NEW technology to improve the purification process of minerals will allow a major Australian miner to significantly reduce shipping costs.South Australian company OZ Minerals has designed a refining process that allows it to increase the quality of its copper concentrate and exponentially reduce export costs.OZ Minerals' hydromet technology improves the leaching process and purifies copper concent...Read More
One of the world's mining powerhouses - Chile - says the country has now adopted a proactive stance to reduce foreign investment barriers in its mining sector as it joins a plethora of mining jurisdictions worldwide battling to mitigate the resources downturn.Addressing the first day of the two day Paydirt 2016 Latin America Downunder conference in Perth today, Chile's Vice Minister of Mining, HE...Read More
The rise of alternative payment methods like Bitcoin, contactless credit cards and Apple Pay has reduced our everyday reliance on cold, hard cash.With that in mind, we took a look at some of the weird and wonderful things that have been used as alternatives to money around the world, some of which are still in use today.The rise of alternative payment methods like Bitcoin, contactless credit cards...Read More
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) has recently released their 48th annual British Columbia Mining Report.We all know commodity prices have been on a downward trend for the past five years. We also know several mines in the province have been put on care and maintenance and many early stage projects have seen their funding dry up.Let's take a look at some of the stats in PwC's B.C. mining report:Gro...Read More
Canada's Eldorado Gold (TSX:ELD) (NYSE:EGO), until now the largest foreign gold producer in China, is selling its stakes on two mines and development project to an affiliate of China's Yintai Resources (SHSZ:000975) for US$600 million in cash.The transaction, expected to close in the third to fourth quarter 2016, includes Eldorado's interest in the White Mountain and Tanjianshan mines, as well...Read More
Shares in Polish mining giant KGHM (WSE:KGH), Europe's second-largest copper producer, soared Monday after earnings at overseas units helped it beat analysts estimates for the first-quarter profit.The stock jumped as much as 4.7%, and was trading 4.41% percent higher at 65.8 zloty at 2:33 p.m., reversing this year's decline to a 3.5% gain.As copper prices trade near the lowest level in more than t...Read More
Annually in May global mining bosses assemble in Miami for an industry summit described as "speed dating for chief executives"."They fly into Miami, they get a chance to talk directly to their big US investors and then they all retreat into private meetings with each other," one miner suggested this week. "That is the real value of going there, they get to look the whole industry in the eye."If th...Read More
Earthquakes, landslides and strikes drive copper prices up and down in a normal year. 2016 is turning out to be anything but normal.Only 124,000 metric tons of copper, or 1.8 percent of production, has been lost this year to bad weather, labor disputes, equipment failures and low prices, according to Macquarie Group Ltd. If the rest of 2016 stays as quiet, the disruption rate will be the lowest si...Read More
Ancient bronze tools unearthed in Sweden were made using copper from the Mediterranean, showing there was trade between the two cultures, archeologists have found.According to a story carried in Haaretz, an Israeli daily newspaper, copper mined in Sicily, Sardinia, the Iberian peninsula and Cyprus was exchanged for Nordic amber, which was as highly valued as gold in Mycenaean Greece and in the pr...Read More
Already high bankruptcy and default rates in mining & metals and oil & gas will only accelerate this year and the prolonged downturn in commodities will increasingly spill over into other sectors.So says Moody's Investors Service in a new report which forecasts global speculative-grade (sometimes called junk) default rates will continue to rise this year, to reach 5% in November due to continue...Read More
Against expectations and in some instances in defiance of fundamentals, commodities managed to climb a wall of worry over the first four months of 2016 giving mining stocks a welcome boost after three years of declines.But seven trading days into May and much of the gains are being wiped out as fears about the health of the Chinese economy returns with a vengeance. Demand for bellwether commod...Read More
Commodity prices have been on a downward trend for the past five years, which has put pressure on the budgets and operations of British Columbia's (BC) mining companies in 2015. According to the annual PwC BC Mining Industry Survey for 2015 the continued drop in the price of key metals and minerals, particularly metallurgical coal and copper, has led to a number of mines in BC being put into care...Read More
There was no commodity paradigm shift and there was no "peak everything" in 2011, says Jeremy Grantham in his recent letter to investors.The storied investor, writing in this spring's GMO Quarterly Letter, runs an autopsy on his own bullish outlook on commodities in 2011 and dissects how it all went wrong.Boston-based Grantham, Mayo, & van Otterloo has more than US$118 billion in assets under mana...Read More
Andrew Mackenzie says BHP won't wait for prices to recover, and insists the giant miner continues to drive down costs. (Image from archives)World's largest mining company BHP Billiton (ASX, NYSE:BHP) (LON:BLT) has decided to resume investing in projects aimed to boost production capacity, particularly in copper and oil, even if commodity prices have not fully recovered yet.Speaking at the Global M...Read More
Top publicly-held copper producer Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE:FCX) on Monday announced the sale of its largest African copper mine to China Molybdenum for up to $2.65 billion.Like many of its peers Freeport has been struggling to get its debt load under control which ballooned to $20 billion following the ill-timed acquisition of oil and gas assets three years ago. In February the Phoenix...Read More
Mining and metals investors were offloading the sector's big names on Monday after sharp drops in iron ore and copper prices following weaker than expected imports by top consumer China and renewed fears about the robustness of the 2016 rally in commodity prices.On the Comex market in New York copper for delivery in July fell as much 2.4% to $2.1025 a pound or some $4,635 a tonne. Copper's y...Read More
Atlas Copco launches its first battery driven product within the mining and underground segment. When it comes to safety for its operators, the Scooptram ST7 Battery has been developed to meet and exceed environmental standards and modern mining safety requirements.Traditionally, underground mobile equipment in the mining sector has relied on diesel engines which release emissions. Those emissions...Read More
Canadian Eldorado Gold (TSX:ELD) (NYSE:EGO) will resume work at its stalled Skouries mine, one of four Greek major operations where the firm is involved, following an approval of its updated technical study by the Ministry of Energy and Environment.The Vancouver-based miner had been awaiting a licence for the project in Halkidiki, a forested area in northern Greece, for over a year. But after mont...Read More
Rio Tinto Group's $5.3 billion underground expansion of Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia will increase its output in about four years time when the copper market is in deficit, according to the company's deputy chief executive officer.Read more at Bloomberg Read More
OZ Minerals (ASX:OZL) is betting big on copper with plans to begin mining ore at its Carrapateena underground mine by 2019.In a statement released on Friday, Australia's third-largest copper producer said it aims for output three years from now under a revised AUD$975 million construction plan - a far cry from the original plans back in 2014 for a project valued up to AUD $3 billion. The mine woul...Read More