Consulting firm says the top 40 global mining firms earned a record profit of $133 billion last year driven mainly by iron ore, however their market capitalization fell by 25%.
Ross Beaty, the founder of Pan America Silver and Equinox Resources, is not cowed by the bad economic news. He looks at the markets and still sees opportunity.
Three lawmakers from President Ollanta Humala’s ruling Gana Peru party resigned on Monday over the government’s handling of protests against -Xstrata last week, warning that social and environmental protests are threatening billions of dollars of mining projects.
At the moment the draft legislation requires mining companies to disclose on a project-by-project basis what they pay local officials in foreign countries.
Copper suffered another sharp drop in New York on Friday with traders reacting to bad economic news from the US in the form of dismal jobs numbers, a crisis in Europe that seems to be stressed to breaking point and a steep drop-off in growth in China, Brazil and India.
Canada-based Nautilus Minerals Inc. said its Solwara 1 underwater copper project could be delayed or even cancelled due to a dispute with Papua New Guinea over the mine ownership agreement.
Chile, the top copper producer in the world, will not be able to keep mining for the red metal, gold and other minerals if the country doesn’t find a solution to the pressing energy needs, experts believe.
Micro-cap Highland Resources added 28% to trade at 9c on Wednesday on higher than usual trading volumes, after announcing it has closed the final tranche of its non-brokered private placement, raising a total of $16.5 million.