Chile to triple fines for environmental damages, infractions

Peru’s long-running Conga mine dispute moved slightly forward on Tuesday after the government appointed foreign engineers to oversee an independent review of Newmont Mining Corp.'s stalled $4.8 billion gold project, reports La Republica.

A week after announcing substantial profits and the expansion of their vast Western Australia iron ore operations, BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) and Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) said yesterday that they would spend $US 4.5 billion on the Escondida copper mine in Chile.

After over two months of futile negotiations behind closed doors between Chile's state-owned copper giant Codelco and global miner Anglo American, a resolution of the dispute that have seen both parties sunk in a legal battle seems far off, said Codelco's CEO Diego Hernandez to a local daily.

The Washington Post reports a "stark collision of cultures" is taking place in the desert mountains of Mexico, where the Huichol Indians are trying to stop a Canadian company from starting a $100-million silver mine.

Japanese companies such as Samsung, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Sumitomo are evaluating the recently opened option to tap into the lithium industry in Chile, local newspaper Diario Financiero published on Thursday.

Record annual earnings of more than $2 billion released today by key global copper producer Southern Copper Corp (NYSE:SCCO), were overshadowed by the company’s decision of pushing back the beginning of its operation at the $1 billion Tia Maria project until 2015.

BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP), the world’s largest mining company, expects to increase production at its Escondida copper mine in Chile to over 1.3Mt/y in the 2015 financial year, said CEO Marius Kloppers yesterday in a webcast to discuss fiscal H1 results.

Newmont Mining, world number two gold producer, said on Wednesday it has options to spend its capital elsewhere to meet production targets if its $4.8 billion Conga project in Peru does not restart.

A Chilean civil court ordered world's largest copper producer Codelco to publish the agreement for a financing deal of up $6.75 billion with Japan's Mitsui & Co. (TYO:8031), reports the online version of local newspaper El Mercurio.