A Blog for Browsing Mining, Mineral Processing, and Metals Info

Global automotive manufacturers continue to push forward vehicles that utilize electric drivetrains, including battery electric vehicles (#BEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (#PHEVs), and hybrid electric vehicles (#HEVs). With this push comes an increased need for onboard #Energy storage, and #LithiumIon #Battery chemistries are becoming the storage method of choice for many automakers.

Read more at: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/global-market-lithium-ion-batteries-101500239.html

#Brazilian authorities reached agreement with #BHP Billiton Ltd., #Vale SA and their #Samarco Mineracao SA joint venture on a model for paying compensation over the deadly dam failure at an iron ore operation, according to the nation’s attorney general.

Read more at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-17/samarco-agrees-brazil-compensation-plan-attorney-general-says

#Sumitomo #Metal #Mining Co., the #Japanese metals producer that agreed to spend $1 billion this week to expand its portfolio of copper assets, is still in shopping mode. The next target on its list: #Gold.

Read more at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-17/sumitomo-metal-puts-gold-top-of-list-after-freeport-copper-deal

#Phoenix-based #Freeport, one of the world’s biggest #Copper #Miners, said it would sell a 13% ownership interest in its #Morenci mine, located in the desert on the #Arizona – #NewMexico border, to #Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. for $1 billion. The company said it would record a gain of $550 million on the deal, the difference between the sale price and the stake’s book value of $450 million.

Read more at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/freeport-pares-u-s-copper-mine-stake-in-1-billion-deal-1455564638

#POSCO has begun constructing a plant to extract and process #Lithium, a key raw material for electric car batteries, in #Argentina, the world’s fourth-largest steelmaker said Monday.

When completed by the end of this year, the facility will produce about 2,500 tons of high-purity lithium annually, which will be enough to manufacture more than 60,000 #ElectricCar batteries. It takes about 40 kilograms of highly-purified lithium to make one #Battery.

Read more at: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2016/02/123_198006.html

#Indonesia: The government may yet again shelve its plan to impose a complete ban on raw material exports after acknowledging slow progress in the nation’s smelter development.

– See more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/02/15/slow-progress-smelters-puts-planned-export-ban-question.html#sthash.KgdkeXbB.dpuf

#China’s demand growth is slowing. Our #Western demand is not as good as we and others had hoped it would be, but it’s still expanding gradually.

#Copper business differs from other commodities in that there is not an enormous excess supply in inventories.

Exchange stocks not rising significantly, remaining low by historical standards, at a time when the copper price has gone from $2.88 to $2 from the end of 2014 to the current date. It is — even looking at the decline in prices so dramatically since the third quarter, inventories are not building. The story is fundamentally, in today’s world, the business we’re seeing is not as negative as the financial markets are reacting to it.

Read more at: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/11/freeport-mcmoran-inc-the-copper-market-isnt-as-bad.aspx

While #Copper faces a mixed picture in the near term, the long-term copper story revolves around #CleanEnergy and the voracious growing global appetite for energy.

Read more at: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3886206-high-grade-copper-district-call-option-clean-energy-revolution

A judge in #Brazil’s state of #Minas #Gerais has frozen 470 million reais ($118 million) of assets owned by #Vale SA and 1.8 million reais linked to #BHP Billiton Ltd to ensure payment of damages related to a deadly dam rupture, Rio de Janeiro’s O Globo newspaper said on Thursday.

Read more at: http://www.reuters.com/article/brazil-damburst-vale-sa-bhp-billiton-ltd-idUSL2N15Q385

#Peru is likely to surpass #China as the world’s second-largest #Copper producer after the South #American country’s biggest new mine, #LasBambas, began shipments last month, #BMI Research said.

Read more at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-10/peru-forecast-to-surpass-china-in-copper-output-as-mine-opens