Tiny Aston Bay Holdings (BAY-V), a junior with a copper-zinc project in Nunavut, seized the market's attention today by announcing a preliminary joint-venture deal with the world's largest mining company.According to the exclusive letter of intent, BHP Billiton would pay a minimum of $40 million in exploration expenditures over 9 years - including $2.5 million within 2 years of signing a final d...Read More
Teck Metals Ltd. is expected to be hit with substantial fines after the company admits in court next week to causing pollution in Trail, in southeast B.C.The provincial court registry shows Teck, which operates the largest lead-zinc smelter in the world in the small town on the banks of the Columbia River, intends to plead guilty Monday to 15 charges.The charges, which follow an investigation by E...Read More
With sales and operations at the ends of the earth, few companies are in a better position to take the pulse of the global economy and the resource sector in particular than Caterpillar.The world's number one heavy equipment manufacturer has been hit hard by the decline in mining and construction - sales are down more than $20 billion from its peak just four years ago after a drop of over $8 billi...Read More
Anglo will scale back operations and cut costs at its flagship Sishen mine (pictured), which is Africa's largest iron ore operation. (Image courtesy of Anglo American)Shares in besieged Anglo American (LON:AAL) soared Thursday after the miner reported increased production and revealed plans to keep lowering costs at its iron ore mines in South Africa and Brazil, which include laying-off about 4,00...Read More
Barrick Gold Corp. has surged to become Canada's best-performing stock as a two-month rally in the precious metal gives added lift to the company's turnaround efforts.Barrick's shares are up 29 per cent this year in Toronto, making it the best-performing stock on the Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index. It's also overtaken its two biggest competitors, Goldcorp Inc. and Newmont Mining Corp., in m...Read More
Indonesia's government and Freeport McMoRan Inc on Thursday failed to reach a deal on extending the U.S. mining giant's six-month export permit, potentially halting shipments from the country's massive Grasberg copper and gold mine.An export stoppage would deal a blow to Freeport's profits and deny the Indonesian government desperately needed revenue from one of its biggest taxpayers. It could als...Read More
In its 2016 Commodity Outlook published yesterday, the World Bank pays special attention to the impact of weak growth in emerging economies on commodity markets.The answer, unsurprisingly, is that a faster-than-expected slowdown in Brazil, Russia, India and China - especially if combined with financial stress - "could reduce commodity prices considerably" even after three years of sharp declines...Read More
Los Pelambres remains Antofagasta's flagship mine, producing over 55% of the total group output. (Image courtesy of Antofagasta)Chile's Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) said Wednesday it plans to boost copper production in 2016 by as much as 17% after it missed its output target for last year.The mining group, property of the Luksic family -one of Chile's richest- said it produced 630,300 metric tons of th...Read More
Ministro Hales copper mine in Chile. (Image courtesy of Codelco via Flickr)The continued rout in commodity prices that has severely hit the mining industry in the past year can't be considered a "normal" cyclical downturn, but rather, an unprecedented one, says Moody's in a new report released this week.The ratings agency, which recently placed 175 energy and mining firms at risk of downgrades, sa...Read More
Slag tapping at Glencore's Sudbury Nickel Smelter. Image: GlencoreNickel was the worst performer in a pretty sorry commodities field in 2015. The steelmaking ingredient lost just shy of 42% of its value last year.What makes nickel's dismal year even more disappointing is that following Indonesia's ore ban at the outset of 2014, the stars seemed to align for the metal and analysts rushed to its de...Read More
Freeport McMoRan's Grasberg is the world's largest gold mine and third largest copper operation. (Image from archives)Shares in Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) rallied Tuesday morning even though the diversified US miner and oil producer reported a fourth-quarter loss bigger than the one logged in 2014.The stock was up more than 3% to $4.07 at 10:45 am ET, but it has dropped almost 40% since the star...Read More
The ceramic proppants sector is forecast to become the largest market for non-metallurgical bauxite by 2021, overtaking the refractories industry. Consumption of bauxite in refractories, both directly and via brown fused alumina, accounted for more than 20% of the total non-metallurgical bauxite market in 2015.Demand for calcined bauxite in production of ceramic proppants is expected to grow by mo...Read More
Fears of a hard landing in China have investors seeing redChinese leaders in October outlined the direction of the world's second largest economy over the next five years.The country's 13th five-year plan running from 2016 - 2020 calls for "medium-high economic growth" and doubles-down on a long-stated commitment to "double 2010 GDP by 2020".The 2020 GDP goal would require annual growth rates of 6...Read More
Pushing bullish bets up a few barsWith weakness returning to equities and oil on Monday, gold futures trading in New York attracted brisk buying from investors eager for alternatives amid all the market turmoil.In afternoon trade gold for delivery in February, the most active contract, was exchanging hands for $1,106.60 an ounce, up more than $10 compared to Friday's close. Thanks to safe haven...Read More
Sarcheshmeh copper complex, operated by the National Iranian Copper Industries. (Image courtesy of NICICO)Iran's full-re-entry into the world energy market upon the lifting of sanctions has hurt oil prices further, sending them below the psychologically significant $30-a-barrel level last week.The question in everyone's mind now is how Iran's incursion into the mining industry will affect an al...Read More
Construction of a concrete batching plant at Skouries mine. (Image courtesy of Eldorado Gold)Canada's Eldorado Gold (TSX: ELD) (NYSE:EGO) said Monday it expects to write down the value of its assets in Greece by US$1.2 billion-US$1.6 billion, after it halted majority of its operations at one of its four projects in the European country.The Vancouver-based company has been at odds with the Greek go...Read More
Not even Chuquicamata, the world's largest open pit copper mine, seems to be able to rescue Chile at the moment. (Courtesy of Codelco via Flickr)Resilience in the copper industry, its producers and investors, continues to be tested this year, as the metal price has touched fresh lows, falling last week to $1.95 per pound, a price last seen in May 2009, and analysts don't see a clear end to China's...Read More
The London Metal Exchange is in talks with the World Gold Council and five banks about the possibility of introducing futures contracts on gold and standardized central clearing, according to two people familiar with the matter.The talks are exploratory and there's no time frame for a decision on the contract, which would be for delivery in London, said the people, who asked not to be identified b...Read More
The top five mining companies and three of the world's biggest energy groups are among the hundreds the hundreds of mining and energy firms that Moody's placed on review for a credit downgrade. (Image: Screenshot via TheDollarVigilante | YouTube)BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Vale are among the dozens of mining and energy firms that Moody's placed on review for a credit downgrade on F...Read More
Work at the now halted Pascua-Lama gold, silver and copper project. (Image from archives)Canadian Barrick Gold (TSX, NYSE:ABX), the world's largest producer of the metal by output, brought some fresh bad news to investors late Thursday as it warned expected to book up to $3 billion in impairment charges amid continued weakness in gold prices.The Toronto-based miner has had a rough time in the Lati...Read More