ECOCIDE

World’s top copper producer closes smelter in ‘Chile’s Chernobyl’

By AFP
Published May 31, 2023

More than 100 people, mostly school children, suffered sulfur dioxide poisoning in an area near the Codelco smelter in 2022 - Copyright AFP Pablo VERA

Chile’s state-owned Codelco copper company, the world’s top producer of the metal, closed its Ventanas smelter Wednesday in an area dubbed “Chile’s Chernobyl” for the grim environmental impact of heavy industry.

The smelter’s operational boss Pablo Bohler symbolically gave the order for the shutdown after six decades of operation in an area that also hosts plants and factories of more than a dozen other companies.

Codelco’s nearby copper refinery will remain operational.

Codelco announced it would close the Ventanas smelter after an incident in June last year when more than 100 people, mostly schoolchildren, suffered sulfur dioxide poisoning in the area around Quintero and Puchuncavi — two coastal towns that are home to some 50,000 people.

It had been the second such incident in three days.

Quintero and Puchuncavi have been deemed “sacrifice zones” since 1958, when the Chilean government converted what had been a fishing and farming community into an industrial hub.

The area now hosts four coal-fired power stations as well as oil and copper refineries.

Greenpeace described the area around the Ventanas plant as “Chile’s Chernobyl” following a serious incident in 2018 when around 600 people were treated for symptoms such as vomiting blood, headaches, dizziness and paralysis of the extremities.

“Today the furnaces of the smelter are extinguished, but not the conviction of building a fairer Chile in which all inhabitants have the right to live their lives” in safety, President Gabriel Boric said Wednesday.

Some of the smelter’s 766 workers will be moved to other jobs, while the rest will leave Codelco under a severance deal with the company that supplies eight percent of the world’s copper.

Last year, Chile’s environmental superintendent ordered six companies operating in the area to “limit their productive activity, without harming the primary supply” and instructed that measures be taken to reduce pollution from Codelco operations.

Codelco shuts Ventanas smelter in move towards sustainable mining

Reuters | May 31, 2023 | 

The Ventanas smelter and refinery. (Image courtesy of Codelco).

Chile’s state-owned Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, on Wednesday closed its Ventanas metal smelter in the country’s central coast, following environmental incidents in the region that tainted its operations.


The mining company decided last year to shut down the facility in the town of Quintero, located some 108 kilometers (67 miles) northwest of the capital, after authorities declared an environmental emergency due to pollution that left dozens suffering from symptoms of sulfur dioxide emission poisoning.

“The transformation of the Ventanas division is clear evidence that this corporation is moving decisively towards more sustainable mining,” said Maximo Pacheco, chairman of the board, during the event for the unit’s closing.

Codelco has stated that its shifting to produce more sustainable copper to meet growing environmental demands from both buyers and the Chilean government.

Authorities did not directly attribute the incident to Codelco’s smelter. More than a dozen large businesses, including fossil fuel, cement and electricity companies, operate in the area.

Environmentalists have called Quintero and its surroundings a “sacrifice zone” for repeated pollution incidents that have caused public health emergencies.

Codelco halted work in the smelter last year while it completed the legal process to close it, which required applying some operational adjustments indicated by the environmental regulator.

Union workers initially opposed the closure but later reached an agreement with the firm. More than half of the workforce accepted a voluntary retirement plan.

(By Fabian Andres Cambero; Editing by John Stonestreet and Marguerita Choy)

Toyota pledges $2.1bn more for EV battery plant in North Carolina

Reuters | May 31, 2023 |

Credit: Toyota Motor Corp.

Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday it will invest $2.1 billion more in its new US battery plant in North Carolina, as the Japanese automaker deepens efforts to tap rising demand for electric vehicles.


The automaker also said its first US-made battery electric sports utility vehicles (SUVs) will be assembled at the company’s Kentucky plant from 2025.

The new SUVs, with three rows of seats, will be powered by batteries from the North Carolina plant once it begins production in 2025.

Toyota’s latest investment in the battery plant brings the total to $5.9 billion.

The facility, its planned hub for developing and producing lithium-ion batteries, will have six battery production lines – four for hybrid electric vehicles and two for battery electric vehicles.

Seeking to solidify its foothold in the EV sector, Toyota has said it will introduce 10 new battery-powered vehicles, targeting sales of 1.5 million EVs a year by 2026.

(By Aishwarya Nair; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

Zijin urges Colombia to protect gold mine after attack
Bloomberg News | May 31, 2023 

Buritica is located in the middle Cauca belt, in Colombia’s northwest. (Image courtesy of Zijin Continental Gold.)

China’s Zijin Mining Group is asking the Colombian government to retake control of the territory surrounding its Buritica gold mine after the operation suffered a new attack.


