The world’s biggest miner walked away from a $49 billion bid to acquire Anglo in May after it was rebuffed three times. The upcoming end to a six-month block on BHP making another approach had raised speculation a deal may again be under scrutiny.

“We made an approach to Anglo American earlier this year … we thought there was an opportunity here to create something unique and special, a bit of a sort of a one plus one equals three opportunity,” Ken MacKenzie said at BHP’s annual meeting.

“Unfortunately, Anglo American shareholders had a different view, and they thought there was more value in the plan that their management wanted to execute. And so they moved on. And quite frankly, so have we.”

As evidence, MacKenzie pointed to BHP’s C$4.5 billion ($3.25 billion) deal with Canada-listed Lundin Mining in July to jointly take over developer Filo Corp in a move to grow their copper holdings in South America.

(By Melanie Burton; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Sonali Paul)

The study, published just a day after the United Nations warned the world is falling “miles short” of what’s needed to curb devastating global warming, indicates that an investment of $78 trillion will be needed to change this course and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, nations committed to limiting global warming to “well below” two degrees Celsius above the average temperatures recorded between 1850 and 1900, aiming for a target of 1.5 degrees Celsius if feasible. Efforts to date have not succeeded in meeting this challenge, the annual “Energy Transition Outlook” from Wood Mackenzie shows.

Unlike the UN pessimistic outlook, the Scottish consultancy believes that while major obstacles hinder short-term targets, particularly for 2030, a 2050 net-zero goal remains feasible. Immediate and coordinated global action would be necessary, WoodMac warns.

Threats to climate progress

A series of global crises, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict, escalating Middle East violence, rising populism in Europe and global trade tensions with China, are undermining the pace of the energy transition, Wood Mackenzie’s vice president head of scenarios and technologies, Prakash Sharma, said. 

He explains that without urgent policy changes and enhanced investment, a warming trajectory of 2.5˚C to 3˚C could become inevitable.

“We are under no illusion as to how challenging the net zero transition will be, given the fact that fossil fuels are widely available, cost-competitive and deeply embedded in today’s complex energy system,” Sharma added. “A price on carbon maybe the most effective way to drive emissions reduction but it’s hard to see it coming together in a polarized environment.”

Key investment are needed across several critical areas, according to WoodMac. As renewable energy sources grow, substantial upgrades to power supply and grid infrastructure are essential to meet the growing demand. Additionally, the need for critical minerals, such as lithium, nickel and cobalt, is projected to increase five- to ten-fold by 2050, as demand for batteries and other technologies essential for the energy transition continues to grow. 

WoodMac sees the need to back the development of emerging technologies, including carbon capture, low-carbon hydrogen, and nuclear power, are vital for facilitating the shift towards cleaner energy sources.

Securing this funding won’t be easy, the consultants noted. “Doubling annual investments to $3.5 trillion by 2050 will be necessary in our net zero scenario,” Sharma said, adding that it will require unprecedented policy coordination globally.

The role of electrification

The electrification of energy systems will play a pivotal role in decarbonization. Transitioning from fossil fuels to electric power, Wood Mackenzie forecasts that electricity’s share of global energy demand will increase from 23% to 35% by 2050 in a base case, and could reach as high as 55% in a net-zero scenario.

Wood Mackenzie’s analysis reveals that global energy demand is set to rise by 14% by 2050. Emerging economies are projected to see even steeper growth at 45%, driven by rising populations and economic advancement. 

In parallel, data centres, electric vehicles, and AI are emerging as new drivers of electricity consumption, with AI-related energy use alone expected to increase from 500 TWh in 2023 to up to 4,500 TWh by 2050.

Including renewable energy source to meet electrifications demand could help reduce emissions, the report says.

According to Wood Mackenzie, solar and wind currently account for 17% of the global power supply, and renewables capacity is expected to double by 2030 in its base case. Yet, this increase still falls short of the COP28 commitment made in 2023 to triple renewables by 2030.

Transition or coexistence?

While nuclear energy holds promise for providing consistent, zero-carbon electricity, its high cost and frequent project delays pose significant challenges. WoodMac says that nuclear power could play a more significant role as it has attracted interest, particularly from tech companies looking to power data centres sustainably.

While fossil fuels is expected to plateau in the 2040s before beginning a gradual decline, Wood Mackenzie predicts that the high capital costs of low-carbon technologies coupled with strong demand for energy, will require the continued use of oil and gas in the near term.

Wood Mackenzie says to meet climate targets there will be necessary that nations gathered at the COP29 meeting in Azerbaijan next month finalize Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. This section focuses on carbon markets and aims to establish a new climate finance goal to replace the previous annual target of $100 billion, which experts consider insufficient.

The consultancy’s report echoes concerns included in a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) study released last week. The document says the next decade is crucial in the battle against climate change, adding that failing to act now will jeopardize any chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. According to the UN body, the current rate of climate action could lead to a catastrophic increase of 3.1 degrees Celsius this century. 

“Either leaders bridge the emissions gap, or we plunge headlong into climate disaster, with the poorest and most vulnerable suffering the most,” Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned.

Even if all existing commitments to reduce emissions are fulfilled, global temperatures would still rise by 2.6 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, experts agree.

The facility will be located in Sohar, a port city about 200 km north of the capital, Muscat. It will have the capacity to process 18 million tonnes of low-grade iron ore a year starting in 2027. The aim is to produce 12.6 million tonnes of high-grade concentrate annually.

Vale will invest $227 million to connect the plant to its pelletizing facilities in the region. Jinnan will invest about $400 million to build and operate the plant, which it will own.

“This project brings together Brazil’s capacity to produce high-quality iron ore and Oman’s prime location and infrastructure to enhance integration between the two countries, while also reinforcing our partnership with China through Jinnan,” Vale’s new CEO Gustavo Pimenta said in a release.

The iron ore is to be transformed into a higher-quality concentrate for the production of premium pellets and, in the future, briquettes, with a reduced environmental impact.

This marks Jinnan’s first project in Oman, supporting the country’s industrial ambitions. The company is known for its leading edge in magnetic separation technology.

Vale intends to replicate this investment model across its mega hubs. The miner has announced three mega hubs in the Middle East (Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) and has signed agreements to develop similar projects in Brazil and the United States.

Shares in Vale gained 1.7% to $62.76 apiece by mid-Monday afternoon in New York, valuing the company at $284.8 billion.

As part of the deal, Aura will obtain a 100% interest in Bluestone’s Cerro Blanco gold project in southeast Guatemala as well as the adjacent Mita geothermal project.

The Cerro Blanco project has faced challenges from the Guatemalan government, which disputed the January permit amendment allowing its transition to an open-pit mining operation.

Bluestone is 27%-owned by the Lundin family trust and had initially planned the $411 million gold project near the border with El Salvador.

Cerro Blanco aims to yield 2.7 million oz. of gold over 14 years, based on a 2022 feasibility study. It hosts measured and indicated resources of 63.5 million tonnes at 1.5 grams gold and 6.6 grams silver per tonne for 3 million oz. and 13.5 million oz. of the metals, respectively.

Aura stated that upon closing the transaction, it intends to evaluate alternatives for the potential future development of Cerro Blanco.

“Cerro Blanco stands as a world-class deposit that has encountered both social and institutional hurdles. We are confident that, over the next few years, by integrating it with Aura’s 360 vision, we can refine our strategic approach to make Cerro Blanco another flagship project,” said Rodrigo Barbosa, CEO of Aura.

Cerro Blanco is located approximately 230 km from the Minosa operating mine in Honduras, where Aura produced 65,927 ounces of gold in 2023. In addition, Aura has operating mines in Mexico and Brazil.

Over the last 12 months, Aura achieved production of 270,000 gold equivalent ounces (GEOs). With the acquisition of Bluestone, Aura expects its growth pipeline to expand beyond 450,000 GEOs in the coming years.

Shares of Aura Minerals rose 2.35% following the news, bringing the company’s market capitalization to $910 million. Bluestone’s shares fell 1.5% by 12:00 p.m. EDT, for a market capitalization of $37.6 million.

This permit authorizes Atlas to assemble and operate its lithium processing plant, process mined ore from one of its deposits at the facility, and sell the lithium concentrate produced, Atlas said on Monday. Once operational, annual production at Neves is projected to reach 300,000 tonnes.

Shares of Atlas Lithium jumped 34% to $11.05 apiece in New York by early afternoon, bringing the company’s market capitalization to $168.5 million.

“Atlas Lithium’s permit reflects 14 months of our team’s meticulous work throughout the licensing process and showcases our unwavering commitment to developing an environmentally responsible and sustainable operation in Brazil’s Lithium Valley,” Atlas CEO Marc Fogassa said in a release.

The plan is to install a modular plant with components manufactured in South Africa. The dense media separation unit is designed to have a reduced height and physical footprint compared to others in the industry, Atlas said.

The company is aiming to be environmentally sustainable and minimize water usage with recycling. The project is to employ dry stacked tailings without using dams, it added.

Seven clusters

Atlas’ lithium project encompasses 85 mineral rights covering about 468 sq. km. It includes seven main clusters of prospective mineralization: Neves, Coronel Murta, Eastern Properties, Itinga, Salinas, Santa Clara and Tesouras.

This month, the company said exploration crews at Salinas, 100 km north of Neves, discovered additional spodumene-rich pegmatites. The team is now pursuing further geological and geophysical studies before launching a drilling campaign.

