First Quantum to hold board meeting in Panama – source
Reuters | February 1, 2023 | 

Panama City, Panama. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Directors of First Quantum Minerals will meet in Panama this week for a board meeting, a source close to the Canadian company said on Wednesday, in the midst of a longstanding dispute over its contract with the government to operate a major copper mine.


Panama’s government and First Quantum are negotiating a contract for the operations of the Cobre Panama mine, with taxes and royalties at the forefront of discussions.


The board meeting had been previously scheduled, and there are no plans at this time for executives to meet with the government, the source said.

“They will visit the mine in a show of commitment to Cobre Panama and its employees,” the source added about the visit of directors and members of the executive management team.

A spokesperson for the company did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Both parties are negotiating under pressure since Panama’s government issued an order for the firm to halt its mining operations, and First Quantum started arbitration proceedings.

The Canadian miner said it would suspend a “significant amount” of jobs if forced to halt its Panamanian operations.

The Cobre Panama mine is a lucrative asset. It accounted for more than half of First Quantum’s earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in 2021 and represents about 3.5% of Panama’s gross domestic product.

Panama’s commerce and industry minister Federico Alfaro told Reuters in January his preferred outcome is to reach a deal with the miner before the 90-day cooling period stipulated in the arbitration under a Canada-Panama trade pact ends.

The 90-day period started on Dec. 23, the government said.

(By Valentine Hilaire; Editing by Diane Craft)

Brazil’s miners want Europe to help fight Amazon gold havoc

Bloomberg News | February 1, 2023 | 

Aerial view of deforested area of the Amazon rainforest caused by illegal mining activities in Brazil. (Image: Imago Photo | Adobe Stock.)

Brazil’s mining industry is seeking Europe’s help in the fight against illegal gold extraction in the Amazon region by buying only certified metal and punishing transgressors.


Raul Jungmann, who heads Brazilian mining institute Ibram, said he reached out to Frans Timmermans when the executive vice-president for the European Commission visited Brazil last week. Jungmann is also asking for support from Brazil’s Foreign Ministry.


Brazil’s formal mining sector wants importing nations to require and enforce origin control in a move that’s in line with the recent approval of a deal to curb Europe’s role in global deforestation through its supply chains for key commodities. Illegal mining in the Amazon biome contributes to deforestation and disrupts indigenous groups.

“We can’t look to Brazil only,” Jungmann said in an interview. “The importers are part of this chain that destroys the Amazon.”

Instituto Escolhas found that half of Brazilian gold sold between 2015 and 2020 had severe evidence of illegality. In a report, the sustainability organization said foreign buyers could classify Brazil as a high-risk conflict area. Switzerland accounted for 15% of the gold mined in Brazil last year.

The damage caused by illegal and informal mining, known in Brazil as garimpo, has come under the spotlight in recent weeks after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s government declared a public health emergency for the Yanomami indigenous population in the Amazon, where an illegal gold rush is fueling a surge in land destruction. The Yanomami have been suffering from malnutrition and hunger as wildcat miners invade their territories and contaminate soil and river water.

Jungmann, a former minister of defense, sees illegal mining as a crime that should be fought with the help of the armed forces. Large mining firms are keen to distance themselves from illegal operators to protect their reputations.

“One front is to block wildcat miners’ access to the market, but we can’t give up on repressing the activity,” he said.

One of the goals of the formal mining industry and non-governmental organizations is to create a traceability system to establish a DNA for Brazilian gold.

Efforts include recruiting Brazil’s Central Bank, Federal Police, the Internal Revenue Service and securities regulator CVM. This month, the CVM started investigating Ibram’s complaints against the five largest securities dealers that buy and export gold from Amazon mines.

Critical minerals

Ibram, which represents 90% of mining companies in Brazil, wants Lula’s government to create a national policy to promote critical mineral industries as well as measures to curb dependence on imported fertilizers.

Jungmann said the industry is preparing a proposal to present to Congress and the ministries of mining and industry, including measures to promote investments in mineral research and exports.

“There will be no transition to a low-carbon economy without an increase in the production of strategic minerals such as lithium,” he said.

(By Mariana Durao)

US detains Chinese aluminum suspected of forced-labor origin

Bloomberg News | February 1, 2023 |

Stock image.

The US is beginning to detain imports of aluminum products suspected of being made through forced labor, particularly from China’s Xinjiang region, according to one of the world’s biggest shipping firms.


US Customs and Border Protection has begun issuing “detention notices” for such products, AP Moller-Maersk A/S said Tuesday on its website, adding that the action will most likely target aluminum used in automotive parts.


Allegations by the US and other countries of forced labor in Xinjiang, which Beijing has denied, are among a constellation of frictions between the world’s two biggest economies that increasingly see each other as their top strategic competitor.

