Desperately Seeking #Copper

We've known #Copper Production from existing mines has been set to fall sharply in the coming years, but it's just now we're realizing that, the "coming years" of the past, is today's present and immediate future… 😳

Miners need to spend more than

Top 20 #Copper Mines

To make the list, the cut-off for 2022 was 245kt, versus 232kt in 2021 and 221kt in 2020. The order of the mines also changed, with mention going to Codelco’s Chuquicamata which saw production fall from 319kt in 2021 to 268kt in 2022, but it was not the only one with declining output.

Things ain't looking pretty for #Miners $RIO & $BHP

Those juicy yields are now at over 10% for both @RioTinto & @BHP.

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Going deep for a rich #copper deposit, @RioTinto & @BHPBilliton pioneering #sensors & #AutonomousVehicles tech to data integration

Mining a Mile Down: 175 Degrees, 600 Gallons of Water a Minute

Steven Norton STEVEN.NORTON@wsj.com

June 7, 2017 10:31 p.m. ET

SUPERIOR, Ariz.—One of the world’s largest untapped copper deposits sits 7,000 feet below the Earth’s surface. It is a lode that operator Rio Tinto RIO 2.11% PLC wouldn’t have touched—until now.

Not that long ago, anabundance of high-grade copper could be mined out of shallower openpits. But as those deposits are depleted and high-grade copper becomestougher to find, firms such as Rio have been compelled to mine deeperunderground.
 ...
Advances in mining technology are making that possible—just as developments in oil and gas drilling heralded the fracking revolution. Now, using everything from sensors and data analytics to autonomous vehicles and climate-control systems, Rio aims  to pull ore from more than a mile below ground, where temperatures can  reach nearly 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
....
A 15-minute elevator ride 6,943 feet down Resolution’s No. 10 mine shaft leads to a dimly lighted cavern where warm water falls from the rocks like rain. Electrical gear buzzes constantly, and a  network of pipes pumps water out of the shaft at the rate of 600 gallons a minute. A ventilation system cools the area to 77 degrees.

Over the next few years, Rio plans to deploy tens of thousands of electronic sensors, as  well as autonomous vehicles and complex ventilation systems, to help it bring 1.6 billion tons of ore to the surface over the more than 40-year projected life of the mine.

 

Data coming from those sensors will be fed into analytics engines that will help monitor tasks  ranging from  underground blasts to the movement of autonomous vehicles.

...

Rio hopes analytics will help to break down organizational silos. Rather than one person viewing data about a specific part of the mining process, information from across the mine can be sent to a single place where experts can obtain a more holistic view of operations.

“It is taking a lot of the decision-making out of the hands of the operator and putting it into a group of specialists who can manage the whole system,” Mr. Stegman said. ..

Read the rest of the article here:Mining a Mile Down: 175 Degrees, 600 Gallons of Water a Minute:

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Rio’s Mongolia mine clears major hurdle #OT

Looks like Oyu Tolgoi is finally ready to star producing!

Rio's Mongolia mine clears major hurdle
Financial Times, 8:32am Monday November 5th, 2012--
By Leslie Hook in Tianjin
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Rio Tinto's $5bn Mongolian copper-gold mine Oyu Tolgoi is set to start producing after finally sealing a deal with China for power supply

Read the full article at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ce52b3ec-270b-11e2-abcb-00144feabdc0.html

Forget gold, IRON ORE is the story of the decade - MINING.com

The last comment is the most telling, though...:

It’s not all good news however. New supply coming on stream from 2014 – BHP and Rio’s output plans for Pilbara alone are a staggering 750 million Mtpa and just this week BHP committed another $14 billion to expand its port – must impact prices. Rio’s chief Tom Albanese in December said he sees one more year of $120-plus iron ore – then it’s over.

Forget gold, IRON ORE is the story of the decade

On the last day of Roundup, Vancouver’s mining showcase, Sandy Chim CEO of Canada’s Century Iron Mines, flashed a few slides about China, India and the iron ore market over the last decade that would make gold bugs green with envy.
BHP, Vale and Rio Tinto control nearly 70% of the 1 billion tonne annual iron ore seaborne trade and pretty much all contract pricing depend on their say so. The price of 62% iron ore never strayed from $10 – 14/tonne for more than 20 years (1991 was a banner year – miners got all of $15.03 for their haul). The state of affairs was due to secretive negotiations and annual contracts.
Then at the end of 2004 all hell (for Chinese steelmakers that is) broke loose. The Big 3 decided enough is enough and put up the price 72%, marking the start of a supercycle and the beginning of the end of the old pricing system:

