Latest news with #copper
The Herald
10 hours ago
- Business
- The Herald
Harmony's $1bn (R18bn) copper deal a 'sweet spot' for the company
South Africa's biggest gold producer Harmony Gold estimates that by the 2035 financial year, 45% of its production will come from Australasia after agreeing to buy Australia's Mac Copper for $1bn (R18.42bn). The MAC Copper acquisition is its second foray into copper after buying the Eva Copper project in Queensland in 2022, a mine that is likely to produce up to 60,000 tonnes of the metal a year from 2029. CEO Beyers Nel said MAC Copper's CSA Copper mine in New South Wales, which produces 40,000 tonnes of the metal a year, represented a 'sweet spot' for the group. 'There is a scramble for copper mines in the market at the moment, people pay top dollar. But we believe because this mine is a deeper mine — it is more of a mine that suits Harmony's skills set — it potentially kept other bidders out of the mine. 'It is too big for the juniors and probably too small for the majors. The 40,000 tonnes of copper from a size point of view is ideal and a sweet spot for a company like Harmony to take it. It is production from day one because it is an operating mine. It is also in a tier-one mining jurisdiction; New South Wales in Australia is a good place to mine,' said Nel. Nel said the shift enhanced profitability, reduced geographical concentration risks, and positioned Harmony to deliver sustainable long-term returns. He said the mine also presented near-term copper into Harmony's production mix as opposed to its Eva project in Australia and Walfi-Golpu, a gold/copper project in Papua New Guinea (PNG) it jointly owns with Newmont Corp. He said the Walfi-Golpu project had been frustratingly slow. However despite violence at Barrick Gold Corporation's Porgera Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea's Enga province, the area was calm. 'I would not say there are problems there. It is calm. People sometimes throw one blanket over Papua New Guinea and think what is happening at Porgera with Barrick is happening everywhere in Papua New Guinea. That is not the case. Where our mine is, things are calm and the communities are supportive of the mine,' he said. The Harmony share traded 6% lower after the announcement this week. Nel said the market still needs to digest the deal. 'It is still $1bn, it's a lot of money. It is typical that when a big transaction takes place that the buying company's share price comes under pressure. 'We are not fixated about the day trade, we think this is a good asset for Harmony's skills set and we can add a lot of value to it, there is a lot of blue sky, upside potential beyond the current mine life. We are very bullish about the copper price long term. if you think about the global energy transition and supply and demand. We need to look at the long-term perspective.' TimesLIVE
The Sun
a day ago
- General
- The Sun
Win a Copper & Green water fountain worth £250
Win this stunning Copper & Green water feature – a truly unique prize for any garden lover. Hand-crafted in the UK using traditional, power-free techniques, it stands around 45cm tall and showcases Copper & Green 's signature copper lily, cascading bowls and leaves. Water gently trickles from the top flower into the included 34cm ceramic reservoir bowl in a complementary blue/green glaze, creating a calming, soothing sound. Suitable for ground level, a tabletop or a plinth, the feature includes everything needed: copper sculpture, ceramic bowl, cables, pipes and a choice of USB or solar pump. Over time, the copper will beautifully age outdoors. To enter, fill in the form below. Or write to Sun Copper & Green Competition, Sun PO Box 3190, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8GP. Include your name, age, email or phone. UK residents 18+ only. Ends 23.59GMT 14.06.25 T&Cs apply.
Zawya
a day ago
- Business
- Zawya
LME copper on track for biggest monthly rise since September on nearby supply tightness
Copper prices in London were little changed on Friday, but on course for their biggest monthly rise in eight months due to tighter nearby supply, highlighted by the premium for nearby copper contracts against those further out. Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was steady at $9,570 a metric ton by 1006 GMT. The contract is up 4.8% so far in May, on track for its strongest month since September. The price advance is supported by declining stocks in LME-registered warehouses , down 45% since mid-February to 149,875 tons, the lowest in almost a year. Copper inventories in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 7.2% this week. As Washington continues an investigation into whether to impose new U.S. copper import tariffs, the premium of COMEX copper against the LME benchmark remains elevated, attracting more metal into COMEX-owned warehouses. "The LME copper is facing a bit of a squeeze because the COMEX stocks keep going up and the LME stocks are declining," said Dan Smith, managing director at Commodity Market Analytics. The spread between the cash LME and the three-month copper contract closed on Thursday at a premium of $51.6 a ton, highest since November 2022, indicating worries about nearby supply. The premium, a market structure known as backwardation, also reflects uncertainty about the supply from Kamoa-Kakula copper mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the biggest copper producer in Africa and one of the world's largest, Smith added. As a group, industrial metals were under pressure as the dollar strengthened and market optimism faded following a court ruling that reinstated the broad tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. China's futures markets have closed until June 3 for the Dragon Boat holiday, reducing the overall trade volumes. As to the demand side, the focus is on the official purchasing managers' index (PMI) in top metals consumer China, due on Saturday. China's factory activity likely contracted for a second month in May, a Reuters poll showed. LME aluminium fell 0.3% to $2,443.50 a ton, zinc slipped 0.4% to $2,663.50, lead lost 0.2% to $1,958, tin dropped 1.8% to $30,655, while nickel rose 0.2% to $15,395.
