Greenpeace stages Pacific Ocean protest against deep-sea mining

Chinese smelters' treatment and refining charges for imported lead concentrate slide to $20–$30 per tonne, more than $100 below last year's peak.

Increase won't enough to push price above $3 a pound for the entire year, Mining Minister Aurora Williams said on Wednesday.

The CLEER (Clean, Low-energy, Effective, Engaged and Remediated) project focuses on water use, energy intensity and environmental footprint, with aggressive targets of a 50% reduction in each area by 2027.

Open Mineral Exchange has managed to attract mining companies and smelters wanting to cut out the middlemen and save cash on deals for concentrates.

Representatives from Elliott have in the last month met with major BHP investors based in London, South Africa and Australia to lay out the activist fund's arguments for an overhaul of the miner.

Gold prices finished higher last Friday and followed the upward trend on Monday, with December gold GCZ7, +0.67% rising to $1,283 an ounce.

Freeport agreed in August to divest a 51% stake in Grasberg to local interests in return for full operational control until 2041 plus fiscal and legal guarantees, but a final deal has still to be reached.

Plans to reopen one of the world's biggest copper mines, shut by a civil war on the Pacific Island of Bougainville in 1989, have run into trouble.

Up more than 3% after quake near the city of Calama in main copper producing region of the South American country.