Latest news with #Glencore
The Sun
10 hours ago
- Business
- The Sun
Peru miners suspend protests, unblock key copper route
LIMA: Miners in Peru who have been allowed to operate with temporary permits have paused protests that blocked a major copper transit route for more than two weeks, one of the protest leaders, Luis Huaman, told Reuters on Tuesday. He said they planned to suspend the protest at least through Friday, while continuing to press the government for a way to extend their permits. Peru's government has been working to end the program for operations known as 'informal,' which was created over a decade ago and meant to be temporary, but workers in the sector say the stricter regulations to operate legally are too onerous. The protests began throughout Peru in late June, including blocking a road in the Cusco region that is used by major miners MMG, Glencore and Hudbay Minerals, whose mines are among the top 10 copper producers of Peru. The Andean nation is the world's third-biggest copper producer. The Ministry of Energy and Mines is aiming to bring more than 31,000 informal miners in line with regulations by the end of the year, after removing more than 50,000 others from the program earlier this month. The ministry said at least 45,000 of those hadn't registered any activity in the last four years. 'It's a truce,' Huaman said. A committee of informal miners and various government representatives were scheduled to meet in Lima on Friday to discuss the matter, but protesters would 'resume the blockade on the mining corridor' if the outcome was not in their favor, he said. Huaman said the protesters want the government to ensure a way for informal operations to continue, and said they will restart the protest if an agreement isn't reached by Friday. China's MMG and Canada's Hudbay last week told top government officials their production could be impacted if the protests were to continue. - Reuters
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Miners lift blockades along Peru's key copper route, protest leader says
By Marco Aquino LIMA (Reuters) -Miners in Peru who have been allowed to operate with temporary permits have paused protests that blocked a major copper transit route for more than two weeks, one of the protest leaders, Luis Huaman, told Reuters on Tuesday. He said they planned to suspend the protest at least through Friday, while continuing to press the government for a way to extend their permits. Peru's government has been working to end the program for operations known as "informal," which was created over a decade ago and meant to be temporary, but workers in the sector say the stricter regulations to operate legally are too onerous. The protests began throughout Peru in late June, including blocking a road in the Cusco region that is used by major miners MMG, Glencore and Hudbay Minerals, whose mines are among the top 10 copper producers of Peru. The Andean nation is the world's third-biggest copper producer. The Ministry of Energy and Mines is aiming to bring more than 31,000 informal miners in line with regulations by the end of the year, after removing more than 50,000 others from the program earlier this month. The ministry said at least 45,000 of those hadn't registered any activity in the last four years. "It's a truce," Huaman said. A committee of informal miners and various government representatives were scheduled to meet in Lima on Friday to discuss the matter, but protesters would "resume the blockade on the mining corridor" if the outcome was not in their favor, he said. Huaman said the protesters want the government to ensure a way for informal operations to continue, and said they will restart the protest if an agreement isn't reached by Friday. China's MMG and Canada's Hudbay last week told top government officials their production could be impacted if the protests were to continue. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Rio Tinto Names Iron Ore Boss Simon Trott as Miner's New CEO
(Bloomberg) -- Rio Tinto Group named iron ore boss Simon Trott as its new chief executive officer at a time when the mining industry faces challenges from global trade upheaval and a resurgence in mega deals. Why Did Cars Get So Hard to See Out Of? Advocates Fear US Agents Are Using 'Wellness Checks' on Children as a Prelude to Arrests LA Homelessness Drops for Second Year Trott, 50, who currently runs the company's biggest and most profitable mines, takes on the role after Rio sought a new leader with more operational experience. Rio is in broadly good shape — it has a slew of major projects coming online, a strong balance sheet and a much improved culture — but the new CEO faces some big decisions and challenges. The mining industry is struggling for relevance with investors, with valuations stagnant and companies searching for a new narrative after China's commodity supercycle came to an end. US President Donald Trump's policies are also roiling global trade, while the company faces questions over its deal strategy after talks last year to buy Glencore Plc went nowhere. While Rio considered external alternatives to replace Jakob Stausholm, the top candidates were widely considered to be internal — including Jérôme Pécresse, CEO of the aluminum unit, and Chief Commercial Officer Bold Baatar. Rio rose 0.1% in London trading, broadly in line with its peers. Trott was seen as a good fit for the role as head of Rio's biggest and most profitable division — even if he only assumed leadership of iron ore four years ago. Prior to that, he was chief commercial officer and had spent nearly two decades in a range of operational and business development roles at the company. 