The court ruled the state failed to comply with its duty to regulate and supervise La Oroya Metallurgical Complex, which was active for nearly a century before debts and environmental regulations forced it to close in 2009.

The court said it corroborated that exposure to lead, cadmium, arsenic and sulfur dioxide posed a significant risk to at least 80 local residents, who did not receive adequate medical attention from the government when they became ill.

The court decided they should receive at least $30,000 each in damages, with the most vulnerable receiving $50,000.

A further $65,000 each should be paid to the legal beneficiaries of two victims who died from diseases caused by the pollution.

Officials from Peru’s government and its mining ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

La Oroya partially resumed operations in 2023, managed by Metalurgica Business Peru SAC, a firm that counts former workers among its shareholders and promised to comply with environmental standards.

Peru is the world’s second largest copper producer and mining makes up 60% of its total exports.

The court ordered the government to assess the current state of contamination in La Oroya and provide cash and free medical aid to the victims.

(By Marco Aquino, Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Sarah Morland; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

This is an annual phenomenon. While many metal fabricators take downtime over the holiday period, most smelters keep operating, leading to a jump in visible inventory.

Copper has experienced the sharpest seasonal stocks build this year, leaving exchange inventory at the highest levels since 2020.

The rise in ShFE zinc inventories has closely matched last year’s pattern, while aluminum has seen a highly muted rebuild by historical standards.

Nickel stocks were increasing before the holiday break and are now at four-year highs. Those of tin are the highest since ShFE launched its tin contract in 2015.

Copper surge

ShFE copper stocks have mushroomed from just 30,905 metric tons at the end of December to 285,090 tons.

The scale of this year’s seasonal surge has been the strongest since 2020, when registered inventory peaked at 380,085 tons. The New Year holiday period that year coincided with the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns and the resulting slump in Chinese manufacturing activity.

This year the jump in exchange stocks likely reflects the combination of fast domestic production growth and higher imports.

The country’s output of refined copper rose by 9.0% year-on-year in January-February, equivalent to an extra 159,000 tons, according to local data provider Shanghai Metal Market. Imports rose by 2.6% over the same period.

Stocks registered with Shanghai’s International Energy Exchange have also jumped from 9,760 tons at the end of last year to a current 40,511 tons. However, this year’s mid-March peak of 45,298 tons fell short of last year’s peak of 82,575 tons.

Muted rise in aluminum stocks

ShFE stocks of aluminum fell to 199,757 tons this week from last week’s year-to-date high of 206,417 tons.

If that turns out to be this year’s seasonal peak, it means the rebuild has been extremely muted relative to the last four years.

Stocks are up by just 100,728 tons on the start of January. By this time last year they had risen by 229,000 tons. The seasonal effect was even stronger over the 2020-2022 period.

Visible inventory remains remarkably low after last year’s high imports of over 1.5 million tons and the bullish optics reinforce the narrative of a tight domestic market.

Seasonal norm for zinc and lead

Exchange stocks of zinc in Shanghai crept a little higher this week to 121,873 tons and are now up by 100,658 tons on the start of January.

This is very close to last year’s seasonal build of 103,441 tons and to that seen in 2021.

Shanghai lead stocks stand at 53,631 tons and are up by just 747 tons since the start of 2024, which is comparable to the 333-ton rise seen over the first three months of last year.

Lead is less exposed to the new year holiday effect, having its own seasonality in the form of car battery kill rates over the northern hemisphere winter months.

China is also exporting ever more refined lead. Shipments rose by 62% year-on-year to 188,000 tons in 2023, the highest annual volume since 2007.

The steady outbound flow has served to keep Shanghai inventory below the 100,000-ton level for the last two years.

Nickel stocks at four-year high

Shanghai nickel stocks dwindled to just 560 tons in May last year, reflecting a shift in domestic production from the refined nickel that trades on the ShFE to nickel sulphate used in electric vehicle batteries.

The dynamic has changed dramatically over the last year. A new generation of Chinese nickel refineries has started up to capitalise on the burgeoning import flow of Indonesian raw materials.

ShFE stocks have grown to 20,713 tons, the highest tally since December 2020. The build has been mirrored on the London market, where the London Metal Exchange (LME) has been fast-tracking Chinese companies wanting to list their brands. LME stocks have risen by 21% so far this year.

Tin stocks hit record high

Global exchange stocks of tin, by contrast, are showing divergent trends.

Those in London have fallen by a third this year to below 5,000 tons as supply is constrained by export delays in Indonesia.

Shanghai tin stocks have been rising steadily since the start of December and now total 12,021 tons, which is the highest inventory in the contract’s nine years of trading history.

The country has been stocking up on refined tin in recent months, imports hitting a record high of 33,470 tons last year.

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, Andy Home, a columnist for Reuters.)

(Editing by David Evans)

Graphic: Congo overtakes Peru on copper output, still behind on exports

Congo produced about 2.84 million tons of copper last year, the country’s central bank reported. Peru’s output was 2.76 million tons, the Andean country’s mining and energy ministry said.

Congo has been reeling in Peru’s No. 2 copper spot over recent years, with flagging mining investment in Peru linked to red tape and recent political turmoil and protests. Chile remains the distant top producer of the red metal.

Peru, however, is hanging onto its lead over Congo on copper exports. Peru exported some 2.95 million tons of the metal last year, more than its annual production due to sales of stocks held over from previous years.

Rómulo Mucho, Peru’s minister of energy and mines, said in early March he expected copper production to increase to 3 million tons in 2024. The ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Peru’s Andes are home to major mining firms including Freeport-McMoRan, MMG, BHP, Glencore, Teck Resources, Japan’s Mitsubishi, and Southern Copper of Grupo México.

(By Marco Aquino and Felix Njini; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Richard Chang)

In a media statement, the DOE said that this funding—made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—will support a variety of locally-driven projects that range from solar, microgrids, and pumped storage hydropower to geothermal and battery energy storage systems and that can be replicated in other mining communities across the country.

“President Biden believes that the communities that have powered our nation for the past 100 years should power our nation for the next 100 years,” Jennifer M. Granholm, the US Secretary of Energy, said in a statement.

“Thanks to the President’s Investing in America agenda, DOE is helping deploy clean energy solutions on current and former mine land across the country—supporting jobs and economic development in the areas hit hardest by our evolving energy landscape.” 

Three projects are on former Appalachian coal mines, thus supporting economic revitalization and workforce development on land that is no longer viable for industrial purposes. In the West, two projects seek to displace fossil-fuel use by ramping up net-zero mining operations and providing the critical materials needed for a domestic clean energy supply chain. These projects are also expected to create more than 3,000 construction and operations jobs.   

From geothermal to PV

In Graham and Greenlee Counties, Arizona, a project led by Freeport seeks to deploy direct-use, geothermal, clean heat combined with a battery energy storage system at two active copper mines, helping decrease the mines’ reliance on onsite thermal backup generators while supporting the annual extraction of 25 million pounds of copper.

In Bell County, Kentucky, Rye Development proposes converting former coal mine land to a closed-loop, pumped-storage hydroelectric facility with the potential to dispatch up to eight hours of power when needed, such as during times of peak demand or extreme weather events. This project will support the increase of local tax revenues that have decreased steadily since the 1970s and create approximately 1,500 construction and 30 operations jobs.

In Elko, Humboldt and Eureka Counties, Nevada, a project led by Nevada Gold Mines aims to develop a solar photovoltaic facility and accompanying battery energy storage system across three active gold mines.

“By shifting to clean energy, this project could demonstrate a replicable way for the mining industry to reach net-zero operations, while meeting growing demands for minerals across multiple sectors—including the clean energy supply chain,” the DOE’s release states.

In Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, Mineral Basin Solar Power, a subsidiary of Swift Current Energy, plans to repurpose nearly 2,700 acres of former coal mining land to support the largest solar project in Pennsylvania. At 402 MW, Mineral Basin will generate enough clean energy to power more than 70,000 homes. This project is expected to increase regional access to clean energy and fill a critical electricity generation gap following the closure of the Homer City coal plant.