In May 2023, Atlas announced what is considered the largest lithium royalty deal in Brazil by selling a 3% gross overriding revenue royalty on the Neves project to Canada’s Lithium Royalty (TSX: LIRC) for an upfront cash consideration of $20 million.

In March this year, Japan’s Mitsui & Co. paid $30 million to acquire a 12% stake in the company.

The total stock market valuation of the world’s biggest mining companies is up a fairly modest 8% year to end-September and despite the good run is still $240 billion below the peak hit in the second quarter of 2022. And judging by the performance of the top tier in the final quarter (BHP down 8% QTD, Rio Tinto –5%, Vale –3%, Glencore –5%, Newmont –9%, Zijin –5%, Freeport –7%) the gap won’t be closing anytime soon.

In contrast, Nvidia — the maker of chips highly prized for artificial intelligence (AI) computing — is up nearly 200% so far this year (and 2,600% over five). When comparing the graphics card maker’s stock valuation to the mining industry’s collective worth, it’s difficult not to wonder if something is not awry with how global investors appraise the industrial economy.  

Should Nvidia (or Microsoft or Apple for that matter) be worth more than twice the top 50 miners? Outside the top 50 the average market cap quickly shrinks to the low teens so Nvidia is in fact worth more than the entire listed mining industry. 

Even when extending the top 50 into metals and energy –  steel, aluminium and electricity companies often operate their own mines – Nvidia can still throw shade. BHP does not even crack the top 100 most valuable companies in the world and is worth less than Booking.com, and Temu and Zara’s owners, none of which can exactly be called the building blocks of the global economy. 

Nvidia briefly surpassed Apple on Friday to become the world’s most valuable company. Its market capitalization is approximately $3.5 trillion, just below Apple’s, which remains the highest-valued firm globally.

Bacci, who served as finance chief for pulp maker Suzano, will replace Murilo Muller, who is temporarily serving in the job.

Following Bacci’s resignation, Suzano’s new chief financial officer will be Marcos Moreno Chagas, the company announced in a separate filing also on Friday.

(By Andre Romani)

As global demand for minerals and raw materials increases, buoyed by the soaring of certain commodity prices, purported green ambitions, and nationalist fervour, governments have begun wielding a range of regulatory tools and sometimes strong-arm tactics against foreign mining companies in the name of resource nationalism.

The resurgence of resource nationalism—particularly in countries experiencing political upheaval, such as the “Coup Belt” in Francophone Africa—poses a major risk to the ambitions of foreign mining companies and the battery revolution. Beginning with the late Tanzanian President John Magufuli’s so-called “economic war” on foreign mining companies in 2016/2017, a number of African States have followed suit in adopting aggressive nationalistic mining policies that have frequently toed the line between legitimate economic rebalancing and outright rent-seeking.

Tanzanian beginnings

Despite more recent, legitimate efforts to improve its reputation for foreign investment, Tanzania led the way with resource nationalistic overhauls of its legal framework for mining in 2017 and 2018. Tanzania’s “economic war” has served as an exemplar to many African States, particularly in the Coup Belt, which have focused more on the electoral popularity of such measures than on their costly financial aftermath.

Tanzania’s economic war resulted in a rash of legal claims and whilst some of these claims —particularly the one brought by Barrick—settled in such a way that Tanzania could claim a purported “victory”, others have proven needlessly costly.

For instance, in 2023, Canadian gold miner Winshear Gold Corp. reached a $30 million settlement agreement with Tanzania after the government revoked Winshear’s retention licence for its SMP gold project. Similarly, subsidiaries of Australian nickel miner Indiana Resources recently obtained a $90 million settlement with Tanzania (82.5% of the total original Award) over the government’s illegal expropriation of the Ntaka Hill nickel project.

Although Tanzania is not in the Coup Belt, Tanzania’s recent experience will likely serve as a crystal ball for the region—resource nationalism and arbitrary “reforms” come at a significant cost, which could be avoided through simple negotiations rather than heavy-handed tactics.

Key risks for mining companies

Recent coups d’état across West Africa have led to the contemporary resurgence of politically popular, but fiscally irresponsible, measures adopted from Tanzania’s policy playbook, including sweeping changes to mining codes to increase government royalties and free carried interest percentages, increased export duties and the renegotiation of existing mining conventions and mineral development agreements. Such changes have caused increased permitting delays and complete legal uncertainty about how to meet regulatory requirements.

Structuring investments to benefit from BITs

Companies can effectively mitigate the risks associated with resource nationalism by structuring their investments to benefit from the protections offered by bilateral investment treaties (BITs). BITs are agreements between two or more countries that guarantee certain protections to investors, including the right to pursue international arbitration in the event of a dispute.

BITs can protect companies against unlawful expropriation and provide a legal framework for resolving disputes outside of the host country’s jurisdiction. However, investments must be structured through countries that have BITs with the host country.

In the case of Tanzania, investors like Indiana Resources and Winshear successfully pursued compensation for the unlawful revocation of their mining licenses by incorporating subsidiaries through the United Kingdom and Canada, respectively.  Notably, Tanzania has recently sought to terminate its BIT with Canada, a move which forces companies to structure their investments through other countries with treaty protections, like Mauritius, whilst underlining the risk that such jurisdictions pose in the first instance.

One of the primary lessons from recent events is that foreign companies should not rely solely on their licenses and agreements with local authorities; they should also explore international legal protections like those described above.

Negotiating robust agreements

Where companies have a direct agreement with the State, they should opt for a “Coup Belt and Braces” approach in negotiating robust agreements whilst also backstopping their investments with structuring that provides access to BITs. In respect of the former option, companies must ensure that their contracts with host governments include clauses that mitigate risks related to resource nationalism, such as:

• Stabilization clauses: These clauses protect investors from adverse changes in law or policy after the agreement has been signed by either freezing the regulatory framework in place or providing compensation if new laws negatively impact the investment.

• Dispute resolution clauses: Companies should negotiate to include international arbitration as the preferred method of dispute resolution, allowing them to bypass local courts, which may not be impartial or reliable. The same applies for local or regional arbitration centres, which are often untested and are supervised by the very courts foreign investors may wish to avoid.

Companies should avoid putting all their resources in one region, particularly in politically unstable areas. Diversification of assets across different countries reduces the impact of political and regulatory risks in any one location. If problems arise in one country, operations elsewhere can help cushion the financial blow. Many of our clients have been able to pursue their rights in respect of one project whilst providing value to shareholders by advancing another.

Engagement with local stakeholders

Whilst building strong relationships with local communities and stakeholders can help mitigate some risks, it cannot alleviate them entirely. Sadly, there is no evidence that governments are less likely to nationalize assets if companies operating in their country are benefiting local populations through job creation, infrastructure development, and other social programs.

Nevertheless, those efforts are laudable in their own right and provide terrible optics for a state seeking to explain away its nationalization of a mining project to an international tribunal.

Operating in challenging states, particularly those prone to political instability and resource nationalism, presents significant financial and operational risks—illegal expropriation, increased taxes, and revoked licenses, to name a few.

Mitigation of those risks demands adaptability and innovative strategies and frankly, good lawyers. In the current climate, it is down to mining companies to adapt to these challenging environments for as long as states prioritize nationalism over national long-term interest, and politicians in these states favour electoral over generational gain.

Timothy Foden is partner and co-head of the international arbitration group at Boies Schiller Flexner in London. Kristen Young is partner in Washington, D.C. and Rebecca Mee is an associate in London, both specialize in disputes in Francophone Africa.

Boies Schiller Flexner represented Indiana Resources and Winshear Gold in the cases mentioned.

The 32-year-old employee of Codelco contractor CVC was repairing the roof of a storage site used to hold copper concentrate when he was killed, Codelco said.

The firm said it had opened an investigation into the death. Sernageomin, Chile’s mining safety regulator, will also launch an independent investigation, it said.

After the worker’s death, “all operational activities of the division were suspended,” Codelco said in a statement.

The Ventanas division is responsible for the operation of a copper refinery within the mining company.

(By Fabian Cambero; Editing by Leslie Adler and Kylie Madry)

Miners in Santander and Norte de Santander, predominantly from the informal gold sector, are protesting the government’s plan to declare an area near the Andean wetland known as Santurbán as a temporary natural reserve, which would bar them from the gold deposits beneath its soil.

Separately, in Antioquia province in the northwest, workers are protesting the destruction of excavators and other heavy machinery used in illegal or informal gold mining by security forces.

More than two-thirds of the nation’s gold is produced by in operations that lack full certification. Many of the mining operations in rivers and remote mountains are controlled by organized crime groups.

The sector has received a boost this year as gold prices soared to a record as the spreading conflict in the Middle East increases haven demand and traders assess risks from the upcoming US presidential election. The metal has surged by about a third this year to $2,738.95 on Friday.

The government of President Gustavo Petro was elected on pledges to protect the nation’s environment, which has sometimes brought it into conflict with environmentally-damaging sectors such as cattle ranching and illegal mining.

With protests entering a fifth day, Mines and Energy Minister Andres Camacho said Friday in a post on X that talks to end the protests are ongoing. Agreements have been reached to allow for the intermittent opening of roads, Camacho said, following a meeting with miners in Antioquia.

Blocked roads have prevented more than 140,000 tons of products from reaching their destination, El Tiempo newspaper reported Thursday. This comes after nationwide protests in September paralyzed swathes of the country after the government announced plans to hike diesel prices.

The environment ministry at the start of the year issued a decree with which it can determine places where mining activity is restricted for five years while officials determine if the area meets criteria to become protected. This five year period can also be extended.

