Copper

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. has approved a US$850 million expansion to the Tenke Fungurume mining operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Lundin Mining, a partner at the mine with FCX, made the announcement in a press release on Tuesday night. The phase two expansion, targeted for completion in 2013, will increase copper production by 50% to about 195,000 tonnes of copper cathode and 15,000 tonnes of cobalt in hydroxide. Funding will be split 70:30 between the mines two partners, FCX and Lundin Mining. The companies expect that capital costs will be funded by surplus cash from Tenke Fungurume operations.

CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - Nov. 1, 2011) - TVI Pacific Inc. (TSX:TVI) (OTCQX:TVIPF) ("TVI" or the "Company") announced today that it has been advised by its Philippine affiliate, TVI Resource Development (Phils.) Inc. ("TVIRD") that TVIRD is preparing to file a series of legal actions in Philippine courts to prevent the implementation of an Ordinance scheduled to come into effect in the Province of Zamboanga del Norte on November 6, 2011. The Ordinance, filed with no advance notice to TVIRD or TVI, purports to ban new open pit or open cut mines in the Province of Zamboanga del Norte and causes the closure process of existing such mines to begin one year from now, or November 2012. TVIRD intends to continue operating at Canatuan without disruption during this period. This Ordinance has no impact on TVIRD's gold development project at Balabag as it is in Zamboanga del Sur, a different province. Development plans continue at Balabag.

The takeover of Anvil Mining (TSE:AVM), an African copper producer, by Chinese company Minmetals Resources Ltd, could be in jeopardy. Anvil warned on Monday that the $1.3 billion deal may not be completed if the company fails to come to an agreement with partner Gecamines over contractual arrangements. According to the news release, La Générale des Carrières et des Mines Sarl (“Gécamines”) told Anvil that the takeover offer would trigger a review of the lease agreements with Anvil over the Kinsevere project in the DRC. State-owned Gécamines holds the leases to the mineral tenures.

Arabian American Development Co, announced over the weekend it has completed construction of the gold, silver and copper mine in Saudi-Arabia which it is developing with Saudi's Al-Kobra Mining Company (Amak). The Texas-based company, which owns 37% of Amak, said it will turn the facility over to the Chinese surface operator to begin operations end-November. In July Arabian American Development got a $37m injection from a fund controlled by the League of Arab States. Shareholders in the Nasdaq-listed company saw the value of their investment rise a cool $107m as a result of the transaction and over the last month stock in the 44-year old company has risen 28.5%. The mine in a Yemen border province is the only non-government mine in the Saudi kingdom and is scheduled to begin production early next year.

Reuters reports unionised Chilean workers at Collahuasi, the world's third most productive copper mine, halted production on Saturday in a strike demanding a wage bonus, but were back at work on Sunday after after reaching an agreement with management, the company and union said. Collahuasi is owned by Switzerland's Xstrata and the Britain-based Anglo American. Collahuasi produced 504,000 tonnes of copper in 2010, when output was hit by a month-long strike. The mine expects to produce 500,000 tonnes of copper this year. It supplies roughly 3% of the world's copper, half that of Chile's other giant copper mine Escondida.

Reuters reports Romania has launched the sale of its biggest copper mine Cupru Min SA Abrud via a tender, the government's industry privatisation office said on its website. The deadline for bids is Jan. 17 deadline. Romania wants to sell 100% of the mine which sits on about 60% of the European Union member's copper reserves equal to roughly 900,000 tonnes. Cupru Min is based in Abrud, Alba County, Romania and operates the Roşia Poieni copper mine. The company says deposits amount to more than 1 billion tons ore with an average of 0.36% Cu and 1.8% S. Copper production began in 1983 and the designed capacity of the mine is 9 million tons of ore extracted and processed per year with expansion to 15 million tons per year.

BBC footage shows arrest being made in a campaign to crack down on dealers who buy stolen metal that has been launched by the Transport Police in Yorkshire, England. Copper theft on railways has led to thousands of hours of delays to passengers every year. Yorkshire authorities say the problem is costing them millions a month.

Barely a week after Anglo American announced that the $2.8 billion they splashed on expanding their flagship Los Bronces mine will start to bear fruit before year end, Chile's state-owned Codelco decides to exercise an option to acquire half of it. Codelco has passed on neighbouring Los Bronces, a smelter and a second mine before, but Chile's finance minister on Friday warned Anglo that it must honour the deal that dates back to 1978. Codelco has put together $6 billion but analyst say that short changes Anglo by billions. What must really gall Anglo, which seems to have been taken by surprise, is that they will have to pay around $1 billion in taxes on the transaction.

Ongoing labour unrest at Freeport-McMorran's Grasberg mine in Indonesia has forced the American company to declare force majeure. The announcement made Wednesday effectively allows Freeport to stop shipments from its gold and copper mine so that it can avoid liability on existing customer orders. About 8,000 workers — a third of the mine's workforce — have been on strike since September 15th and earlier this month vowed to shut down the mine if hourly wages of $1.50 are not upped 8-fold. The strike recently turned ugly with reports of sabotage and injuries.