It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, April 19, 2026
CO
Congo creates strategic cobalt reserve to influence supply and prices
Democratic Republic of Congo has established a strategic reserve for cobalt and other critical minerals, the national minerals regulator said on Thursday, strengthening its ability to stockpile unused export quotas and exert more control over global supplies.
Under a decree adopted by the cabinet on April 10, management of the strategic reserve has been handed to the markets regulator ARECOMS, which is now authorized to acquire, hold and market strategic minerals, the agency said in a statement.
Congo is the world’s largest producer of cobalt, a critical component of electric vehicle batteries, and accounted for about 70% of global supplies last year.
Congo shipped about 48,800 metric tons of cobalt in the first quarter of this year, compared with roughly 123,000 tons in the same period last year, when exports were frontloaded before the four-month freeze on exports.
Under the quota framework, Congo said it would reserve 10% of national cobalt export volumes for strategic use by the state. For 2026, that amounted to 9,600 metric tons.
In March, Congo also warned miners that any export quota volumes that fail to ship within set deadlines would be transferred to the government’s strategic quota. Companies that did not export their allocated fourth-quarter 2025 quotas by April 30 and first-quarter 2026 quotas by end-June would lose them to the reserve, the regulator said.
The strategic reserve announced on Thursday will serve as the government’s vehicle for managing its quota volumes.
China’s CMOC and Glencore, the world’s top producers of cobalt, operate in Congo, alongside Eurasian Resources Group, Huayou and Chinese-controlled Sicomines, among other miners.
The strategic reserve gives the state an additional lever to intervene in global cobalt markets, complementing the quota policy aimed at rebalancing prices, ARECOMS said.
“It will allow the Congolese state to intervene in a targeted manner regarding the quantities of strategic mineral substances available in order to maintain the balance of the international market and contribute to strengthening its economic sovereignty.”
Congo designated cobalt, coltan and germanium as strategic minerals under a 2018 decree, effectively placing their production and export under enhanced state oversight.
(By Maxwell Akalaare Adombila; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
CU
Copper price within sight of all-time high as Chinese smelters hit record activity
Copper ended the week up more than 5% reaching a 10-week high at the close on Friday. At $6.11 per pound ($13,480 a tonne) in New York, May futures are back to within shouting distance of the all-time high closing price struck at the end of January, the day before the start of the Iran war.
The positive trend was underscored by new satellite data showing March smelter activity continuing to improve after hitting the lowest on record since tracking began nearly a decade ago in January this year.
Earth-i’s latest SAVANT Global Copper Smelting Index shows that 11.7% of global smelting capacity was inactive in March, down from 14.3% registered in January. Earth-i’s satellites cover some 95% of global capacity.
The increased activity was concentrated in China where the country-level inactive capacity sub-index fell by 1.1% to just 3.9%.
London-based Earth-i points out that together with the continuing build out of smelting capacity on the mainland, this resulted in an all-time high active capacity reading of 10.73 million tonnes, more than 775,000 tonnes higher than a year ago and 1.49 million tonnes above the 3-year average.
“This speaks to the improvement in downstream activity in recent weeks, as demand recovers following a ‘buyer’s strike’ in response to record high copper prices in January that has also seen imports from international market slump.”
Outside China, with the exception of Africa where the central copper belt showed strong operating performance, activity fell.
In Iran two smelters with combined capacity of 400,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) are offline (outside their historical routine maintenance schedules) and the ongoing outage at the 300,000-tpa Mount Isa smelter in Queensland, Australia, helped keep the Asia & Oceania regional inactivity sub index elevated at 18.7%, well above its 3-year average of only 5.7%.
According to Earth-i, inactivity did tick up modestly in Europe by 2.1%, but the region is still showing the lowest average percentage of idled capacity at 6.2%. Meanwhile smelting continues to be weakest in the western hemisphere, with the inactive capacity sub-index for North America rising by 10.3% in March to 32.3%, moving above that of South America at 27.4%.
Acid test
Chinese smelters’ willingness to buy concentrate increased further as sulfuric acid prices surged with FOB China at $210 per tonne in April, up 74% since January due to disruptions from the Iran war, according to a S&P Global Energy report.
