Vale output disappoints in fresh blow to tight iron market

Futures topped $90 a tonne on Wednesday amid increasing concern the crisis at Brazil’s Vale SA will be drawn out as regulators ordered dozens of dams to be shut.

Iron ore prices in China reached a record high on Tuesday as market participants wrestled two dilemmas, namely the weather-related disruptions from Australia and the safety outages in Brazil.

The Canadian miner plans to expand Cobre Panama, located about 120 km west of Panama City, and 20 km from the Atlantic coast, from 85 million tonnes per year to 100Mtpy beginning in 2023.

Teck Resources and Sumitomo have closed their $1.2B transaction, giving Sumitomo a 30% indirect interest in the Quebrada Blanca copper project.

Ganfeng Lithium Co plans to spend $160m to boost its stake in an Argentina project with Lithium Americas Corp from 37.5% to 50%.

Commodities had their best quarter in almost three years, but demand outlook is running into troubling signs in the U.S. and China, the two biggest consumers.

The decision comes on the same day a Brazilian court froze an additional 1 billion reais ($255 million) in assets as possible compensation for damages related to a recent evacuation of the area around the company's Vargem Grande dam in Minas Gerais state.

Test at the company's 100%-owned La India gold project in Nicaragua confirmed 95.4% gold recovery from two samples in laboratory conditions.

Profits are being squeezed by rising raw material prices, largely caused by production disruptions at Vale SA after the Brumardinho disaster.