- China’s top copper smelters just raised their floor treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) for the first quarter of 2019 by 2.2% (according to unnamed sources)
- Glencore’s billionaire head of copper trading, Aristotelis Mistakidis, has been fined $2.45 million and banned from being a director by Canada over Congolese cobalt and copper malfeasance
- The industry body known as the International Copper Association (ICA) of India is extremely pleased that the Indian government has ordered the reopening of Sterlite Copper’s Tuticorin plant
- Glencore’s Katanga Mining fined $22 million by Canada for intentionally obfuscating the risk of its business dealings with Israeli Dan Gertler who has been sanctioned by the U.S.
- Huayou Cobalt will invest $147.2 million in a copper project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), deepening the Chinese mining company’s presence in the central African country
- Zambia’s largest industry lobby group: More than half of the copper mines in Zambia will probably be unprofitable next year with thousands of jobs on the line due to mining tax increases
- Zambia’s Minister of Labour: Canada’s First Quantum Minerals plans to lay off more than 1,000 workers at its Kalumbila copper-nickel mine when the Zambian government hikes taxes next month
- Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, is transitioning its Chuquicamata operation in Chile from an open pit to an underground operation and it’s costing a lot more than money
- Following the announcement of new mining-related taxes in Zambia, Chambishi Metals on the Copperbelt Province is asking for 30% of its work force to go on voluntary separation
- Glencore’s Congolese copper and cobalt unit, Katanga, has agreed to settle with Canada’s Ontario Securities Commission over an investigation into its accounting, with settlement terms undisclosed