This allows the country’s operators to secure short-term margins while putting additional pressure on TC/RCs (charges paid by miners to refiners). Spot TCRCs have plunged into deeply negative territory, with recent spot market tenders closing near –$78.50 per tonne and –7.85¢ per lb according to Platts, a unit of S&P Global Energy. That’s a swing from a positive $50 per tonne in January 2024.
The downward pressure on TC/RCs will remain, says S&P Global as the copper concentrate export permit for Indonesia’s Batu Hijau mine is set to expire at the end of April. In addition, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kamoa-Kakula 500,000-tpa capacity smelter began anode production at the end of 2025 which will consume domestically produced copper concentrate, further curbing exports.
The benchmark annual contract market has followed this collapse. Antofagasta’s 2026 benchmark agreement with a Chinese smelter settled at zero dollars, the lowest annual TC/RC terms ever recorded.
Codelco targets higher 2027 output to reclaim top copper spot
Codelco is targeting a slight increase in copper output in 2027 as Chile’s state-owned miner looks to reclaim the mantle of world’s biggest supplier of the industrial metal.
Total production next year is budgeted at 1.5 million metric tons, according to people briefed on the projections. The amount includes Codelco’s share of output from mines it doesn’t operate but holds minority ownership in. Production from its own mines is targeted to rise to 1.37 million tons from 1.34 million tons this year, said the people, who asked not to be identified because 2027 guidance hasn’t yet been published.
The company is striving to reverse a prolonged decline in output while getting its aging mines and delayed expansion projects back on track. Chairman Maximo Pacheco is eying a return to pre-pandemic levels of 1.7 million tons by the end of the decade when the global market is expected to tighten.
Codelco has overhauled management and decentralized project leadership to counter falling ore grades, cost overruns and a heavy debt load. Bloomberg Intelligence says Codelco is on track to displace BHP Group as the top global producer. BHP operates Escondida in northern Chile, the world’s biggest single copper mine.
“If Codelco manages to squeeze out a few more tons and Escondida’s grade does decline according to the mine plan, Codelco could take top spot again,” BI analyst Grant Sporre said.
Chilean copper producer Codelco and global miner Anglo American plan to submit separate environmental studies to regulators for their planned shared copper mine in Chile, documents seen by Reuters show, using what they called an “unprecedented” twin-track to streamline the approval process.
The previously unreported documents on the Andina-Los Bronces project, presented to environmental authorities in January, show the companies plan in December to file two largely identical applications for a pit where they would jointly extract copper in the world’s top producer of the red metal.
The model could serve as a blueprint for other major miners seeking to share infrastructure and operations to raise output amid an expected global supply crunch, while setting up Codelco and Anglo American to move faster and cut down on risks.
Codelco and Anglo finalized the deal in September, planning to add about 120,000 metric tons of copper per year from 2030 to 2051, generating at least $5 billion in pre-tax value.
Codelco chairman Maximo Pacheco, as well as a source at Anglo American, confirmed to Reuters that the firms plan to file the two applications at the end of the year.
‘Mirror’ applications
In areas where operations will overlap, the companies proposed applying identical environmental measures to each miner.
A single filing was not legally viable, they argued, because Chile’s constitution requires Codelco to retain ownership of its mining concessions, one presentation showed.
The companies also considered filing three applications: one from each miner to extend the useful life of their respective mines, and a third from a joint entity that would run the shared operation.
They ruled that out because it would require the firms to give up their existing open-pit environmental permits to make way for the combined mine.
The dual structure would also allow the mines to potentially return to independent operations in the future.
Work on the ground
The documents detailed plans to create a single pit over the existing pits.
Anglo American’s Los Bronces and Codelco’s Andina pits are adjacent, and the companies’ plan showed the rock barrier between them would also be mined, creating a single operating pit while keeping the project largely within the mines’ existing footprint.
Ore extracted from the shared pit would be sent interchangeably to Los Bronces’ and Andina’s processing plants, while waste rock would be deposited in each company’s own waste dumps, one document showed.
Changes to waste dumps, tailings facilities, pipelines and support infrastructure would still be needed for the two mines to operate as an integrated system.
Shared infrastructure would avoid duplicate facilities, cut freshwater use and reduce pressure on the surrounding area, the companies said.
