WEEK IN BRIEF: Dispatches from Indaba; Shalina and Noble deal; zinc stocks; and Alcoa’s LME response

Mining Indaba took place in Cape Town this week.

Mining Indaba took place in Cape Town this week.

Check out all Metal Bulletin’s coverage here.

Having broken a story about trading company Noble Resources investing in Democratic Republic of Congo-based copper and cobalt producer Shalina Resources (which you can read here), Metal Bulletin senior correspondent Janie Davies summed up the key points here.

Or check out the videos: ceo of US Global Investors Frank Holmes on grabbing investors’ attention

And Nedbank head of resources Mark Tyler talking about investing in Africa

Macquarie Bank analyst Colin Hamilton discussed the outlook for nickel and copper

Also this week, the latest from the base metals markets:

Zinc
Almost 90,000 tonnes of zinc was put on cancelled warrant in London Metal Exchange-approved warehouses in New Orleans on Wednesday. An independent warehousing firm was listed for LME delivery in the US port the following day. Read more here.

Metal Bulletin special correspondent Andrea Hotter looks at assumptions that the zinc market is gearing up for a rally and asks whether this is another false start

Aluminium 
Alcoa took exception to the LME’s proposed changes to its warehousing agreement. 

Also on aluminium, Metal Bulletin Research analyst Brian Levich asks whether it is time to downgrade the outlook for 6-series aluminium sheet’s capacity to displace steel

Copper
A large miner has slashed its targets for production by 60,000-70,000 tonnes this year.

Meanwhile, Metal Bulletin sister publication Copper Price Briefing has published an exclusive story detailing possible plans to reinstate export controls on copper cathode from Russia, only months after they were shelved. Read a short version of the piece here

For more analysis of what happened, why it is important and what happens next, subscribe to Copper Price Briefing

Glencore’s latest production figures came out. Read more here on its plans to cut capital expenditure.

Metal Bulletin sister publication Steel First reported that the producer-trader doubled its iron ore trade in 2014. 

Anglo American losses grew last year on falling copper and iron ore prices. Details here

On minor metals, bismuth prices in China fell again on sales ahead of the Chinese New Year, while the outlook for ferro-molybdenum in Europe is poor.

Hazelwood Resources’ ATC ferro-tungsten operations restarted at the end of January. Metal Bulletin correspondent Claire Hack had the story

Alex Harrison 
aharrison@metalbulletin.com
Twitter: @alexharrison_mb

What to read next
The most recent financial results published by base metals mining companies highlight just how inflation is affecting profit margins, with increasing wages, financing costs and input prices all hitting profits, sources told Fastmarkets in the week to Thursday March 28
Century Aluminum is among those selected to start award negotiations for up to $500 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act funding to build a new aluminium smelter, the company said on Monday March 25
Participants in the copper concentrates market are struggling to comprehend an “unstoppable” decline in treatment and refinement charges (TC/RCs), with every week bringing spot deals at fresh lows and rumors each “crazier” than the last, sources have told Fastmarkets
The US Department of Energy selected five base metals projects to receive more than $900 million in federal investment from its Industrial Demonstration Program (IDP), leading to a reduction of four million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually, according to a statement by the Department on Monday March 25
Aluminium producer and recycler Constellium announced on Tuesday March 12 that the company is moving to test hydrogen utilization at an industrial scale as a power source in its casthouses
Fastmarkets has corrected its MB-ALU-0002 alumina index, fob Australia and its MB-ALU-0010 alumina inferred index, fob Brazil, which were published incorrectly on Monday March 18.