More copper smelters are likely to reduce capacity amid record-low spot treatment and refining charges (TCs/RCs), the chief executive of Chile-based copper miner Antofagasta Minerals said

A small deficit is emerging in the refined copper market, reversing consensual expectations a year-ago for a relatively balanced market in 2024, according to the chief executive of Chile-based miner Antofagasta Minerals

Antofagasta Minerals has secured two seats on the board of Peruvian miner Buenaventura and continues to focus on growing in copper in the Americas, the Chile-based miner’s CEO Iván Arriagada told Fastmarkets in a recent interview

Chile’s government has laid out its plan to significantly boost the country’s lithium production, opening up 26 lithium salt flats for private investment and naming the Atacama and Maricunga salt flats as strategic to the state.

The US could get a new primary aluminium smelter, investments in copper recycling and projects to decarbonize iron and steelmaking as part of a $6 billion government package announced on Monday, March 25

Liontown Resources is just months away from first lithium production at its Kathleen Valley project in Australia, but an accelerated expansion is not very likely to happen, chief executive officer Tony Ottaviano told Fastmarkets in an interview.

The sharp correction in lithium prices has been driven by a decline in demand rather than supply over-build, particularly given that projects are already being curtailed, deferred or capacity cut, the chief executive officer of Australia-based Liontown Resources said

The volatility in lithium prices reflects the growing pains of a relatively small market and will decrease as the market matures, according to the executive chairman of Vulcan Energy Resources.

Aluminium and nickel appear to have once again escaped inclusion in the latest list of sanctions imposed by western governments on Russia, ending days of speculation that increased both the prices and the traded volumes of the metals.