Новости за 15.12.2022

Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals and the government of Panama have failed to reach an agreement governing the operation of the Cobre Panama mine. Commerce and Industries Minister Frederico Alfaro Boyd said in a statement that the President would provide an update about efforts to finalise a contract with First Quantum and its local subsidiary, Minera Panama SA (MPSA), later on Thursday.

Commodities will be the best-performing asset class once again in 2023, handing investors returns of more than 40%, according to Goldman Sachs Group. The Wall Street bank said that while the first quarter may be “bumpy” due to economic weakness in the US and China, scarcities of raw materials from oil to natural gas and metals will boost prices after that.

JSE-listed gold miner Harmony Gold reports that its acquisition of the Eva Copper project from Copper Mountain Mining Corporation, has been finalised, with the R3-billion ($170-million) payment due to be made before the end of the week using cash and available revolving credit facilities. The acquisition of the Queensland, Australia-based 2 295 km2 worth of tenements also comprises a R1-billion ($60-million) contingent payment.

Dual-listed Horizonte Minerals is making good progress on the construction of its Araguaia nickel project, in Brazil, which is on schedule to start production in the first quarter of 2024. When fully ramped up with Line 1 and Line 2, the Araguaia mine will produce 29 000 t/y of nickel.

Aim-listed BlueRock Diamonds notes in an operational and corporate activity that the results of the two-month test to determine the realistic capacity of the Kareevlei plant at the diamond mine in South Africa, which started in mid-October and was carried out with the assistance of mining and processing specialists, confirmed that production of just below 90 000 t a month is achievable, in line with previous guidance. It adds that, of greater importance, has been the confirmation that the plant was... Читать дальше...

Rio Tinto CEO Jakob Stausholm said on Thursday that the miner has not given up on its Jadar lithium project in Serbia, after the country's prime minister ruled out a way forward for the project. "We haven’t got it right yet on Jadar. But the reality is it’s an amazing asset. The world needs it, Serbia needs it," Stausholm told an investor briefing in Sydney.

Toronto- listed Ascendant Resources has satisfied all financial conditions required to increase its effective ownership interest from 50% to 80% in the Lagoa Salgada volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) project, in Portugal. The company has made the final $2.5-million payment to the optionor as required under the earn-in agreement with respect to the project.

Copper developer Orion Minerals has appointed Peet van Coller as its new South Africa-based CFO, effective from April 1. Van Coller will succeed Orion’s long-serving CFO Martin Bouwmeester, who will remain as company secretary and as a corporate consultant on a part-time basis.

CSE-listed Platinex has signed a binding letter of intent to option a 100% ownership interest in the Muskrat Dam critical minerals project, in north-western Ontario. The project, located about 125 km northeast of Frontier Lithium’s PAK lithium project and 125 km northwest of Newmont’s Musselwhite gold mine, comprises six property blocks, which together cover 10 950 ha in the Muskrat Dam Lake and Rottenfish greenstone belts.

Toronto-listed Candente Copper has raised $4-million in a private placement agreement with Australian mining major Fortescue Metals to advance its flagship project in Peru. Candente will issue Fortescue subsidiary Nascent Exploration 22 222 222 common shares at $0.18 a share.

JSE-listed metals exploration and development company Orion Minerals has announced that Peet van Coller has been appointed CFO, with effect from April 1, 2023. The appointment forms part of a series of recent and planned appointments to Orion’s leadership team in South Africa, as the company gears up for operational readiness at its flagship Prieska copper/zinc project and Okiep copper project, in South Africa’s Northern Cape province.

Robert Friedland’s Ivanhoe Electric is moving its headquarters out of Canada. The minerals explorer has opted to trade its Vancouver head office location for a southern US base in Arizona, according to its new Phoenix-based CEO Taylor Melvin. “We’re in the process of establishing our headquarters in Phoenix or in the Phoenix area,” Melvin said Wednesday in an interview. “That’s a near-term priority.”

The State-owned Chilean Copper Commission (Cochilco) on Wednesday cut its projection for the price of copper for 2023 to $3.70/lb due to greater supply. The agency in July had estimated a copper price of $3.95/lb in 2023.

Exports by Colombia's mining sector in 2022 are expected to hit an all-time high, the Colombian Mining Association (ACM) said on Wednesday, driven by higher commodity prices, particularly coal. While the ACM expects Colombia's coal output to hit 65.3-million tonnes this year, up around 10% on 2021 but below the 80.3 million tonnes reported in 2019, higher prices have boosted the mining sector's export value, the organization said.

Diversified miner South32 has signed a gas supply agreement with ASX-listed companies Central Petroleum and New Zealand Oil 7 Gas for the supply of gas to its Cannington operations, in Queensland. Under the agreements, New Zealand Oil & Gas will supply 0.38 PJ of gas over two years, starting in January 2023, while Central Petroleum will supply 0.55 PJ of gas over the same period.

ASX-listed Queensland Pacific Metals (QPM) has received all of the primary approvals for the construction of its Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub (TECH) base metals project, in Queensland. The company on Thursday said it had been granted a development permit under the Planning Act and environmental authority under the Environmental Protection Act. Coupled with the approval received in November from the Australian federal government, QPM now has all primary approvals required to begin construction of the TECH project.

California-based exploration firm KoBold Metals, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify battery metal deposits, is investing $150-million to develop a copper mine in Zambia, the company announced at the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, DC. KoBold's investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate and technology fund founded by Microsoft's Bill Gates and backed by Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Virgin's Richard Branson.