The initiative is also expected to provide $1.1 million in annual tax revenue to Goshen and Girard townships, Clearfield County and the Clearfield County School District.

In Nicholas County, West Virginia, a project led by Savion, a company that’s part of Shell, plans to repurpose two former coal mines with a utility-scale, 250 MW solar PV system that would power approximately 39,000 West Virginia homes. These two inactive mine sites provide land and access to existing energy infrastructure that will transmit the clean, solar energy the project generates to the grid.

“The Clean Energy Demonstration Program on Current and Former Mine Land will help provide the mining industry with a range of ways to decarbonize their operations and minimize environmental impacts and air pollutants, abating greenhouse gas emissions and disturbances to fragile, surrounding ecosystems,” the brief reads.

“Simultaneously, replicating clean energy technologies like these on other current and former mines will help maximize local workforce development and community opportunities for generations.”   

International Resources Holding recently told EMR Capital that it is interested in bidding for the private equity manager’s 80% stake in the Lubambe copper project, which is up for sale, a development that may complicate a sale process that’s already underway, two of the sources said.

The IHC unit’s interest in Lubambe, with potential to be among Zambia’s largest copper mines, comes after Shanghai-listed JCHX, a mine servicing and contracting firm, entered into a deal to buy EMR’s 80% stake in Lubambe in January.

The sale process requires approval from the Zambian government, which is pending and unclear at the moment, one of the sources said.

The Zambian government owns a 20% stake in Lubambe through state-firm ZCCM-IH.

The IHC unit’s interest is spurred by an aggressive push by cash-rich oil majors United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to secure critical metal supply in Africa, as they bid to diversify their economies and engage with energy transition.

Middle East investors are pitted against Chinese companies in Africa, including state backed firms, also aggressively pursuing deals in Africa to strengthen China’s grip on minerals required to power a rapidly expanding domestic electric vehicle manufacturing sector.

EMR Capital’s binding deal agreed directly with JCHX technically precludes it from entertaining any new offers, one of the sources said. Still, EMR is aware that IRH is interested in buying the assets and that the UAE firm has officially informed the Zambian government and ZCCM-IH of its interest, two sources said.

While its interest is now widely known within the Zambian government circles, the UAE firm hasn’t presented a formal offer to EMR on the Lubambe stake, one source said.

EMR declined to comment. IRH and IHC didn’t immediately respond to emailed questions.

IRH has gatecrashed once before. It staged a last minute buyout of a 51% stake in Zambia’s Mopani Copper Mines last month, its first mining deal in Africa’s second-largest producer of the metal that is key to products from power lines and industrial machinery to electric vehicles.

The Abu Dhabi firm became the Zambian government’s preferred investor for Mopani mines ahead of Sibanye Stillwater and China’s Zijin Mining Group, which had been short listed for the assets after a protracted selection process.

Cashing out

EMR, which has owned the Lubambe mine since 2017, wants to exit the project as its funds mature, after Covid delayed its development, the sources said. It also sold a 51% stake in adjacent Mingomba copper project for a sizeable amount to California-based start up KoBold Metals.

EMR still holds a 28% stake Mingomba, alongside Zambia’s ZCCM.

Lubambe, previously owned by African Rainbow Minerals and Vale SA, produced about 15,000 tons of copper last year but needs to raise output to about 2,500 tons a month to become sustainable, it says on its website.

JCHX in January said it proposed to pay $1 for EMR’s 80% stake, and another $1 to take over the project’s $857 million debt.

JCHX did not respond to emailed questions.

Zambia’s ministry of mines did not immediately respond to emailed questions.

(By Felix Njini, Julian Luk, Clara Denina, Melanie Burton, Chris Mfula and Hadeel Al Sayegh; Editing by Veronica Brown and David Evans)

The mine is the first to operate with desalinated water in an area of the country that has suffered a 15-year drought, sucking water from reservoirs and sparking concern over the fresh water supply.

Chilean President Gabriel Boric praised the project, saying the situation in the Coquimbo region, where Los Pelambres is located, is concerning.

“Especially with the climate change crisis, we must be not only a mining country, but also a country at the cutting edge of responsible, sustainable mining,” he said at the inauguration for the plant, which is at coast in Los Vilos, a city within Coquimbo.

Antofagasta began construction in 2019 for the plant, and plans to pump 400 liters of water per second for use at Los Pelambres, located about 55 km inland.

The company plans to supply another 400 liters of water per second in a second phase slated for completion in 2027, which it says would relieve pressure on the nearby Choapa river.

Chile’s historic drought has impacted nearly ever aspect of life in the nation that is the world’s top copper producer. Mining companies outside Coquimbo are already using seawater, particularly in Antofagasta, a northern desert region home to most of Chile’s mining activity.

(By Natalia Ramos and Alexander Villegas; Editing by Daina Beth Solomon and David Evans)

In a paper published in the journal Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, the scientists explain that electronic waste is notoriously difficult to recycle because it’s hard to separate the different metals in the waste from each other.

“Getting the metals in solution is a first step, but the selective recovery of the metals remains a challenge. Compared to processes such as chemical precipitation, biosorption using spent brewer’s yeast presents a cheap and environmentally friendly approach,” Klemens Kremser of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, and corresponding author of the article, said in a media statement.

Several options already exist for separating the different component metals of electronic waste, including other biosorbents—biological materials that can be used to soak up pollution. However, they all have significant downsides. For instance, chemical precipitation produces contaminated slag, while biochar—a biosorbent that is similar to charcoal—is difficult to separate from wastewater.

So the scientists turned to brewer’s yeast.

They acquired 20 litres of spent brewer’s yeast, separated the biomass from leftover brewing residues, and dried out the biomass. Electrostatic interactions on the surface of the yeast allow metal ions to stick to that surface—a process called adsorption. Changing the pH of this solution alters the interactions, which can allow the yeast to adsorb more or different metal ions, depending on the contents of the solution and the specific pH.

The researchers then chose to test the yeast biomass against zinc, aluminum, copper, and nickel, economically important metals. They tested each metal solution at different pHs and temperatures, to gauge whether it was possible to increase the strength of the interactions and recover more metal. They also tested the yeast against a real polymetallic waste stream.

“Using waste biomass for metal recovery is not a completely new process, but the selectivity of biosorption processes is a key factor for efficient metal recovery from polymetallic waste streams,” Anna Sieber, Ph.D. fellow of K1-MET, an Austrian metallurgical research center, and first author of the article, said.

“We demonstrated high metal recovery rates from a complex metal solution using an environmentally friendly and cheap biomass. Yeast biomass is considered a safe organism, and the demonstrated reusability of the biomass makes it an economically feasible approach.”

High recovery rates

The group was able to recover more than 50% of aluminum, more than 40% of copper, and more than 70% of zinc from the test metal solutions. Over 50% of copper and over 90% of zinc were retrieved from the polymetallic waste stream they tested the yeast on.

Changing the temperature had little impact on efficiency, except for zinc, where it raised the recovery rate by 7.6%. Similarly, adjusting the pH had a limited effect on most of the metal solutions, except for aluminum, where it improved the recovery efficiency by 16%.

“The metals can be removed from the yeast surface by acid treatment and thus could be recycled,” Sieber said. “It would be interesting to investigate potential applications for these reclaimed metals.”

The yeast itself could also be recycled without heavily impacting its ability to recover metal: the scientists were able to use it five times to recover different metals.

The team, however, cautions that the new process needs testing with much larger studies in real-life conditions before it can be implemented on an industrial scale.

“The metal removal process in this study was optimized for the four metals in question,” Kremser said. “The concentration of potentially interfering metal ions was very low in our starting solutions, but this would be important to consider when applying this approach to different mixed metal solutions.”

The metal has gained more than 10% over the past six weeks, boosted by supply risks, along with a generally more positive global economic outlook. Open-interest, or the number of outstanding contracts, for copper on the Shanghai Futures Exchange has soared to a record of more than 500,000 since last week as investors increased bullish bets.

