In the base metals sector this week, news broke that a Brazilian state prosecutor investigating the January 2019 Brumadinho tailings dam disaster was preparing to charge multiple executives and employees of Vale (NYSE:VALE) and German inspection firm TÜV SÜD as well as the companies themselves within days.
The disaster last year claimed the lives of at least 259 people and saw communities ravaged by the unleashed tailings waste from dam 1 at the Córrego do Feijão iron ore mine in Minas Gerais.
“What we can take away from the investigations is there were several factors pointing to risk – the risk was not unknown,” said Andress de Oliviera Lanchotti in an interview with Reuters on January 8 (Wednesday). Lanchotti is the coordinator for the task force of Minas Gerais state prosecutors investigating the disaster.
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The disaster wreaked havoc on the company through 2019 as authorities closed company facilities and halted operations, with the fallout set to continue well into 2020.
Shares in Vale fell by 1.74 percent on the New York Stock Exchange on January 9 (Thursday), with the company trading at US$12.99 at the end of the day.
Elsewhere in Latin America, Chile saw copper production slump at the Escondida mine in November, though analysts have downplayed the impact of the ongoing social unrest in the country.
In another major copper jurisdiction – the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), it reported an increase in its copper output from January 2019 through to November of 16 percent to 1.308 million tonnes. At the same time, its cobalt production fell by 18 percent to 82,220 tonnes.
In Australia, Havilah Resources (ASX:HAV) reported this week that it had found rare earth elements (REE) at its flagship Kalkaroo copper project in South Australia.
In North America, Taseko Mines (TSX:TKO) reported that it had achieved its 2019 operational guidance at its Gibraltar copper mine in British Columbia, with Taseko overall producing 129 million pounds of copper and 2.7 million pounds of molybdenum at Gibraltar in 2019.
Finally, Excelsior Mining (TSX:MIN) released an update on operations at its Gunnison copper project in Arizona, reporting that it had achieved positive initial wellfield results as it transitions to a copper production company.
On the LME, copper spent the week on the up, starting at US$6,097 a tonne on before rising to US$6,155 by Thursday.
Zinc enjoyed a similar narrative, going from US$2,333 at the start of the week to US$2,417 a tonne towards the end of it.
Nickel was also up, but not before dithering for the first half of the week around US$13,800 a tonne, then jumping between Wednesday and Thursday to US$14,120.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Scott Tibballs, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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