After a more than three years slump, 2016 has brought much-needed relief for the mining industry.With a couple of exceptions - notably potash and uranium - the gains in metals and minerals prices have been broad-based and substantial. The rally in coal and iron ore surprised even the most ardent bulls, while crude oil's recovery has helped to underpin prices for most raw materials.In the last bea...Read More
ITRI's twelfth annual survey of tin users gathered data from tin users worldwide between June and August 2016. ITRI analyst Peter Kettle commented: "Generally companies appear a little more optimistic about sales in 2016 than they were at the time of a snap survey carried out late last year. Allowing for a recent strong recovery in the China solder market it looks like global refined tin demand...Read More
In early trade on Wednesday copper for delivery in December slipped from one-month highs with copper futures exchanging hands for $2.1550 per pound ($4,750 a tonne).While other industrial metals and steelmaking raw materials have jumped in value this year, the bellwether metal is trading flat year to date. The metal hit six year lows in January following a 26% decline in 2015.BHP Billiton, the wor...Read More
A new report by the Conference Board of Canada states that the Yukon's economy is facing the bleakest near-term outlook in the country. A slowdown in production at Capstone Mining Corporation's Minto copper mine means that the territory will have no large-scale mining operations by mid-2017. "The slump in mineral and metal prices and difficulty in getting financing have led to mine shutdowns and n...Read More
Latin America's mining sector is finally recovering from an economic downturn brought by almost two years of sustained slump in commodity prices. But growth in the region won't be led by the usual favourites, such as Chile, but by two of the countries that have steadily fallen out of favour with investors as of late - Peru and Brazil.According to the latest analysis by BMI Research, Peru's signifi...Read More
Vancouver-based Tintina Resources (CVE:TAU) has just re-submitted its mine operating permit application for the Black Butte Copper project in Montana, US.The company had presented an initial application to the state's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in December of 2015, but three months later received a 60-page deficiency notice.The move comes about six months after Montana's environm...Read More
Top publicly-held copper producer Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE:FCX) in May announced the sale of its largest African copper mine to China Molybdenum (CMOC) for up to $2.65 billion.The Democratic Republic of Congo's state-owned Gecamines controls 20% of the high-grade Tenke Fungurume copper and cobalt mine.Lundin Mining (TSX:LUN) indirectly owns 24% which includes a right of first offer...Read More
Zinc is the best performing base metal so far this year and measured from its six-year low struck mid-January today's $2,280 a tonne zinc prize is up 55%.Zinc's prospects brightened considerably after the shutdown of two major mines last year - Australia's Century and the Lisheen mine in Ireland. The two mines had a combined output of more than 630,000. The shuttering of top zinc producer Glen...Read More
World's second largest miner Rio Tinto (ASX, LON:RIO) injected some much-needed optimism in the markets Monday by saying that while China's short-term demand remains difficult to read, the long-term outlook is looking much brighter than a few months ago.Figures out of China, Rio Tinto's and most mining companies' biggest consumer, show that factory output, investment and retail sales all exceeded...Read More
Harmony Gold (NYSE:HMY)(JSE:HAR), South Africa's third-largest producer of the precious metal, has become the sole owner of the Hidden Valley mine in Papua New Guinea after partner Australia's Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM) agreed to sell its 50% stake in the joint venture.Harmony will now assume all liabilities and expenses related to the gold and silver operation, including rehabilitation costs and r...Read More
In January 2016, Cashel Meagher was appointed Hudbay Minerals' senior vice president and chief operating officer, in charge of the company's international operating teams and responsible for business development, technical services, exploration and corporate social responsibility.Prior to his new role, Meagher was Hudbay's vice president, South America business unit from 2011 to 2015, where he led...Read More
Rick Rule says investors should be buying gold, silver, platinum and palladium."Many of our clients are still underweight physical precious metals," said Rule, President and CEO Sprott U.S. Holdings, in an interview with Andrew Nelson."We are urging those clients to position themselves either in the physical precious metals themselves or preferably in the 3 Sprott Physical Precious Metal Trusts, t...Read More
The Natural Resources Defense Council just ran a celebratory ad on Politico.com, after the World Conservation Congress voted almost unanimously to oppose the Pebble Mine proposed for Bristol Bay, Alaska.Pebble Limited Partnerships, whose parent company is Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty Minerals, is the firm behind the large scale gold, copper, and molybdenum mine that contains over $300 billion...Read More
Striking miners began returning to work at Anglo American's (LON:AAL) flagship Los Bronces copper mine in Chile on Friday, after two unions accepted the latest wage offer presented by management.The impact of the one-week stoppage was not immediately assessed by Anglo American, which said it would unveil that in its upcoming quarterly results, local daily La Tercera (in Spanish) reports.Hennie Fa...Read More
Despite optimism brought by the ongoing recovery in commodity prices and the mining potential of sub-Saharan Africa, operational challenges and regulatory uncertainty in the region will keep a lead on its resources sector until at least 2020, a new report shows.According BMI Research's latest outlook for the region, risks such as disruption sin the supply chain, labour unrest and intermittent pow...Read More
For commodities, 2016 started with a bang. If history is any guide, it will end with a whimper.The Bloomberg Commodity Index, tracking returns for 22 components, is heading for a third-quarter slump after posting consecutive gains in the first two periods. Since the data begins in 1991, that's only happened in four other years - and the final quarter was a loser for three of them.Continue reading....Read More
Western Editor Matthew Keevil sits down with Joe Mazumdar from Exploration Insights for a wide-ranging discussion on the resource sector. Topics include the recent resource estimation troubles for Orezone Gold (TSXV: ORE; US-OTC: ORZCF) at the Bombor?(C) gold project in Burkina Faso, West Africa, and the murky world of resource estimates and 43-101Read More
Canada's Lundin Mining (TSX:LUN) shares were trading moderately higher Thursday after the company announced it had been granted a two week extension to bid on Freeport-McMoRan's (NYSE:FCX) stake in the Tenke Fungurume copper and cobalt mine, in Congo.The Toronto-based miner originally had until today to decide whether to allow Freeport-McMoRan to proceed with the agreed sale of it stake in Tenk...Read More
Canada's Barrick Gold Corp (TSX, NYSE:ABX) confirmed Thursday a new spill at its Veladero mine in the San Juan province of Argentina and said it has temporarily suspended operations pending further inspections of the mine's heap leach area.The fresh spill happened on Sep. 8, when a pipe carrying process solution in the heap leach area was struck by a large block of ice that had rolled down the he...Read More
A new report by BMI Research, a Fitch company, shows despite South Africa's many setbacks and challenges the country will continue to dominate mining in sub-Sahara Africa.BMI says outlook for mineral production, trade and consumption will vary significantly across the region with C??te d'Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) recording the strongest economic growth rates due to a combin...Read More