The Vancouver-based miner inked a deal with a Zambian firm for a new mine on Monday adding to its already ambitious expansion plans totalling $3.7 billion which includes building one of the world's largest copper smelters.
Former president Nambaryn Enkhbayar was found guilty on corruption charges and sentenced to four years in prison just weeks after he made a political comeback with his Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party as the junior partner in the new ruling coalition.
The mining giant is also scaling back or postponing other expensive expansion projects but the pullback in iron ore – by far the Melbourne-based company's most profitable division – is a surprising move and indicative of the cloudy outlook for the commodities business.
The Toronto-based company said in the report it continues to engage the government of PNG in legal proceedings held in Sydney Australia but that it has run into trouble with its German partners building a surface vessel for the operation which would lead to delays.
Nautilus Minerals dropped 7.3% to $1.02 in late-afternoon trade on Wednesday, after the Toronto-based firm announced that it is raising $34 million from its major shareholders at 90c a share to build its seabed mining system.
LME's warehousing operations "have been dogged by controversy since big banks and trading houses including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase bought warehousing operations."
The stock hit a high of $50 in May 2008 and came close again in April 2011, but at $170 billion, the Melbourne-based company is now valued at some $80 billion less that at its peak.
Barrick announced last week a 50-60% cost blow-out for the copper-gold-silver project straddling the Chile–Argentina border which could end up with a final bill of as much as $8 billion with $3 billion already spent.
