The company is well on track to deliver its full-year guidance of 220,000-235,000 ounces.

A Vedanta spokesman said the mines minister's comments are a "welcome development".

Chad owes one third of its external debt burden to commercial creditors, and almost all of that to Glencore.

Miners with operations in Congo say they have been calling on the government to invest in infrastructure.

Privately owned Lithea owns rights to two lithium salt lakes in Argentina's mineral-rich Salta province.

An intensifying feud between shareholders of the Tenke Fungurume mine may lead a court-appointed administrator to block its exports of copper and cobalt. 

Over the coming years, Fitch forecasts high copper prices on the back of a bullish demand outlook as the economics of copper mining projects will become increasingly attractive to investors.