The US dollar steadied following a decline on Wednesday, as Fed policymakers kept their outlook for three cuts this year and moved toward slowing the pace of reducing their bond holdings, suggesting they aren’t alarmed by a recent uptick in inflation. A weaker greenback makes commodities from copper to iron ore cheaper to other currency holders.

The copper market remains very tight, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in a note. “The combination of record low copper stocks, our expectation of peak mine supply next year, rapid green demand growth, and low price elasticity of both demand and supply will, in our view lead to copper scarcity pricing in 2025,” analysts led by Lina Thomas said.

Copper climbed 0.8% to $8,998.50 a ton on the London Metal Exchange by 11:35 a.m. local time, after rising as much as 1.8% earlier. Zinc rose 1.3% after Glencore Plc said it temporarily ceased operations at its McArthur River zinc and lead mine in northern Australia due to a cyclone.

Rainfall at the site this week exceeded a previous record set in 1974, according to a statement from Glencore. The company is monitoring flooding in the area and assessing impacts on its operations.

The funds will be used to support a pilot project to process 5,000 kg per day of raw materials into approximately 2,500 kg of extracted platinum group metals per year.

Founded in 2020, pH7 is headquartered in Vancouver and was recently listed on the Cleantech Group’s 2024 Global Cleantech 100. The new process enables efficient metal extraction from low-grade resources or difficult substrates in a cost-effective way, it said.

The company has created a proprietary closed-loop process using advanced chemistry to extract and refine critical metals that will help the mining sector transition to renewable energy in an environmentally and economically sustainable way, the ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation said in a news release.

Metal alloys including platinum group metals, copper and tin produced by pH7 are then refined by industrial customers. This method results in significantly less greenhouse gas emissions, electricity and water usage compared to mining or other recycling methods.

“BC is home to a growing clean-energy sector, accounting for 20% of Canada’s world-leading cleantech firms that are having positive impacts globally,” Josie Osborne, Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation, said.

“With near net-zero environmental impact in the extraction of critical metals and minerals, pH7 is demonstrating the kind of innovative thinking that can transform mining around the world.”

Since 2008, the ICE Fund has committed approximately C$112 million ($83m) to support pre-commercial clean-energy technology projects, clean-energy vehicles, research and development, and energy-efficiency programs.

“The clean, green future we envision requires more critical metals than we have access to currently,” said Mohammad Doostmohammadi, founder and CEO of pH7 Technologies.

“Through innovation and collaboration, we look forward to bringing our cleantech solution to help scale the extraction of metals and make existing processes much more sustainable and cost-effective.”

The push echoes calls from the mining industry for clarity on how permits can be obtained for mines that produce copper, lithium and other energy transition minerals. Executives have long complained the US process can be complex, expensive and opaque due in part to a federal mining law enacted in 1872.

“Our message to the Biden administration is, ‘Do everything you can to do everything here in America. Get your permitting processes streamlined,'” Dunleavy told Reuters on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston.

It is “somewhat nonsensical,” the governor said, that Biden has pushed for greater adoption of electric vehicles – which require far more critical minerals to build than internal combustion engines – but has blocked Northern Dynasty’s Pebble copper and gold mining project.

“If we don’t get our permitting processes together, if we don’t start to use data and science again instead of emotion, this chaos is going to continue,” he said.

Dunleavy sued Biden last week for the president’s 2023 decision to block Pebble. The suit seeks more than $700 billion, an amount that the governor says the state will lose in economic development without the mine. Dunleavy tried unsuccessfully last year to have the US Supreme Court overturn Biden.

Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty itself sued Biden on Monday.

The proposed Pebble mine would have “unacceptable and adverse effects on certain salmon fishery areas” in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, the US Environmental Protection Agency said last year.

Dunleavy said he believes the mine and the state’s salmon fishers can co-exist.

“The science is there to be able to develop the mine responsibly,” he said. “We can put the safeguards in, and that’s why I’m a supporter.”

Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, Alaska’s two Republican US Senators, oppose Pebble, which Dunleavy acknowledged is a hindrance.

“However, my job as the governor is to advocate for our state, advocate for the development of our state lands or minerals, and advocate for the prosperity of our people,” he said.

Ambler road

Dunleavy, who has endorsed his fellow Republican Donald Trump against Democrat Biden in the 2024 US presidential election, is also pushing Biden to approve the construction of an access road to the prospective Ambler mining district in northern Alaska.

The Ambler project seeks to open a remote area rich in copper, zinc and lead and could yield deposits of rare earths used in weapons manufacturing. Trilogy Metals is one of the region’s potential developers.

“I hope it’s approved this year. But if it’s a post-election decision and there’s a new administration, I hope it’s approved immediately,” Dunleavy said.

(By Ernest Scheyder; Editing by David Gregorio)

Smelters including Jiangxi Copper Co. and Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Co. will meet in Shanghai next Thursday, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The agenda includes the outlook for the concentrate market, and setting guidance for spot processing fees in the second quarter, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing a private matter. Attendees may also discuss output plans.

Smelters in China, the world’s largest refined copper producer and consumer, are at a critical juncture after so-called treatment and refining charges — the amount they are paid to convert concentrate into metal — collapsed. The plunge has been driven by a slew of supply setbacks at global mines, coupled with a relentless expansion in Chinese capacity that’s boosted competition.

The meetings convened by the Copper Smelters Purchasing Team are held each quarter for smelters to set so-called floor prices to guide them in their separate negotiations for concentrate supplies from miners. The upcoming one follows talks between companies and the government about possible production cuts and capacity controls, news of which helped to boost refined prices.

Read More: China’s copper smelters vow capacity controls after fees plunge

China’s refined copper production, which accounts for about half of the world’s total, has eased from the record levels posted toward the end of last year. Output was at 2.215 million tons in the first two months of 2024, or nearly 37,000 tons a day, lower than the 38,000 tons recorded in November. Still, that represents an 11% increase from a year ago.

Output may fall further in the second quarter as maintenance work peaks and some smelters bring forward their annual repairs, according to analysts.

Benchmark copper futures traded 0.6% lower at $8,925 a ton on the London Metal Exchange at 3:55 p.m. local time. Prices touched $9,164.50 earlier this week, the highest since April, with gains also supported by expectations that the US Federal Reserve will soon cut interest rates.

Representatives from Jiangxi Copper and Tongling Nonferrous declined to comment.

The world’s No. 2 gold miner wants to continue exploring the region, it said, after its success at the Kibali gold mine in northeastern DRC. The mine yielded 343,000 ounces of gold in 2023, representing nearly 8.5% of the company’s output for the year.

“Kibali has transformed what was previously the disadvantaged northeast region of the country into a new economic frontier and a flourishing commercial hub,” Barrick CEO Mark Bristow said in a news release.

“Of our $5 billion investment in the DRC, more than half has been spent with local contractors and suppliers,” Bristow said.

Last year, Barrick announced it intended to search for additional copper deposits in Zambia and the DRC as part of its efforts to expand its presence in the African copper belt.

The country produced over 99.8 million tonnes of coal in the period on the back of rising power demand.

India, the world’s second-largest coal user, generatedrecord-high coal-fired electricity in January as rising demand for air conditioning meant that power generation firms did not make big cuts to the use of coal and other fossil fuels.

Other minerals such as iron ore, a key raw material for steel, reported a nearly 41% year-on-year growth in sales value amid growing steel demand in the country. India produced 25.2 million tonnes of iron ore in the month.

The PIB release also showed that the production of minerals such as magnesite – used to make synthetic rubber – grew over 90%, and copper concentrate – used to make refined copper – grew over 34%.

India’s refined copper production is estimated at around 555,000 million tonnes per year in the coming fiscal year while domestic consumption is expected to come in at more than 750,000 metric tons.

(By Manvi Pant; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

The Swiss company totalled 432.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent last year, compared with in 2022, reversing the downward trend of recent years.

