Overseas Copper Market News Roundup

SHANGHAI, Sep 27 (SMM) – This is a news roundup for the overseas copper market.

1. The diversified mining company Glencore confirmed on September 24 that investors have expressed interest in its CSA copper mine near Cobar, New South Wales. A spokesperson for the company said, "We are currently considering the proposal and may decide to enter the asset sales process. These negotiations are at an early stage and there is no guarantee that the trade will be realised. " The spokesperson added, “Any sale of CSA mines needs to be handed over to responsible operators and represents the value of our shareholders.” The mine employs approximately 500 employees and contractors, and produced 46,200 mt of copper in 2020, contributing A$309 million to Glencore's revenue.

2. Some of the world’s largest mining companies said that what they had recently heard from Peru’s new left-wing government further alleviated concerns that drastic policy changes might hinder the future output of this second-largest copper producing country.  Richard Adkerson, the owner of Freeport-McMoRan Inc., was "inspired" by his recent meeting with President Pedro Castillo. Ragnar Udd, President of BHP Billiton's Americas Minerals, praised the government's "strategic" approach. This praise marked a sharp shift in investor anxiety surrounding the April elections, when Castillo vowed to nationalise assets, block projects and get a larger share of mining accidents to fight poverty.

3. According to sources, after more than 30 years of war, Afghanistan has been economically backward and has long been among the least developed countries. Its industrial foundation is very weak, and agriculture and animal husbandry are the main pillars of the national economy. However, Afghanistan has abundant mineral resources to be exploited. In the future, this part of the mineral resources may become one of the important and extremely limited sources of funding for the Taliban. It means to make full use of these important mineral resources to attract foreign investment to increase fiscal revenue.

Specifically, Afghanistan has about 60 million mt of copper, 2.2 billion mt of iron ore (840, 11.50, 1.39%), 1.4 million mt of rare earth elements such as lanthanum, cerium and neodymium, 400 million mt of coal reserves as well as 30 million mt of copper-gold-molybdenum ore. In addition, there may be one of the largest lithium deposits in the world.