Musk’s desire for more nickel could be a non-starter

The project, renamed NuevaUnion, would be one of the largest copper-gold-molybdenum mines ever-developed in Latin America.

Most analysts believe the commodities market has turned a corner and that prices are unlikely to return to lows seen in the past year.

This year, global production is expected to level out as project development budgets were slashed during the three-year gold bear market. But with gold prices rebounding, miners are in a good position to be much more profitable.

CHARTS: Down 26% in a month the forward curve now points to the low $30s.

The results, which surpassed Wall Street expectations, come on the back of a modest increase in service sales and aggressive cost cuts.

Mining is a key contributor to the economies of Chile and Mexico and without sizeable amounts of power they would not be able to run.

Higher gold prices will push miners to restart or speed up development of projects, leading a fresh wave of mergers and acquisitions in the country, according to BMI Research.

Federal investigators claim Vale modified official documents detailing the chemical composition and concentration of the mineral waste spilled.

US class-action lawsuit accused world's top gold producer of distorting facts related to mothballed $8.5 billion gold and silver project in South America.