Новости за 13.05.2019

Diversified mining group Rio Tinto has been granted an option to acquire a majority interest in the Janice Lake copper project, in Canada’s Saskatchewan. Rio Tinto Exploration Canada (RTEC) has to commit to spending $3-million on exploration at the Janice Lake project over the next year-and-a-half, followed by $10-million in exploration over a four-year period, TSX-V-listed Forum Energy Metals Corp reported last week.

Development company Noront Resources has settled on a site for the ferrochrome plant that it plans to build to treat ore from its chromite mines in the emerging Ring of Fire camp, but the junior is expecting “lengthy” environmental assessment phase and says commissioning of the facility is still nearly a decade away. Noront has dropped Kidd Metsite in Timmins, Ontario, and instead selected the Algoma Steel site in Sault Ste Marie – a city on the St Mary’s river, in Ontario, for its ferrochrome plant.

After having grown by 2.5% in 2018, global copper production is expected to remain essentially unchanged this year, but will grow by 1.9% in 2020, the International Copper Study Group (ICSG) said in its ‘Copper Market Forecast for 2019/20’, released on Monday. ICSG met with global copper industry stakeholders on May 9 and 10 to discuss key issues affecting the global copper market.

Aim-listed African Battery Minerals (ABM) has entered into an earn-in agreement over a base metals and platinum group metals (PGMs) exploration opportunity in Botswana. ABM has acquired an 18.2% interest in Kalahari Key Mineral Exploration, which owns the Molopo Farms Complex project, for $194 810.

Caledonia Mining has requested clarity from Fidelity Printers & Refiners, in Zimbabwe, regarding a proposed new gold support price. Caledonia currently sells its gold production, through its Blanket Mine subsidiary, to Fidelity and is contractually entitled to receive a price that is derived from the afternoon price fixed by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) the day after the bullion delivered has been assayed.

The platinum market is expected to move into deficit this year, with a resurgence in investor activity to outweigh modest falls in industrial and jewellery demand, says Johnson Matthey in its latest platinum group metals market report. The science multinational company expects a tentative recovery in autocatalyst consumption, as stricter heavy-duty emissions legislation is enforced in China and India over the next two years.

Junior Aus Tin Mining is planning to start initial mining at its Taronga Stage 1 operation, in New South Wales, before the end of June, after receiving approval of its mining operations plan from the state’s Department of Planning and Environment. The A$3-million Stage 1 project would trial mine some 340 000 t of ore between an 18-month to 24-month period, to produce a tin concentrate.

The Queensland Department of Environment and Science (DES) has launched a further review of the groundwater management plan for Indian major Adani’s $16.5-billion Carmichael coal project. The federal government in April approved the groundwater plan based on an independent assessment from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Geosciences Australia, which confirmed that the project met strict scientific requirements.

The price gap between palladium and its sister metal platinum needs to shrink as number one platinum producer South Africa requires a higher price for the metal to keep investing in new supply, Russia's Norilsk Nickel said. Norilsk is the number one producer of palladium, accounting for more than 40% of global output, and is also a leading supplier of platinum. Both metals are used to curb harmful emissions from cars.

A trade war between the US and China is depressing the price of copper and the red metal would be 5% to 15% higher without the dispute, the chairperson for Chile's Antofagasta told a Chilean newspaper on Sunday. "Without the commercial war, I am convinced that the price of copper would be between $3.20 and $3.50/lb," Jean-Paul Luksic said in an interview with El Mercurio.

Managing the world’s largest rainforest is a Brazilian affair and foreigners should stop meddling in the Amazon, President Jair Bolsonaro’s top security adviser said in an interview. "I don’t accept this idea that the Amazon is world heritage, this is nonsense," General Augusto Heleno Pereira said in an interview in Brasilia. "The Amazon is Brazilian, the heritage of Brazil and should be dealt with by Brazil for the benefit of Brazil."

Zambia will order Glencore to hand local contractors control of two copper shafts that the company’s local unit has earmarked for closure. Glencore’s Mopani Copper Mines announced early on Friday that it will cease operations at the Mindola North Shaft and Central Shaft because “they have reached the end of their economic life,” according to a statement emailed by the company. The government sent a team of engineers and geologists to the mine to verify Mopani’s reasons for the planned closure, Mines... Читать дальше...