A surge in commodity prices combined with its multibillion-dollar asset fire-sale has put the company in a position to pay big dividends and explore acquisitions.
The world's No.1 heavy machinery maker is telling miners not to rest on their laurels now that the industry is finally coming back up from a brutal downturn and keep focused on maximizing returns and efficiency.
Rebuttal comes as shareholders launched an investigation over possible false and misleading statements made by the miner about its Pebble copper-gold project in Alaska.
Silver is mainly a byproduct of zinc, lead (and copper) mining and capacity coming back on stream could see return of silver's chronic oversupply issues.