In September, the government signaled that it would publish a resolution to assign this status to an area around the Santurbán wetland, which would mark the first time it used the decree.

(By Andrea Jaramillo)

For the son of a wealthy mining mogul, this was something of an initiation. He spent the summer hunting for gold — shadowing grizzled prospectors and geologists, bushwhacking through the Boréal forest. He even dug holes for where the outhouses would go. “I just wanted to be kept busy,” he said.

Adam, 37, is now the chairman of Lundin Mining Corp., a publicly traded Canadian metals producer. His younger brother, Jack, 34, is the company’s chief executive officer. The Lundin boys, as they are known in Canada’s tight-knit mining circles, are the two middle sons of Lukas Lundin, a hard-driving magnate who inherited the business from his own father.

As the world races to build more clean energy products, many of the key companies that control vast quantities of critical minerals are family-owned, and the Lundin boys are part of a new generation taking the reins. They were groomed to inherit a commodities empire — copper, nickel and zinc mines across the Americas and Europe — along with a family fortune estimated at $7.3 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.

But unlike other mining families, the Lundins aren’t controlling shareholders. Together with their two brothers, Will and Harry, they own a collective 15.4% of Lundin Mining, making them the firm’s second-biggest shareholder.

“We’re doing this because we want to,” said Jack. “Not because we have to.”

In their twenties, Jack and Adam were put in charge of smaller outfits to test their business savvy. Jack was tasked with managing Lundin Gold Inc.’s project in Ecuador, while Adam steered Filo Corp., a copper project in Argentina. They were each appointed to boards of other Lundin-owned companies before eventually joining the upper ranks at Lundin Mining. Now, they rise at 5 a.m. most days to track European commodities markets.

Through a family trust managed out of Geneva, Switzerland, the Lundins are also top shareholders in nearly a dozen other commodities companies, including Botswana-based diamond driller Lucara Diamond Corp. and ShaMaran Petroleum Corp., an oil explorer with assets in Iraq.

Few in the industry were surprised to see Adam and Jack take over from their father, but it happened sooner than expected, after Lukas died suddenly of brain cancer in 2022. Two years later, they’re betting big on Argentina, where they’ve secured access to vast deposits of copper — putting them on the front lines of a frenzy for natural resources in the inflation-wracked country.

“As the world moves to electrify, we’re all going to need a lot more copper,” Adam said from his Vancouver office, overlooking the city’s jagged Pacific coastline. “We can play a big role in that.”

The bet on a metal in a country that has yet to really produce much of it is in keeping with tradition: The Lundins built a reputation for going to places that few others were comfortable venturing.

Adolf H. Lundin was a Swedish wildcatter who made a fortune from the 1976 discovery of a natural gas field off the coast of Qatar. In Europe’s staid commodities world, his swashbuckling business ventures brought him fame and controversy. He invested in gold projects in apartheid-era South Africa and oil drilling in Sudan while the country was ravaged by civil war. (To this day, the family’s defunct petroleum business is the subject of Sweden’s largest-ever criminal prosecution, concerning human rights abuses in Sudan.)

He was an “inveterate gambler, who always believed the riches were right around the corner,” said Pierre Lassonde, a Canadian mining financier and co-founder of Franco-Nevada Corp. “Drank his own liquor plenty,” he added.

Lukas’s brother Ian went into oil, exploring for petroleum sources in Africa and Europe. Lukas, meanwhile, helped expand the family business into mining through dealmaking that netted a sprawling portfolio of mines. He resettled to Canada in the late ‘80s, as Vancouver became a hub for mineral explorers and developers.

Appetite for adventure runs in the family — Lukas was a four-time motorcycle competitor in the Dakar rally and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro twice. Within months of his death, Jack climbed Mount Everest to pay homage. Earlier this year, he completed a 75-mile, eight-hour cycling race through British Columbia.

To build a copper mining district in Argentina, the brothers will have to navigate the raucous politics and economic vagaries of one of the more volatile countries in South America. The country’s new president, Javier Milei, has promised to ramp up resource extraction to help grow the economy.

“It’s a big bet,” said Martin Pradier, an analyst at Veritas Investment Research Corp. “They’re not just betting on this government. They’re betting on the next 10 governments.”

Mine-building is notoriously challenging, rife with uncertainty and cost overruns. Nowadays, most miners would rather acquire already-built operations than take on the risks of constructing new ones. The Argentine projects are located in the San Juan Province, a largely depopulated region defined by the Andes mountains and vast, arid desert. There are few roads and sparse access to the electrical grid. “You have to build roads, you have to get people to live at the base of the mine,” said Pradier.

The brothers have sought to manage risk with outside help. In July, they recruited BHP Group Ltd., the world’s top mining firm, to take 50% ownership of the Argentine project, forming a joint venture to build the district.

After Milei’s inauguration in January, Jack and Adam flew to Buenos Aires to meet with the new president and discuss the resource sector’s role in stabilizing a country rife with inflation and investor apprehension.

They emerged from the meeting with a selfie — Jack and Adam on either side of the new president, giving two thumbs up. And a few months later, Milei unveiled a sweeping package of tax, currency and customs benefits for major investors.

“It’s the best window I’ve seen in Argentina — ever,” said Adam.

(By Jacob Lorinc)

Under a private placement agreement announced on Friday, Agnico will purchase approximately 33.9 million units of ATEX at C$1.63 per unit, representing a 15% premium over ATEX’s stock price from a week ago and 12.4% over its previous day’s closing price.

By 11:10 a.m. ET in Toronto, ATEX Resources traded 11% higher at C$1.61, having touched a 52-week high of C$1.66 a share earlier in the session. The company has a market capitalization of C$336.2 million ($242.3 million)

The Agnico investment will support ATEX’s exploration activities at the Valeriano project. The property covers approximately 61.3 sq. km and is host to a large copper-gold porphyry deposit, below a near-surface oxidized epithermal gold deposit that extends from surface to a depth of 100 metres.

Since 2021, ATEX has completed multiple phases of drilling to test the mineralization at Valeriano, beginning with the gold oxide deposit in the initial phase then extending to the porphyry system.

Last year, it produced a mineral resource estimate totalling 1.44 billion tonnes grading 0.49% copper and 0.21 g/t gold, all in the inferred category. The porphyry deposit makes up most of this resource — 1.41 billion tonnes at 0.50% copper and 0.20 g/t — and contains a higher-grade core totaling 200 million tonnes at 0.62% copper and 0.29 g/t gold.

“This transaction results in ATEX being well capitalized through 2025 to execute on our future drill programs and to continue defining this deposit while also continuing to de-risk and conduct engineering studies,” commented ATEX CEO Ben Pullinger in a news release.

In addition to the private placement, the company also announced that it will repay the entire outstanding balance on its credit facility totaling $15 million through the issuance of equity. A total of 7.9 million units at the same price of the offering (C$1.63) and 5.5 million shares priced at C$1.42 each will be issued to its lenders (Firelight Investments, Beedie Capital and Trinity Capital Partners).

Moreover, ATEX has arranged a private placement with recently appointed board member Rick McCreary, who will purchase C$500,000 worth of units, also at the same price of the private placement.

Upon closing of the above transactions, Agnico would become one of ATEX’s largest shareholders, with a shareholding of 13% on an undiluted basis.

The agreement was signed in Brasília, the capital city, with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in attendance.

In February, a federal judge ruled that the companies must pay up to 47.6 billion reais ($8.4 billion) in damages for the dam collapse, though the decision is still subject to appeal.

The Fundão dam burst occurred on November 5, 2015. Approximately 40 million cubic meters of mining waste destroyed communities and livelihoods, contaminated the Rio Doce and its tributaries, and reached the Atlantic Ocean.

In total, 49 municipalities were affected, either directly or indirectly, and 19 people lost their lives.

According to BHP, the agreement builds on the existing remediation and compensation efforts by the Renova Foundation in Brazil, which have thus far totalled 38 billion reais ($7.9 billion).

In addition to the amount already spent by Renova, the agreement includes 100 billion reais ($18 billion) in installments over 20 years to public authorities, municipalities, Indigenous peoples and traditional communities. Additional performance obligations for Samarco, estimated at 32 billion reais ($5.8 billion), are also included.

Payments to be completed over 15 years

The compensation covers programs for universal water sanitation, health initiatives, economic recovery, infrastructure improvements, and investment funds in education, culture, sports and food security.

The agreement also includes compensation payments of 95,000 reais ($17,000) per person for eligible fishermen and farmers in the affected areas.

“BHP Brasil’s expected outflows under the agreement align with BHP’s FY2024 Samarco dam failure provision of $6.5 billion, and no update is required to the existing provision at this time,” BHP stated.

“The Samarco Fundão dam failure was a terrible tragedy. It should never have happened and must never be forgotten,” said BHP CEO Mike Henry.

Payments are expected to be completed over approximately 15 years, with the first installment of 5 billion reais ($880 million) due within 30 days. The agreement remains subject to approval by the Brazilian Supreme Court.

BHP still faces a potential $47 billion payout in damages in a lawsuit in London’s High Court. The settlement in Brazil will not impact the UK case.

The plaintiffs include over 600,000 Brazilian citizens, 46 municipalities and 2,000 businesses, all challenging BHP’s role in the disaster.

In July, BHP and Vale agreed to equally share the cost of any damages resulting from the UK proceedings.

Shares of BHP rose 0.7% by 12:00 p.m. EDT. Vale stocks were up 3.4%.

