IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from July 29

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday July 29 that are worth another look.

The Peruvian federal government is drafting a new mining code to ensure legal certainty and social responsibility in the development of projects in the country, national president Martín Vizcarra said on Sunday July 28 during the country’s independence day festivities. The announcement was made following almost two weeks of public demonstrations and street blockades in the Arequipa region against Southern Copper’s Tía María copper project.

Citic Metal, the exclusive sales agent in China for ferro-niobium from Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineração (CBMM), surprised the market by keeping its third-quarter price unchanged from the previous quarter, sources told Fastmarkets.

The uncertainty created by trade tensions, including the potential for US tariffs on the automotive sector, is deterring investment decisions in the industry and leading to reduced forecasts for growth, the top executive of Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro said.

Concerns about another possible round of auctions in the coming months for indium stocks held by the defunct Fanya Metal Exchange re-emerged among Chinese market participants after Southwest China’s Kunming Superior People’s Court announced the second trial result in an open court on Friday July 26, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.

The discount for No2-grade copper scrap in China widened this month on higher availability because Chinese buyers have quickly used up the import quotas granted by the government.

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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.
The publication of Fastmarkets’ US base metals prices were published early during the week of March 11-15 following the daylight saving time change in the US on March 10.