chile’s third lithium producer is in talks with investors to bankroll its project.

Simco Lithium, owned by a Singaporean investment fund and a Chilean business group, is exploring the sale of a non-controlling stake, said Sebastian Yang, a board member representing the Simbalik fund. While the around $600 million project is too small to appeal to major mining firms, there is interest from battery and electric-vehicle makers.

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