'Simon came into our iron ore business at a time of significant challenges and has been instrumental in rebuilding culture, strengthening external relationships and setting us on a pathway for growth,' Rio Chair Dominic Barton said in a statement. Trott will start as CEO on Aug. 25. Stausholm joined Rio in 2018 before being propelled to CEO after Rio blew up a 46,000-year-old sacred site in Western Australia. Despite early criticism, he successfully rebuilt the company's tattered reputation and reset relationships with traditional owners, while also unlocking new areas of growth. Rio's board believes Stausholm laid a solid foundation, turning around many parts of a company that was in crisis when he arrived, but that fresh ideas are now needed. Trott is expected to simplify a business that has become overly complex, remove unnecessary costs and continue to improve the operational performance at mines that span Australia, Mongolia and the US. Trott was seen by many investors as Stausholm's natural successor as he's expected to maintain the company's current strategy. 'It's good that they've got for someone internal,' said Duncan Hay, metals and mining analyst at Panmure Liberum. 'It should suggest that there is not a huge change in culture. If they were bringing in an external guy with massive-transaction M&A you'd be worried.' Growth Areas The new leader faces his own challenges, taking the helm of a giant miner that's preparing for a new leg of growth. In iron ore, the company is set to bring into production its massive Simandou project in Guinea in West Africa, while also spending billions over the next three years in maintaining and boosting output from Australian mines. It is also building a lithium business. Rio completed the acquisition of Arcadium Lithium Ltd. earlier this year, a rare bet by a major diversified miner on the battery metal. That move marked a return to acquisitions for a company that had shied away from deals for years after previous debacles during earlier boom times. Growth will be top of the agenda for Trott in his new role. Last year, Rio was in talks about a potential merger with Glencore, which would have seen the birth of a combined company even bigger than rival BHP Group Ltd. The deal ultimately fell down with the two sides far apart on valuation. While Rio has never publicly discussed the talks, its willingness to engage with Glencore jolted many in the industry and showed that Rio is now prepared to consider major deals. Trott is expected by the board to be open minded about potential deals. For many investors, including Matthew Haupt, portfolio manager at Wilson Asset Management, Trott has the right credentials to take the company forward. 'Rio's portfolio is largely set now and they need an operationally driven CEO to extract maximum value from their portfolio,' said Haupt. 'Also an Australian back at the top job would be welcomed by local investors.' --With assistance from Katharine Gemmell and Sybilla Gross. (Updates with details throughout. An earlier version of this story corrected Trott's previous job title.) Thailand's Changing Cannabis Rules Leave Farmers in a Tough Spot The New Third Rail in Silicon Valley: Investing in Chinese AI 'Our Goal Is to Get Their Money': Inside a Firm Charged With Scamming Writers for Millions 'The Turbulence Is Brutal': Four Shark Tank Businesses on Tariffs Will Trade War Make South India the Next Manufacturing Hub? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
CNBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
In rare earth metals power struggle with China, old laptops, phones may get a new life
As the U.S. and China vie for economic, technological and geopolitical supremacy, the critical elements and metals embedded in technology from consumer to industrial and military markets have become a pawn in the wider conflict. That's nowhere more so the case than in China's leverage over the rare earth metals supply chain. This past week, the Department of Defense took a large equity stake in MP Materials, the company running the only rare earths mining operation in the U.S. But there's another option to combat the rare earths shortage that goes back to an older idea: recycling. The business has come a long way from collecting cans, bottles, plastic, newspaper and other consumer disposables, otherwise destined for landfills, to recreate all sorts of new products. Today, next-generation recyclers — a mix of legacy companies and startups — are innovating ways to gather and process the ever-growing mountains of electronic waste, or e-waste, which comprises end-of-life and discarded computers, smartphones, servers, TVs, appliances, medical devices, and other electronics and IT equipment. And they are doing so in a way that is aligned to the newest critical technologies in society. Most recently, spent EV batteries, wind turbines and solar panels are fostering a burgeoning recycling niche. The e-waste recycling opportunity isn't limited to rare earth elements. Any electronics that can't be wholly refurbished and resold, or cannibalized for replacement parts needed to keep existing electronics up and running, can berecycled to strip out gold, silver, copper, nickel, steel, aluminum, lithium, cobalt and other metals vital to manufacturers in various industries. But increasingly, recyclers are extracting rare-earth elements, such as neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium, which are critical in making everything from fighter jets to power tools. "Recycling [of e-waste] hasn't been taken too seriouslyuntil recently" as a meaningful source of supply, said Kunal Sinha, global head of recycling at Swiss-based Glencore, a major miner, producer and marketer of metals and minerals — and, to a much lesser but growing degree, an e-waste recycler. "A lot of people are still sleeping at