News.com.au
a day ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Barry FitzGerald: Sun shines for Solstice as copper leg adds to WA gold potential
'Garimpeiro' columnist Barry FitzGerald has covered the resources industry for 35 years. Now he's sharing the benefits of his experience with Stockhead readers. Gold is where junior resource companies need to be. It's even better when they can add a copper leg to their story. That's a position Solstice Minerals (ASX:SLS) has worked its way into with its pick-up earlier this year of the advanced Nanadie copper-gold project in WA's Murchison region. The low-cost acquisition ($1m cash and some shares) came with an (inferred) mineral resource estimate of 162,000t of copper and 130,000oz of gold. The pick-up has proved well-timed as the value of copper MREs held by juniors has come in to sharp focus recently as a result of takeover bids for Xanadu Mines (ASX:XAM) and New World Resources (ASX:NWC). Both bids were at big premiums to the ruling market prices for the targets, prompting a rub-off affect on a whole bunch of other ASX juniors with copper resources in a kind of who's next response by investors. Ownership of Nanadie does not make Solstice a takeover target. But as Solstice sets about growing the resource into something much bigger, it can expect heightened interest from investors. Nanadie is essentially a copper free option in Solstice because the stock continues to trade around its pre-acquisition levels and where it was in September last year when Garimpeiro had a look at the company's Eastern Goldfields exploration hunt. The Yarri gold project is exciting under cover stuff on a big ground position straddling the Keith-Kilkenny and Laverton tectonic zones, home to multi-million ounce operations owned by others to the north and south. Edjudina discovery Solstice has already unearthed a discovery in the making at the Edjudina Range prospect, and at two nearby prospects – Statesman Well and Bluetooth – which have the potential to yield open pit MREs in quick fashion. Solstice has just reported that the first-ever reverse circulation drilling at Edjudina Range returned a 20m hit at 1.02g/t gold from 36m downhole. Early days but encouraging stuff for sure given the RC holes followed on from reconnaissance type holes that included 2m at 3.17g/t. The company has also completed a RC drilling program at Statesman Well and Bluetooth with assay results expected in the next couple of weeks. More work is planned and it has to be said that Solstice is well placed to keep up the gold momentum and get going with the drill bit at Nanadie in the back half of the year to grow its copper leg. Cash backed The momentum capability is due to Solstice being one of the best cash-backed explorers out there. At the end of the March quarter it was holding $13.6m in cash, the equivalent of 13c a share. As mentioned back in September last year, when the stock was trading at 18.5c, the strong cash-backing is a result of residual funds from the company's 2022 IPO and the sale last year of its 80% stake in the Hobbes gold deposit (177,000oz) for $10m to Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST). Gold from Hobbes is destined to be run through Northern Star's nearby Carosue Dam gold operation. Solstice's Yarri project is in the same neck of the world as Carosue Dam as well as AngloGold's Sunrise Dam mine and the Rebecca-Roe and Apollo Hill projects of Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) and Saturn Metals (ASX:STN) respectively. Yarri's proximity to the gold processing infrastructure in the region could well lead to another Hobbes-type deal for Solstice depending on what it comes up with at Statesman Well and Bluetooth, or Edjudina Range for that matter. Solstice managing director Nick Castleden explained the junior's modus operandi recently at the RRS Garther Round conference in Adelaide. 'Find something that is valuable, take it to a point where we have added as much value as we can, and then find someone else to mine it. That's our sweet spot.' Castleden and other directors have done it five times before at other gold companies, with the value of the deals having ranged from small stuff up to more than $1 billion, most recently the Rebecca project held by Ramelius. Now with the Nanadie copper-gold project Solstice is in the process of finding its sweet spot.
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Flooded Mine in Congo Is Latest Threat to Global Copper Supply
By , Thomas Biesheuvel, and Jack Farchy Save The status of one of the world's most important copper mines remains clouded in uncertainty, more than a week after seismic activity caused widespread flooding deep below ground. Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. 's Kamoa-Kakula complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the world's top sources of copper and was on course to become the third-biggest supplier of the key energy-transition metal this year. Yet its current condition is a mystery, with contrasting messages from its biggest shareholders.