One worker was shot Monday, and on Tuesday vehicles were incinerated, prompting an evacuation of the gold mine in Antioquia province, the company said. That comes after two contract workers were killed and 14 other people were injured, including 4 members of the police, on May 17.

“Intervention in the Buritica mine is urgent,” Colombian unit Zijin-Continental Gold said in a statement posted on Twitter. “Illegal mining activities haven’t stopped and, on the contrary, have become more aggressive with the use of explosions, detonations and weapons.”

Miners aren’t the only ones suffering attacks. Earlier this year, an oil field-services trade group warned crude output will decline this year partly because of pipeline bombings and civil disorder.

Environmental platform urges more than 1,600 high-emitting firms to disclose data

Reuters | May 31, 2023 | 

Stock image.

More than 1,600 companies identified by non-profit platform CDP as having the biggest impact on the environment are not disclosing environmental data, it said as it launched its latest campaign to get firms to provide the information.


CDP, which has standardised data to allow investors and others to compare corporate performance in areas like climate change, water and deforestation, said 288 financial institutions with around $29 trillion in assets will write to the companies to urge them to disclose the data.


The companies targeted in the 2023 campaign include repeat non-disclosers such as Exxon Mobil, Glencore and Caterpillar, CDP said in a statement.

Exxon said it had a plan “to reduce emissions to support a net-zero future while growing value for our shareholders and stakeholders.”

In an emailed statement, the oil giant said between 2016 and end-2021 it had cut the emissions from its own operations and reduced methane emissions intensity from operated assets, and it had hiked the amount it plans to invest on lower-emission initiatives.

Glencore declined to comment.

Caterpillar did not respond to a request for comment.

Collectively, the non-disclosers emit an estimated +4,200 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent annually – which CDP said was almost equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions of the United Kingdom, the European Union and Canada combined.

CDP works to help small groups of lead shareholders target companies and ratchet up pressure on boards to listen, said Claire Elsdon, CDP’s joint global director of capital markets.

Financial institutions need the data “to support risk management practices, tracking portfolio alignment to net zero goals and unlocking sustainability-linked opportunities,” she said. “These uses can serve to not only safeguard but also boost long-term profitability,” Elsdon said.

Since it launched in 2017, CDP has expanded the universe of companies it targets for data disclosure. That has meant the number of non-disclosing companies targeted this year is higher than in its 2022 campaign.

Despite the progress, disclosure remains a problem in high-emitting sectors and getting laggards to submit data will prove tricky, she acknowledged.

Overall, about 50% of companies across sectors disclose environmental data, Elsdon told Reuters.

The 2022 campaign delivered responses from 388 high-impact companies out of nearly 1,500 targeted, and CDP said firms were 2.3 times more likely to disclose if they were directly engaged by financial institutions.

Investors targeting non-dislosing companies this year include Sumitomo Life Insurance, AQR and Legal & General Investment Management.

(By Tommy Reggiori Wilkes; Editing by Sharon Singleton and David Gregorio)

Tsingshan, Eramet confirm $1.7 billion Argentina plan
Reuters | June 1, 2023 |

Image: Tsingshan Holding Group.

China’s top nickel producer Tsingshan and French mining group Eramet confirmed a planned investment of more than $1.7 billion in Argentina, the company said in a statement on Thursday.


John Li, president director of Tsingshan South America Lithium Resources Development Co Ltd, said he hoped the Argentinian government would introduce more policies and measures related to investment, it said.

Li made the comment when Argentina’s Minister of Economy Sergio T. Massa and Ambassador to China Sabino Vaca Narvaja visited Tsingshan Industry on May 31.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; editing by Jason Neely)

Governments must speed up mine permits to meet transition needs – Teck CEO

Reuters | June 1, 2023 |

Teck CEO Jonathan Price. (Credit: BHP)

Governments need to speed up permitting of new mines to boost their chances to meet a surge in demand for minerals vital to feed the clean energy transition, Teck Resources chief executive Jonathan Price said on Thursday.


“Across government and industry, there is growing awareness that supporting the low-carbon transition and our growing population means meeting new demand for critical minerals,” Price said, speaking at the Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce in London, where Teck opened an office last year.

“And that means working together to get new mines online faster.”

Price’s remarks come as Teck tries to fend off an unsolicited and unwanted takeover bid from Glencore, while reworking a plan to separate its copper and zinc business from the steelmaking coal unit that failed to secure enough shareholder support in April.

As pressure rises on mining companies to procure minerals needed to build electric vehicles and infrastructure, approvals for new mines can take from 2-3 years to more than a decade. The yawning divide between Western countries’ and China’s approaches to funding supply chains is becoming a top concern for policymakers.

