IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from November 6

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Wednesday November 6 that are worth another look.

Brazil’s national mining agency, ANM, has concluded that Vale failed to report anomalies before a deadly disaster breach occurred at a tailings dam in its Córrego do Feijão mine in January.

A falling US Midwest aluminium premium, stronger currencies in Asia and sustained higher freight rates have limited estimated arbitrage opportunities between aluminium warehouses in Asia and the United States.

Discounts for full-plate nickel cathodes in China swung back into premiums in the week to November 5 and a newly-opened arbitrage import window refreshed spot appetite for material in the region, while buyers in Europe and the United States remained firmly on the sidelines.

China has approved a sixth copper scrap import quota to allow an additional 11,110 tonnes of copper scrap into the country by the end of this year, the environmental ministry said on November 5.

Chinese buyers’ appetite for imported cobalt metal is likely to shrink in the near future because domestic supply is increasing and there is little room for demand to increase, market participants told Fastmarkets.

What to read next
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