Risks to sharing a mine
The companies also flagged significant risks, such as the need for close coordination with regulators, which could strain Chile’s already slow-moving environmental review system.
They highlighted the project’s “high public visibility” and the risk that environmentalists and affected communities could argue the two reviews obscure the scale of the impacts.
Los Bronces has faced years of scrutiny by residents, regulators and courts over alleged impacts on air quality, water use and glaciers in the high Andes where the mine operates.
While Codelco and Anglo argue the dual-track approach would reduce the risk of underestimating impacts, they acknowledged it could lead to duplicate or unnecessary environmental management measures.
The firms plan to begin outreach to local communities and other stakeholders in the second half of the year, one document showed.
(By Kylie Madry and Fabian Cambero; Editing by Daina Beth Solomon and Mark Potter)
KGHM seeks copper mines closer to home to reduce logistics costs
Copper producer KGHM is looking to invest in mines in Europe and Morocco to secure ore supplies closer to its smelting base in Poland and lower logistics costs, the company’s CEO said on Wednesday.
KGHM, which operates the Robinson mine in the US and holds 55% in Sierra Gorda in Chile on top of its Polish assets, last month signed a memorandum with Morocco’s National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines and Moroccan mining firm Managem Group on cooperation in raw materials.
“We are looking for opportunities to have some resource closer to our smelting sites in Poland,” KGHM CEO Remigiusz Paszkiewicz told Reuters in an interview at the company’s Chile branch office in Santiago.
“Morocco is a good one. There is also at least one in Europe itself, an opportunity for us. We are now checking the chemistry of the deposit, let’s say,” he added, declining to identify which European company KGHM was looking at.
KGHM has dispatched geologists to Morocco and is waiting for an initial report from them, Paszkiewicz said, adding that the results could come in the next two weeks.
The Moroccan mine would serve as a source of supply to the global market as well as KGHM, he explained, as the company wants to remain active in concentrates trading. Just over half KGHM’s 710,000 metric tons of copper production in 2025 came from its own concentrates.
State-backed KGHM intends to maintain investment in Polish mining, even as it also looks at opportunities further afield in Chile and Argentina, Paszkiewicz said.
“But we see that the world is still changing,” he added, raising the possibility of switching KGHM’s Legnica copper smelter to a recycling plant.
“Probably it is … written down in the draft of our strategy that step by step we will be moving in the direction that Legnica is recycling and Glogow is our main smelting factory,” Paszkiewicz said.
KGHM will unveil its new strategy at the end of the quarter.
The company is also looking to extend its “production chain” in the United States, Paszkiewicz said, stressing that this did not necessarily mean building a copper smelter there.
(By Tom Daly; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
Codelco in talks with India’s HCL for Chile copper joint venture
Chile’s Chuquicamata open pit copper mine moved underground last year. It was the world’s largest. (Image courtesy of Codelco via Flickr)
Codelco is negotiating a copper venture with India’s Hindustan Copper Ltd. as the Chilean state-owned miner turns to foreign partnerships to develop unexploited deposits, according to people familiar with the matter.
The deal under discussion is for a joint venture in which Codelco would put up one of its undeveloped deposits in Chile, with HCL taking on capital commitments, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing ongoing confidential talks. Investments would exceed $1 billion, they said.
Codelco “maintains multiple conversations and negotiations” on potential partnerships to develop a portfolio of exploration projects, the Santiago-based company responded when asked about talks with HCL. HCL didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Codelco, one of the most indebted global miners, is teaming up with foreign firms — including BHP Group and Rio Tinto Group — in a bid to drill deposits without adding to its already heavy investment burden as new projects get trickier and pricier to develop. At the same time, Chile’s new government under President Jose Antonio Kast is cutting red-tape and easing regulation in a bid to unlock investments in mining.
Codelco is turning more to India as a buyer of its copper. Indian companies, meanwhile, are looking to Chile, which boasts the world’s biggest copper reserves, to secure supply, integrate upstream and stay competitive in a tightening global market.
The prospective Codelco-HCL deal comes a year after both state-owned companies signed a memorandum of understanding during former Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s visit to India. The MoU focuses on exchanging information to facilitate exploration, mining, and mineral processing, along with employee training and capacity building.
