Orvana squeaks out $3m profit in Q2, moves into Argentina

Base metals miner Metorex is expected to delist from the JSE in early December, following the completion of a takeover by Chinese group Jinchuan which made a R9.1bn ($7.3bn) offer for Metorex last month. Jinchuan said that the acquisition of Metorex provided it with an opportunity to acquire a scalable African copper producer with a strong management team and substantial growth potential.

Cashed-up Rio Tinto is expected to post a first-half net profit of more than $US8 billion, driven by prices of iron ore, aluminium and copper. The earnings season gets into full swing tomorrow when the miner reports, with consensus among analysts for a 39.1 per cent jump in first-half underlying profit from $US5.77 billion to $US8.03 billion. The iron ore division is expected to contribute nearly 80 per cent of the net profit, lifting its performance by more than 50 per cent a year ago to about $US6.2 billion.

Anglo-Swiss mining giant Xstrata said on Tuesday its first half net profit jumped 27 per cent to $US2.9 billion and that it expected even better earnings for the second half. "A substantially stronger financial performance in the first half reflected growing demand for our products from emerging Asian economies and recovering Western markets," Xstrata chief executive Mick Davis said in a statement.

Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Cop. said it has completed the acquisition of a 45.54 percent stake in Carmen Copper Corp. owned by a Singapore-based investment fund. Atlas recently raised $390 million in debt and equity to finance the deal. Carmen Copper is acknowledged as Southeast Asia’s largest copper mine during its peak, serving as a major backbone of Cebu in the Philippines' economy for over 50 years before a devastating typhoon and metal price slump led to the mine’s closure in 1994.

Putting Galore Creek into production would cost a whopping $5.2 billion in capex, NovaGold Resources said this week in announcing their prefeasibility study of the substantial copper--gold- silver project in northern British Columbia. The proposed mine, located 200 kilometres north of Stuart, BC, is 50%-owned by NovaGold and 50% by Teck Resources. Image of the proposed pit design for Galore Creek, courtesy of NovaGold Resources Resources Inc.

Finnish mineral processing company Outotec more than doubled its profits for the first half of 2011.

Lundin Mining Corporation reported on Friday net income of $57.7 million for the second quarter of 2011, up 36% from the same quarter last year. The numbers were below management expectations after lower than expected metal production and higher unit costs at its flagship Neves-Corvo copper mine in Portugal north of the city of Faro (pictured). Lundin said the Tenke Fungurume mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, its first venture beyond Europe, should start contributing to cash flows in the third quarter.

BHP Billiton Ltd. has declared force majeure on exports from the world’s biggest copper mine, as a mine workers’ strike entered its eighth day. The strike at BHP’s Escondida mine in Chile, which supplied 7 per cent of the world’s copper last year, comes in a month of widespread mining strikes from Indonesia to South Africa. BHP's Escondida mine (pictured) has been the site of an 8-day strike in Chile.

Diversified miner Teck Resources doubled its quarterly profit on higher copper and coal prices, the company announced on Thursday. Teck said it brought in $756 million in profits in the second quarter of 2011, a 90 percent increase from the same period in 2010, or $1.12 a share compared to 59 cents per share in Q2 2010. President and CEO Don Lindsay attributed the doubling of profits to higher prices for coal and copper — the company's chief commodities — along with a US$2 billion rights offering in July that cashed up the company to the tune of $3.4 billion. Photo of Teck's Elkview operation in southeastern British Columbia, by Teck Resources Limited.