US - China trade tensions weighed on copper miners in 2018 as fears of a global economic slowdown overshadowed other fundamentals. Meanwhile gold producers struggled as bullion lost its safe-haven luster until late in the year.What's ahead in 2019?We asked four top executives from companies including Newmont Mining Corp. and Teck Resources Ltd. for their outlooks. From dealing with debt to dividen...Read More
Don't listen to what miners say. Look at what they do.That's good advice for working out the long-term direction of commodities prices. Ask mining companies which of their mineral assets will see good long-term demand and they'll naturally answer, "All of them." But a look at spending can give the lie to that rosy outlook - and highlight the times when they're putting their money where their bu...Read More
LONDON - The two-year rally in industrial metal prices came to an abrupt end at the start of June.The London Metal Exchange Index, a basket of the LME's major base metal contracts, hit a three-year high of 3499.6 in the first week of that month.Prices then imploded over the ensuing weeks and the blood-bath has continued ever since. The Index stood at 2845.5 as of Wednesday's close, back at mid-201...Read More
* Codelco signs large supply deals with major clients* Asia including China accounts for about 50 percent of sales* Copper price down 20 percent from JuneLONDON/BEIJING - Chilean state miner Codelco has agreed to sell France's Nexans, China's Minmetals and U.S.-based Southwire 50,000 to 100,000 tonnes of copper each from 2019 to 2021 in rolling deals known as "evergreens", sources close to the mat...Read More
More than half of the copper mines in Zambia, Africa's second-biggest producer of the metal, will probably be unprofitable next year with thousands of jobs on the line, as the nation raises taxes for operators, the country's biggest industry lobby group said.The effective tax rate will range from 86 percent to 105 percent, with about 27,900 jobs at risk, the Zambia Chamber of Mines said in a state...Read More
American engineering company Bechtel, ranked #11 on Forbes' America's private company list for 2018, announced this week that it opened the Bechtel Mining & Metals Innovation Center in Chile with the goal of developing new technologies that boost productivity, promote environmental sustainability and improve worker safety for the copper industry.In a press release, Bechtel said that the cente...Read More
Mahenge the Cinderella of the graphite space?SPONSOREDblack rock miningSky is the limit for BSK at Amarillo GrandeSPONSOREDblue sky uraniumNew Energy brings experience to new dawnSPONSOREDnew energy mineralsSustained investment in people a big plus for consultancySPONSOREDbyrnecutDuring 2017, I wrote two ‘From the Capital' columns about ASX-listed Mustang Resources. The first, published on Read More
Mahenge the Cinderella of the graphite space?SPONSOREDblack rock miningSky is the limit for BSK at Amarillo GrandeSPONSOREDblue sky uraniumNew Energy brings experience to new dawnSPONSOREDnew energy mineralsSustained investment in people a big plus for consultancySPONSOREDbyrnecutNo one likes to be told what to do and I am no exception. All of us are brilliant, we all have superb judgement, we kno...Read More
It all started so well in 2018 for investors in European metal and mining stocks, as copper led a base-metals rally to multi-year highs in a time before trade turmoil gripped markets. But, as the year closes, the sector index is languishing about 25 percent below its June peak.Fractious rhetoric between Washington and Beijing over tariffs, plus growing worries about the state of China's economy un...Read More
JAKARTA - Copper miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc must pay Indonesia 460 billion rupiah ($32 million) in royalties for thousands of hectares of protected forest it used without a permit, Indonesia's Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) said on Wednesday.A 2017 state audit of operations at Freeport Indonesia's Grasberg copper mine, the world's second largest, pointed to the miner's use of more than 4,000 hectares...Read More
After five years of negotiations, Havilah Resources (ASX: HAV) has signed a Native Title Mining Agreement for its Kalkaroo copper-cobalt-gold project, northeast of Adelaide in South Australia.Kalkaroo is believed to be the largest undeveloped open pit copper-gold deposit in Australia on a copper-equivalent ore reserve basis. The signing of the new deal increases Havilah's chances of being granted...Read More
Following months of speculation on its ability to buy new assets, Canadian miner Hudbay Minerals (TSX, NYSE: HBM) announced today it has completed the acquisition of all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Mason Resources (TSX:MNR) it did not already own. Each common share was bought at a price of C$0.40.The transaction was closed for about C$31 million, as Hudbay took over the remainin...Read More
The U.S. stock market continues to implode. At the same time, precious metals, bitcoin, and the Indian stock market are acting as superb safe havens.Please click here now. Double-click to enlarge this great short term gold chart.Note the positive bounce from buy-side support at $1237, and the inverse H&S bottom pattern. A fresh rate hike from the Fed tomorrow could crush the stock market again...Read More
RS: Kin's recent drilling returned some interesting and encouraging results from seven holes completed in September this year. You've said the new round will aim to provide more clarity on the definition and distribution of the low-grade epithermal (shallow) and higher-grade VMS-style (deeper) mineralisation intersected in the earlier holes. Firstly, how have the earlier results influenced the des...Read More
BRITISH COLUMBIA - Toronto-based Seabridge Gold has promising induced potential and drilling results from its 100% owned Iskut gold property 110 km northwest of Stewart. All indications point toward a large copper-gold porphyry system.The results indicate a robust hydrothermal breccia containing abundant clasts of chalcopyrite-pyrite-magnetite in veined intrusive rocks and stock works positioned o...Read More
AUSTRALIA - BHP Group has commissioned the new ramp at its Olympic Dam iron ore-copper-gold mine, and it doubles the haulage capacity for its trucks. The Kalta decline is key to reaching the Southern mine area where BHP is mining high grade copper resources.BHP spent A$250 million to develop the Southern mine area, and another $40 million on the ramp. The first ore from the area was produced in mi...Read More
Industrial metals came under renewed pressure on Tuesday after a defiant speech from China's president Xi Jinping diminished hopes of an early settlement in the top commodity importer's intensifying trade dispute with the US.President Jinping used the occasion of the 40-year anniversary of the start of China's "Reform and Opening Up" to congratulate the stewardship of the communist party and reaf...Read More
Constantine Metal Resources (TSXV: CEM; US-OTC: CNSNF) has boosted the overall tonnage at its Palmer polymetallic project in southeast Alaska by 43% with a maiden resource for the project's AG zone.The AG zone, located 3 km from the main Palmer deposit, contains 4.25 million inferred tonnes grading 4.64% zinc, 0.12% copper, 0.96% lead, 119.5 grams silver, 0.53 gram gold and 34% barite, or 9.04% zi...Read More
The Glencore-controlled mining company Katanga Mining has today agreed to pay USD $22 million to settle allegations by Canadian regulators that it had failed to comply with disclosure requirements, including that it had not properly described risks of doing business with a controversial middleman in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Several of Katanga's current and former directors and executive...Read More
Glencore Plc's billionaire head of copper trading, Aristotelis Mistakidis, was among executives fined and banned from being a director by Canada after admitting that its Congolese copper and cobalt unit misstated how much metal it mined.Mistakidis, who is retiring from Glencore at the end of this year, was hit with a C$2.45 million ($1.8 million) fine and a four-year director ban in Ontario at a p...Read More