Copper

Speaking in Arequipa at Peru's premier mining conference industry executives said on Friday a drive by Peru's leftist president to raise mining royalties should not derail multibillion-dollar investments, but added that the viability of smaller, less efficient operations will be affected. Peru's Buenaventura and US-based Newmont said their $4.8 billion Conga mine, the most expensive mine in Peru's history, was on track to come on line in 2014 while others including Barrick Gold, Xstrata, Anglo American and Gold Fields reiterated their commitment to the country.

Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) plans to sell "a lot" of the output from the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold project in Mongolia to China, and is in discussions with smelters in China, Rio Tinto's U.S. Copper Chief Financial Officer said Friday at an industry event."Talks are still underway, and there's no definite plan right now," Kay Priestly told a Metal Bulletin conference in China. With the Oyu Tolgoi mine strategically located close to China where demand is high, so "it's certainly our plan to transport a lot of the products to China," Priestly added.

Preliminary estimates from Metals Economics Group’s (MEG) Corporate Exploration Strategies (CES) study indicate that 2011 nonferrous exploration budgets will exceed $17 billion for expenditures related to precious and base metals, diamonds, uranium, and some industrial minerals.

Anvil Mining (TSE:AVM), a copper miner based in the central Africa, tamped down speculation that it may be acquired for $1 billion. Australian Finance Review reported that it was in serious discussion with a Chinese firm about some sort of business tie up. Last month, Anvil announced that it started a strategic review process and the company had formed a special transaction committee to ". . . review and consider the value maximizing alternatives available to the Corporation. BMO Capital Markets has been retained to assist in this regard," said the company in a statement.

For the second time this year workers have downed tools at one of the world's largest copper and gold mines. The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting thousands of workers at Freeport-McMoran's gold and copper mine in eastern Indonesia have begun a month-long strike over a wage dispute: Union spokesman Juli Parorongan said roughly 90 per cent of the Papua mine's 12,000 workers were taking part in the action, which began on Thursday.

As the United States and its allies look back on a weekend of memorials and tributes to the nearly 3,000 victims of 9/11, the country that was struck in retaliation for the 2001 attack on America could become a hotbed of mining. The National reports that Indian firms are bidding billions of dollars for a contract to mine iron ore in a central district of Afghanistan: "A consortium led by the state-run Steel Authority of India (SAIL) could invest up to US$6 billion (Dh22bn) in the mine, railroads and a steel plant in a race with China to lock in raw materials for two of the world's fastest-growing economies."

Peru's leftist government presented a bill to Congress on Wednesday that aims to increase mining taxes to fund anti-poverty projects.

Polish stocks are on a tear this week after a top court made a mining-friendly tax ruling. Bloomberg reports that Polish stocks climbed for a second day, with the benchmark index heading for the biggest advance in a week, as coal and copper producers jumped after the Constitutional Tribunal ruling on mining taxes: "The court ruled that mining excavations should not be considered as construction works and should be free of real-estate taxes."

China plans to dramatically consolidate the number of mines in its country, according to Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) and a study by MCCM. And China also wants its mines to be a lot more productive. Caterpillar released the results of a study in August. In 2004 China had 25,000 operating mines. By the end of 2013 China wants to get that number down to 4,000 mines. A minimum production of 300,000 tonnes per annum will be required for mine approval.