the wheel and don't realize how big this can be," Sinha said. Traditionally, U.S. manufacturers purchase essential metals and rare earths from domestic and foreign producers — an inordinate number based in China — that fabricate mined raw materials, or through commodities traders. But with those supply chains now disrupted by unpredictable tariffs, trade policies and geopolitics, the market for recycled e-waste is gaining importance as a way to feed the insatiable electrification of everything. "The United States imports a lot of electronics, and all of that is coming with gold and aluminum and steel," said John Mitchell, president and CEO of the Global Electronics Association, an industry trade group. "So there's a great opportunity to actually have the tariffs be an impetus for greater recycling in this country for goods that we don't have, but are buying from other countries." Although recycling contributes only around $200 million to Glencore's total EBITDA of nearly $14 billion, the strategic attention and time the business gets from leadership "is much more than that percentage," Sinha said. "We believe that a lot of mining is necessary to get to all the copper, gold and other metals that are needed, but we also recognize that recycling is going to play a huge role," he said. Glencore has operated a huge copper smelter in Quebec, Canada, for almost 20 years on a site that's nearly 100-years-old. The facility processes mostly mined copper concentrates, though 15% of its feedstock is recyclable materials, such as e-waste that Glencore's global network of 100-plus suppliers collect and sort. The smelter pioneered the process for recovering copper and precious metals from e-waste in the mid 1980s, making it one of the first and largest of its type in the world. The smelted copper is refined into fresh slabs that are sold to manufacturers and traders. The same facility also produces refined gold, silver, platinum and palladium recovered from recycling feeds. The importance of copper to OEMs' supply chains was magnified in early July, when prices hit an all-time high after President Trump said he would impose a 50% tariff on imports of the metal. The U.S. imports just under half of its copper, and the tariff hike — like other new Trump trade policies — is intended to boost domestic production. It takes around three decades for a new mine in the U.S. to move from discovery to production, which makes recycled copper look all the more attractive, especially as demand keeps rising. According to estimates by energy-data firm Wood Mackenzie, 45% of demand will be met with recycled copper by 2050, up from about a third today. Foreign recycling companies have begun investing in the U.S.-based facilities. In 2022, Germany's Wieland broke ground on a $100-million copper and copper alloy recycling plant in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Last year, another German firm, Aurubis, started construction on an $800-million multi-metal recycling facility in Augusta, Georgia. "As the first major secondary smelter of its kind in the U.S., Aurubis Richmond will allow us to keep strategically important metals in the economy, making U.S. supply chains more independent," said Aurubis CEO Toralf Haag. The proliferation of e-waste can be traced back to the 1990s, when the internet gave birth to the digital economy, spawning exponential growth in electronically enabled products. The trend has been supercharged by the emergence of renewable energy, e-mobility, artificial intelligence and the build-out of data centers. That translates to a constant turnover of devices and equipment, and massive amounts of e-waste. In 2022, a record 62 million metric tons of e-waste were produced globally, up 82% from 2010, according to the most recent estimates from the United Nations' International Telecommunications Union and research arm UNITAR. That number is projected to reach 82 million metric tons by 2030. The U.S., the report said, produced just shy of 8 million tons of e-waste in 2022. Yet only about 15-20% of it is properly recycled, a figure that illustrates the untapped market for e-waste retrievables. The e-waste recycling industry generated $28.1 billion in revenue in 2024, according to IBISWorld, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 8%. Whether it's refurbished and resold or recycled for metals and rare-earths, e-waste that stores data — especially smartphones, computers, servers and some medical devices — must be wiped of sensitive information to comply with cybersecurity and environmental regulations. The service, referred to as IT asset disposition (ITAD), is offered by conventional waste and recycling companies, including Waste Management, Republic Services and Clean Harbors, as well as specialists such as Sims Lifecycle Services, Electronic Recyclers International, All Green Electronics Recycling and Full Circle Electronics. "We're definitely seeing a bit of an influx of [e-waste] coming into our warehouses," said Full Circle Electronics CEO Dave Daily, adding, "I think that is due to some early refresh cycles." That's a reference to businesses and consumers choosing to get ahead of the customary three-year time frame for purchasing new electronics, and discarding old stuff, in anticipation of tariff-related price increases. Daily also is witnessing increased demand among downstream recyclers for e-waste Full Circle Electronics can't refurbish and sell at wholesale. The company dismantles and separates it into 40 or 50 different types of material, from keyboards and mice to circuit boards, wires and cables. Recyclers harvest those items for metals and rare earths, which continue to go up in price on commodities markets, before reentering the supply chain as core raw materials. Even