(By Carolina Gonzalez and James Attwood)
Ivanhoe holds ‘captive audience’ on Congo sulphuric acid market, CEO says
Ivanhoe Mines has a “captive audience” for its sulphuric acid in the Democratic Republic of Congo, its CEO said on Wednesday, as prices for the chemical soar on limited supplies due to the Iran conflict.
Vancouver-based Ivanhoe this year started selling sulphuric acid as a byproduct of copper smelting at its Kamoa-Kakula project to other mine operators on the DRC copper belt, which need acid to dissolve copper from ore in a process known as leaching.
Supplies from the key Middle East region have struggled to reach world markets, raising fears of a global sulphuric acid squeeze. The DRC alone has an acid market of about 2 million metric tons per year, Ivanhoe CEO Marna Cloete told Reuters on the sidelines of a copper industry gathering in Santiago.
“We just produced just over 100,000 tons in the first quarter, but that’s going to the likes of Glencore, to ERG (Eurasian Resources Group) … so it’s local distribution,” she said, adding that annual acid output would reach 600,000 to 700,000 tons once its smelter was running at full capacity.
“The local market is more than sufficient for us to sell to,” she added, noting that restrictions on exporting sulphur from neighbouring Zambia had stopped DRC companies from making their own acid. “We’ve got a captive audience in terms of our distribution,” Cloete said.
Ivanhoe said in a statement on Monday the Kamoa-Kakula smelter had ramped up to 60% of capacity, with a further increase constrained by a lack of concentrate feed.
The company’s price for high-strength sulphuric acid was around $500 per ton in the first quarter, with spot prices generally increasing over the three months, Ivanhoe said.
The Toromocho copper mine has been running for 36 years. (Image courtesy of Chinalco Peru.)
Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco) is investing more than $700 million over the next three years to overhaul its Toromocho copper mine in Peru, adding molybdenum output to drive a long-awaited turnaround.
The plan, part of a $1.7 billion investment committed in 2018, includes updates to the mining scheme, new deposits and expanded stockpiling to improve efficiency and ensure operational continuity.
The total planned investment is being carried out in stages, with the core $1.35-billion expansion focused on lifting plant capacity and extending Toromocho’s development. That is being followed by additional technical modifications valued at about $350 million to optimize processing, recovery and supporting infrastructure.
Chinalco will expand a low-grade ore stockpile to the west and create a new stockpile within the existing pit, aiming to maximize existing infrastructure while staying within authorized limits. The company said the upgrade will improve processing performance and recoveries at the operation, where past technical challenges have weighed on output and costs. It also said the revamp will allow it to increase the plant’s capacity to 170,000 tonnes per day from the current 117,000-tonne-per-day capacity.
“This approval makes it possible to implement 28 projects, comprising 33 components over the next three years,” Chinalco executive Álvaro Barrenechea said in a statement.
Adding molybdenum
A key component of the overhaul is the introduction of molybdenum recovery, a metal previously not processed at Toromocho, supported by a new classification system that separates copper-only ore from copper-molybdenum material. The latter will be stockpiled for near-term processing, allowing more efficient resource use and diversified production.
Chinalco said this approach will help secure early reserves and ensure continuous supply to the concentrator. The company also plans to stockpile ore in 2027 for processing in 2028, using existing pit roads and a new northern stockpile to maintain steady feed to the concentrator.
Peru’s Vice Minister of Mines Mayra Figueroa said copper and molybdenum are critical to the global economy, underscoring the project’s strategic importance as Peru remains the world’s second-largest copper producer and a key molybdenum supplier.
Toromocho, an open-pit mine in the Junín region, accounts for about 10% of Peru’s copper output and is expected to operate until 2042, highlighting the long-term significance of the upgrades. The operation sits 4,500 metres above sea level east of Lima and includes an open-pit mine and a processing plant. It produces about 250,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate annually and holds 1.53 million tonnes in reserves grading 0.48%, with a mine life of roughly 36 years since starting operations in 2013.
The company has also advanced its digital transformation at the site, launching an Integrated Operations Management Centre earlier this year and deploying an autonomous drilling and fleet management system developed with Huawei Peru to improve efficiency across the value chain.
Political landscape
Peru’s mining outlook now hinges on a June 7 presidential run-off between Keiko Fujimori and Rafael López Aliaga, with both candidates signalling policies that could reshape the sector.
