Codelco and Antofagasta PLC suspended operations at two major copper mines in Chile, the world's top producer of the metal, after a powerful earthquake struck off the coast on Wednesday, threatening over 600,000 tonnes of annual capacity.

Copper prices on the London Metal Exchange rose to two-month highs in early Asian trading as worries about supply disruptions offset lingering concerns over demand from China, the world's No. 1 consumer, amid copper's longest rout in years.

State copper miner Codelco halted open-pit operations at its large Andina mine and evacuated workers at its smaller Las Ventanas refining and smelting division, as well as at the two northern ports of Mejillones and Barquito, as a precautionary measure. Andina produced 232,000 tonnes of copper last year.

Antofagasta said it had temporarily closed its flagship Los Pelambres mine, which produced over 400,000 tonnes of copper in 2014, and would wait until daybreak to assess the damage. There were no initial reports of damage to personnel or equipment.

Other producers in the region Anglo American PLC and BHP Billiton, said they were unscathed after the magnitude 8.3 earthquake hit off the coast, shaking buildings in the capital city of Santiago and generating a tsunami warning for Chile and Peru.

The quake is the latest natural catastrophe to roil mining in the resource-rich South American nation, which accounts for a third of global copper output.

Heavy rains caused flooding and shut many mines in the north of the country in April.

Codelco has also been hit by repeated strikes by contract workers this year. Last week, it was forced to temporarily halt the concentrator at its massive Chuquicamata mine for security reasons after workers tried to take over the unit.

Analysts previously estimated that between about 1 million and 1.5 million tonnes of annualized global mine supply has been lost due to flooding, droughts, power shortages and low ore grades from Chile to Zambia this year. That is about 5 percent of global annual consumption.

"Anything that has potential to restrict supply will have more of an effect on the price when things pick up," said Jonathan Barratt, chief investment officer at Sydney's Ayers Alliance.

A planned expansion at Andina is one of the key pillars of Codelco's plan to boost production as ore grades decline at its older mines.

Antofagasta's Los Pelambres has been affected by water shortages and local protesters who have blocked mine access.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/17/chile-quake-codelco-idUSL1N11N01520150917

The alleged deals involve Glencore's Collahausi mine in Chile, as well as Antamina and Antapaccay copper mines in Peru.

Mining and commodities giant Glencore is said to be in talks with five companies to sell portions of the future production of three of its copper mines in Chile and Peru.

According to Global Mining Observer, the firms involved in the negotiations are Franco-Nevada Corp, Silver Wheaton, Royal Gold Inc. and two other unnamed miners.

The alleged deals involve Glencore's Collahausi mine in Chile, as well as Antamina and Antapaccay copper mines in Peru.

The alleged deals involve Glencore's Collahausi mine in Chile, as well as Antamina and Antapaccay copper mines in Peru.

The potential agreements, known as streaming transactions, are a kind of alternative financing in the mining industry, in which a firm such as Silver Wheaton or Franco-Nevada provides funds upfront to a miner in exchange for the sale of a fixed amount of future production at a discounted price.

Collahuasi, one of the world's largest copper mines, produced around 470,000 tonnes of copper last year, or about 8% of Chile's total output.

In the first half of 2015, production at the mine — a joint project of Glencore, Anglo American (LON:ANGLO) and several Japanese firms — fell 10% compared to the previous year, impacted by maintenance at a processing mill and other factors.

Antamina mine, located in Peru’s central Ancash state, is the country’s top copper producer by output, and it also yields zinc, lead, and silver.

http://www.mining.com/glencore-to-sell-part-of-its-chile-peru-copper-output/

As China's slowdown hits demand for metals in traditional sectors such as housing and heavy industry, copper is being offered a lifeline: massive plans to expand solar and wind power in the world's second-biggest economy.

Beijing's push into renewables as it looks to tackle the pollution that has choked its cities is set to be a vital new source of demand for copper, which as the world's most conductive base metal is used in cables for solar panels and parts for wind turbines.

Reuters calculations based on government and industry projections for the growth of cleaner energy in China suggest that demand from the sector could boost global copper consumption by around 2 million tonnes, or about 2 percent, over the rest of the decade.

The extra appetite from China, the world's largest metals consumer, is part of a trend also rippling across other regions as governments target greener technologies to combat pollution and climate change, an issue that is centre stage ahead of U.N. environmental talks in Paris in December.

"The current developments in China in solar and wind are the highest in the world. Since it's policy driven, the plans made by government are generally achieved or exceeded year-on-year," said Mayur Karmarkar, team leader for sustainable energy in Asia at the International Copper Association (ICA).

"The numbers are astonishing," he said, referring to estimates on expansion in China's renewable sector.

Amid growing public disquiet about smog and the environment, China has declared a war on pollution, vowing to abandon a decades-old growth-at-all-costs economic model that has spoilt much of its water, skies and soil.

That is expected to get a shot in the arm with new targets likely to be announced as part of the country's latest five-year plan on economic growth, which will be discussed at a meeting of the ruling Communist Party in October.

"Chinese renewable energy is a potential new source of copper demand that I think is being overlooked by the market at the moment, especially if people are going to take the renewable targets seriously," said a Singapore-based source at a global copper miner. He declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak with media.

Due to its high conductivity, copper cuts power loss in transmission and is typically used far more heavily in generating so-called green electricity than in traditional thermal plants.