before the Trump administration's efforts to revitalize American manufacturing by reworking trade deals, and recent changes in tax credits key to the industry in Trump's tax and spending bill, entrepreneurs have been launching e-waste recycling startups and developing technologies to process them for domestic OEMs. "Many regions of the world have been kind of lazy about processing e-waste, so a lot of it goes offshore," Sinha said. In response to that imbalance, "There seems to be a trend of nationalizing e-waste, because people suddenly realize that we have the same metals [they've] been looking for" from overseas sources, he said. "People have been rethinking the global supply chain, that they're too long and need to be more localized." Several startups tend to focus on a particular type of e-waste. Lately, rare earths have garnered tremendous attention, not just because they're in high demand by U.S. electronics manufacturers but also to lessen dependence on China, which dominates mining, processing and refining of the materials. In the production of rare-earth magnets — used in EVs, drones, consumer electronics, medical devices, wind turbines, military weapons and other products — China commands roughly 90% of the global supply chain. The lingering U.S.–China trade war has only exacerbated the disparity. In April, China restricted exports of seven rare earths and related magnets in retaliation for U.S. tariffs, a move that forced Ford to shut down factories because of magnet shortages. China, in mid-June, issued temporary six-month licenses to certain major U.S. automaker suppliers and select firms. Exports are flowing again, but with delays and still well below peak levels. The U.S. is attempting to catch up. Before this past week's Trump administration deal, the Biden administration awarded $45 million in funding to MP Materials and the nation's lone rare earths mine, in Mountain Pass, California. Back in April, the Interior Department approved development activities at the Colosseum rare earths project, located within California's Mojave National Preserve. The project, owned by Australia's Dateline Resources, will potentially become America's second rare earth mine after Mountain Pass. Meanwhile, several recycling startups are extracting rare earths from e-waste. Illumynt has an advanced process for recovering them from decommissioned hard drives procured from data centers. In April, hard drive manufacturer Western Digital announced a collaboration with Microsoft, Critical Materials Recycling and PedalPoint Recycling to pull rare earths, as well as copper, gold, aluminum and steel, from end-of-life drives. Canadian-based Cyclic Materials invented a process that recovers rare-earths and other metals from EV motors, wind turbines, MRI machines and data-center e-scrap. The company is investing more than $20 million to build its first U.S.-based facility in Mesa, Arizona. Late last year, Glencore signed a multiyear agreement with Cyclic to provide recycled copper for its smelting and refining operations. Another hot feedstock for e-waste recyclers is end-of-life lithium-ion batteries, a source of not only lithium but also copper, cobalt, nickel, manganese and aluminum. Those materials are essential for manufacturing new EV batteries, which the Big Three automakers are heavily invested in. Their projects, however, are threatened by possible reductions in the Biden-era 45X production tax credit, featured in the new federal spending bill. It's too soon to know how that might impact battery recyclers — including Ascend Elements, American Battery Technology, Cirba Solutions and Redwood Materials — who themselves qualify for the 45X and other tax credits. They might actually be aided by other provisions in the budget bill that benefit a domestic supply chain of critical minerals as a way to undercut China's dominance of the global market. Nonetheless, that looming uncertainty should be a warning sign for e-waste recyclers, said Sinha. "Be careful not to build a recycling company on the back of one tax credit," he said, "because it can be short-lived." Investing in recyclers can be precarious, too, Sinha said. While he's happy to see recycling getting its due as a meaningful source of supply, he cautions people to be careful when investing in this space. Startups may have developed new technologies, but lack good enough business fundamentals. "Don't invest on the hype," he said, "but on the fundamentals." Glencore, ironically enough, is a case in point. It has invested $327.5 million in convertible notes in battery recycler Li-Cycle to provide feedstock for its smelter. The Toronto-based startup had broken ground on a new facility in Rochester, New York, but ran into financial difficulties and filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in May, prompting Glencore to submit a "stalking horse" credit bid of at least $40 million for the stalled project and other assets. Even so, "the current environment will lead to more startups and investments" in e-waste recycling, Sinha said. "We are investing ourselves."
AU Financial Review
3 days ago
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Glencore coal spin-off still viable, but would need creditor nod
Glencore shareholders and analysts say there is still a case for the Swiss giant to spin off its global coal assets despite prices of the commodity falling to five-year lows, but it would need to be tied to a broader deal to sell its larger copper-focused business. Glencore is expected to update investors next month on the company's strategic direction after it shifted $30 billion in coal mines and other assets into the Australian entity that holds its NSW and Queensland coal mines, reviving speculation about a demerger.