Keiko, daughter of jailed former president Alberto Fujimori, has positioned herself as pro-US and investor-friendly, promising clearer rules to attract foreign capital while casting opponents as closer to Beijing. Her campaign has leaned on law-and-order messaging reminiscent of her father’s presidency.
The prospect of revoking unused mining concessions underscores rising political pressure on the country’s sector, raising the risk of disruption for major operators including Southern Copper (NYSE, LON: SCCO), MMG Ltd (HKG: 1208) and First Quantum Minerals (TSX: FM).
The election outcome will shape billions in mining investment as Peru’s sector— which attracted about $6 billion last year and has driven roughly 3% annual economic growth since the pandemic—faces mounting political pressure and a surge in illegal mining.
CHART: Copper price, aluminum ‘black hole’ fears lift LME base metals index to record high
A gauge of industrial metals jumped to a record high on the London Metal Exchange on Thursday, driven by gains in aluminum after the Middle East war disrupted supplies, as well as a recent revival in copper.
The LME Index, which tracks six major metals, has rallied by almost 12% over the past four weeks and was at an all-time peak at the close of trading. Aluminum has risen more than 15% since the start of the Iran war, with roughly a 10th of global output coming from the Middle East.
Aluminum has the biggest weighting in the LME gauge, and prices for the metal hit a four-year high on Thursday, moving closer to a record struck in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Together with copper — which has also moved back towards a record reached in January — the two metals make up almost three-quarters of the index.
Nickel, zinc and tin have also rallied this year, although none of the individual constituents of the index are at all-time highs.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. has warned the aluminum industry was heading toward a “black hole” as a serious, prolonged supply deficit is hitting the market after supply losses escalated dramatically in the wake of Iranian strikes directly targeting two key smelters in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain at the end of last month. A double blockade of the Strait of Hormuz — by the US and Iran — is also keeping shipments stranded.
But while the waterway remains closed, hopes that a ceasefire between the US and Iran will be extended and signs the two sides may be moving closer to a peace deal have aided other metals. They were hit by soaring energy costs and fears of slowing global growth due to the war, but have recovered in recent weeks on signs the conflict might be winding down.
President Donald Trump claimed on Thursday, without evidence, that Iran had agreed to terms it has long resisted, including giving up ambitions for a nuclear weapon. Tehran hasn’t confirmed it’s made concessions.
“Traders are building back positions in base metals and front-running the move, even though the Iran war has yet to be resolved,” said Gao Yin, an analyst at Shuohe Asset Management Co. “They also like to trade on the certainty of aluminum supply disruptions.”
Mercuria Energy Group and BMO Capital Markets forecast this week that copper would surpass a record high hit in January. They cited Chinese buyers coming back to the market and a looming decision on tariffs from the White House that’s encouraging more shipments to the US. Copper has rallied 11% in the last four weeks, and is around 3% off its all-time closing price peak.
The LMEX Metals Index rose 3.6% this week through Thursday. Most metals were down on Friday. Aluminum fell 0.4% to $3,629 a ton as of 8:39 a.m. local time. Copper dipped 0.4%, while nickel rose 1.8%.
AU
Second Mali gold mine scores backing from former Olam exec
The family office of Indian businessman Gagan Gupta has agreed to fund a second gold mine in Mali, providing a boost to a government that’s been at loggerheads with mining investors in recent years.
Eagle Eye Asset Holdings Pte. Ltd. has struck a $120 million deal with Cora Gold Ltd. to support the development of the Sanankoro gold project in southern Mali. The Singapore-based firm is already backing the construction of a larger mine being built nearby by Toubani Resources Ltd.
Eagle Eye is doubling down on the West African nation, even as its military-led government has spent much of the past three years locked in disputes with foreign companies that own the country’s largest gold mines. Those rows centered on claims of alleged back taxes and revised legislation that hiked royalties and the state’s share in joint ventures. Mali is Africa’s second-largest producer of the precious metal, according to the World Gold Council.