In its 2024-2026 Climate Action Transition Plan (CATP), Glencore noted it was still “on track” to meet its 15% reduction of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions for its industrial assets from 2019 levels by the end of 2026, and of 50% by the end of 2035.

The rest of Glencore’s revised climate plan is much like a previous plan it released — but this time includes the interim 2030 target.

“[The new plan] reflects a wide range of inputs, including analysis of the evolving market landscape, new regulatory requirements, mining and energy peer approaches, the IEA’s latest modelling, stakeholder inputs, and emerging insights from the most recent United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) dialogue,” chief executive officer Gary Nagle said in a statement.

“We have also undertaken extensive engagement with our shareholders and appreciate their time and support as we have developed this CATP,” Nagle noted.

Glencore, like most of the world’s biggest listed companies, published its first climate action plans in 2020 in a bid to help with reaching the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of capping temperatures within 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The Baar, Switzerland-based firm, one of the top global thermal coal exporters, has faced backlash for being one of the few top miners still involved in the extraction of the fossil fuel used to generate electricity.

After facing pressure from major investors and shareholders, Glencore committed to run down its coal mines by the mid-2040s, closing at least 12 by 2035.

“We recognize the different roles of thermal coal and steelmaking coal – and the different transition pathways for both,” Nagle said while presenting the new strategy.

The executive noted the company “remains committed” to the responsible phase-down of its coal portfolio and is not progressing any greenfield thermal coal investments. 

The company continues to produce and recycle commodities considered key for today’s cleaner transition technologies. Nagle said the speed and direction of Glencore’s decarbonization efforts are significantly shaped by geopolitics, policy decisions, and technological advancements.

Tackling Scope 3 emissions

Glencore plans to cut “Scope 3” emissions — those produced when customers burn or process a company’s raw materials — by 30% by 2035 and achieving net zero Scope 3 emissions by 2050.

The company did not include its marketing activities in the these goals. It justified the decision by saying that, by trading in the third party volumes, its activities do not generate additional Scope 3 emissions, “which in the ordinary course are associated with the transformation or use of the product by third parties”.

Glencore recently acquired a 77% interest in Teck’s (TSX: TECK.A, TECK.B)(NYSE: TECK) steelmaking coal business, Elk Valley Resources (EVR). The transaction remains subject to mandatory regulatory approvals and is expected to close by no later than Q3 2024.  

The new figures come after a 17% drop in output from MMG’s Las Bambas mine and a 13.4% fall from Freeport-McMoRan’s Cerro Verde mine.

That was below December’s output of around 255,000 tons, according to ministry data.

Peru’s copper production should reach 3 million tons this year after hitting 2.76 million tons in 2023, Mining Minister Romulo Mucho said earlier this month.

(By Marco Aquino; Editing by Aida Pelaez-Fernández and Anthony Esposito)

The company calls this project one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper projects.

An NI 43-101 report prepared by SRK Consulting late in 2016 for Era Resources (a private company) put the total measured and indicated resources at 728.6 million tonnes grading 0.33% copper, 0.01% molybdenum and 0.10 ppm gold. In terms of contained metal, that represents 6.2 million lb. of copper equivalent.

There is also an inferred resource of 230.6 million tonnes grading 0.29% copper, 0.01% molybdenum and 0.04 ppm gold.

The deposit is divided into oxide and non-oxide resources with roughly 90% falling in the non-oxide category.

The Yandera project was subjected to intensive drilling in the late 1960s and 1970s by a number of companies. Later, Era Resources spent over $100 million drilling 144,000 metres so that a resource estimate could be made. Freeport acquired the Yandera project in 2021, when it bought out Carpo, which controlled Era Resources.

The Yandera resource has a known 5-km strike length within a 17-km trend. The depth has been little investigated. Freeport has a plan for expanding the resources and developing an open pit mine. A mine life of at least 20 years is planned during which time a total of 540 million tonnes of ore will be mined.

The London Metal Exchange (LME) plans to list Jeddah, a Saudi Arabian Red Sea port city, as a new delivery point for copper and zinc subject to consultation on a technical change to the LME’s warehouse location framework, it said on Tuesday.

The warehouses, registered with the LME, the world’s largest and oldest metals trading venue, are usually located in areas of net metals consumption or top transit hubs such as Rotterdam.

“Saudi Arabia is an increasingly important global metals hub and Jeddah fully meets with the operational and logistical criteria for new warehouse locations – such as being an important area of net consumption and having an effective transport network,” Matthew Chamberlain, LME chief executive, said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia is planning an ambitious industrial development and logistics program, part of its wider Vision 2030 reform plan, which aims to make the kingdom a major global player in the energy, mining, logistics and industry sectors.

“We look forward to a long future of cooperation with LME and to further developing our relationships with the international metals community,” said Farooq Shaikh, chief executive at LogiPoint, which operates a network of logistics parks in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi hub would service the Middle East, North and East Africa regions, he added.

The proposal is subject to a consultation among LME members, warehouse companies and their London agents, which will run until April 30, to amend a clause in the LME’s policy on the approval of locations as delivery points related to warehouse insolvency.

The proposed amendment would clarify that some jurisdictions may require a court order to allow the withdrawal of metal in an event of a warehouse operator insolvency.

Subject to the proposal passing the consultation, Jeddah will become active as a delivery point three months after the approval of the first warehouse company in this location.

(By Polina Devitt; Editing by David Goodman and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Codelco said that Sanhueza’s departure concluded a leadership shakeup announced by CEO Ruben Alvarado in October that aimed to consolidate and streamline leadership and departments in the company.

Prior to his temporary appointment, Sanhueza was the vice president of foundry and refinery, a department that was since absorbed by the vice presidency of operations.

The company said the main goal of Sanhueza’s new position was to accompany the organizational transition mandated by Alvarado.

Codelco has faced a historic drop in production and is facing ballooning debt caused by projects aimed at boosting output. A Reuters investigation found that these projects have faced significant delays and problems that workers blame on poor management and planning.

(By Natalia Ramos and Alexander Villegas; Editing by Sarah Morland)

The existing partnership was established in August 2022, when Sumitomo adopted the MineHub’s blockchain-based platform for its copper concentrates business. Before that, the companies had been working to bring more efficiency, transparency and responsibility to industrial supply chains.

“By joining forces to drive commercial traction and integrating Sumitomo’s refined copper business onto our platform, we are poised to unlock new opportunities for growth and innovation in the metals industry,” MineHub CEO said in a news release.

“We believe that integrating our refined copper business onto the MineHub platform will not only streamline our operations, but also enhance our ability to serve our customers effectively,” Takeshi Ishimaru, general manager of Sumitomo’s non-ferrous metals and raw material unit, added.

The Japanese trading house expects to integrate its refined copper business onto the MineHub platform starting with key customers in the Asian market.

The miner said on Tuesday it had inked signed definitive agreements with a group of international lenders, including the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Export Development Canada, the Export-Import Bank of Korea and several commercial lenders for the term loan. The financing has a four-year drawdown period and a 12-year term, Antofagasta said.

“The Centinela Second Concentrator project is a prime example of how Antofagasta can unlock value from its portfolio and our dedication to sustainable and responsible copper production,” chief executive Ivan Arriaga said in the statement.

The company has also signed a separate agreement granting Centinela the option to obtain water for its current and future operations from an international consortium. This group would acquire Centinela’s existing water supply system and extend it to serve the second concentrator. The international consortium is in the process of finalizing its financing to fulfill this agreement within the year.

As part of this deal, Centinela will transfer its current water transportation assets and rights for about $600 million to be received in 2024. The consortium will handle the construction and related capital expenses amounting to $380 million for the planned expansion of the water transportation system.

The $4.4 billion second concentrator at Centinela, whose construction was approved in December 2023, is expected to start operations in 2027.

“The US government needs to stop giving lip service to permitting,” Richard Adkerson told Reuters on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston.

“The question is, given our political system that we have today and the dysfunctionality of it, how do you go from getting a project verbally accepted to getting actions done?”

Earlier, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told the conference that she supported efforts in the US Congress to reform the country’s mining laws, some of which were first approved in the 19th Century.