Canada, where Teck has its primary listing, last year pledged to review the permitting process with an eye on cutting the time required to bring mines online by avoiding duplication and ensuring early Indigenous consultation and engagement.

Mining companies are hyper alert to concerns opposing projects that might destroy sacred land or gobble up water and other resources essential to the livelihood of local communities.

“Miners need to do a better job not just meeting, but exceeding ESG expectations to justify getting new production online faster,” Price said.

“If you (a mining company) don’t have a strong ESG track record, you simply won’t get the necessary support of governments, communities, and Indigenous Peoples needed to operate and grow,” he added.

(Reporting by Clara Denina; Editing by Kim Coghill)

AI helps find untapped mineral deposits

New model could possibly be used to predict the locations of minerals on Earth and potentially other planets

Mining.com

about 17 hours ago

Researchers are deploying machine learning to better predict mineral deposits

Nazar Abbas Photography/Moment/Getty Images

Researchers at the Carnegie Institution for Science and other universities and organizations across the US have developed a machine learning model that can predict the locations of minerals on Earth -- and potentially other planets -- by taking advantage of patterns in mineral associations.

In a paper published in the journal PNAS Nexus, the scientists explain that, for a long time, finding occurrences of specific minerals has been both an art and a science, as the task relies on individual experience, along with a healthy dose of luck.

Their tool, however, uses data from the Mineral Evolution Database, which includes 295,583 mineral localities of 5,478 mineral species, to predict previously unknown occurrences based on association rules. The authors tested their model by exploring the Tecopa basin in the Mojave Desert, a well-known Mars analog environment.

“Mineral association analysis quantifies high-dimensional multi-correlations in mineral localities across the globe, enabling the identification of previously unknown mineral occurrences, as well as mineral assemblages and their associated paragenetic modes,” the report reads.

The model was able to predict the locations of geologically important minerals, including uraninite alteration, rutherfordine, andersonite, schröckingerite, bayleyite and zippeite.

In addition to this, the model located promising areas for critical rare earth elements and lithium minerals, including monazite-(Ce), allanite-(Ce), and spodumene.

Once this was done, the researchers tested and confirmed several of these mineral occurrence predictions in nature, thereby ground-truthing the method.

“Mineral association analysis can be a powerful predictive tool for mineralogists, petrologists, economic geologists, and planetary scientists,” the authors said in a media statement. “[It] will enhance our understanding of mineralization and mineralizing environments on earth, across our solar system, and through deep time.”

ECOCIDE MINING IS UNSUSTAINABLE
Indonesian copper miner Amman aims to raise $880 million in IPO
Reuters | May 31, 2023 | 11:15 am Markets Asia Copper

Image courtesy of PT Amman Mineral

Indonesian copper miner Amman Mineral Internasional aims to raise up to 12.94 trillion rupiah ($880.6 million) in a listing scheduled for June 28 to July 3, it said in its prospectus on Wednesday.


The listing would be the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in Southeast Asia this year, according to Refinitiv data, surpassing the listing of Indonesian nickel producer Trimegah Bangun Persada, known as Harita Nickel, that raised 10 trillion rupiah in April.

Indonesia’s IPO market is one of the world’s hottest this year. First-time share sales have raised $1.58 billion as of April, second only to China in the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan and ahead of traditional powerhouse Hong Kong, according to Refinitiv data.

The announcement of the Amman Mineral IPO comes a day after agri-food giant Olam Group said it did not expect the dual listing of its agricultural unit, Olam Agri, in Singapore and Saudi Arabia to be completed in the first half of this year as originally planned, citing failure to obtain “all the necessary regulatory approvals”.

Amman Mineral’s prospectus showed book building is set to start on Wednesday with an offering price in a range of 1,650 rupiah to 1,775 rupiah per share.

The Jakarta-headquarted company will use IPO proceeds to pay off some debt and fund several projects, including completing a copper smelter it is building in Sumbawa island, it said in its prospectus.

The smelter, which has input capacity of 900,000 tonnes of copper concentrate to produce 220,000 tonnes of copper cathode annually, will cost the company $983 million in total, company and government data showed.

The Indonesian government in April exempted Amman until May 2024 from a planned June ban on raw mineral exports, to give the firm a revenue stream to complete the smelter project, which was half-finished as of January.

A unit of Amman Mineral, part of Indonesian energy group Medco Energi Internasional, operates the Batu Hijau mine in the West Nusa Tenggara province.

Amman Mineral Internasional acquired the Batu Hijau mine from US miner Newmont Mining Corp and Japan’s Sumitomo Corp and its partners in 2016.

A strong market debut by Amman Mineral on July 5 could boost sentiment for upcoming IPOs in Indonesia this year.