While companies such as Resolute Mining Ltd. and B2Gold Corp. continued operating by reaching financial settlements with the authorities, the standoff with Barrick Mining Corp. – which runs the vast Loulo-Gounkoto mining complex – deteriorated to such an extent that the Canadian firm temporarily lost control of the asset last year
Gupta is the founder and chief executive of Arise Integrated and Industrial Platforms, an operator of industrial parks that’s active in more than a dozen African countries. A former Olam Group Ltd. executive, his businesses are ramping up investment in mining and minerals processing ventures across Africa, including Sierra Leone’s first commercial gold mine, a bauxite project in Cameroon, copper exploration in Zambia and an iron ore mine in the Republic of Congo.
Eagle Eye — which is owned by Gupta’s family office – will fund Sanankoro through a streaming deal entitling the company to purchase about 30% of future gold production for 20% of the prevailing spot price, London-listed Cora said on Friday. The arrangement should “materially accelerate” the construction timeline once permits are secured, the statement said.
In October, the same investor agreed to be a major financier of Australia-based Toubani’s $216 million Kobada project, which is expected to enter production next year and targeting output of 162,000 ounces a year.
Eagle Eye is the top shareholder in both companies, owning 29.9% of Cora and 33.8% of Toubani.
(By William Clowes)
US imposes sanctions on Nicaraguan officials linked to gold sector
The US Treasury Department on Thursday imposed sanctions on a number of individuals and companies that operate in Nicaragua’s gold sector, including two sons of the country’s co-presidents.
Another of the individuals sanctioned is Santiago Hernan Bermudez Tapia, Nicaragua’s vice minister of energy and mines, the Treasury Department said in a statement. A number of companies were also sanctioned that the US said had been complicit in helping the Nicaraguan government generate money from gold and maintain political control.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Nicaraguan government, led by Rosario Murillo and her husband Daniel Ortega, had sought to fill its own coffers by “confiscating American investments” in the country.
“The United States will not allow the illicit confiscation of American-owned assets and will continue to target revenue streams that empower the corrupt Murillo-Ortega regime,” he said.
Washington, under both the current and former Republican Trump administrations and the prior Democratic Biden administration, has been using economic and diplomatic means to pressure Managua to reform, dating back to a violent crackdown that began in April 2018 following mass demonstrations.
The United Nations last year accused dozens of officials from Ortega’s government of serious human rights violations and crimes, in what it described as a “tightly coordinated system of repression” following the protests.
Treasury said the sanctions imposed on Thursday stemmed from the 2025 occupation and forcible seizure of the gold processing site of BHMB Mining Nicaragua SA, a Nicaraguan company founded in 2019 with foreign investment from a US company.
It said high-ranking members of the Murillo-Ortega government had benefited from Nicaragua’s increase in gold exports in recent years as well as actions by state-owned Empresa Nicaraguense de Minas to funnel profits to “private sector partners and kickbacks to regime insiders.”
Treasury said its Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on two of the ruling couple’s sons: Maurice Facundo Ortega Murillo, who serves as the Nicaraguan presidential delegate for sports, and Daniel Edmundo Ortega Murillo, who heads the country’s Communication and Citizenship Council.
Among others sanctioned on Thursday were: the president of Zhong Fu, one of the companies involved in the seizure of BHMB assets; Santa Rita Mining Co., which was granted land concessions for mineral extraction; and Nicaragua-based Exportadora de Metales Sociedad Anonima, which sells gold to the US, with the profits possibly used to fund government-linked paramilitary groups, Treasury said.
Grupo Minero Xiloa SA, was also sanctioned, Treasury said, accusing it of using the US financial system to legitimize illicit funds and using the proceeds to finance the government’s political machinery.
No comment was immediately available from the companies or individuals listed.
(By Andrea Shalal; Editing by Daphne Psaledakis and Rosalba O’Brien)
Fe
Iron ore price rises on Australia supply disruption fears, portside stocks decline
Dalian iron ore futures edged higher on Friday, as investors weighed potential supply disruptions in Australia against tempered demand stemming from China’s environmental curbs in a key steel-making province.
The most-traded September iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) traded 0.39% higher at 778.5 yuan ($114.06) a metric ton.
The contract has gained 2.85% so far this week, and is on track to snap two consecutive weekly losses.
The benchmark May iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was down 0.49% at $105.8 a ton. The contract has risen 2.24% this week so far.
Portside iron ore inventories declined this week, with the drawdown on previously banned BHP product Jimblebar Fines, Shanghai Metals Market said in a note.