Adkerson sat next to Granholm at the conference’s Monday lunch and said he had a productive conversation with the secretary about permitting reform.

Adkerson, who plans to step down as CEO this year after more than 20 years in his role, said he was asking Washington for more clarity on how permits are approved or rejected, not an easing in environmental regulations.

“We’re not talking about dropping standards,” he said. “We’re talking about processes here.”

Kathleen Quirk, Adkerson’s longtime lieutenant who will succeed him as CEO, said Freeport was focused on earning the support of people who live near its mine sites as part of its push to boost the copper industry’s social license to operate.

“We talk a lot about finding common ground. You got to find it. It’s going to take out of your economics, but otherwise you don’t have a viable business plan if you don’t come up with a sustainable solution,” said Quirk, currently the company’s president.

Elsewhere in the US, Freeport would be open to potentially expanding its Miami, Arizona, copper smelter, both Adkerson and Quirk said. But for the near term the company is focused on expanding its use of copper leaching, both added.

Of two US copper smelters, Freeport operates one and Rio Tinto the other.

Freeport has struggled to attract workers inside the US, and Adkerson said filling staffing needs was still a “work in progress”.

“We’re trying to advance technology to reduce worker requirements wherever we can, but it’s a US problem for us,” he said. “In Peru and Indonesia,” where the company also mines copper, “we have flood of applicants for all of our jobs.”

Adkerson, who will remain Freeport’s chairman, said he does not expect Quirk’s transition to CEO to bring major changes to the Phoenix-based company.

“This is a seamless management change,” Adkerson said.

(By Ernest Scheyder; Editing by David Gregorio)

The developer on Friday filed a lawsuit in federal court in Anchorage challenging the EPA’s 2023 final determination prohibiting the discharge of mining waste in the state’s Bristol Bay over concerns the materials would degrade the watershed and harm important fishing ecosystems.

Northern Dynasty said the determination made under the Clean Water Act was arbitrary and capricious in violation of federal administrative law, because it failed to adequately consider the economic impact of the decision and used a “wild overestimate” of what protected waterways would be impacted by mining activity.

Northern Dynasty claims it has spent at least $1 billion over two decades in its efforts to develop the project, which was effectively killed by the decision, including $200 million on environmental studies.

“This is just another example of gross EPA overreach of the powers granted to it by Congress,” said Ron Thiessen, Northern Dynasty’s president and CEO, in a statement.

The EPA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

The Bristol Bay watershed in southwestern Alaska supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery and is known for its large mineral resources. The watershed also provides habitats for 29 species of fish, more than 190 birds and dozens of mammals, according to the EPA.

The proposed mine, which has languished in a lengthy approval and permitting process for decades but has not started construction, would tap one of the world’s largest copper and gold deposits.

The EPA claims it would permanently destroy over 2,000 acres of wetlands protected by the Clean Water Act.

The developer also filed a lawsuit against the US government on Thursday alleging the veto amounted to an unconstitutional taking of its property in violation of the US Constitution’s 5th Amendment, which says that private property can’t be taken for public use without compensation, in the US Court of Federal Claims in Washington, DC.

The state of Alaska also sued the US government in that court last week seeking $700 billion over the decision, arguing the EPA’s veto infringed on the state’s sovereignty and would deprive it of funds from taxes, licensing fees and royalties it would have received from the mine.

The state had already challenged the EPA’s decision last year directly with the Supreme Court, arguing it violated the state’s sovereign right to regulate its land and waters, as well as a 1976 land swap with the US government that gave the state ownership over the area in question.

The Supreme Court declined to take that case in January, but did not say why.

The developer’s new lawsuit in Alaska makes similar claims, arguing the Clean Water Act does not give the EPA authority to override the state’s preferences for using the lands for extracting valuable minerals.

The EPA had previously argued in a brief submitted to the Supreme Court that Alaska’s statehood and the land swap do not preclude the agency from evaluating projects to ensure they comply with environmental law.

The case is Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd v. US Environmental Protection Agency, US District Court for the District of Alaska, No. 3:24-cv-00059.

For Northern Dynasty Minerals: Keith Bradley and Jeffrey Walker of Squire Patton Boggs

For the EPA: Not yet available

(By Clark Mindock)

Prices climbed as much as 1% to $9,164.50 a ton on the London Metal Exchange, recovering from losses seen earlier after mixed economic data from China. Copper surged last week, ending a months-long spell of inertia, as investors honed in on risks to supply at mines and smelters, along with a generally more positive global economic outlook.

A slew of central-bank policy meetings this week are bringing global monetary conditions into sharp focus, as investors seek further guidance on the timing of potential interest-rate cuts. In congressional testimony earlier this month, Powell emphasized the central bank needs “just a bit more evidence” inflation is headed toward its 2% target before lowering borrowing costs.

“We believe the Fed’s interest rate path will continue to drive copper’s short-term price outlook,” ING analyst Ewa Manthey said in an emailed note. “Copper will benefit from looser monetary policy, which will alleviate the financial strain on manufacturers and construction companies by reducing borrowing costs.”

Fresh data from China on Monday showed industrial output rose 7% in the first two months from a year earlier, while growth in fixed-asset investment also accelerated faster than economists estimated. Still, investment in property development fell 9% to remain a major drag on the economy.

In a sign that copper demand in China remains muted, stockpiles tracked by the Shanghai Futures Exchange have surged to the highest level since the early days of the pandemic.

Copper prices may fall in the second quarter if peak Chinese demand fails to kick in, Jinrui Futures Co. said in a note. Chinese demand for industrial metals usually rises after factories step up activities after the Lunar New Year break at the beginning of the year.

Copper was trading up 0.7% at $9,135.50 a ton as of 3:46 p.m. local time on the LME. Other metals were mixed, with nickel down 1.1% and aluminum up 0.4%.

Greenpeace activists in late 2023 disrupted a research expedition when they boarded sea explorer The Metals Company’s vessel in the remote Pacific. Five Greenpeace activists boarded the MV Coco on November 25 and disabled its A-frame hoist/crane.

The vessel, engaged by TMC’s subsidiary, Nauru Ocean Resources (NORI) for environmental assessments, faced a week of disruptions from Nov. 23 by Greenpeace activities, which a Dutch court deemed unsafe and unlawful.

In December, a Dutch court ordered the activists to vacate the research vessel after the deep-sea mining company sued Greenpeace in the Netherlands, where the organization is headquartered.

The Metals Company says the research trip interrupted by Greenpeace was for scientific research aimed at improving knowledge of the effects of nodule collection.

It says the work had been requested by the ISA as part of an impact assessment, and that Greenpeace deliberately hampered those efforts when its activists boarded the company’s research vessel.

Greenpeace says the action was justified because The Metals Company has stated its plans to proceed with mining before regulations have been agreed upon.

Minerals and metals such as cobalt, nickel, copper, and manganese can be found in potato-sized nodules on the ocean floor. Reserves are estimated to be worth anywhere from $8 trillion to more than $16 trillion, and they are in areas where companies, including The Metals Company, plan to target.

Many NGOs and environmental groups, however, argue that mining the seafloor could have a devastating impact on the planet.

A recent report by the non-profit Planet Tracker says mining the seafloor for key minerals and metals could negatively impact the mining industry, resulting in $500 billion of lost value and causing damages to the world’s biodiversity estimated to be up to 25 times greater than land-based mining.

Read More: US bill supporting seafloor mining lifts The Metals Company

While earnings fell from 2022’s blockbuster records, profits across the sector still easily eclipsed prior highlights such as in 2008-2009, according to analysis from consultancy Oliver Wyman LLC.

“We saw pretty good margins overall and that is practically because things continue to be a little bit tight on the supply-demand side,” consultant Adam Perkins said in an interview.

Results for many players across the industry are not yet public, but profits at the biggest independent trading houses are expected to show an average drop of over 30% from 2022’s record levels, the report shows.

Still, disruptions and supply shortages of diesel and fuel oil offset lower Russia-related volatility in crude oil, while margins trading gas and power also remained relatively high.