The CBP wasn’t immediately able to respond to a request for comment.

Aluminum, and items made from the metal, now join cotton, tomatoes and polysilicon, in coming under scrutiny over links to the region, officially known as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The CBP in late December or early January began issuing detention notices naming aluminum as a fourth product, according to law firm Miller & Chevalier.

The enforcement falls under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which was signed by President Joe Biden in late 2021. Under the law, companies will have to document that goods sourced from or produced in Xinjiang aren’t sourced from forced labor.

“Companies importing aluminum products, or commodities with aluminum components, should be proactive in ensuring compliance with the UFLPA,” Maersk said in the advisory. “This may include conducting due diligence on their supply chain and implementing compliance programs.”

The impact on America’s aluminum markets will likely be small. The US imports virtually no primary aluminum from China, and less than 24,000 metric tons of value-added products per month, according to US trade data.

Aluminum on the London Metal Exchange ended the day down 0.5%. Despite the lack of immediate market impact, physical traders said they’re seeking clarity on what the customs authorities are looking at.

(By Joe Deaux, with assistance from Justin Sink)

WAIT, WHAT?

Seriti to build South Africa’s largest wind farm to power coal mines
Cecilia Jamasmie | February 2, 2023

Overberg wind farm in Western Cape, South Africa.

 (Stock photo by Amazing Aerial Agency.)

South African coal producer Seriti Resources has inked a long-term agreement to build the country’s largest wind farm to power its operations.


The 155-megawatt (MW), 4 billion rand ($236 million) project by Seriti’s green energy unit, Seriti Green, will be located in the nation’s coal-rich Mpumalanga province.

Construction of the wind farm will take about two years and it is expected to generate about 75% of the electricity Seriti needs to run its coal mines in South Africa.

The energy produced at the plant is also slated to be cheaper — as much as 40% less expensive — than buying electricity from Eskom, the company said.

“This agreement is a meaningful step that further cements the significance of the inclusion of renewable energy through Seriti Green into the Group’s existing portfolio of high-quality coal assets to lower its carbon footprint and ensure long- term sustainability as a diversified energy producer,” Seriti’s chief executive Mike Teke, said in the statement.

The move is a clear example on an ongoing switch among miners to renewables due to struggling state power utility Eskom’s inability to meet demand.

LBMA implements optical AI technology to trace gold bars’ provenance

Staff Writer | February 2, 2023 |

Gold bar. (Image by Bullion Vault, Flickr.)

The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) announced that it has added optical AI developer Alitheon to the pool of five companies that support the Gold Bar Integrity (GBI) initiative.


The GBI was launched in March 2022 by the LBMA and the World Gold Council with the goal of digitally monitoring gold moving through the global supply chain by confirming provenance and providing transparency over the chain of custody. This, in turn, with the expectation of mitigating illicit trade risks and reducing the chance of fraudulent bars entering the formal supply chain.

Alitheon is the only US-based company to be selected and its work will consist of identifying, authenticating, and tracing each individual bar, be it a small minted bar or a large investment-grade cast bar.

The American firm’s FeaturePrint technology will be put to use to ensure provenance by irrefutably identifying counterfeited and illegally-sourced precious metals throughout the supply chain.

In a press release, Alitheon explained that FeaturePrint uses a standard off-the-shelf camera or mobile phone to take an image of any object such as a gold bar. Its machine vision algorithms are then applied to identify and convert various details of the object into a unique digital fingerprint. This digital fingerprint enables irrefutable identification, authentication, and traceability, and mitigates the need to add any sort of visible or invisible markers, tags, or stickers to the bars.

In addition to gold and precious metals, the solution also works for identifying, authenticating, tracking and tracing a range of applications including luxury goods, art and collectibles, computer boards, automotive parts, pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

“We applaud LBMA and its members as together we work to secure the world’s gold and precious metals reserves and supply chains,” Alitheon CEO Roei Ganzarski said in the media brief.

“Companies and consumers are used to having data at their fingertips. Now they can be sure the gold bar or gold product they are buying is authentic, ethically sourced, and legal, from a simple photo taken on their phone.”

Freeport Indonesia’s $3bn copper smelter to be completed by end of 2023

Reuters | February 2, 2023

The $3-billion facility in Gresik, East Java, will have a capacity of 1.7 million tonnes of copper concentrate. (File image.)

The construction of US mining giant Freeport McMoRan’s Indonesian copper smelter, one of the biggest in the world, will be completed by the end of this year, an official at its Indonesian unit said on Thursday.


The $3 billion facility in Gresik, East Java, will have capacity of 1.7 million tonnes of copper concentrate and is expected to start operations gradually in 2024.