Hot metal production has also been sustained at high levels, supporting demand.
In addition, a fire at one of Australia’s two oil refineries has stoked concerns of diesel shortages, which could affect mining operations in China’s biggest iron ore supplier.
Concerns over a short-term supply contraction in the iron ore market have been compounded by persistently high energy prices and fuel shortages linked to the Iran war, Shanghai Metals Market added.
However, several cities in China’s key steelmaking province Hebei have activated emergency responses to air pollution, stoking fears over demand for iron ore as steelmakers restrict production.
Authorities in cities such as Tangshan, Xingtai and Langfang have announced level 2 emergency responses over WeChat on April 16-17.
In company news, Brazilian miner Vale reported on Thursday its highest iron ore sales for a first quarter since 2018.
The company’s iron ore sales, which include fines, pellets and run-of-mine, rose 3.9% to 68.7 million metric tons for the January-March quarter from a year earlier.
Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE fell, with coking coal and coke down 1.15% and 0.15%, respectively.
Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange gained. Rebar lifted 0.42%, hot-rolled coil advanced 0.33%, wire rod was little changed, and stainless steel jumped 2.2%.
($1 = 6.8256 yuan)
(By Ruth Chai; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
Brazil mining sector posts higher Q1 revenue, association says
Brazil’s mining sector generated revenue of 77.9 billion reais ($15.6 billion) in the first quarter, up 6% from a year earlier, Brazilian mining industry association Ibram said on Wednesday.
Sector exports totaled 87.9 million metric tons in the quarter, up 0.9% year-on-year.
Export revenue rose 21.5% to $11.4 billion.
Iron ore exports reached 84.8 million tons, up 0.8%, valued at $6.2 billion, up 2.4%.
Iron ore accounted for 48% of total sector revenue at 37.5 billion reais, down 3% from a year earlier.
Ibram represents companies including Vale, Gerdau, ArcelorMittal and Mosaic.
($1 = 4.9947 reais)
(By Marta Nogueira and Isabel Teles; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
US rejects CenterPoint’s bid to close Indiana coal plant
Coal- and gas-fired power plant on lake Michigan in Indiana. Stock image by sbgoodwin.
The Trump administration rejected a request from CenterPoint Energy to allow a 60-year-old coal plant in Indiana to close, forcing the utility to keep operating a unit it says is costly and unreliable.
The clash underscores a broader federal push to keep aging coal plants online that the administration says are needed to support the electric grid amid rising power demand, even as some utilities resist orders to extend the life of older units.
In a letter, CenterPoint said extending an order halting the plant’s planned December 2025 retirement would require millions of dollars in upgrades and lengthy outages “to support an inefficient and increasingly unreliable asset.”
“These factors make clear that extending the life of Unit 2 is neither practical nor financially responsible, underscoring the need for a more prudent and economically sound path forward,” the utility wrote. It added the plant accounts for less than 1% of total installed capacity in its regional grid.
The Feb. 17 letter asked the Energy Department not to renew its December order keeping the plant open. The agency extended that directive, along with another order for an Indiana coal unit owned by the Northern Indiana Public Service Company, through June 21 in March.
An Energy Department spokesperson said electricity from the plant was essential in powering the grid during extreme weather that occurred over the winter and that the agency’s emergency authorizations have prevented blackouts and “likely saved hundreds of lives during peak capacity events this past year.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said the orders are needed to prevent costly blackouts and supply electricity for power-hungry AI data centers and US manufacturing.
“That’s how the lights stay on, that’s how factories and things get built,” Wright said Thursday in testimony before a House committee. “But there has been a political desire to put on intermittent unreliable sources onto our grid everywhere.”
The letter was provided Thursday by the Citizens Action Coalition, an Indianapolis-based advocacy group, that obtained it through a proceeding with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.
“This letter shows that even utilities like CenterPoint admit that there is no grid emergency and that coal plants are too unreliable, expensive, and polluting to continue operating,” said Ben Inskeep, Citizens Action Coalition’s program director.
“The federal government’s unlawful orders directing utilities to keep dilapidated and unreliable coal plants open at a massive and growing cost to consumers is an outrageous abuse of power that will cause Americans’ energy bills to continue to increase.”
CenterPoint said it would comply with the Energy Department order.
