Sumitomo warns pandemic, oil price fall to hit profit

The state-owned miner reported a Q1 profit of $534 million, more than the total it earned in 2016.

Better gold prices also helped the Azerbaijan-focused miner reduced its outstanding debts and boost profit.

Large scale futures speculators cut bullish bets on a rising silver price to a 16-month low while silver ETF investors gorge on metal at bargain prices.

Company said blockade was in response to a recently announced bonus offer in lieu of profit sharing.

Ivanhoe Mines and Zijin each hold now an indirect 39.6% interest in the Kamoa-Kakula project, thought to be Africa's most significant deposit of the red metal ever found.

Modifications seek to simplify aspects of the project originally approved in 2010 in order to optimize mineral handling.

An NGO based in the southern Bolívar state is calling the Venezuelan government to kill the 2016 decree that creates the Mining Arch of the Orinoco River National Development Strategic Zone.

Junior mining investor enthusiasts will be duelling it out for the big money when the next contest by Stockpools and Kitco is launched the first week of June.

The deal, worth about $400 million, will make Trevali the first pure zinc producer with operations in North and South America as well as Africa.