The firms that buy, store and ship the world’s resources are coming out of what was the most profitable period in their history with a huge war chest to cement their role as strategic providers of energy, metals and food as the West continues a stuttering transition away from fossil fuels — demand for which continues to grow the world over.

They’ve already bought oil refineries, storage assets, power plants, and even other trading companies, while receiving large amounts of backing from countries like Italy, Germany, the US and Saudi Arabia to guarantee supplies of essential commodities like gas and copper.

“Traditionally this position in energy security wouldn’t have been held by an independent trader,” Perkins said, but they’re being “drawn into that role.”

Meanwhile, through share buybacks and dividend pay-outs, the executives who own shares or are partners in these mostly private companies, have also become multi-millionaires in the process. That’s helping accelerate a shift at the top of some of these firms’ as minted traders retire, passing management on to a new guard.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for those people who are coming in, it’s also a little bit nerve wracking – there’s an increased amount of scrutiny – everyone wants to continue the legacy,” said Perkins.

(By Archie Hunter)

The new tank house will gradually push Boliden’s production of copper cathodes and precious metals up to full capacity in the second half of 2026 at the Ronnskar facility, the company said in a statement.

The investment will be partially financed by a potential insurance payout with a maximum amount of 3.4 billion crowns, Boliden said, and will begin this year.

Boliden expects its investments this year to amount to 15.5 billion Swedish crowns, 1.5 billion higher than previously communicated, of which 1 billion is related to Ronnskar.

The remaining 500 million will be spent on expanding its Odda zinc smelter in Norway, the company said, adding that the project had suffered from increased costs related to integration between new and existing facilities and delivery delays.

($1 = 10.3511 Swedish crowns)

(By Louise Breusch Rasmussen; Editing by Terje Solsvik)

The workforce at the A$1.7 billion project has been cut from about 400 to 300 people, the AFR reported, without saying where it got the information. A company spokesman said the exit of some workers didn’t mean the entire project – acquired from OZ Minerals Ltd. last year – has been canceled, the AFR said.

In February, BHP took a $2.5 billion impairment on the value of its Australian nickel assets after a surge in supply of the battery metal dragged down prices. The miner also said it would shutter its Kambalda concentrator, which processes ore, and could mothball its other Australian nickel assets after a review.

The price of nickel — a metal traditionally used to strengthen steel that’s become key to the energy transition due to its use in electrification and batteries — has dropped 40% since the start of 2023 on the London Metal Exchange.

(By Georgina McKay)

“If we were playing a card game, our country would have five winning cards: reserves and geology to develop projects; a promising demand in the international market; leading actors; a stable macroeconomic environment over the last decades, and people prepared to make these projects a reality,” Heeren said. “We have the winning hand, but civil society, the private sector and the government must work together.”

According to the state news agency Andina, the executive noted that Peru has proven to the world that it is possible to advance mining projects in the country as it has maintained ‘proper’ macroeconomic levels and miners operating there have shown to be resilient in the past few decades. This is despite the challenges that still need to be addressed when it comes to administrative and permit procedures, as well as infrastructure.  

“This situation is very similar in other countries. The main difference lies in the ability to work as a team to overcome challenges. This is where some countries rebound and others stall,” Heeren said.

The CEO of Anglo American Peru emphasized that in addition to all the prior, investors are paying close attention to countries’ and companies’ sustainability indicators. Therefore, he stressed that miners should have a clear course of action when it comes to their environmental, social, and governance strategies. 

As an example, he mentioned that the use of autonomous trucks as part of an automation process not only increases efficiency, sustainability and safety but also fosters the creation of new companies within the mining sphere.

According to the study, confidence in the world’s ability to achieve net zero by 2050 seems to be eroding as it becomes more difficult to ensure adequate investment returns and progress diverges in a fragmenting world. This view is consistent across most regions and is most strongly held among people working in the oil and gas sector.

Bain & Company surveyed over 600 industry executives in mining, oil and gas, utilities, chemicals and agribusinesses across the globe to better understand their views on the energy transition, new technologies, and investment opportunities, and where they see the greatest challenges for decarbonization.

“This year’s survey found that energy and natural resource companies have not dampened ambitions for their transition-oriented growth businesses. However, customers’ willingness to pay is a growing issue, as is the ability to generate adequate return on investment (ROI) in energy transition-oriented projects. As a result, companies are focusing on projects with a viable ROI path,” said Joe Scalise, head of Bain & Company’s energy and natural resource practice. “The longer the executives are at the front lines of the energy transition, the more sober they are getting about the transition’s practical realities.”

The survey points out that executives in the Middle East (61%), Asia-Pacific (55%), and Latin America (51%) are feeling more optimistic about the prospects of their transition-oriented growth such as renewables, hydrogen, bio-based products, and lithium and other transition commodities that will contribute to their company’s valuation and profits by 2030. Hence, they are maintaining or increasing green investments. Only 4%, 12% and 10%, respectively, of executives from the three regions expressed less optimism, while the remainder showed no significant change.

The survey revealed a more balanced picture in Europe where 30% of executives revealed more optimism vs. 27% who were less optimistic about their new energy growth business areas contributing to the bottom line.

In North America, 29% of executives were more positive compared to 17% who were less positive on their transition-related growth areas.

Returns to scale-up

“Like last year, executives say the greatest obstacle to scaling up their transition-oriented businesses is finding enough customers willing to pay higher prices (or having equivalent policy support) to create sufficient return on investment,” the report states. “In fact, the share of executives identifying this as a very significant roadblock jumped 14 percentage points from 2023 to 2024, to 70% of executives.”

The experts behind the study note that the direct impact of higher interest rates on the cost of transition projects is likely shaping executives’ perspective on the challenges associated with customer willingness to pay. 

Bain has found that higher rates put upward pressure on the effective cost of low-carbon projects and a 500-basis-point increase in the cost of capital can increase the total annual revenue required to finance a project by as much as 50%.

Trendy North America

The survey presents North America as an emerging leader for green investments as 79% of all executives view it as an attractive region for energy transition investments. The next most attractive region is Europe at 65%. 

Australia and New Zealand come in as second runner-ups at 43%. 

Even as increasing government subsidies make some regions, such as North America, more attractive for investment, executives have growing concerns about policy stability.

The US Inflation Reduction Act is a major factor in North America’s investment attractiveness, but factors such as the availability of relatively low-cost natural gas feedstock also influenced the result. 

“However, while almost two-thirds of US executives surveyed agree that the IRA’s subsidies target the right areas, less than one-quarter believe that the policy regime will remain stable over the next five to 10 years,” the dossier states. “Furthermore, 42% of US executives think the IRA’s subsidies are unclear and that the rules are not easy to follow.”

About 70% of executives worldwide say that reducing policy uncertainty would very significantly improve their ability to scale up transition-oriented businesses.

A suspected arson attack caused production at the plant near Berlin to be halted for a week earlier this month, prompting Tesla chief executive Elon Musk to visit this week.

The elections for the new works council, to be held on March 18-20, are aimed at filling 39 seats, according to IG Metall, the top German trade union which has put forward 106 candidates in an attempt to get a majority.

That would enable it to elect the council’s chairperson and gain greater control over areas where the union has taken issue with the carmaker, which is known for its critical stance towards unions.

Among IG Metall demands is to hire new employees, better planning of working hours, at least 20 days of freely available vacation, better health protection, more security, higher pay and shorter working hours.

“Too often, savings are made on accident protection for ‘Tesla Speed’. That has to change,” IG Metall district manager Dirk Schulze said in a statement.

In order to end the understaffing of shifts, temporary workers should be hired, the union added.

Michaela Schmitz, the plant’s current works council head, told Reuters in e-mailed comments that much had been achieved over the last two years, including pay increases of up to 18%, improvements in occupational health and safety and benefits, including bike sharing and free bus rides.

“All of the aforementioned successes were achieved without the union or a collective bargaining agreement, quickly, easily and customised to Giga Berlin,” she said, adding that meant there was no need for “external influences in the future” – implying IG Metall.