Agung Laksamana, Freeport Indonesia’s executive vice president of external affairs, said that “substantial” construction of the smelter would reach 100% completion by the end of 2023.

He said the current completion rate was 51.7%.

Freeport’s statement comes as President Joko Widodo reiterated this week that the country would stick to its plan to ban exports of copper ore to spur domestic processing of the material in June.

Asked about whether Freeport would be allowed to export beyond June if its smelters were not ready, the president told Reuters on Wednesday that while he has not decided on any leniency, he would try to find a solution without reversing the ban. Widodo blamed Freeport’s smelter delay on the pandemic.

Freeport Indonesia said last week its copper output in 2023 is seen at about 1.6 billion pounds (725,748 tonnes).

(By Bernadette Christina, Gayatri Suroyo, Kate Lamb, Ananda Teresia and Stanley Widianto; Editing by Ed Davies)

Gold Fields disputes Ghana tax bill
Reuters | February 2, 2023 | 

Gold Fields’ Tarkwa mine in Ghana. Credit: Excelsis via YouTube

South Africa-listed gold miner Gold Fields on Thursday said it is disputing tax payments demanded by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) after an audit and is working with the tax authority to resolve the matter.


Gold Fields, which has three gold-mining operations in Ghana, said it could not disclose the size of the back taxes bill but said it is “nowhere close” to the amount Ghana has demanded from mobile operator MTN.

The Ghana tax authority last month slammed mobile operator MTN with a $773 million bill for back taxes after auditing it for the years 2014 to 2018, an assessment MTN is fighting as well.

The GRA audit of Gold Fields covered the period 2018 to 2020, according to a statement from the company. The GRA did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

“Ghana is clearly facing its fiscal and economic challenges at the moment, but we are hopeful that the government will not resort to unreasonable fiscal measures that will further imperil the challenges facing the corporate sector,” Gold Fields spokesman Sven Lunsche said.

One of West Africa’s largest economies, Ghana is facing an economic crisis that saw consumer inflation rise to 54.1% in December and the central bank hike its main interest rate to 28% on Monday.

(By Helen Reid and Cooper Inveen; Editing by Mark Porter)

(NANO) Silver proves effective for fighting superbugs

Staff Writer | February 3, 2023 |

Silver-coloured particles. (Reference image from Hippopx.)

Researchers at the University of Florida have found that a combination of silver nanoparticles and antibiotics is effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a finding that can lead to the development of viable treatments for some types of hard-to-fight infections.


In a paper published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, the scientists explain that antibiotic-resistant infections kill more than a million people globally each year. For centuries, silver has been known to have antimicrobial properties. However, silver nanoparticles—microscopic spheres of silver small enough to operate at the cellular level—represent a new frontier in using the precious metal to fight bacteria.

In this study, the research team tested whether commercially available silver nanoparticles boost the power of antibiotics and enable these drugs to counter the very bacteria that have evolved to withstand them.

“We found that the silver nanoparticles and a common class of broad-spectrum antibiotics called aminoglycosides work together synergistically,” Daniel Czyż, senior author of the study, said in a media statement. “When combined with a small amount of silver nanoparticles, the amount of antibiotic needed to inhibit the bacteria decreased 22-fold, which tells us that the nanoparticles make the drug much more potent.

According to Czyż, aminoglycosides can have negative side effects, so using silver nanoparticles could allow for a lower dose of antibiotic, reducing those side effects.

Czyż and the study’s lead author Autumn Dove pointed out that over the last several decades, overuse of antibiotics had led to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and a decline in the effectiveness of traditional antibiotic drugs. The new findings indicate that silver nanoparticles have the potential to renew the effectiveness of some of these drugs.

“Let’s say you get a bad burn on your hand, and it gets infected with one of these resistant strains of bacteria,” Dove said. “It’s possible that dressing that burn with a combination of silver nanoparticles and antibiotics could both clear that infection and prevent those resistant bacteria from spreading elsewhere.”

Though antibiotics mainly target bacteria, they can also damage human and animal cells. Using a microscopic worm called C. elegans, the researchers confirmed that the silver nanoparticles did not also make the antibiotic more toxic to non-bacterial cells.

Building on these results, the scientists’ next plan is to seek FDA authorization for clinical trials and work with the University of Florida’s Innovate to patent an antimicrobial product that uses silver nanoparticles.

Canada faces pressure to ban deep-sea mining

MINING.COM Editor | February 3, 2023 | 

The Metals Co, formerly known as DeepGreen, intends to produce metals from polymetalic rocks, found in deep oceans.(Image courtesy of The Metals Company.)

Canada is facing mounting pressure to declare a moratorium on deep-sea mining exploration and extraction as the country hosts an international marine conservation summit starting Friday in Vancouver.


