Courtesy of: Visual CapitalistAt the beginning of each year, U.S. Global Investors puts out a fantastic visualization called the Periodic Table of Commodity Returns. This year's version has an interactive design that allows users to sort returns by various categories including returns, volatility, and other groupings.For those keeping score, 2015 was a historically bad year for commodities in almo...Read More
Construction of a concrete batching plant at Skouries mine. (Image courtesy of Eldorado Gold)Greece's top administrative court ruled Wednesday that last year's government decision to revoke Canada's Eldorado Gold (TSX: ELD) (NYSE:EGO) mining licence in the country's north was baseless, Reuters reports.The Vancouver-based company had appeal appealed Greece's energy and environment ministry order...Read More
Global stocks sank to their lowest levels since 2013 on Wednesday, hit by yet another drop in oil prices and the IMF's lower growth forecast for China, which is leading equity markets to one of their worst monthly performances ever.Brent crude, the international energy benchmark, was trading this morning at $28.07 per barrel, the lowest price in 13 years.Prices for copper, often viewed as a barom...Read More
Despite recent market volatility and exposure to low oil and commodity prices, Bank of Nova Scotia has set double-digit growth targets in four Pacific Alliance countries: Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico.Dieter Jentsch, group head of international banking at Canada's third-largest bank, said the targets were based in part on the expectations of central bankers in those countries, all four of whom...Read More
The Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia (AME BC) is calling for action on the part of the Provincial Government in the wake of a new report highlighting the shrinking land base available for the exploration of hidden and valuable minerals in B.C. as well as the increasingly complex government policies that exploration companies are forced to navigate. Without ongoing exploration t...Read More
The deposit was first discovered in the 1930s and Freeport McMoRan has been mining copper, silver and gold at Grasberg in remote Indonesia since the 1970s. In terms of reserves, Grasberg is still the richest deposit on the planet.The chief executive of Freeport McMoRan's Indonesian unit, Maroef Sjamsuddin, has resigned Tuesday, less than a month after the chairman of the U.S. mining giant steppe...Read More
Grupo Mexico SAB is charging ahead into the worst metals market in 15 years, taking advantage of the slump to ramp up growth while competitors cut back and hunker down.Mexico's biggest copper producer is leveraging its relatively low debt and strong profit margins to invest more than $4.6 billion expanding some of its mines, making it one of the favorite picks for analysts' covering the sector thi...Read More
Las Bambas mine, located at 4,000 metres in the south of the South American country, is set to deliver 400,000 tonnes of copper per year during the first five years of production, placing it within the top three copper mines globally. (Image from archives)China-backed miner MMG Ltd has made a first shipment of 10,000 tonnes of copper concentrate from its Peru-based Las Bambas mine, one of the worl...Read More
Two giants of the global mining industry, already beset by plummeting metal prices, now face a new challenge - preparing their shareholders for sharply lower dividends.BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto PLC have both said in the past that they are committed to the payouts, but most observers doubt that sticking to the dividends is practical in today's bleak environment for commodity producers.At thei...Read More
The Tambopata National Reserve, in the Peruvian Amazon Basin,was created in 1990 to protect the forests adjacent to the rivers Heath and Tambopata. It is home to two unique ecosystems and very rich in terms of biodiversity. (Image Wikimedia Commons)Recently released satellite images show that devastation from illegal gold mining activities in Peru is now reaching the Tambopata National Reserve, a...Read More
Hundreds of Greek gold miners and technical staff are preparing to stage "powerful demonstrations" directed against the left-wing Syriza government, unions told Al Jazeera. Their employer, Canada's Eldorado Gold Corporation, announced last week that it will lay them off and utilize a key mine in northern Greece after years of government obstruction."We're not going to take this lying down," the m...Read More
Glencore's Middelburg South Africa chrome smelter. Image: GlencoreA feeble attempt at a rally yesterday evaporated on Friday with the copper price hitting a fresh six-and-half year low of $1.9365 a pound ($4,270 a tonne) after falling nearly 2% in New York. Following a 26% decline in 2015, copper is already down 9% this year and worth less than half its peak as commodity investors choose to ignore...Read More
BHP's Fayetteville Shale, Arkansas, USA. (Image courtesy of BHP Billiton)Mining giant BHP Billiton (ASX, NYSE:BHP), (LON:BLT) logged Friday its largest-ever write-down, a roughly US$7.2 billion pretax charge on its extensive US shale assets, as a persistent downturn in commodities continues to hurt the mining and energy sectors.The fresh disappointment from the company's $20 billion foray into the...Read More
Gold King Mine discharge. (Image from archives)The state of New Mexico plans to sue the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over last year's toxic Colorado mining spill that sent 3 million gallons of waste into the Animas and San Juan rivers.In a notice of intent to sue filed by the state Thursday, officials claim the EPA is to blame for the the consequences of the blowout at the abandoned...Read More
The area where Pebble mine would be built, 320 km southwest of Anchorage, within the Bristol Bay watershed. (Image courtesy of Northern Dynasty Minerals)A government probe into the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) rejection of massive copper-gold mine project in Alaska, has found 25 months of missing emails from the account of an employee who is believed to have played a major role in de...Read More
Construction of a concrete batching plant at Skouries mine. (Image courtesy of Eldorado Gold)Greece's left-wing government is asking Canadian Eldorado Gold (TSX:ELD) (NYSE:EGO) to resume halted mining operations and preserve jobs currently in the line as a condition for the two parties to continue talks on the country's biggest foreign investment.Environment and Energy Minister, Panos Skourletis,...Read More
Chief executive Sam Walsh expects 2016 to be "an even tougher year" than the last. (Image: Screenshot from IBM's video)Rio Tinto (LON, ASX:RIO), the world's second largest miner, has put a freeze on salaries for all employees, in a fresh attempt to weather tough market conditions marked by a continuing slump in commodities prices.Chief executive Sam Walsh told employees that expenses for travel an...Read More
The US dollar has been on a tear.And for miners in certain jurisdictions, this has helped operators immensely, especially when coupled with lower fuel prices, which typically accounts for 15-20% of overhead.With traditional inputs being purchased with the weakening local currency, and gold being sold for the appreciating dollar, some operators in Australia have been able to improve their bottom li...Read More
Mining and commodity trading giant Glencore (LON:GLEN) kicked off the process to sell its Australian copper mine in Cobar, New South Wales, and its Lomas Bayas copper mine in the Atacama desert in Chile in October.Glencore said at the time it had received a number of unsolicited expressions of interest for the mines and that potential buyers can bid to purchase "either one or both of the mines and...Read More
Anglo American mines the majority of its niobium ore from the Boa Vista open pit, in Brazil. (Image courtesy of Anglo American via Flickr)Mining scene newcomer and BHP spin-off South32 (ASX, LON, JSE:S32) may make an offer for Anglo American's $1 billion niobium and phosphate business in Brazil, Bloomberg reports.Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg says the company is seeking to hire...Read More