World’s top 50 mining companies end 2022 rock solid but Chinese stocks slide down the rankings despite surging coal and lithium prices, and Russian miners trading in Moscow finally succumb.
Commodity prices are always volatile, but in 2022 metal and mining markets reached new levels of turbulence, as the pandemic played out in China, inflation plagued the developed world and the Ukraine war upended global energy.
Arizona has the distinction of many mine sites that have diverse geology and mineralogy. Located 20 miles southwest of Tucson, the Sierrita Mine, currently operated by Freeport-McMoran, is one of the largest copper molybdenum mining operations worldwide.
It was originally prospected in 1895, however, it was not until 60 years later that its value as a disseminated porphyry copper deposit was determined by Harrison Schmitt, who recommended its development to the Duval Sulphur and Potash Co., which in turn brought it into large scale production in 1959.
Buxwaha, Sagar (MP): Troubled by a medley of activists, the Aditya Birla group may have developed second thoughts over a big diamond project in Madhya Pradesh. And no one knows why the protests are happening, or what exactly the demands are of those protesting against the mining.
The mine is inside a forest in Buxwaha, located 200 kms from Sanchi, a sleepy town of stupas, hemispherical structures containing relics of Lord Buddha. The mine is huge, the biggest in Asia. The Bunder diamond block has 34 million carat diamonds, valued at a whopping Rs 55,000 crore. The mine has a potential to catapult India into the world’s ten top rough diamond producers and in the process put the diamonds of Africa to shame.
A consortium of Hong Kong and European private investors are spending more than US$1 billion to revive a mothballed nickel and cobalt refinery in Australia by turning mining waste into lucrative materials for electric-car batteries.
They aim to turn the Yabulu refinery in Queensland into one of the world’s top 10 producers of refined nickel within 18 months to benefit from sustained demand and high prices for the metals, said Richard Petty, a Hong Kong-based businessman and one of the nine investors in the group.
https://thenevadaindependent.com/
The interpretation of a 150-year-old mining law could be a part of whether a U.S. District Court judge upholds the federal government’s approval of a massive lithium mine — a project that has faced challenges from a local rancher, environmental groups and Native American tribes.
In legal briefs over the past two years, the mine’s opponents have challenged federal permitting of the planned Thacker Pass mine north of Winnemucca. Federal land managers, they argued, fast-tracked the project and did not adequately consider a number of issues in its environmental review — the mine’s footprint on wildlife habitat, groundwater, air quality and Indigenous sites.
In his series of end-year review reports, Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa, Mikhail Bogdanov, told local Russian media that Russia would continue its interaction with G5 Sahel West African countries to fight terrorism as a terrorist threat in the region had not subsided and the West’s military presence was “not so effective” in Africa.
“Moscow will continue its interaction with the G5 Sahel (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Mauritania) on arms supplies to fight terrorism. Naturally, there will be contacts with the G5 Sahel,” Bogdanov told the Russian media and noted that the group was undergoing “some internal structural changes” currently because problems had arisen over Mali’s participation.
From her tiny wooden treehouse, which sways precariously in the winter wind, a young woman watches an enormous mechanical digger tear into the earth below, its jaws edging ever closer to the village which she’s determined to save.
Lützerath, in western Germany, is on the verge – literally – of being swallowed up by the massive coal mine on its doorstep. Around 200 climate change activists, who are now all that stand in the way of the diggers expanding the Garzweiler opencast mine, have been warned that if they don’t leave by Tuesday they’ll be forcibly evicted.
At last year’s US Africa leaders summit in Washington the US signed an historic memorandum of understanding with Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo to develop an electric vehicle battery supply chain.
At the summit, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema also announced that Kobold metals, an exploration firm backed by billionaires Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, will invest US$150 million to develop a new mine in Zambia.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Mr. Volpe said there is not yet sufficient infrastructure in place –
lithium production and battery production – to meet the earliest targets
for zero emissions without buying from China. “If we’re actually going
to meet those targets, we’re gonna meet them with Chinese batteries.
Maybe Chinese vehicles,” he said.
Business leaders are urging Justin Trudeau and his U.S. and Mexican counterparts to adopt more of a “Team North America” approach when they meet in Mexico City this week: to move beyond a growing list of disputes including energy, autos and dairy, and craft a continental plan for industries such as electric vehicles.
The Prime Minister, U.S. President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will get together for the North American Leaders’ Summit on Tuesday to talk about boosting trade and investment and building a better supply chain to fuel the continent’s electric-vehicle production. It’s the 10th such meeting – also known as the Three Amigos summit – since they began in 2005.
LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) – March 2022 will go down in the history books as the moment the global nickel market broke down. The London Metal Exchange’s (LME) six-day suspension of nickel trading plunged the global supply chain into pricing darkness.
The LME contract is the anchor around which producers, users and traders price a spectrum of nickel products, from refined metal to ferronickel to the new stream of sulphate heading for electric vehicle batteries.
China is making a bigger bet on the huge Simandou iron ore mine in Guinea, which it sees as crucial as it tries to reduce reliance on Australian ore amid geopolitical tensions.
The mine – located in the Simandou mountain range of southern Guinea’s Nzérékoré region – is said to have the world’s largest untapped iron ore reserve of high quality, with an estimated 2.4 billion tonnes. The deposits have drawn Chinese multinationals including China Baowu Steel Group, the country’s largest iron and steel producer.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Sudbury mine development company hits high-grade mineralization at Crean Hill mine property
Magna Mining is taking an aggressive pace in looking to put a former Inco nickel and copper mine back into production.
The Sudbury exploration and mine development company keeps reporting high-grade hits from a drilling program at the former Crean Hill Mine, acquired by Magna last fall.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/
Mine in southeastern Yukon operated from 2011 to 2015
Bits and pieces of the Yukon’s defunct Wolverine Mine are now up for grabs, as the company that owns the assets prepares for a quick sale.
Welichem Equipment, a B.C. biotech company, owns most of the mine’s assets, including a zinc mill, 10-megawatt diesel plant and a turnkey mine camp for 250 workers. Welichem rented the mining equipment to Yukon Zinc Corporation, the company that operated the mine before abandoning it.
The high-purity manganese market may face a deficit as early as 2024, according to people in the industry heard by MINING.COM.
An essential component of the steel-making process, manganese has played an increasing role in the battery market. The metal sulphate is an important stabilizing ingredient in the cathodes of batteries widely used in electric vehicles and electronics.
Tesla Inc. is set to pay more for the lithium that powers its electric vehicles after a supplier amended their deal amid a relentless price rally of the metal.
Piedmont Lithium Inc. will now supply an increased 125,000 metric tons of lithium concentrate to the EV giant starting in the second half of this year through the end of 2025, according to a statement Tuesday. Unlike prior agreements where prices are locked in, Piedmont’s deal with Tesla relies on a floating mechanism based on market prices, according to the statement.