Read More: BHP says claim it put profit over safety ‘unjustified’ in Brazilian dam collapse case

Still, Vale posted a $2.41 billion net profit for the quarter ended in September, well above analysts’ estimates for a $1.65 billion profit as polled by LSEG.

Vale reported a 10% decline in its net revenue year-on-year to $9.55 billion, almost in line with the $9.44 billion analysts had expected.

It had already released earlier this month its third-quarter sales and output report, which showed the highest iron ore production for a quarter since 2018, but realized prices of iron ore fines dropping 14%, weighing on its profit.

Its core profit as measured by adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) came in at $3.62 billion in the quarter, down 18% from a year earlier and also broadly meeting analysts’ estimates of $3.61 billion.

Vale said in the earnings report it booked an additional $956 million provision related to the deadly collapse of a dam at an iron ore mine owned by Samarco, a joint venture between Vale and BHP, near the Brazilian city of Mariana in 2015.

The firm had already anticipated a similar impact last week as a final compensation deal approaches, with Vale saying on Thursday that it was set to sign the deal on Friday after years of talks with Brazilian authorities.

The most recent discussions were for the three miners to pay up 170 billion reais ($30 billion), with 100 billion reais of that to be paid over 20 years directly to public authorities.

Vale’s new management is eyeing a better quality portfolio with more focus on the client, CEO Gustavo Pimenta said in the earnings report. Pimenta, Vale’s former chief financial officer, joined as CEO earlier this month.

Pimenta said Vale aims to speed up efforts to offer high-quality product in its main iron ore business, while adding it plans to grow its base metal unit, particularly in copper.

In a separate filing on Thursday evening, Vale also raised its all-in cost guidance for copper for the year.

($1 = 5.6653 reais)

(By Marta Nogueira and Andre Romani; Editing by Kylie Madry and Sonali Paul)

Newmont Corp. shares posted their biggest daily drop since 1997 on Thursday, tumbling 15% after the Denver-based company posted earnings, revenue and profit margins that fell short of analysts’ estimates in the third quarter, dragged down by higher costs. The stock traded a further 3% lower on Friday, with top rivals Barrick Gold Corp. and Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. also retreating.

Analysts had high hopes for the industry. Gold has surged more than 30% this year, while fuel prices — one of the miners’ key expenses — have been easing. But Newmont’s results revealed that big gold producers are still wrestling with inflationary pressures, especially regarding labor costs, that have lasted longer than expected.

“There’s a potential read-through here, assuming Newmont’s takeaways are accurate, that this is a risk factor for the industry,” said Josh Wolfson, a mining analyst with Royal Bank of Canada.

Newmont earned 80 cents a share, well short of the average estimate of 89 cents among analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Revenue of $4.61 billion also trailed estimates, as did its gross profit margin, which slipped below 50%.

The company said it spent more to dig up the precious metal at its mines in Australia, Canada, Peru and Papua New Guinea than in the previous quarter. Capital expenses rose 10% due to expansion projects in Australia and Argentina, while some of the company’s highest expenses came from major assets it picked up through last year’s $15 billion takeover of Newcrest Mining Ltd.

Some of those cost issues are specific to the company, and not necessarily indicative of a broader industry trend. Newmont is undertaking costly maintenance work at its Lihir mine in Papua New Guinea — a notoriously complex operation in a remote region — and it spent more to restart its Cerro Negro mine in Argentina after operations were paused due to the deaths of two workers in April.

But the company’s growing costs for workers could signal trouble across the industry.

“It’s the labor costs where we’re seeing that escalation,” chief executive officer Tom Palmer told analysts in a conference call Thursday.

“Whether that be maintenance shutdowns, maintenance that you use to supplement your workforce, costs of running camps, costs of flying people to and from the camps — that’s where we’re seeing some escalation beyond what we’d assumed at the start of the year.”

Miners’ pitch to investors is that they can offer better returns than owning the metal, partly due to greater investment options and shareholder payouts, but the industry has often underperformed over the past 15 years as major expansions left producers with big debts and angry shareholders.

Newmont’s earnings also serve as a preview for Canada’s Barrick, which shares a giant mining complex with Newmont in Nevada. The Nevada mines produced less gold compared to the previous quarter.

Despite investor disappointment, the gold miners are still being helped by the bullion boom: Newmont posted its highest quarterly profit in five years, raking in $922 million. Analysts expect Newmont is on track to net $3.2 billion in profit this year — which would be a record for the company.

Even after this week’s plunge, Newmont’s shares are up 15% this year.

Barrick, Agnico and other big producers including AngloGold Ashanti Plc and Gold Fields Ltd. are also expected to rake in windfall returns by the end of the year.

“The street expectations were too high,” said Carey MacRury, a mining analyst at Canaccord Genuity who recommends investors buy the shares. “It was negative, no doubt, but I don’t think it’s as negative as what the market’s telling us today.”

(By Jacob Lorinc)

The company’s latest batch of assays from its 10,000-metre drilling campaign included 10.9 grams of gold per tonne over 7.5 metres from 366 metres deep in hole 24ODD-083 east of the Wenot deposit. Hole 23O-082 to the west cut 3.19 grams gold over 22.8 metres from 304 metres deep.

These results confirm the continuity of mineralization, the company said. In all, Omai Gold released results from 8,460 metres of diamond drilling to date for 17 holes. The project centres on the Wenot deposit and satellite targets at East Wenot and West Wenot, and Snake Pond. The nearby Gilt Creek deposit to the northeast offers future underground potential.

Drilling targeted both deeper sections and gaps in the open pit mining scenario tabled in an April PEA. The results indicate potential to expand the resource and improve project returns, CEO Elaine Ellingham said in a news release.

Omai plans to update the resource update by March, with the PEA to follow by June.

At the West Wenot area, hole 24ODD-086 returned 2.96 grams of gold over 19.4 metres from a depth of 293.2 metres. It extended known mineralization 100 metres below prior high-grade zones.

Shares gained as much as 8% to C$0.195 in early trading Thursday, before falling back to Wednesday’s closing price of C$0.18. Coming off a 12-month low at C$0.035, shares are trading near the period high of C$0.205. It has a market capitalization of C$97 million.

Economic update

Work is also underway at the Gilt Creek deposit. The PEA excluded Gilt Creek at the start to facilitate early development. Management now sees integrating it as key to extending the site’s life beyond 20 years.

Gilt Creek has an indicated resource of 11.1 million tonnes at 3.2 grams gold per tonne for 1.2 million oz. of the precious metal. It has another 32.4 million tonnes of inferred material at 2.26 grams gold per tonne for 665,000 oz. that holds potential to further boost long-term output given more drilling.

The drilling campaign aims to convert untested areas into mineralized material.

The April PEA estimated Wenot’s after-tax net present value at $556 million (5% discount) and projected annual gold production of 142,000 oz. over 13 years.

Omai forecasts annual after-tax free cash flow of $112 million, translating to about $1 billion in cash flow across the mine’s lifespan. All-in sustaining costs were projected at $1,009 per ounce. According to the PEA, the mine’s construction cost of $375 million can be recouped in less than four years.

Codelco, the world’s largest copper miner, has been tasked with leading a government plan championed by President Gabriel Boric to boost state control over the production of lithium, the key rechargeable battery metal.

(By Fabian Andres Cambero; Editing by Brendan O’Boyle)

US imports of copper have surged after traders capitalized on a rare arbitrage window that opened between the CME and the London Metal Exchange (LME) contracts at the height of the squeeze on CME short position holders.

The result has been a redistribution of global exchange inventory with CME stocks rebuilding from depleted levels and both LME and Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) inventory falling.

It remains to be seen how long this global readjustment lasts but resilient demand and domestic production constraints have the potential to suck more metal into the United States.

Chilean exports redirected

The United States imported an average of 57,700 metric tons per month of refined copper in the first half of 2024.

Inbound shipments then jumped to 106,400 tons and 117,500 tons in July and August respectively, according to LSEG Group trade data.

The main source of the extra metal was Chile. US imports from the South American country accelerated from an average 39,600 tons per month in January-June to 78,200 tons in July and 89,800 tons in August.

Indeed, the United States became the major destination for Chilean copper in the May-August period as shipments to China dropped to an average 30,300 tons.

Shorts covered?

A significant portion of Chile’s shipments to the United States has been delivered against short positions on the CME.

The CME’s limited range of good-delivery brands was one of the reasons the May squeeze became so acute.

Chilean metal accounts for 18 of a total 57 deliverable copper brands on the US exchange, exceeding the 13 domestically-produced brands.

A total 76,440 tons of copper have entered CME warehouses in New Orleans since the start of August, helping lift registered inventory to 74,824 tons from a July low of 8,117 tons.

The liquidity boost has calmed CME time-spreads after the extreme backwardations seen in the second quarter.

It’s noticeable that while CME stocks have been rising, those registered with both the LME and the ShFE have fallen.

However, global exchange inventory is broadly unchanged at an elevated 521,600 tons, up 308,000 tons on the start of the year.

More to come?

CME copper stocks are by no means one-way traffic, with the daily inflows being offset by a steady stream of metal moving in the opposite direction.

This speaks to resilient demand in the United States even before the Federal Reserve’s bumper rate cut trickles down to the manufacturing sector.

Moreover, domestic production is going to take a significant knock due to geotechnical problems at one of country’s largest mines.

Production at the Bingham Canyon mine dropped 44% year-on-year in the third quarter due to movement in the walls of what is the world’s deepest open-pit copper mine.

Rio Tinto, which owns the mine, warned that mined production would be impacted to the tune of 50,000 tons this year as feed to the concentrator is supplemented with lower-grade ore. Mined output will also be affected both next year and in 2026, albeit to an as-yet unknown extent, it said.