Although October last year constituted a mini-crash with spot declining from a record high of $180 to $116, on Friday it was back up above $140. Reuters reports futures prices of nearby months remained at a premium, “reflecting widespread anticipation of an improvement in spot ore prices once Chinese buyers return from the week-long break,” according to reference price provider Steel Index.
Chim points out that the dramatic rise since the beginning of 2008 were into the teeth of the financial crisis and despite prices that went up four-fold in four years, Chinese steelmakers continued to buy. China now imports 60% – 70% of its needs, up from $35%, because of low grade domestic stock from expensive underground mining. Iron ore producers also benefit from industry concentration and pricing power compared to a highly fragmented steelmaking industry.
Steel production is closely correlated to economic growth and personal incomes. Using that metric China’s citizens have to increase their personal incomes almost 10-fold to catch up with the US where GDP per capita income is $48 000. Given the firepower the Chinese government still has to stimulate the economy – the country’s reserves are more than $3 trillion and 20 times that of the US – and its ambitious infrastructure programs (among others 36 million new housing units), it still has some way to grow:

Chim also provides interesting stats for those who believe the China boom is coming to a close. There is plenty of opportunity left in the region. India is where China was 20 years ago while the other Asian economies that are doing well – Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and others – constitute a 500 million population pool:

And for those who think iron ore is only an Australian story, Canada’s miners have attracted $10 billion in the past year through acquisitions, investments and expansions:

It’s not all good news however. New supply coming on stream from 2014 – BHP and Rio’s output plans for Pilbara alone are a staggering 750 million Mtpa and just this week BHP committed another $14 billion to expand its port – must impact prices. Rio’s chief Tom Albanese in December said he sees one more year of $120-plus iron ore – then it’s over.
Thanks to their economies of scale the Big 3 have been flooding the market by concentrating on building market share rather than maximizing prices. This way the giants drive high-cost producers out of the business. The Big 3 can handle a price well below $120; smaller players may become collateral damage as peak profitability in the sector passes.
Click here for MINING.com’s dedicated page for popular iron ore pricing posts.

See the whole article online here: Forget gold, IRON ORE is the story of the decade - MINING.com

Iron ore in record slide as China demand slows | Reuters

Iron ore in record slide as China demand slows

China's appetite for iron ore has weakened with slowing steel demand from the construction sector, pushing down prices for the steel-making ingredient nearly 30 percent since early September.

Some mills in China have stopped buying iron ore as they curb steel output to cope with the downturn in demand. China buys around two thirds of seaborne cargoes to feed the world's largest steel industry, and is the biggest market for the mining giants Vale (VALE5.SA), Rio Tinto (RIO.AX)(RIO.L) and BHP Billiton (BHP.AX)(BLT.L).

Weak steel demand across Asia cut profits at Japan's two biggest steelmakers -- Nippon Steel Corp (5401.T) and JFE Holdings Inc (5411.T) -- in the fiscal six months to September, and both slashed their full-year outlook.

"Steel mills have started to cut production and have suspended iron ore purchases, while miners keep on producing and delivering spot cargoes, so we see iron ore prices diving these days," said an iron ore buying official with a mid-sized steel mill in south-central China.

Iron ore is loaded into a pile at Fortescue Metals Cloudbreak iron ore mine, about 250km (155 miles) southeast of Port Hedland in Western Australia state, July 25, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Morag MacKinnon

By Manolo Serapio Jr

SINGAPORE | Wed Oct 26, 2011 8:40am EDT

(Reuters) - Iron ore's steepest ever price slide on Tuesday reflects slowing growth in top consumer China and casts more doubts on Beijing's commodity demand at a time when the outlook for developed economies remains shaky.
China's appetite for iron ore has weakened with slowing steel demand from the construction sector, pushing down prices for the steel-making ingredient nearly 30 percent since early September.
Some mills in China have stopped buying iron ore as they curb steel output to cope with the downturn in demand. China buys around two thirds of seaborne cargoes to feed the world's largest steel industry, and is the biggest market for the mining giants Vale (VALE5.SA), Rio Tinto (RIO.AX)(RIO.L) and BHP Billiton (BHP.AX)(BLT.L).
Weak steel demand across Asia cut profits at Japan's two biggest steelmakers -- Nippon Steel Corp (5401.T) and JFE Holdings Inc (5411.T) -- in the fiscal six months to September, and both slashed their full-year outlook.
JFE said steel prices in Asia will remain stagnant because of slower Chinese demand and larger-than-expected supply from South Korea.