Aerial view of the Batu Hijau copper and gold mine.Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE:NEM) were barred from exporting copper and gold concentrate from its operations in Indonesia in September, but the company is now free to resume exports again.The export licence forDenver-based Newmont's local unit, PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara, was suspended because the company failed to meet government stipulations for d...Read More
Image from archives.While commodities are mired in the worst slump in a generation and all the market wants to hear is that the worst is already over, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) warns prices may fall even further.Unless demand picks up or more miners cut output, prices for raw materials are set to stay low for years, or worse, continue to drop, it said in a note on Thursday, FT.com reports (subs. req...Read More
Brazil's Vale (NYSE:VALE) on Thursday announced it will shutter its nickel smelting and refining operations in Canada's Manitoba province in 2018.The operations were originally set to end this year, but the government stepped in to extend work for at least another three years reports Reuters.Mining and milling at the Thompson mine will continue and the Rio de Janeiro-based company said it will fin...Read More
Chart by Preqin.Year to date the mining sector has raised a miserable $400 million down from a high of $4.6 billion just three year ago, according to data compiled by Preqin released today.The research firm looked at private equity-style funds targeting assets in energy (including oil and gas); agriculture and farmland; metals and mining; and timberland and water.The decline in mine financing fro...Read More
The once obscure Baltic Dry Shipping Index came to prominence at the start of the Chinese-led commodity supercycle around a decade ago.The London-based Baltic Exchange tracks the cost of moving commodities along more than 50 routes around the world.With China's emergence as the dominant trading economy in the world the index became one of the go-to barometers.China now controls the global trade in...Read More
The biggest declines in sales were in construction in Latin America (-41%) and in the resources industry in Asia (-37%).Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), the world's No.1 heavy machinery maker, put another nail in the mining industry's coffin after reporting that its sales declined again in October, marking the 35th straight month of sustained drops.The Peoria-based firm's performance is often seen as a gau...Read More
Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold's Grasberg mine is the world's largest gold mine and third largest copper mine.Indonesia has began investigating claims that senior officials demanded to be granted a 20% stake in Freeport-McMoRan Indonesia in return for an extension of the parent company's rights to operate in the country.According to Jakarta Globe, the minister of energy and mineral resources, S...Read More
Most of the low-cost gold producers are fairly valued, says Michael Curran, managing director and mining analyst with Beacon Securities, so he's heading down-market to the advanced development opportunities and early-stage explorers that he thinks could become low-cost producers. Sure there is risk, as Curran explains in this interview with The Gold Report, but the reward could come via either a t...Read More
ChuquicamataIt's been a brutal November on copper markets with a only one up day of trading since the start of the month. Just over the last week the price has fallen more than 7%.In New York on Wednesday the copper price dropped to a low of $2.0670 or $4,560 a tonne, the lowest since March 2009 and down 27% so far this year.Copper traded below today's level for seven months at the height of the g...Read More
Work at Carmen de Andacollo copper mine, located in Chile's north-central region of Coquimbo. (Image from archives)Canadian mining giant Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.A, TCK.B), (NYSE: TCK) has decided to cut 1,000 jobs, or around about 9% of its global workforce, through a combination of layoffs and attrition as part of a plan to reduce spending next year by $650 million.The Vancouver-based company, t...Read More
Today's chart is all about perspective.See all YTD asset prices together in one place, and get perspective on the true collapse that has occurred in commodities this yearCourtesy of: Visual CapitalistThis chart from Macquarie puts the year in perspective for commodity investors. It covers various asset classes including equities, FX markets, bonds, and commodity prices, and charts them YTD in ter...Read More
Since May, the metal has lost around 25% of its value, due to the increasing strength of the US dollar and weaning demand in China.Copper prices extended losses on Tuesday, hitting a fresh six-year low as the terror attacks in Paris added to concerns about the global economy that have caused a month-long selloff.On Tuesday morning, the red metal dropped to below $4,600 per tonne on the London Meta...Read More
The next time a mining company decides against dry-stacking as a too-costly alternative to tailings ponds, its directors and shareholders may want to consider what a tailings pond breach could cost companies like Imperial Metals Corp. (TSX:III) or BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE:BHP).Up until November 5, the August 4, 2014, tailings pond failure at Imperial's Mount Polley copper mine had been the worst su...Read More
Shares in top gold miner Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX, TSE:ABX) added more than 1% on Monday, making the most of gold breaking its fall to trade just above five year lows around $1,180 an ounce at the start of the week. It was revealed in filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday that Soros Fund Management, a company founded by legendary hedge fund billionaire George Soros, had liqu...Read More
LAGOS, Nigeria, November 16, 2015/ - CSR-in-Action, Nigeria's premier business and ethical networking platform and consultancy for sustainability, has announced plans to host governments, captains of industry, experts and investors in the country's capital, Abuja, to stimulate meaningful exchange of ideas on how to unlock over $100bn potential in the extractive industries within the next four ye...Read More
More images from Ag??ncia Brasil FotografiasVale (NYSE:VALE) said on Monday that it would take several years for Brazil's Doce river to recover following a deadly tailings dam burst at an iron ore mine it jointly owns with BHP Billiton (LON:BHP, ASX:BHP).In an update Friday, BHP revealed that mine tailings-a mix of water, iron and other waste materials such as silica - extended 440 kilometres...Read More
With revenues of $50 billion a year and operations at the ends of the earth, few companies are in a better position to take the pulse of the global economy and the resource sector in particular than Caterpillar.The world's number one heavy equipment manufacturer has been hit hard by the decline in mining and construction - sales are down more than $15 billion from its peak just four years ago and...Read More
Krause and his team, which includes archaeobotanists and a large number of students from Goethe University, have been researching in the area for 15 years. (Image courtesy of Dr. R? 1/4 diger Krause)German researchers have detected traces of mining activity in Central Europe dating back to the Bronze Age, which resumed later in the early Middle Ages.Using the C14 method, which classifies the age o...Read More
The August 2014 tailings pond breach at Imperial Metal's Mount Polley mine has cost the company over $60 million to dateImperial Metals (TSX:III) had revenue of $56 million in 2015's third quarter, more than double the $23 million reported in the same period last year, the company announced November 12.Imperial began recording revenue from its Red Chris mine during the quarter after production com...Read More
Seemingly minor regulation has enormous consequences: NCPAA small statute in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Protection Act is wreaking havoc in the Congo, according to a new report by National Center for Policy Analysis Senior Fellow David Grantham."Buried deep within the massive regulatory package is a conflict minerals statute that orders publicly-owned U.S. businesses to disclose to the...Read More