It may not just be CME copper shorts that need more US imports in the months ahead.

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, Andy Home, a columnist for Reuters.)

(Editing by Mark Potter)

BHP walked away from a $49 billion bid to acquire Anglo in May after it was rebuffed three times. With a six-month block on another approach set to expire at the end of November, a deal is again under scrutiny.

Anglo was able to convince investors during BHP’s approach that it had a better plan to grow value, focused on shedding underperforming platinum, diamonds and coal to focus on copper, a metal key for the energy transition.

If that succeeds, the higher value that comes with copper assets may help keep Anglo safe, one portfolio manager at a Cape Town fund manager said.

But the longer it takes to achieve a transformation, the more likely it is that investors will be tempted by another bid.

Investors with shares in both companies told Reuters that even though they expect BHP CEO Mike Henry to renew his pursuit for the London-listed miner, the timing and even the rationale for such an approach could be shaped by whether Anglo can grow beyond the grasp of cash-rich rivals.

Anglo CEO Duncan Wanblad is rushing to sell coking coal mines in Australia and nickel assets in Brazil while spinning off platinum mines in South Africa. The company is also weighing whether to sell or separately list its De Beers diamonds unit.

Anglo’s world-class copper assets in Latin America are the prize for rivals seeking increased exposure to copper.

But its copper mines are still dogged by operational issues. On Thursday, it said copper output declined 13% in the third quarter, though the company remains on course to meet this year’s output guidance of 730,000 tons to 790,000 tons.

Anglo declined to comment. BHP did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

Choosing the moment

Anglo’s shares rose as much as 4.3% in London on Monday amid a broad uptick in mining stocks, but have shed most of the premium they added in the wake of BHP’s approach.

If Anglo’s valuation takes time to catch up with its restructuring, it could present a golden opportunity for BHP.

According to a source at a top investor in both companies, a restructured Anglo creates more value for BHP, which is still wary of the risks associated with absorbing South African assets.

“If I was BHP, I would say let Anglo do most of the heavy lifting, the restructuring it promised it will do by end 2025,” the source told Reuters.

Any potential new bid should come when some of the restructuring is expected to completed by June or July next year, they added.

BHP may have to wait until Anglo spins off its platinum business by mid-2025 to make the deal less complex, UBS Group analysts said. “We expect Anglo to re-rate as the group simplifies,” UBS said. “If not, we see potential for another takeover approach.”

Christiaan Bothma, an investment analyst at Johannesburg-based money manager Sanlam Private Wealth, which has shares in both companies, told Reuters it would “make sense” for BHP to wait for Anglo to do the asset separation for them.

But he added: “The counter argument to this would be if they wait (too) long, Anglo’s valuation premium may be too high or iron ore prices too low (BHP’s primary currency).”

(By Felix Njini; Editing by Veronica Brown, Pratima Desai and Jan Harvey)

In June, McEwen Copper announced a private placement financing of up to $70 million through the issuance of approximately 2.33 million shares at $30 per share. Under the first tranche, the McEwen unit received a $14 million investment its parent company and a $5 million investment from Rob McEwen, its chairman and chief owner.

Nuton’s $35 million investment represents the second tranche of that financing, with the purchase of nearly 1.17 million shares. Two other investors also participated in this tranche for a total of $2 million.

Together with the first tranche, McEwen Copper has now raised a total of $56 million for the Los Azules project.

Los Azules project

Los Azules is an open-pit copper deposit located 80 km northwest of the town of Calingasta and 6 km east of the border with Chile at an elevation of 3,500 metres in the Andes Mountains. The extent of mineralization along strike exceeds 4 km and the distance across strike is approximately 2.2 km.

The copper resource contains 10.9 billion lb. in ore that grades 0.40% copper in the indicated category and 26.7 billion lb. in material averaging 0.31% copper in the inferred category. This resource is expected to support average production of 322 million lb. of copper in cathodes per year over a projected 27-year life.

According to a June 2023 preliminary economic assessment, Los Azules would have an estimated after-tax net present value (at a discount rate of 8%) of $2.7 billion and internal rate of return of 21.2%, based on an assumed copper price of $3.75/lb. Its payback period is 3.2 years.

McEwen Copper is currently working a bankable feasibility study for the project, which is scheduled for publication in the first half of 2025.

Shareholding update

The copper subsidiary was created by McEwen Mining in mid-2021 with a view of maximizing the value of its copper assets. A year later, it received its first investment from Nuton, while also establishing a partnership with the Rio venture to assess the potential application of its heap leach technology at Los Azules.

According to the companies, heap leaching would offer superior economic and environmental benefits over the conventional milling methods. The project is also expected to be powered by 100% renewable energy, with a commitment to reach carbon neutrality by 2038.

Following the latest round of financing, Nuton now owns 17.2% of McEwen Copper on a fully diluted basis, nearly doubling its initial shareholding. Its other notable shareholders are: McEwen Mining (46.4%), Stellantis (18.3%), Rob McEwen (12.7%) and Victor Smorgon Group 3.0%.

With the new share issuances, McEwen Copper now has approximately 32.8 million common shares outstanding, giving it a post-money market value of $984 million.

The global lithium sector from Chile to Zimbabwe is struggling due to prices that have slumped over 80% since the start of last year on oversupply and weaker-than-expected EV demand. That’s gummed up financing and hit profit margins at miners both large and small.

Reuters interviews with nearly a dozen executives, officials and analysts show how severe the situation is in Argentina, and how that is likely to reduce lithium output in the years ahead.

Firms have cut staff, slashed spending and halted exploration projects, and the plunging value of lithium assets has left some firms vulnerable to takeover.

Globally, Argentina is the number four lithium producer. It has the second largest resources of the metal and has been a key spot for investors looking to lock up supply.

“We were prepared for a rainy day and we found a storm,” said Juan Pablo Vargas de la Vega, managing director of Australia-based Galan Lithium, which is developing a project in the Hombre Muerto basin in Argentina’s northern province of Catamarca.

Galan is aiming for first production in the second half of next year, but it has cut its phase one target by around a quarter from 5,400 tons to 4,000 tons of lithium a year.

The lithium price squeeze is shaking up the global market, putting pressure on miners to cut costs and spurring more merger and acquisition (M&A) interest as companies look for deeper-pocketed backers to ride out the downturn.

This month mining giant Rio Tinto agreed to buy US-based Arcadium Lithium for $6.7 billion, a deal that will make it the world’s third largest miner of the metal.

Five analysts consulted by Reuters expect more M&A, particularly for early-stage projects.

“For companies that aren’t producing and have resources in Argentina, it’s very probable that they’ll be receiving offers,” said Federico Gay, a lithium analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

Arcadium operates two of the main projects in Argentina. The wider region, including Chile and Bolivia, holds more than half of the world’s deposits of the metal, which despite the price drop remains a critical mineral for governments and carmakers worldwide.

Western investors consider the region to be a geopolitical safe haven as the United States and Europe put tougher controls on auto parts from China, the world’s number three lithium producer.

‘Stop spending money’

To be sure, Argentina is still likely to see a slate of more advanced projects coming online in the near-term. The hit will come further down the road, denting output estimates by around 2026-2028, analysts said.

That could play into a supply shortfall that is expected to hit around the end of the decade as demand rises for lithium for EV batteries and energy storage.

“We had to make the call to sort of stop spending money,” said Jerko Zuvela, managing director of Australia-based Argosy Minerals, which took a pilot plant in Argentina offline and laid off the site’s workers.

Local media reported the plant closure cost 140 jobs.

Asked about the reports, Zuvela said the company reduced its workforce given the stoppage at the demonstration facility, and changed its focus to construction on the commercial plant.

“When the big guys are slowing down their expansion strategies and cutting back on staff and operations and so forth, it’s no different for us,” he said.

UK-based mining consultancy CRU Group told Reuters it had lowered its Argentina production forecast for 2027 by about 10% and no longer sees the potential for Argentina to overtake Chile, the world’s number two producer, by that year, as it previously expected.

Lake Resources is seeking permits for its Kachi project in Argentina, but meanwhile this year cut three-quarters of staff and put four Argentina lithium assets up for sale.

CEO David Dickson told Reuters the company is looking for funding via equity investment and supply deals, and expects lithium demand to exceed supply by the end of the decade.

Arcadium in August put some expansion plans in Canada and Argentina on hold, a move that it said would help save it $500 million in the next two years.

“We must adapt to the realities of the market we find ourselves in today and the pace at which we can responsibly invest capital,” Arcadium CEO Paul Graves told analysts when announcing the cuts.

Argentina stands out for its deep pipelines of projects driven by private capital – in contrast to neighbor Chile where two established players, SQM and Albemarle, dominate the sector.

Argentina had 30 companies in the prospecting, initial exploration and advanced exploration phases across its lithium region as of July, government records show. But that pipeline could be slowed in coming years as earlier-stage exploration takes the hardest hit from the downturn.

“Exploration is very impacted by the drop in lithium prices,” Flavia Royon, head of a government-sponsored lithium booster committee, told Reuters, adding the main hit to output would likely be from 2028.

In the key lithium province of Salta, advanced projects from companies including Rio Tinto, Eramet, Posco and Ganfeng, are moving forward, but earlier-stage projects are getting stuck, according to Salta Mining Minister Romina Sassarini.

“There are at least six others coming along that aren’t being developed today, that aren’t moving into construction and production because they don’t have the investment,” she told Reuters. She did not identify the projects she was referring to.