China's installed solar energy capacity is set to soar to 200 gigawatts (GW) by 2020 from around 36 GW in 2015, according to projections from China's Renewable Energy Industry Association. Minerals consultancy CRU estimates 6,000 tonnes of copper is used per GW of capacity.

Wind power is projected to reach 250 GW by 2020, according to industry estimates. About 3,850 tonnes of copper is used per GW of wind capacity, according to an average of industry estimates compiled by Reuters.

These, alongside a steady increase in demand from China's electric vehicle sector of around 200,000 tonnes over the next five years, account for more than 2 million tonnes of copper, compared with current forecasts on total copper consumption over the period of about 105 million tonnes.

The ICA's Karmarkar noted that falling costs for green technology would help accelerate its uptake in China and beyond.

Renewable energy growth will also help stoke the roll out of energy grids connecting power hubs with cities, including transformers that use copper.

Growing appetite from China's renewable energy sector comes as the chief executive of copper and coal at Australian mining giant Rio Tinto last week said that markets for the metal could flip into a structural shortage within two to three years as broad demand from power stations makes it the first commodity to come out of a glut.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/16/copper-demand-china-renewables-idUSL5N11F0BW20150916

Image Source: smartimagehq.comSandfire Resources NL has used a reverse circulation step-out hole to intersect mineralisation along strike on either side of TLRC0004. The reason why TLRC0004 is so important to the drilling program, is that it has previously delivered: 18 metres at 5.7% coper and 2.4g/t gold from 107 metres.

This news could mean that extensions have been discovered, which has the potential to significantly increase the size of the mineralisation discovered to date. Step-out hole TLRC0008 delivered: 2 metres of massive sulphides from 90 metres; and 11 metres of massive sulphides from 111 metres. Step-out hole TLRC0009 delivered: 8 metres of massive sulphides from 133 metres; and 1 metre of massive sulphides from 158 metres.

Samples are currently under assay. Drilling is ongoing.

Sandfire is earning a 70% interest in the Talisman Mining’s Doolgunna Project, which forms part of its Greater Doolgunna Project. This comprises a 1,700 square kilometre package of contiguous tenements surrounding the DeGrussa Copper Mine.

http://steelguru.com/mining/sandfire-resources-and-talisman-hit-massive-sulphides/434635#tag

Petcoke: the ticking time bomb at the heart of aluminium

Bauxite, the key metallic input, is a commonly occurring mineral and one that can be easily scooped out of the ground without the need for "hard rock" mining.

That abundance of supply has been proven by Indonesia's ban on exports of bauxite to China. Chinese smelters have wasted no time simply switching sources, particularly to Malaysia, a country with virtually no bauxite sector until one was needed.

Smelters, meanwhile, are capital intensive to build and costly to shut down. Electricity, the second most important input for making aluminium, acts as a brake on industry's responsiveness to low prices because so many smelters have locked themselves into long-term supply contracts.

But might that all change in a couple of years time? Might the aluminium production sector, currently swamped with excess output, face its own supply chain challenge?

Yes, according to a new study by three consultants, AZ China, Cascade Resources and Turner Mason and Co.("Anode coke outlook to 2025")

Readers may well recognise the first of those names. AZ China is a respected specialist on all things concerning the Chinese aluminium sector.

But maybe not the second two, because they specialise in carbon products and petrochemicals respectively.

And this is a study on the availability of the third, often forgotten, input into the aluminium production process, carbon anodes.

The aluminium production process requires up to half a tonne of carbon for every tonne of metal produced.

Specifically petroleum coke (petcoke), a by-product of the oil refining process. And specifically anode-grade petcoke, commonly defined as that with a sulphur content of less than three percent.

There are two dominant suppliers of anode coke to the world's smelters, the United States and China.

Output in both is declining.

In the U.S. this is largely a function of the increasing use of shale oils, which "reduce either the quality or quantity of petcoke produced, or both," the study argues.

A similar trend has been evolving in China, reflecting changes in oil refining technology.

In both cases what is an essential ingredient in the process of making aluminium is nothing more than a low-value by-product for oil refiners.

The study examines every other possible supply source but concludes that supply will be insufficient to meet smelter demand from around 2017.

"The argument that 'you can get the coke if you are prepared to pay enough' is not a sustainable position," the study's authors write, concluding that "at some point, there simply will not be enough coke on a global basis."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/16/aluminium-production-ahome-idUSL5N11M1V020150916

Business Standard reported that chairman Mr Kumar Mangalam Birla told shareholders at the company's 56th annual general that Hindalco Industries would see its domestic aluminium business go through testing times in the short term as recent ramp-up of projects would impact its performance in the coming months,.

He said “High interest outgo and depreciation is expected keep the company's performance under pressure.”

He also said “In the coming years, focus will continue to be on operational excellence and increasing productivity of new assets.”

The chairman also informed the shareholders that the company has refinanced its loan to get a longer tenure of 10 years, thus giving it additional repayment time.


The country’s largest aluminium producer has fully ramped up its Mahan aluminium smelter facility, in Madhya Pradesh, and about 55 per cent of ramp up has taken place at Aditya smelter, in Odisha.

http://steelguru.com/metal/indian-aluminium-business-to-go-through-testing-time-mr-kumar-mangalam-birla/434703#tag