They include Pertamina Hulu Energi, the upstream arm of Pertamina, that could raise at least 20 trillion rupiah, and state-owned fertilizer company Pupuk Kalimantan Timur that could raise $500 million.

($1 = 14,695.0000 rupiah)

(By Fransiska Nangoy, Bernadette Christina, Ananda Teresia and Yantoultra Ngui; Editing by Tom Hogue and Kanupriya Kapoor)

GEOLOGY/GEMOLOGY

Petra Diamonds sells half its stake in Williamson mine
Cecilia Jamasmie | May 31, 2023 |

Williamson open pit mine in Tanzania. (Image courtesy of Petra Diamonds | Twitter Feed.)

Petra Diamonds (LON: PDL) said on Wednesday it had inked a definitive deal to sell 50% of its stake in the Williamson diamond mine in Tanzania to local technical services contractor Taifa Mining for $15 million.


The transaction, the diamonds miner said, includes the sale of prorated portion of shareholder loans that its 75%-owned local unit Williamson Diamonds Limited (WDL) owes Taifa for past technical services.

Petra anticipates it will receive the funds in installments over the next five years, after the transaction closes, expected by the end of 2023.

WDL, the operator of the Williamson mine, is currently 25% owned by Tanzania and 75% by Petra, which acquired its majority interest in the operation in 2009.

Petra entered into a framework agreement with the country’s government in December 2021. It was agreed at the time that the miner’s effective interest in WDL would decrease to 63%, boosting Tanzania’s share to 37%.

Upon completion of the transaction Petra and Pink Diamonds, a company affiliated to Taifa, will each indirectly hold a 31.5% interest in WDL, with Petra retaining a controlling interest.

“This new structure will reduce our equity interest in Williamson whilst retaining control and maintaining a share of the upside,” Petra Diamonds chief executive Richard Duffy said in the statement.

“Williamson holds a unique place in the sector with its significant resource base and ability to produce high quality pink diamonds. In a supply constrained sector, this asset has the potential to become increasingly valuable,” Duffy said

.

A 16.39-carat pink diamond recovered at Williamson in 2014. 

(Image courtesy of Petra Diamonds.)

BMO analyst Raj Ray said the move is a good one for Petra, given that the bank currently values Williamson at negative $4 million. “Over five years we see it as incrementally positive compared to our estimate,” he said.

The Williamson diamond mine holds the world’s largest kimberlite deposit surface area, with reserves and resources of 37.7 million carats as of 30 June 2022.

In November last year, Petra Diamonds halted operations following the partial collapse of the mine’s tailings storage facility (TSF). The company expects to reopen Williamson in August this year.

The operation has been active since 1940, and it is located in Shinyanga, one of Tanzania’s poorest regions. It produced a 54.5-carat pink diamond presented to UK Queen Elizabeth II for her wedding in 1947.

Glencore plans $1.5 billion investment to expand Antapaccay copper mine in Peru
Reuters | May 31, 2023 | 

Antapaccay copper mine in Peru. (Photo: Glencore)

Mining giant Glencore Plc plans to invest $1.5 billion on an expansion project at its Antapaccay mine in Peru, up from $590 million announced previously, a company executive said, in a bid to unlock the stalled plan key to maintaining copper output.


Carlos Cotera, general manager of Antapaccay Mining Co, told Reuters the Glencore unit was pushing forward the “Coroccohuayco” project, which aims to extend the mine’s lifespan by decades. In recent years, production has been stalled as the quality of ore grades declined.

“The Coroccohuayco project means expanding the life of the mine until at least 2045 or 2050, that’s our forecast,” Cotera said on Monday evening on the sidelines of a mining forum in Lima. “We estimate the investment will exceed $1.5 billion.”

The electric car revolution has sharply boosted forecasts for global copper demand in the coming years with many analysts expecting a supply deficit after production and investment has slowed in key regions. Peru is the world’s No. 2 copper producer, with neighbor Chile No. 1.

Cotera said annual production at Antapaccay, one of Peru’s largest copper mines, has fallen steadily from 221,000 tonnes in 2016 to around 150,000 tonnes now, making the expansion project important.

“We are confident that for at least the first 10 years of Coroccohuayco’s operation copper production will be around 250,000 tonnes of copper per year,” Cotera said.

The project has been delayed by social unrest in the province where the mine is located. In September 2022, residents of Espinar opposing the expansion project blocked part of an Andes mining corridor for a few days.

Antapaccay said at that time the plan was “under review.” The corridor was also blocked during recent unrest following former President Pedro Castillo’s ouster.

Cotera said the firm is now examining Coroccohuayco’s “pre-feasibility study” and expects approval in the second half of 2024 before moving to a full feasibility study.

(By Marco Aquino and Alexander Villegas; Editing by Adam Jourdan and David Gregorio)