Argentina, looking to boost a flagging economy, has lured investment from global firms in recent years with market-friendly regulations. The current government is also pushing investment incentives including tax breaks and targeted easing of capital controls for large projects to access dollars.

“This in some ways counteracts the drop of lithium prices,” said Royon, citing Rio Tinto, Eramet, Posco and Ganfeng as projects that were advanced enough to potentially benefit from the incentives.

‘No better time to buy’

The shakeout may be painful, but it has made projects more attractive to potential suitors looking to pick up bargains: valuations for lithium companies globally have dropped about 60% to 70% in the last year and a half.

A half-dozen analysts and executives pointed to eight projects in Argentina that could potentially be targets, including Argosy Minerals, Galan Lithium and Lake Resources.

“There is no better time to buy assets than today,” said Jose Hofer, a lithium adviser at consultancy SC Insights, without himself specifying who might be the top targets.

In fact, Galan was approached by lithium technology startup EnergyX in August for a $150 million takeover, but rejected the offer. Galan declined to comment on potential M&A, as did Argosy.

Most executives were hopeful of prices rising again – even if not to peak levels – as EV demand picked up.

Although the exact timing is hard to pin down, the price turnaround is not expected to be any sooner than mid-2025.

The head of one early-stage lithium project in Argentina that has struggled with funding, who declined to be identified, said he expected prices to rise by the second or third quarter of next year, at least enough to start mobilizing the projects.

However some analysts expect low pricing to persist through the first half of 2026.

Argosy Minerals, which plans to build a 12,000-ton per year facility at the Rincon salt flat in Salta province expects its capital reserves to be enough to fund feasibility and engineering works, said Zuvela, the managing director.

Once that is done, in about nine to 12 months, it would return to the market to see if funding was available for construction, he said.

“That’s where higher lithium prices probably need to provide an incentive for financiers to come out and support companies like us to develop lithium projects,” Zuvela said.

(By Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Claudia Parsons)

Anglo said its copper output fell 13% in the July to September quarter, while rough diamond production decreased by 25% on cuts due to prolonged lower demand.

Its De Beers diamonds unit is exploring options for further output cuts in future, Anglo said.

For the first nine months of 2024, copper output fell 4% to 575,000 tons and diamond production was down 21% at 18.9 million carats.

Anglo still expects to produce 730,000-790,000 tons of copper and 23-26 million carats of rough diamonds this year, even as it assesses additional production cuts going forward.

Its shares, which have risen around 18% this year, opened up 2.2%.

The mining giant is restructuring its business to mainly focus on energy transition metal copper after fending off a $49 billion takeover offer from bigger rival BHP Group in May.

Copper will make up 60% of Anglo’s business after it sells its Australian steelmaking coal assets and nickel mines in Brazil, as well as divesting De Beers and its platinum business Amplats in South Africa.

Apart from its copper assets in Chile, Anglo will also retain iron ore mines in South Africa and Brazil, as well as the Woodsmith fertilizer project in the United Kingdom, which it has now slowed down.

Anglo said steelmaking coal’s production fell by 6% in the third quarter after shutting its Grosvenor mine in Queensland due to an underground fire.

The London-listed miner, the world’s third-largest exporter of metallurgical coal, lowered its yearly production guidance to 14-15.5 million tons from a previous forecast of 15-17 million.

Anglo said the final round of bidders for the coal assets was in place and it expected to announce the sale agreement within months.

(By Clara Denina and Felix Njini; Editing by Stephen Coates and Mark Potter)

Eramet used available liquidity for the $699 million purchase of Tsingshan’s 49.9% stake, it said.

The Centenario project, due to start production in the coming weeks, was attractive despite a drop in lithium prices and full ownership would let Eramet decide how to pursue a planned second production facility, Chair and CEO Christel Bories told reporters on a call.

Eramet shares rose 6% in early trade, recovering some of their steep losses since last week when the group’s production target cuts pushed the shares to three-year lows.

Metals group Tsingshan built the initial processing plant at Eramet’s lithium mine, with a target to reach annual capacity of 24,000 metric tons by mid-2025.

Tsingshan remains Eramet’s partner in Indonesia where they operate a nickel mine.

In a separate third-quarter sales statement, Eramet also announced the suspension of a project to develop recycling of electric vehicle batteries in France, citing slow development of the market in Europe.

The group cut its capital investment target for this year, with cost control measures including the suspension of its mine production in Gabon announced last week in response to a downturn in the manganese market.

The reduced spending partly reflected a delay at the second plant in Argentina, with a decision expected next year and construction potentially starting in 2026, chief financial officer Nicolas Carre told an analyst call. Construction had been expected to begin next year.

Bories said the manganese market, hit by an influx of low-grade ore from South African and reduced demand from Chinese steel makers, was expected to return to normal conditions during the fourth quarter.

The group did not update its projection for full-year adjusted earnings before interest, tax, debt and amortization (EBITDA), with Carre telling reporters metal price forecasts have been too volatile.

Eramet reiterated its expectation for higher EBITDA in the second half compared with the first half, with Carre adding it expected to achieve full-year net profit.

(By Gus Trompiz and Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Mark Potter and Barbara Lewis)

Copper prices remained elevated in the quarter, supported by optimism about Chinese demand following a series of stimulus measures from Beijing. Long-term demand view for the red metal continues to be bullish on the back of its critical role in the energy transition.

Teck said copper prices rose by about 11.7% from a year earlier and averaged around $4.21 per pound.

The Quebrada Blanca (QB) mine in Chile reported record production during the quarter as operations continued to ramp up. This helped Teck achieve a jump of around 60% in copper output to 115,000 metric tons.

However, the company cut its full-year copper production forecast for the second time in a row, citing labour issues and mining delays at the Highland Valley Copper mine in Canada.

It also reduced the upper end of its 2024 annual copper production guidance for QB. Teck now expects full-year copper production of 420,000 to 455,000 tons, compared with the previous guidance of 435,000 to 500,000 tons.

Teck revamped its operations this year by selling 77% interest in the steelmaking coal unit to Swiss miner Glencore Plc. The deal, one of the largest in the industry, was completed in July.

The deal was part of Teck’s transition into a pure-play energy transition metals company.

“We have returned more than $1.3 billion to shareholders so far this year, while also reducing debt and ramping-up copper production,” CEO Jonathan Price said in a statement

The company reported an adjusted profit of C$0.60 ($0.4340) per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with analysts’ average estimate of C$0.37 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.

($1 = 1.3824 Canadian dollars)

(By Mrinalika Roy and Surbhi Misra; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Janane Vengatraman)

Leonardo Contreras also said that the company, controlled by billionaire German Larrea, would restart an environmental impact assessment of Los Chancas once all illegal miners had been kicked out of the site.

Grupo Mexico will then “initiate the hydrogeological and geological studies and conduct a diamond drilling campaign to gather additional information on the deposits’ characteristics,” Contreras added.

The firm had previously reported that dozens of illegal miners had invaded the project located in Peru’s southern Apurimac region.

It started legal action against them back in 2023 in order to continue the project’s development, estimated at a $2.6 billion investment.

(By Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; Editing by Stefanie Eschenbacher and Kylie Madry)

Read More: Grupo Mexico’s profit jump on copper prices, production

Shares fell as much as 9.1% in New York on Thursday, the biggest intraday decline since July 2022. The stock drop came a day after Newmont posted third-quarter results that missed analysts’ estimates on adjusted earnings, costs and revenue. Newmont fell short of expectations after spending more to dig up the precious metal at its mines in Australia, Canada, Peru and Papua New Guinea.

The Denver-based company is the first major gold producer to post results in an earnings season where investors have been anticipating bumper profits from bullion producers. Gold is among the best-performing metals this year, surging more than 30% since the start of January and setting repeated record highs.

“The street expectations were too high,” said Carey MacRury, a mining analyst at Canaccord Genuity. “It was negative, no doubt, but I don’t think it’s as negative as what the market’s telling us today.”

Despite the missed expectations, Newmont posted its highest quarterly profits in five years — raking in $922 million in net income attributable to shareholders for the quarter.

Gold miners have struggled with higher labor and energy costs over the past few years. Newmont said its capital expenses rose 10% due to expansion projects in Australia and Argentina. But some of the company’s higher expenses came from major assets it picked up through last year’s $15 billion takeover of Newcrest Mining Ltd. Newmont posted 55% higher all-in sustaining costs at its Lihir operation in Papua New Guinea in the third quarter compared to the prior period.

The higher expenses are largely due to specific operational issues at Newmont mines, according to MacRury.

“We don’t see the cost miss as inflation read-through to the broader industry,” he said.

(By Jacob Lorinc)

Other notable names include Anglo American (LON: AAL), Newmont (TSX: NGT, NYSE: NEM), Vale (NYSE: VALE), Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX, NYSE: AEM), Glencore (LON: GLEN), AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE: AU) and Teck Resources (TSX: TECK.A, TECK.B, NYSE: TECK).

To make the list, Forbes teamed up with market research firm Statista and surveyed more than 300,000 employees in over 50 countries who work for multinational corporate groups that meet the following criteria: employ more than 1,000 workers and operate in at least two of the six continental regions (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America and Oceania).

Respondents were asked whether they would recommend their company to family or friends, and to rate it based on such criteria as salary, talent development and remote work options. They could also rate companies they knew through their own industry knowledge and through friends and family who worked there.

Survey responses were then analyzed and tallied — along with data from the previous three years — with a heavier weight placed on the more recent data and evaluations from current employees.