Leading to the the fifth International Marine Protected Area Congress (IMPAC5), international scientists and environmental organizations have called on Ottawa to ban the activity.

They want Canada to join a growing numbers of countries including Germany, France, Spain, Chile, Costa Rica, New Zealand and Panama among others, which have asked the United Nations-affiliated International Seabed Authority (ISA) to don’t rush into enacting mining regulations by July 2023 — a deadline set in 2021.

Other nations such as Brazil, the Netherlands, Portugal, Singapore and Switzerland have indicated they would not approve any mining contracts until sufficient environmental protections for the seabed are in place, regardless of the deadline set to adopt regulations.

Google and automakers BMW, Renault, Volkswagen and Volvo have pledged not to use deep-sea metals for the time being, and 704 marine scientists and policy experts from 44 countries have endorsed a petition advocating a pause in seabed mining.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea treaty established the ISA in 1994 to regulate mining in international waters while at the same time ensuring the protection of the marine environment.

At the time, the deep sea was considered a muddy, lifeless abyss, albeit one rich in cobalt, nickel and other metals potentially worth trillions of dollars. Scientists now believe that mining the seabed for minerals and metals needed for the world’s energy transition could destroy undiscovered species, with a role in the global climate that remains little understood

.

Targeted area are believe to have low biodiversity. 

( Image of an ocean floor cleaning mission by U.S. Marine Corps Photo | Lance Cpl. Nicole Rogge.)

Oceans cover more than 70% of the planet, but only 5% of that area has been explored and charted by humans.

“Canada has made commitments to reverse biodiversity loss, fight climate change, and to foster equity and transparency in both environmental initiatives and international governance,” Susanna Fuller, vice-president of operations and projects at non-profit Oceans North, said last year. “None of those things are compatible with deep seabed mining.”

Since 2001, ISA has issued exploration contracts to state-backed enterprises, government agencies and private companies to prospect for minerals over more than 500,000 square miles of the seabed in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans.

Once it sets mining regulations, potentially in five months, those contractors will be able to apply for an exploitation license to start mining.

Each mining contractor must be sponsored by an ISA member nation and pay it and the ISA royalties on the minerals mined.

Almost half of all critical metals needed

The U.S. Geological Survey found last year that deep-ocean mines could provide up to 45% of all the world’s critical metal needs by 2065.

One of the miners that has advanced the most in the past years is The Metals Company (NASDAQ: TMC), formerly Deep Green Metals.

The Canadian battery metals start-up recently lifted 3,000 tonnes of nodules from the Clarion–Clipperton Zone, a valuable stretch of ocean floor between Mexico and Hawaii.

The miner says its two exploration contracts in the the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) of the Pacific Ocean comprise enough in situ metal for 280 million electric vehicles.

The polymetallic nodule fields in the CCZ of the Pacific represent the largest known, undeveloped nickel resource on the planet.

Last week, Norway announced it had discovered a “substantial” amount metals and minerals ranging from copper to rare earth metals on the seabed of its extended continental shelf.

The resources estimate, covering remote areas in the Norwegian Sea and Greenland Sea, indicates that there are 38 million tonnes of copper, almost twice the volume mined globally each year, and 45 million tonnes of zinc accumulated in polymetallic sulphides.

(With files from Reuters and Bloomberg)

Mexico invites foreign investment in clean energy transition


Thu, 2 February 2023 


Mexico welcomes investment by all countries in its clean energy projects, its foreign minister said on Thursday, launching a diplomatic charm offensive amid international concerns over controversial power reforms.

Several dozen ambassadors were taken on a visit to a giant solar park being built in Puerto Penasco in the desert in northern Mexico using photovoltaic panels made in China.

"We want to invite all the countries of the world, all the companies of the world" to "participate, invest, be part of the future of Mexico," Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said.

The first phase of the solar plant is due to be inaugurated in April by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, according to officials.

Once completed, the park will be able to supply 1.6 million electricity users, thanks to an estimated investment totaling $1.6 billion, according to state power provider CFE.

Mexico pledged at the COP27 climate talks in Egypt in November to strengthen its emissions-cutting efforts as part of a $48 billion renewable energy investment scheme with the United States.

The Latin American nation previously committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 22 percent from the business-as-usual levels by 2030, but will increase that to 35 percent, Ebrard said at the time.

The Mexican-US collaboration in renewable power comes despite tensions between the neighbors over Lopez Obrador's efforts to boost the state's role in the energy sector.

Mexico faces a formal trade complaint from Washington and Ottawa, which say the reforms hurt foreign investors and favor polluting fossil fuels over clean energy.

st-dr/tjj