In October, Tesla rejected IG Metall claims that health and safety provisions at its gigafactory near Berlin were inadequate, saying protecting workers was a top priority.

The company also last year raised salaries for the plant’s 12,500 workers, which regional IG Metall head Dirk Schulze welcomed at the time, while still calling for better working conditions at the plant.

(By Christoph Steitz; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Clelia Oziel)

Tumbling metal prices account for more than half all of impairment charges, declared when fixed assets fall below market values, the study of 105 TSX-listed mining companies found. They incurred $68 billion in charges from 2002 to 2015. Using unfamiliar technology and locating in developing countries also contributed, data show.

Metal price drops accounted for 143 of 268 cases and $25.2 billion in impairment charges, according to the study published last month in Resources Policy, an international journal on mineral rules and economics with editors in the United States, Australia and China. The research appears appropriate at a time when nickel and lithium prices have crashed from 2022 highs as gold has set new records.

“While impairments have been shown to be a common occurrence across mining companies, they also are a major contributor to the industry’s low average returns,” said the authors led by Andrew Gillis of Edmonton-based Aurora Hydrogen.

“The degree of impairments is higher at mines in developing countries and at mines where the geographic location and mining processes are new to the company operating the mine,” said the authors, which included John Steen and W. Scott Dunbar of the Department of Mining Engineering at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and Andrew von Nordenflycht of the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC.

Get lucky

Forecasting by its nature is uncertain. But some firms get lucky and only face a few impairments, while others get unlucky and suffer many or large impairments, the authors said. Their targeted years of research coincided with the rise of the commodity super-cycle 20 years ago followed by the financial crisis and declining metals prices from 2012.

The group recommended mining companies should improve their forecasting of mineral reserves, capital costs, production costs and commodity prices, which all impact future cash flows. It noted how C-suites might blame falling metal prices for impairments because other slips in capital or operating costs could be directly attributed to their own forecasting. The flip side is that rising metal prices can hide some other forecasting errors. And forecasting in foreign lands is simply more difficult, the authors said.

“Higher impairments in developing countries stem from lower information availability about market conditions and/or more volatile local market prices and conditions,” the authors said. “The sources of uncertainty are just greater, making forecasts harder and forecast errors easier, even for experienced forecasters.”

In the end, the researchers recommended more studies on forecasting. They could try to pinpoint the root causes of forecasting errors through personal interviews with project participants, detailed comparisons of feasibility studies and actual outcomes as well as assessing their methods of error prevention.

“Asset impairments have been identified as a primary determinant of long-term shareholder returns across Canadian mining firms,” the authors said. “Our findings suggest looking more closely into price forecasting procedures at mining companies to see if certain techniques or circumstances lead to more or fewer price-driven impairments.”

London Metal Exchange (LME) copper surged by 3.1% on Wednesday, breaking out of its long-standing range. The move extended on Thursday morning to an eleven-month high of $8,976.50 per metric ton.

The trigger for the price break-out is news that China’s copper smelters have agreed to curb output in response to a much tighter-than-expected raw materials market.

Spot treatment charges, which are the fees smelters earn for converting mined concentrates into metal, have collapsed in recent weeks as too many buyers chase too little material.

As the world’s largest buyer of concentrates, China is particularly exposed to the resulting squeeze on smelter margins.

China’s collective reaction has turned the market’s attention from weak global demand to copper’s stressed supply dynamics.

But to what extent it translates into less refined metal supply remains to be seen.

Concentrates squeeze

Smelter treatment charges say a lot about what’s happening in the upstream segment of copper’s supply chain and right now they’re flashing red warning lights.

Spot charges in China tumbled to $11.20 per ton last week, a near 76% drop in just two months and the lowest level since 2013, according to price reporting agency Fastmarkets.

The implosion in processing fees speaks to an acute shortfall of concentrates in the spot market.

The unexpected closure of First Quantum’s Cobre Panama mine at the end of last year has blown a 350,000-ton hole in China’s copper supply chain.

Some Chinese producers are insulated by annual supply deals, which were priced at a benchmark treatment charge of $80 per ton for this year’s shipments.

Others, particularly newer operators, are more dependent on spot supply and have evidently been scrambling to buy replacement tonnage, chasing treatment charges down to unprofitable levels.

In January China’s Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA) advised, opens new tab the country’s copper smelters they needed “to bring maintenance ahead of schedule or extend the maintenance time, to cut production and to postpone the commencement of new projects.”

Which is what they agreed to do this week at a well-flagged meeting to discuss the unfolding crisis. The collective commitment to curb output is intended to safeguard the “healthy development of (the) global copper smelting industry”, according to state research company Antaike.

Too many smelters

There are no quotas for production cuts among the 19 Chinese operators at this week’s rare meeting. Rather, each producer will make their own assessment of what needs to be done.

In some cases the action has already likely been taken with maintenance downtime brought forward and unprofitable lines shuttered.

An average 11.5% of global smelting capacity was off-line in the first two months of this year, according to Earth-i, which uses satellite imagery to monitor plant activity rates. This is up from 8.6% last year and 8.0% in January-February 2022.

Tellingly, inactive capacity in top producer China averaged 8.3% this year, up from 4.8% last year, a much sharper jump than in the rest of the world.

Some Chinese producers, it seems, either voluntarily heeded the CNIA’s January call for sector restraint or were forced to by market reality.

Moreover, any promised curbs to output must be seen in the context of China’s rapid build-out of copper smelting capacity.

Treatment charges reflect not just the state of mine supply but also the volume of smelter demand.

China started up 780,000 tons of annual smelter capacity last year with another net 150,000 tons due this year, according to analysts at Macquarie Bank. (“Commodities Comment,” Jan. 16, 2024)

Macquarie estimates another two million tonnes of new or expanded capacity is also due to ramp up outside of China this year, increasing the pressure on concentrates availability.

Freeport McMoRan’s new Indonesian smelter, for example, will at full capacity soak up 1.7 million tons of concentrates, material that until now has been available for export.

The dramatic collapse in processing fees is as much a function of this new call on raw materials as it is of mine supply problems.

Sentiment shifts

China’s production restraint may slow but is unlikely to reverse the country’s recent rapid output growth.

The country’s production of refined copper jumped by an eye-watering 13.5% year-on-year to 12.99 million tons in 2023, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

And while analysts have adjusted their market balance estimates to factor in recent mine losses, most still think the refined market will be in supply surplus this year, albeit to a smaller extent than previously thought.

But market sentiment has palpably shifted.

The weak state of global manufacturing activity, not least in China, has kept copper locked in a sideways trading range for much of the last year.

Macro drivers, particularly interest rate expectations, have dominated the choppy price action.

The concentrates squeeze has refocused attention on copper’s micro dynamics of stretched supply and chronic under-investment in new mines.

Copper’s bull narrative has just been reactivated, even if China’s collective commitment to curb output may promise more than it delivers.

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, Andy Home, a columnist for Reuters.)

(Editing by Sharon Singleton)

The first, and main focus of Northern Dynasty’s legal actions, was filed with Alaska’s federal district court, seeking to vacate the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) veto of a development at Pebble.

The proposed mine would have become the largest copper, gold and molybdenum extraction site in North America. However, for the better part of two decades, the project was met with strong resistance due to its potential environmental impact. The Bristol Bay area, where the mine would be located, is home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon fisheries.

In January 2023, the EPA made its decision to block Northern Dynasty’s US-based subsidiary from storing mine waste in the Bristol Bay watershed, essentially killing the project.

In its complaint, the company alleges that the EPA veto was issued in violation of various federal statutes regarding Alaska’s statehood rights and a land exchange approved by Congress.

Specifically, it claims that the veto decision was based on an “overly broad legal interpretation” of EPA’s jurisdiction, which has since been overruled by the Supreme Court, its geographic scope exceeds that allowed by the statute, and it was based on information previously developed by EPA in what it calls “an illegal pre-emptive veto process” that was designed to reach a predetermined result.