While the number of honorees per country varied based on the population and qualifying companies in each area, a total of 850 companies spanning 48 countries earned a ranking on Forbes’ final list.

BHP topped all mining companies under the raw materials category, with a ranking of 90. After that, Anglo American was the highest ranked company at No. 251, followed by Newmont at No. 474, Vale at No. 502, Agnico at No. 649, Glencore at No. 675, AngloGold at No. 789, Teck at No. 797 and Poland’s KGHM at No. 823.

The agreement will be signed in a ceremony attended by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at 9 a.m. local time (1200 GMT) on Oct. 25, Lula’s office said.

Vale, BHP and Samarco said last week that the deal was expected to include a total compensation of 170 billion reais ($29.9 billion), with 100 billion reais of that to be paid through 20 years directly to public authorities.

The collapse of the dam at an iron ore mine owned by Samarco, a joint venture between Vale and BHP, unleashed a wave of tailings in a disaster that killed 19 people, left hundreds homeless, flooded forests and polluted a major river.

The three mining firms have for years been negotiating a compensation agreement with Brazilian authorities, hoping a deal would end several court actions on the matter.

(By Lisandra Paraguassu; Editing by Chris Reese and Marguerita Choy)

Read More: BHP says claim it put profit over safety ‘unjustified’ in Brazilian dam collapse case

The find, called the Ramp zone, lies in the Apollo system of the project in the country’s central Caldas department. Drill hole APC99-D5 is the first intercept into a major new high-grade gold system at depth that can be classified as a partially reduced intrusion related gold-silver-copper system, the company said on Wednesday.

The hole cut 57.7 metres grading 7.83 grams gold per tonne, 33 grams silver, 0.09% copper and 0.12% zinc from 811.3 metres depth, Collective said in a release. The hold included 18.9 metres at 19.39 grams gold, 83 grams silver, 0.21% copper and 0.16% zinc.

“Right at the end of the hole we entered a fantastic zone,” David Reading, special advisor to Collective, says in a new video. “It’s clearly a new high-grade discovery.”

Higher up in the same hole, the assay showed 517.4 metres grading 1.84 grams gold, 10 grams silver, 0.03% copper an 0.06% zinc from 351.6 metres depth, the company said. That included 31.3 metres at 3.24 grams gold, 16 grams silver, 0.05% copper and 0.04% zinc.

The closest hole to the high-grade intercept is about 480 metres away, suggesting there is room for lateral expansion, BMO Capital Markets mining analyst Andrew Mikitchook wrote in a note to clients this morning.

“We expect the market to react positively to this intercept as we look forward to more deep drill holes at Apollo to confirm the scale and grade of this new discovery,” he said.

The new discovery, named “Ramp Zone,” is close in elevation (1,150m) to a planned underground haulage tunnel, Mikitchook added.

“This access tunnel connects Apollo and other targets (Plutus, Trap and Tower) to mining-related infrastructure in a potential development scenario. Although it is too early for any engineering plans, accessing high-grade portions of the orebody earlier should improve the economics of the project.”

Collective shares hit a new 52-week high of C$5.41 in morning trading before easing to C$5.10. The shares have traded as low as C$3.02 in the past year. The company’s market cap sits at C$348 million.

Gold district

Guayabales and Aris Mining’s (TSX: ARIS; NYSE: ARMN) neighbouring Marmato mine are part of a precious metal district of 10 operating mines in Colombia’s Middle Cauca mineral belt. Toronto-based Collective, founded by the same team that developed and sold Continental Gold for C$1.4 billion, posted drill results in August joining the Apollo and Olympus deposits. The project delivered the top gold assay in The Northern Miner’s weekly Drill Down several times this year.

“The fact that Apollo is now transitioning into a bulk zone of high-grade gold mineralization at depth is extremely exciting and will no doubt add materially to the mineral resource endowment of Apollo,” executive chairman Ari Sussman said. “The Apollo system, which outcrops at surface, now boasts a vertical dimension of approximately 1,150 metres with further expansion dead-ahead.”

Collective also reported strong results this year at Guayabales’ Trap area, 3.5 km northeast of Apollo. It has five rigs, two each at Trap and Apollo and another at the X target, for a 40,000-metre drill program this year. The company began the project in September 2021 and has not published a resource yet.

Potash production is expected to reach 73 million metric tons this year, with Russian exports at 12-13 million tons and those from Belarus at around 10 million tons, Julia Campbell, head of the potash pricing service at commodity price agency Argus, said.

Potash prices have started to normalize following a period of volatility following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Russian exports dropped sharply after the war in Ukraine began due to financial and logistical challenges. But these problems have since eased,” Campbell said.

Increased exports from Canada, Jordan and Laos have also boosted global supply and brought down prices, adding to the fears of possible oversupply, with a slight improvement in demand expected only in 2025.

During their half-year earnings reporting, major potash producers such as Germany’s K+S sounded optimistic about growing demand and stabilizing prices.

However, analysts have since warned the abundant global supply would put a cap on pricing, dampening the companies’ earnings prospects.

“I don’t think there’s likely to be any sort of premium pricing or any real pricing benefit as a result of the global supply shift and the global trade shift. We saw that mostly in 2022 and into 2023 when prices were still moderating,” Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein told Reuters.

As such, Canada’s share of global potash trade increased significantly in 2022, while those of Belarus and Russia declined. Prices have since dropped below $300 a ton from a mid-2022 peak of $1,000, on weak demand, data from Argus showed.

“We are likely nearing the operational cost of production, which may force some companies to curb production,” Rabobank analyst Paul Joules said.

Canada’s Nutrien, the world’s top producer of the mineral mainly used in fertilizers, suspended its ramp-up plans for potash production in August, citing market conditions.

Rising shipments, growing concerns

Russian producers have increased shipments to China and India via new rail routes since Russia exited the Black Sea grain deal last year. This has boosted demand in Southeast Asia and South America, Morningstar’s Seth Goldstein said.

Belarusian exporters have shifted cargo from Baltic ports to Russian ones and are offering potash at a discount via these new routes bypassing sanctions, he added.

Meanwhile, Swiss-based Eurochem is expanding facilities at its Usolskiy and Volgakaliy sites in Russia.

“The MOP (muriate of potash, or potassium chloride) sector specifically, is already experiencing a period of very heavy supply,” said Humphrey Knight, an analyst at CRU London.

Farming the price drop

The fall in potash prices has improved affordability of some grains and oilseeds, fertilizer consultant Delphine Leconte-Demarsy from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said.

“In the US, potash remains more expensive than it was before the price hike, but this is compensated by comparatively higher crop prices,” Leconte-Demarsy said.

But she added local farmers were affected differently depending on logistical costs and exchange rates.

“In China, while potash is currently more affordable than before the price hike for wheat and maize, depressed rice markets curb potash use for this crop,” she said.

In Brazil, a major exporter of agricultural products, potash prices are back to 2019 levels, boosting its use for more highly priced crops such as soybeans and maize.

Farmers will continue to reap the benefits as the tight market is expected to keep potash prices below historical averages, Rabobank’s Joules said.

($1 = 0.9215 euros)

(By Tristan Veyet, Jesus Calero and Luca Fratangelo; Editing by Milla Nissi, Matt Scuffham and David Evans)

If implemented, the rule change could disrupt the annual shipment of billions of dollars of gold ore and concentrate to China, the world’s top refined gold producer.

Gold ore and concentrate imports to China do not currently attract import or value added tax (VAT).

Now Chinese customs are planning to identify gold concentrate containing a combined iron and sulphur content of more than 58% as pyrite, which is subject to a 1% import tax and 13% VAT, the sources said.

Shipments of precious metals ore and concentrate excluding silver to China hit a six-month low in September, trade data showed. It dropped 22.4% to 201,004.9 metric tons from August, which was when Chinese customs revealed its plans, the sources said.

Gold ore and concentrate is the biggest chunk of this category, the sources said.

Chinese customs did not respond to requests for comment.

Higher taxes on gold concentrate and ore imports would squeeze trading margins, two of the sources said, adding that sellers of these products already faced a difficult market over the past couple of months due to the gold price rally.

Some traders have diverted their gold concentrate shipments to destinations other than China for fear of retrospective taxation, one of the sources said.

China’s gold concentrate importers expressed their opposition at a meeting in late September but customs staff refused to withdraw the proposal, the two sources said.

Supplies of industrial metals such as copper could also be impacted in China. Peru, the world’s third largest copper producer, exports a sizeable amount of copper-bearing gold concentrate, used as feedstock by some Chinese copper smelters.

If the changes to classification go ahead, Peru’s copper-bearing gold concentrate may be diverted to other countries and exacerbate a mined copper shortage in China, the sources said.

(By Julian Luk and Amy Lv; Editing by Pratima Desai and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

More than 600,000 Brazilians, 46 local governments and around 2,000 businesses are suing BHP over the 2015 collapse of the Mariana dam in southeastern Brazil, which was owned and operated by BHP and Vale’s Samarco joint venture.

The dam’s collapse unleashed a wave of toxic sludge that killed 19 people, left thousands homeless, flooded forests and polluted the length of the Doce River.

The claimants’ lawyers accused BHP of “cynically and doggedly” trying to avoid responsibility as the trial of a lawsuit worth up to 36 billion pounds ($47 billion), one of the largest in English legal history, began on Monday.

They also allege BHP contributed to the collapse of the dam by allowing it to be raised as part of an expansion project, despite an increasing risk of failure.

