Mining and commodity trading giant Glencore (LON:GLEN) kicked off the process to sell its Australian copper mine in Cobar, New South Wales, and its Lomas Bayas copper mine in the Atacama desert in Chile in October.Glencore said at the time it had received a number of unsolicited expressions of interest for the mines and that potential buyers can bid to purchase "either one or both of the mines and...Read More
Anglo American mines the majority of its niobium ore from the Boa Vista open pit, in Brazil. (Image courtesy of Anglo American via Flickr)Mining scene newcomer and BHP spin-off South32 (ASX, LON, JSE:S32) may make an offer for Anglo American's $1 billion niobium and phosphate business in Brazil, Bloomberg reports.Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg says the company is seeking to hire...Read More
McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE:MUX) (TSX:MUX) is pleased to announce record annual production in 2015, solid fourth quarter production results, and the outlook for 2016.Highlights22% increase in production year-over-year to 154,529 gold equivalent ounces(1) in 2015.New pro-business government elected in Argentina, positive policy changes already enacted.4.2 grams per tonne (gpt) average crushed gold gra...Read More
E-waste, which comprises precious metals like gold and silver, can produce more gold than what is obtained through mining, a senior academician said today.Fifty pounds of gold and 20,000 pounds of copper could be extracted from one million discarded cell phones, if processed properly, Pranabesh Ray, Dean (Academics), XLRI - Xavier School of Management told a two-day national conference on e-waste...Read More
A meagre 0.6% of private capital raised in 2015 for natural resource investment is destined for mining projects. Just two funds closed on $400 million in private investments for metals and mining last year according to data by industry tracker Preqin.Investors aren't necessarily staying away from mining assets because of a weak outlook. Of the $63 billion raised for natural resources more than 90...Read More
It's only 12 January and the copper price is down 8% year to date.March futures in New York dropped to $1.9525 a pound (just over $4,300 a tonne) early on Tuesday and by the close on the Comex continued to languish at levels last seen March 2009.For a sustained period below $2 you have to go back a decade at the early days of the China-induced supercycle.China is responsible for nearly half of glo...Read More
Codelco chairman, chairman Oscar Landerretche. (Image courtesy of University of Chile)Codelco, Chile's state-owned copper miner and the world's largest producer of the metal, should soon review its investment plans in light of historic low prices, chairman Oscar Landerretche has said.In an interview with local news site El D?-namo (in Spanish) last week, the economist said the first step should b...Read More
Image by docstockmedia | Shutterstock.com.New climate change regulations, fraud in e-payment systems, "poison pills", privacy class actions and cybersex in the workplace are among the top 10 legal risks companies operating in Canada will face this year, according to Canadian law firm Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG).In its annual report on the issue, the group outlines those and other key trends, a...Read More
Anglo American's overhaul reflects the dire straits the global mining industry is in these days. (Image: Screenshot from Anglo American video via YouTube)Anglo American (LON:AAL) announced Tuesday it has finally completed its exit from the Middle East by selling its Tarmac business to Colas Moyen Orient, a subsidiary of French engineering and construction company Bouygues Group.The full sale follo...Read More
Greece has delayed construction at Eldorado's Skouries mine and processing plant for over three years. The company is halting most work at the project in response.Canadian miner Eldorado Gold (TSX:ELD) (NYSE:EGO) is suspending work at its mine in northern Greece and laying off 600 workers following protests by local residents and a fresh spat with the country's left-wing government.The Vancouver-b...Read More
Gold is the big exception with managed money futures investors slashing bearish bets on the gold price by 44%After a nice run at the beginning of the new trading year, on Monday on the Comex market in New York, gold futures with February delivery retreated as worries about the global economy and geopolitics overwhelmed financial and commodity markets.In afternoon trade gold was exchanging hands fo...Read More
The world's northernmost mines are all located in just three countries; on Norway's Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean you'll find four of them. All are underground coal mines, operating in the rugged, frigid terrain between continental Norway and the North Pole.Further south, in Russia, you'll find Alrosa's diamond mines. Nizhne-Lenskoye, in the Sakha Republic, is the fifth northernmost min...Read More
Image courtesy of Codelco.Copper prices hit Monday a six-year low after more equity losses in Shanghai increased concerns over the Chinese economy, the world's largest consumer of the red metal.The effects on most miners were as dramatic as quick. Diversified miner BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP), the world's largest mining company, reached the lowest in a decade, closing almost 5% down in Sydney to $15.55...Read More
Sometimes a market in turmoil offers opportunity. Independent investment adviser Jayant Bhandari regularly sifts through bourses to find opportunities that maximize his reward for the least amount of risk. Bhandari currently sees two paths to value: companies that were either oversold in heavy tax-loss selling late in 2015 or in the "free upside" offered in arbitrage situations. In this interview...Read More
Miners ending their shift at the Virginia-Pocahontas Coal Company Mine #4 near Richlands, Virginia in 1974. Wearing a red hard hat meant you were new on the job.While the official US payroll numbers released on Friday showing an increase of 292,000 jobs in December came in way above expectations, the mining industry suffered its 12th consecutive month of employment decline.According to the Bureau...Read More
Image: Everett Collection | Shuttersock.comLow commodity prices will continue to be one of the main drivers of political risk for investors this year in major producing countries across Africa and Latin America, a new report suggests.According to the 2016 Political Risk Outlook, released Friday by Verisk Maplecroft, there will be little respite for investors from the political instability, civil u...Read More
Lundin Mining is developing a new nickel deposit that could extend the life of its Eagle nickel and copper mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula that ramped up to full production in 2015 and is expected to see output gradually decline from this year on, according to an official with the Canadian company."We're aggressively drilling Eagle East, a new deposit, and that's looking quite promising," the o...Read More
Courtesy of: Visual CapitalistTHE FIRST FOUR TRADING DAYS SHOW OPTIMISM FOR 2016 IS IN SHORT SUPPLY.The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.In our review of the economic events of 2015, we noted that the simple turning of a calendar page does not rectify the problems of the previous year.The first week of trading on major exchanges has made this even more clear.CHINA...Read More
The world's number five diversified mining company, Anglo American announced a "radical portfolio restructuring" a month ago. The company with roots going back more than a hundred years to South Africa's gold and diamond fields said it would cut around 85,000 employees, almost two-thirds of its workforce.London-listed Anglo also said it's reducing the number of mines it operates from 55 to the "l...Read More
Fears of a Chinese currency devaluation stalks the copper marketIt's been a brutal new year for copper with March futures in New York losing as much as 4.7% to dip below $2.00 a pound on Thursday before recovering slightly in early afternoon trade. That was the lowest since March 2009 and the fall comes on the back of a 26% decline in 2015. The metal traded below the $2-level only for a brief seve...Read More