IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from July 8

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday July 8 that are worth another look.

Major miner Antofagasta has broken away from decades-long tradition to sign copper concentrates supply contracts for the first half of 2020 with China’s two biggest copper smelters in June, Fastmarkets understands. 

A higher tender price for silico-manganese in China for July improved sentiment and increased prices for low-grade manganese ore in the week ended on Friday July 5. 

Cobalt metal prices have slipped to 32-month low amid slow summer demand and cheaper offers from sellers. 

The Queensland Resources Council will hold discussions with the Australian government, mining unions and workers this week regarding action that can be taken to increase safety across the sector following a fatal accident over the weekend at the Baralaba North mine. The mine ships coking coal through the Port of Gladstone.

Some Egyptian steel mills have appealed a decision by the country’s Administrative Court last week to suspend safeguard duties on steel billet and rebar, Fastmarkets understands.

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The influential annual treatment and refining charge (TC/RC) benchmark that sets the price that smelters charge miners to process their copper concentrate could be at risk, according to multiple market sources, although most believe the system, or elements of it, will remain
Fastmarkets' initial low-carbon premium for nickel briquettes captured existing regional price differences, with growing awareness and legislative incentives indicating there is potential for a strong market to emerge
The Chilean government is pushing ahead with plans for a new copper smelter despite the global smelting crisis, Chile’s minister of mining, Aurora Williams told Fastmarkets, adding that the state will also play a key role in developing the country’s premium lithium assets
Just under two weeks ago, the chair of BHP made a phone call to his counterpart at mining peer Anglo American and set in motion a flurry of activity designed to create the largest copper producer in the world
Brazilian aluminium supply coming from Companhia Brasileira de Alumínio (CBA) is said to have tightened, helping to boost the P1020A ingot premium, market participants told Fastmarkets in the two weeks to Wednesday April 24
In anticipation of a tight market, copper concentrate traders have locked in 2025 volumes at notably low treatment charges, with deals being placed well below the long-term industry benchmarks