Новости за 18.11.2022

SLN, the New Caledonian nickel producer controlled by French mining group Eramet, is seeking help from a court-appointed expert to lead talks with stakeholders as it faces a cash squeeze from production setbacks and soaring costs, it said on Friday. SLN has for years tried to improve profitability which has been hit by social unrest and energy supply issues in the French Pacific territory.

Canada's Lundin Mining is planning to fill in a giant mystery sinkhole near its copper mine in Chile, an ambitious plan that will also see it attempt to pump out water that has seeped into the mine, a senior company executive told Reuters on Thursday. The huge 36-metre-diameter sinkhole that opened up in late July in the Tierra Amarilla commune, around 665 km north of capital Santiago, drew widespread global attention and saw charges by authorities against Lundin.

Canada has not committed to establishing an OPEC-like organisation for nickel-producing countries with Indonesia and is "very unlikely" to participate in any such group, a Canadian government source familiar with the discussions said on Thursday. Indonesia proposed talks with Canada to establish the organization in a meeting between Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia and Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali earlier this week.

General Motors aims to slash the cost of electric vehicle battery cells and has added Vale to its growing roster of battery material suppliers as the automaker girds for increasing EV competition beyond 2025, GM said on Thursday. Brazilian mining giant Vale will supply GM with battery-grade nickel for future electric vehicles, starting in 2026, GM executive Doug Parks said on Thursday.

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses the Motsepe Foundation's $2-million Green Energy competition; Palabora’s partnership with Mzansi energy to develop a solar PV plant with an energy storage system; and Venetia's underground project which is hoping for first production next year.

Republicans will seek to boost American production of lithium, copper and other electric-vehicle metals after the US midterm elections gave them narrow control of the House of Representatives and the power to influence how regulators approve or deny mining projects. The party on Wednesday was projected to have won at least 218 seats needed to control the House when the new Congress begins on January 3, a narrow victory after more than a week of vote counting.

The full 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals said on Thursday it will weigh whether the federal government improperly gave Rio Tinto thousands of acres in Arizona for its Resolution Copper mining project in a case that pits religious rights against the green energy revolution. The San Francisco-based court said it will decide the case en banc, meaning all of its 11 members will participate in the decision. Three members of the court had previously ruled for Rio and the land swap in June. No date has been set for the new hearing.

Diversified miner Rio Tinto has suffered a set-back in its bid to require the remaining interest in Turquoise Hill Resources, with the miner forced to abandon its sideline agreement with securityholders Pentwater Capital Management and SailingStone Capital Partners. Under the agreement with the securityholders, which was signed in early November, the securityholders agreed to withhold their votes at Turquoise Hill’s special meeting and exercise their dissent rights in respect of Rio’s proposed C$43... Читать дальше...

The strategic alliance between ASX-listed Havilah Resources and takeover target Oz Minerals has started, with exploration drilling at the Kalkaroo copper/gold/cobalt deposit, in South Australia. The exploration drilling program will initially focus on seven separate high priority copper prospect areas within Havilah’s 100% owned exploration licence that surrounds Kalkaroo, with the objective to locate additional copper resources close to Kalkaroo that could be additive to the existing Kalkaroo mineral... Читать дальше...

The board of copper miner Oz Minerals will back an increased offer from diversified miner BHP. BHP has submitted a revised non-binding indicative proposal for Oz Minerals, to acquire the company for a cash price of A$28.25 a share, valuing Oz Minerals at A$9.6-billion.

Copper miner Sandfire Resources on Friday launched a A$200-million fully underwritten entitlement offer to repay debt and fund working capital at its Motheo operations, in Botswana. The ASX-listed company will undertake a 1-for-8.8 accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer priced at A$4.30 a share, representing a 10.2% discount to Sandfire’s last trading price and a 9.3% discount to its theoretical ex-rights price.

With diversified metal recovery business Jubilee Metals Group’s flagship copper processing project, Project Roan, in Zambia, reaching nameplate throughput last month, the company is aiming to replicate a similar model at a larger scale at its northern refinery. Roan is part of Jubilee’s southern copper refining strategy, and the predominant supplier of concentrates, produced from perceived waste (material previously regarded as too complex or off spec), to the company’s copper and cobalt Sable refinery... Читать дальше...

Foundry and engineering company Thos Begbie has been named a preferred supplier of Europe’s largest copper producer Aurubis, which also claims to be the world’s largest copper recycler. Thos Begbie, based in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, manufactures water-cooled copper and other furnace components used to extract copper in the pyrometallurgical industry.

While the improved management of copper scrap recycling is crucial to supplement future mined supplies to address the world’s seemingly perpetual copper deficit, copper cable theft continues to be a hindrance locally, says local copper industry representative Copper Development Association Africa (CDAA). Copper demand is expected to increase by more than 50% between now and 2040,and could outstrip supply by more than six-million tons a year by 2030, according to energy research firm BloombergNEF’s... Читать дальше...