The company also says the factual basis stated to support the veto is directly contradicted by the July 2020 environmental impact statement published by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which is an important part of the administrative record.

“The EPA has not demonstrated that either the development of the Pebble deposit will have unacceptable adverse effects under Section 404(c), or that there are any impacts to Bristol Bay fisheries that would justify the extreme measures in the final determination (veto),” Northern Dynasty said in a news release.

“Whatever authority the EPA may have under section 404(c), the general provision in the Clean Water Act cannot authorize the EPA to take action to block the specific economic activity that was Congress’s express purpose for granting these lands to the State of Alaska under the Cook Inlet Land Exchange,” Northern Dynasty CEO Ron Thiessen said.

The other legal action was filed with the US Court of Federal Claims in Washington, DC, claiming that the actions by the EPA represent an unconstitutional “taking” of Northern Dynasty’s property. To that extent, the company is asking the court to defer considering this action until the above-mentioned EPA veto case is resolved.

“Our permitting strategy is focused entirely on winning the EPA veto case and permitting the Pebble project. We have filed a takings case against the federal government to preserve our ability to seek compensation for a violation of our rights in line with the protections under the Fifth Amendment,” the company said.

Still, according to Thiessen, the company’s priority is to advance the district federal court complaint, because “overturning the illegal veto removes a major impediment from the path of getting the permit to build the proposed mine.”

Over an estimated 20-year mine life, Pebble is expected to churn out 6.4 billion lb. of copper; 7.4 million oz. of gold and 300 million lb. of molybdenum, plus 37 million oz. of silver and 200,000 kg of rhenium.

Northern Dynasty’s shares rose by 1.1% to C$0.44 by 10:45 a.m. ET, trading between a 52-week range of C$0.28-C$0.58. The company has a market capitalization of C$239.6 million ($177.3m).

Copper has surged 5% this week, ending a months-long spell of inertia, as investors hone in on risks to supply at mines and smelters. Tentatively, traders are also warming to the idea that the worst of a global downturn is in the past, particularly for metals like copper that are increasingly used in electric vehicles and renewables.

But signs of the headwinds in traditional industrial sectors are still plain to see in the iron ore market, where futures fell below $100 a ton for the first time in seven months on Friday. Investors are betting that China’s years-long property crisis will run through 2024, keeping a lid on demand.

The steelmaking ingredient has shed more than 30% since early January as hopes of a meaningful revival in construction activity faded. Loss-making steel mills are buying less ore, and stockpiles are piling up at Chinese ports.

[Click here for an interactive chart of copper prices]

Sentiment has soured since the recent National People’s Congress in Beijing, where policymakers set an ambitious 5% goal for economic growth, but offered few new measures that would boost infrastructure or other construction-intensive sectors. The latest drop will embolden those who believe that the effects of President Xi Jinping’s property crackdown still have significant room to run, and that last year’s rally in iron ore may have been a false dawn.

On Friday there were fresh signs that weakness in China’s industrial economy is hitting the copper market too, with stockpiles tracked by the Shanghai Futures Exchange surging to the highest level since the early days of the pandemic. The hope is that headwinds in traditional industrial areas will be offset by an ongoing surge in usage in electric vehicles and renewables.

Further afield, industrial conditions in Europe and the US still look soft, but there’s growing optimism about copper usage in India, where rising investment has helped fuel blowout growth rates of more than 8% — making it the fastest-growing major economy.

For now, the main catalyst fueling copper’s rally is an unexpected tightening in global mine supplies. That’s been driven mainly by last year’s closure of a giant mine in Panama, but there are also growing worries about output in Zambia, which is facing an El Niño-induced power crisis.

Prices spiked on huge volumes on Wednesday after smelters in China held a crisis meeting on how to cope with a sharp drop in processing fees following disruptions to supplies of mined ore. The group stopped short of coordinated production cuts, but pledged to re-arrange maintenance work, reduce runs and delay the startup of new projects.

In the coming weeks investors will be watching Shanghai exchange inventories closely to gauge both the strength of demand and the extent of any capacity curtailments.

“The increase in SHFE stockpiles has been bigger than we’d anticipated, but we expect to see them coming down over the next few weeks,” Colin Hamilton, managing director for commodities research at BMO Capital Markets, said by phone. “If the pace of the inventory builds doesn’t start to slow, investors will start to question whether smelters are actually cutting and whether the impact of weak construction activity is starting to weigh more heavily on the market.”

Copper jumped as much as 2% to $9,066.50 a ton on the London Metal Exchange on Friday, and was trading at $9,030 a ton as of 2:13 p.m. local time. Other metals were mixed, with aluminum gaining 0.6% and lead dropping 1.8%.

Iron ore futures in Singapore held below the key $100 level, trading at $98 a ton.

(By Mark Burton)

President Felix Tshisekedi had sought to re-negotiate the terms of the joint venture to bring more benefits for Congo, the world’s biggest cobalt producer.

Under the revised deal, both parties have agreed that China will invest up to $7 billion in infrastructure projects in the central African country, up from $3 billion in the original agreement.

They have also agreed Chinese partners, including Sinohydro and China Railway group, will pay 1.2% of royalties annually to Congo while maintaining the same shareholding structure.

“Today, at the end of several months of negotiations, we reached this advent,” Minister Muvunyi said at the signing ceremony in the capital Kinshasa

Congo is also the world’s third-largest copper producer and holds significant deposits of lithium, tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold.

(By Benoit Nyemba and Sofia Christensen)

Coronavirus pandemic fallout and Moscow’s war in Ukraine have sent Western governments scrambling to reduce their reliance on Chinese supply chains and disentangle their economies from Russia.

But as Washington plots a course for its energy transition it is lagging behind China, which has spent the past decade securing access to minerals needed for the production of products like electric vehicle batteries and solar panels.

“We don’t want to be overly reliant on any one country or any one company for global supply chains for critical minerals,” Adeyemo told Reuters during a visit to a platinum mine in Marikana, South Africa, owned by Sibanye-Stillwater.

While the US government has launched a raft of measures to incentivize increased production of strategic and critical minerals at home, notably under the Inflation Reduction Act, Adeyemo acknowledged that overseas resources were also vital.

“Africa is going to play a huge role,” he said. “A lot of critical minerals are located here.”

Chinese assets in Africa already include massive copper and cobalt projects in Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia as well as lithium in Zimbabwe, where companies are assisted by heavy Chinese state investment in accompanying infrastructure.

Adeyemo said the United States was working with G7 allies to close that infrastructure gap.

The US International Development Finance Corporation is, meanwhile, aiming to de-risk private investment in Africa. And the deputy secretary said Washington was incentivizing US manufacturing to boost demand for those minerals and create favourable market conditions for miners.

But he added that the White House also stood ready to ensure a level playing field.

“We are talking to our European allies … about some of the actions we can take using trade tools to make sure that a country like China can’t flood the market with things like electric vehicles and solar panels,” he said.

Hold accountable

Regarding Russia, Adeyemo said countries like South Africa also had a role to play.

In the wake of Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the US government slapped sanctions on a number of Russian miners and mineral exports. But it left Russian platinum group metals (PGM) largely untouched.

The United States is a major consumer of palladium, a PGM used in catalytic converters, with 32% of its imports of the metal coming from Russia between 2019 and 2022, according to the US Geological Survey.

“South Africa has a real opportunity to help supply the global economy,” Adeyemo said. “And it gives us the ability to take other actions to hold Russia accountable.”

South Africa is a major palladium producer, and Sibanye-Stillwater mines the metal both in Marikana and at a US project in Montana.

“Between what comes out of South Africa and what’s produced in the US, the US does not need to be dependent on sources from any other country,” CEO Neal Froneman told Reuters.

However, he said companies like his needed US government support.

“You can provide loans or introduce tariffs or whatever it might be,” he said. “That is a role that they need to think very differently about and help companies that are trying to source and provide these critical metals into those ecosystems.”

(By Joe Bavier; Editing by Mark Potter)