BHP, the world’s biggest miner by market value, is contesting liability and says the London lawsuit duplicates legal proceedings and reparation and repair programs in Brazil and should be thrown out.

The miner argues it did not own or operate the dam, which held mining waste known as tailings, and that Samarco operated independently. It also says it had no knowledge the dam’s stability was compromised before it collapsed.

BHP’s lawyer Shaheed Fatima told the court on Wednesday that the case against it was fundamentally flawed.

“The claimants appear to say that BHP was so motivated to make profits from their investment in Samarco that they got behind the wheel, they operated the business, they put profits before safety,” she said. “This is unrealistic and illogical.”

Fatima added: “The profits before safety allegation, that is particularly far-fetched and unjustified.”

She said that BHP’s former finance chief Peter Beaven, who is due to give evidence next month, said in a witness statement: “BHP had a culture which was embedded throughout the organization from top to bottom of safety before anything else.”

The ongoing 12-week trial to determine whether BHP is liable to the claimants comes as the Brazilian authorities’ negotiations with BHP, Vale and Samarco over a nearly $30 billion compensation deal continue.

Sources close to the negotiations told Reuters a final agreement could have an impact on the London lawsuit, a suggestion the claimants’ law firm Pogust Goodhead rejected.

(By Sam Tobin; Editing by Mark Potter)

Shares were up 7.3% at £2.50 each in early morning trading in London, stabilizing by mid-afternoon at around £2.38 each, leaving the company with a market capitalization of £1.24 billion ($1.6bn).

The South America-focused miner said it mined 16% more gold and silver in the third quarter of the year than it did in the same period of 2023, with 96,327 ounces on a gold-equivalent basis. The company uses equivalent ounces to reflect an amalgamation of both gold and silver production.

Gold production in the three months to the end of September increased 40%, boosted by the continuing ramp up of its Mara Rosa mine in Brazil, which started production early this year.

Output from the company’s flagship Inmaculada mine in Peru rose 6%, resulting from the implementation of continuous improvement projects at site. This increase helped offset a silver production fall of 17%.

Strong gold and silver prices boosted Hochschild’s cash flow, helping the miner to pay down $45 million of its net debt in the quarter.

“Hochschild Mining’s third quarter has been the strongest in almost five years,” chief executive officer Eduardo Landin said in a statement.

The company reaffirmed its annual production and cost targets, anticipating output of 343,000 to 360,000 gold equivalent ounces at all-in sustaining costs of $1,510-1,550 per gold equivalent ounce.

Hochschild Mining has operations in Peru, Argentina and Brazil and development projects in Chile and Peru.

After receiving the last permit needed in August, the Canadian companies have focused on preparing to begin early works, with first production expected by the end of 2026.

“Early works will take place from November to the end of the year with construction expected to start after the rainy season in the area, towards the second quarter,” Salazar Resources president and chief executive Fredy Salazar told BNamericas on Wednesday.

Construction of the project has been delayed on various occasions due to mining rules changes in the Andean country, legal challenges, and the takeover of one of the project’s owners — Adventus Mining.

Located about 150 km northeast of Guayaquil, the Curipamba-El Domo asset spans seven concessions over 21,500 hectares. It was originally owned by Salazar in partnership with Adventus Mining, which was acquired by Silvercorp Metals (TSX: SVM) (NYSE: SVM) in July.

Construction will be fully funded from Silvercorp’s existing cash balance combined with a $175.5 million streaming deal Adventus had signed with Wheaton Precious Metals in 2022.

The mine is considered one of the highest grade and lowest capital intensive copper-gold projects globally, and the next big mine in Ecuador after Mirador, run by China-backed Ecuacorriente, and Lundin Gold’s (TSX: LUG) Fruta del Norte.

The $250-million project is protected by an investment contract with the Ecuadorian government that grants it several incentives, such as reductions in income tax, exemption of import duties and tax stability until March 2033.

The country’s government anticipates generating over $4 billion in annual mining exports by 2025, with four new operations coming online before the end of President Guillermo Lasso’s term, including the Cascabel copper-gold project operated by Australia’s SolGold (LON, TSX: SOLG).

Latin America’s biggest economy holds 5% of the world’s uranium resources and only produces a tiny amount of the nuclear reactor fuel, according to the World Nuclear Association. Brazil’s resources rank eighth globally, well behind Australia, Kazakhstan and Canada. The last assessment of Brazilian reserves took place 40 years ago, but elevated uranium prices are reviving the nation’s ambitions to seek out new deposits.

Nuclear Industries of Brazil — or INB — is seeking to collaborate with global companies to carry out new research in regions known for their mineral potential. The state-owned company plans to call for bids from partners interested in exploring areas in Brazil’s northeast, midwest and south by year end.

“We aim to move forward 40 years in four,” INB President Adauto Seixas said in an interview. “We have already received visits from companies from Russia, India, Korea, France, Australia, the United States and China.”

Brazil’s push comes amid surging interest in uranium, with investors piling into a radioactive metal that underpins a global push to tap carbon-free energy in the form of nuclear power. Uranium prices this year peaked in early February and though they’ve since retreated, levels are still above the historical average.

The Brazilian initiative is called the Uranium and Associated Mineral Resources Prospecting and Mining Partnership Program — or Prouranio. Exploration will be in areas that hold other minerals including copper, gold and rare earth elements that occur alongside uranium. INB’s strategy includes mining already mapped areas with help from private firms.

Yet, Brazilian minerals research industry group ABPM argues that a partnership model doesn’t suit the private sector, which would want to operate independently. The group’s head, Luis Mauricio Azevedo, suggests that Brazil should open up uranium exploration and development — a move that could help boost global supplies.

“If we have the reserves we imagine, Brazil could be a storehouse of energy for the world,” he said.

Miners are already approaching INB to collaborate on developing potential uranium from its rare earth deposits. Australia’s OAR Resources signed a memorandum of understanding in August to determine the potential for some projects. Brazil produces 105 tons a year — enough to cover about a quarter of uranium the country uses to feed two nuclear reactors west of Rio de Janeiro.

Despite Brazil’s desire to go big in uranium, government bureaucracy may be a hurdle. Fertilizer producer Galvani partnered with INB to extract and process phosphate products and uranium concentrate more than a decade ago, yet the company is still waiting for permits to operate a project known as Santa Quiteria.

Galvani expects to get its first environmental license for the mine this year after Brazil’s nuclear regulator approved the location and authorities agreed to analyze the project’s environmental impacts, chief executive officer Marcelo Silvestre said. He said the operation, which could start by 2028, may produce 2,300 tons of uranium a year — enough to turn Brazil into an exporter.

Galvani expects to invest 2.5 billion reais ($438 million) in Santa Quiteria, according to the CEO, who also said the firm would consider bidding in future INB auctions.

INB is also seeking partners for production in the southeast mining area of Gandarela as well as northeast Brazil’s Lagoa Real, which would involve expanding its Caetite mine and concentration plant — the country’s only operational facility. INB plans to raise 66.7 billion reais through production partnerships over three decades.

(By Mariana Durao)

The agreement could be signed this week, nearly nine years after the 2015 disaster in the city of Mariana in southeastern Brazil that killed 19 people, left hundreds homeless, flooded forests and polluted the length of the Doce River.

Under the deal, the mining companies will pay 100 billion reais over 20 years to enable authorities to carry out a series of projects and measures to repair and compensate for the disaster.

The companies also will still have 32 billion reais in obligations to fulfill, including individual compensation to people affected by the disaster and environment recovery initiatives.

The total 170 billion reais in compensation includes 38 billion already paid by the mining companies since the dam collapse.

The agreement does not eliminate the possibility of new lawsuits related to damages that are still unknown today, should their connection with the dam rupture be proven at some point in the future, one of the sources said on condition of anonymity.

Still, the deal is expected to eliminate more than a hundred public civil actions against the miners in Brazil, and the companies expect that individual requests related to the Mariana disaster will be met in full by 2025, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.

The mining companies also hope that the class action lawsuits filed in London and the Netherlands will dry up following the final deal, the sources told Reuters.

“The main argument that the English used in their action when they started suing BHP is that in Brazil there is no resolution for this type of problem and that is why they needed to do it in England. This agreement proves exactly the opposite and therefore significantly weakens England’s case,” one of the sources told Reuters.

Another source said that, either way, the cases abroad put pressure on the companies in Brazil, which ended up accepting a much higher amount in the final deal than they were initially willing to pay.

English case

Law firm Pogust Goodhead is leading one of the biggest court cases in British legal history in London to determine whether BHP is liable. The case entered a decisive stage on Monday with the start of a 12-week trial.

Lawyer Ana Carolina Salomao, partner at Pogust Goodhead, stated that “there is no possibility” that the agreement in Brazil could invalidate the trial in England.

“The goal of the English lawsuit goes beyond financial compensation. It seeks to hold one of the largest corporations in the world accountable for its negligence and send the message that crimes like Mariana’s will not go unpunished,” she added.

In response to a Reuters request for comment, Vale said it “reaffirms its commitment to fully repair the damage caused by the dam collapse” and shared its understanding that the London lawsuit against BHP “deals with issues already covered in the actions underway in Brazil.”

A BHP representative said the miner “continues to be absolutely committed to finalizing the agreement to ensure full and definitive reparation and compensation in Brazil.”

In a statement, Samarco also underscored its commitment to fully repairing damages.

($1 = 5.6944 reais)

(By Marta Nogueira, Lisandra Paraguassu, Ricardo Britto and Luana Maria Benedito; Editing by Paul Simao)