{"id":771285,"date":"2018-06-15T19:53:34","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T19:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=771285"},"modified":"2018-06-15T19:53:34","modified_gmt":"2018-06-15T19:53:34","slug":"trump-trade-war-blows-up-big-week-for-mining-majors-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=771285","title":{"rendered":"Trump trade war blows up big week for mining majors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-style:italic;font-size:16px\">By  <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/trump-trade-war-blows-big-week-mining-majors\/\">Frik Els<\/a><\/span>  <\/p>\n<div class=\"ftpimagefix\" style=\"float:left\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/trump-trade-war-blows-big-week-mining-majors\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/blasting-blast-open-pit-900.jpg\" alt=\"Trump trade war bombs big week for mining majors\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Big mining blasted<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Mining and metals investors were offloading the sector&#8217;s big names on Friday over fears of the impact of a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/trump-launches-50-billion-in-tariffs-on-china\/\" rel=\"noopener\">trade war<\/a> between the US and China, which is responsible for nearly half the world&#8217;s industrial metal demand and two-thirds of the world&#8217;s seaborne trade in steelmaking raw materials.<\/p>\n<p>Copper fell nearly 3% to $3.13 a pound or $6,900 a tonne, pushing the bellwether metal back into the red for the year. Last week copper touched the highest levels since January 2014. The S&amp;P GCSI Industrial Metals index also moved back into negative territory for 2018, despite a year-to-date rally in nickel of nearly 20% and stronger aluminum prices.<\/p>\n<p>Friday&#8217;s sell-off came after a busy week for mining&#8217;s heavyweights with several big deals which appeared to signal that after years of belt-tightening, the majors are again looking for growth opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>Shares in world number one miner BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) lost 4.5% in New York dropping the market valuation of the Melbourne-based company to $125 billion. Yesterday BHP  approved construction of a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/iron-ore-price-bhp-adds-high-grade-lump-ore-just-42-tonne\/\">$4.2 billion iron ore mine<\/a> in Western Australia sparking talk of a new boom time in the Pilbara.<\/p>\n<p><q>Several big deals this week appeared to signal that after years of belt-tightening, the majors are again looking for growth opportunities<\/q><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Top-10-Mining-Companies-Jun-15-2018-1W.jpg\" alt=\"Trump trade war blows up big week for mining majors\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">Vale (NYSE:VALE.P), the world&#8217;s top iron ore and nickel producer, fell 5.6%. Rio de Janeiro-based Vale has been making the most of the rally in battery raw materials with the signing of a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/web\/vale-deal-shows-carmakers-will-need-pay-secure-cobalt\/\">$700m cobalt streaming deal<\/a> on its Canadian nickel mine earlier this week. Vale will use the money to fund a $1.7 billion underground expansion at Voisey&#8217;s Bay, Labrador<\/p>\n<p>Anglo American (LON:AAL) gave up 4.3% in New York, bringing year to date losses in market value for the world&#8217;s fourth largest diversified miner to 15%. Also this week, the London-HQ company with South African roots, announced a deal with Japan&#8217;s Mitsubishi that <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/mitsubishi-ups-stake-anglos-quellaveco-copper-project-600-million-deal\/\">paves the way<\/a> for the construction of its $6 billion Quellaveco copper mine in Peru.<\/p>\n<p>World number five copper producer Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO)  took a 3.2% hit pushing the $38 billion unit of Grupo Mexico into the red for the year. On Wednesday, Southern Copper said it would be starting production at its $2.5 billion Michiquillay project in Peru earlier than expected.<\/p>\n<p>Michiquillay and Quellaveco are the only 200,000 tonne-plus copper mines likely to commence production within the next five years as the market for the red metal moves into deeper deficits.<\/p>\n<p>Top listed copper producer Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) plunged 3.6% on Friday for a market cap just shy of $25 billion. The Phoenix-based company is <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/freeports-grasberg-jujitsu-move-will-pay-off\/\">nearing a deal<\/a> \u2013 decades in the making \u2013 with the Indonesian government to give up a majority stake in its Grasberg mine in Papua after Rio Tinto agreed to sell its 40% interest in the iconic mine to state-owned Inalum for $3.5 billion.<\/p>\n<p>The world&#8217;s second largest miner based on revenue Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) declined 3.6% in New York, just holding onto a $100 billion market valuation. The Melbourne-HQed company is the world&#8217;s number two iron ore producer and number eight copper producer.<\/p>\n<p><q>The biggest loser this week was China Molybdenum, down nearly 15% over five trading days<\/q><\/p>\n<p>Glencore (LON:GLEN) was also marked down, with its over the counter units trading in the US losing 3.4% on Friday. Glencore is the world&#8217;s third largest copper company in terms of output and dominates the trade in cobalt after restarting operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/p>\n<p>Glencore on Friday <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.glencore.com\/index\/media-and-insights\/news\/Settlement-of-dispute-with-Ventora-and-Africa-horizons\" rel=\"noopener\">settled a potentially damaging legal row<\/a> with former business partner in the central African country, Dan Gertler, by agreeing to pay royalties he is owed from copper and cobalt mines. Despite a recent pullback cobalt has nearly quadrupled in price since early 2016.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest loser this week was China Molybdenum, down nearly 15% over five trading days pushing its market value below $20 billion in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n<p>China Moly has been expanding aggressively outside its home country picking up niobium assets in Brazil from Anglo American and Freeport&#8217;s stake in the Tenke Fungurume mine in Congo&#8217;s copper belt for $2.65 billion last year. Tenke has been in production since 2009 and output totalled  216,000 tonnes of copper last year, with 16,000 tonnes of cobalt as a by-product.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/trump-trade-war-blows-big-week-mining-majors\/\">Trump trade war blows up big week for mining majors<\/a> appeared first on <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/\">MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/trump-trade-war-blows-big-week-mining-majors\/\" target=\"_blank\" id=\"rssmi_more\"> &#8230;read more<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>From:: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/trump-trade-war-blows-big-week-mining-majors\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Trump trade war blows up big week for mining majors\">Mining.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Frik Els Big mining blasted Mining and metals investors were offloading the sector&#8217;s big names on Friday over fears of the impact of a trade war between the US and China, which is responsible for nearly half the world&#8217;s industrial metal demand and two-thirds of the world&#8217;s seaborne trade in steelmaking raw materials. Copper [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[369],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771285"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=771285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=771285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=771285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=771285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}