| April 23, 2010 The Global Movement Towards Green Publisher: The Energy Report Author: Gordon Monk - Performance Capital Advisors | |
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In this exclusive interview with The Energy Report, Gordon Monk of Performance Capital Advisers discusses the worldwide movement toward green sources for energy production. Gordon explains how cobalt and lithium are linked to solar and wind power. He also talks about why he prefers primary producers of cobalt to those that obtain cobalt as a byproduct of other operations.
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| April 22, 2010 Cobalt Up, Moly Steady, How is the LME Doing so Far? Publisher: MetalMiner Author: Stuart Burns | |
| Cobalt Up, Moly Steady, How is the LME Doing so Far? The LME's minor metals contract has been up and running for two months now and although both are at a nascent stage they have already begun to exhibit diverging patterns of behavior. Molybdenum prices have stagnated whereas cobalt prices have picked up markedly. Although it is premature to be drawing any conclusions at this stage we thought it would be interesting to look into the more active to see if it is the contract or the background market that is driving the different behavior. From a practical standpoint the cobalt contract trades 99.3% minimum purity, which is a highly tradable form of cobalt. The molybdenum contract is bagged or drummed roasted concentrate and from that aspect probably a little less flexible as a shape and storage would be more complicated. Cobalt metal is eminently usable in the metal form as it can be melted for the production of alloys and granules/powder, dissolved in acid to provide a precursor to a whole range of chemical products and many grades of fine powder or just kept in a drum as an investment. Cobalt also has a broad range of end uses and is not necessarily reliant on one main industry sector, although combined rechargeable batteries and super-alloys/hard metal/high speed steels take up over half of cobalt consumption. So from a contract point of view it could be that cobalt is finding more favor with the market because it is more flexible and hence finds more takers. The first prompt date isn't until May 21st and trading from this point should give a better guide as to the level of trade interest, but the initial stages of the contract must be encouraging for the LME. We interviewed Steve English of SFP Metals, Chairman of the Minor Metals Trade Association (MMTA), an acknowledged industry expert and broadly a supporter of the LME's development of the minor metals contracts. Cautioning that any observations are at an extremely early stage -- nickel and aluminum both took many years to reach a tipping point and have become accepted industry price benchmarks, these minor metals will probably take a year, possibly three, according to Steve. First, we cannot judge the success of these contracts until we see how stock levels develop on the exchange and that won't happen in a meaningful way until after May 21. At the moment there is just 5 tons of cobalt on the LME. Any trader could pick that up and "corner the market" by holding all the physical metal on the exchange. In reality, the market needs 1000 tons to function effectively and that won't happen until the market develops a backwardation where spot is significantly over 3 months, attracting physical delivery onto the exchange. For the time being, metal is all being consumed by industry particularly in the US and Japan. Import figures for the US in 2010 are twice what they were in 2009 and the trend continues. January imports were 650 tons. February's were 1096 tons according to Steve English. Stocks were run down severely in 2008/9 and now demand is coming back from aerospace, battery consumption and medical products. China by contrast has not seen any significant run up in prices this year as reported by our own MetalMiner IndX (free with registration) which tracks domestic China cobalt prices. So western physical demand rather than any impact of the LME contract is what is driving current price strength both physically and on the LME. The market will be used by two kinds of players. On the one hand, there will be investors, for them at the moment the contract is not sufficiently liquid to make it an attractive market but open interest is increasing. Cobalt is clearly the more popular of the two metals in terms of open interest -- currently 223 open contracts vs. 31 for molybdenum, but even so investor interest is light. The other user will be the participants for whom the contract was intended -- producers, consumers and in between the processors. For many in the industry the greatest benefit has always been seen as helping the processors. These are the businesses that rely on buying cobalt, putting it through a process which adds value and then selling that product on at a later date. By hedging, the price risk element can be negated (though there are cash flow implications) so the business can concentrate on what it does best and that is to improve the margin created by adding value to their product. For the processors to take up the contract will require widespread acceptance of the LME price as being the industry benchmark, adopted by both producers and consumers -- back to the tipping point of widespread adoption. So cobalt at least is off to a reasonable early start. Molybdenum for the time being does not appear to be going anywhere but as we implied at the outset, a lot of water needs to pass under the bridge before a valid judgment can be made. Our thanks to Steve English of SFP Metals and other industry experts interviewed in the process of this review. --Stuart Burns | |
| April 21, 2010 Cobalt Finds its Feet as Demand Picks Up Publisher: Metal-Pages | |
| Cobalt Finds its Feet as Demand Picks Up LONDON (Metal-Pages) 21-Apr-10. The cobalt market has picked up in recent days, with consumer restocking boosting prices in the spot market. Material is trading in a wide range, but there is a clear upward trend, which has also been reflected to a degree by a pick up in traded volume and prices in LME cobalt futures this week. While 99.3% grade cobalt was still being reported trading at $20.50/lb recently, in the last couple of days traders said it has become difficult to obtain Russian ingot at less than $21/lb, and business has moved increasingly into $21-22/lb range in Europe and up to around $22.50/lb in the US. With intermediate grade cobalt also trading around $22.50/lb, high grade material is trading in a wide range, depending on grades and delivery terms, between about $22.75/lb and up to $24.75/lb for premium Falconbridge material. "The uncertainty about Congo cobalt exports has not yet fed into cobalt prices, but it will in the next couple of weeks when the market realises that it would affect raw materials," a trader commented on reports that the DRC copper and cobalt producing province of Katanga has once again moved to ban exports of unprocessed concentrates. The postponement due to flight restrictions of the Cobalt Development Institute (CDI) conference in Cape Town, where industry and market participants were due to meet and negotiate prices, has also put the brakes on the cobalt rally. With the conference postponed possibly until November, such business meetings are now more likely to take place in London at the conference held next week by the Minor Metals Trade Association (MMTA). Another trader said however that the market in the US has picked up swiftly, with consumers across all fields including aerospace alloys, industrial gas turbines and catalysts stocking up on metal again. The latest recorded US import figures show a jump of more than 68% from 650 tonnes of cobalt imported into the country in January to 1,096 tonnes in February, the trader noted. The US currently has no primary cobalt production, at least until Formation's Idaho Cobalt Project which recently entered construction comes on stream. Consumption by individual US customers since the start of the year has more than doubled, the trader added. Cobalt has been trading higher on the LME, with backwardation on three months to fifteen months dates. The price reached a level of $47,000/tonne ($21.31/lb) this week, although three months futures edged back down to $45,000-46,000/tonne ($20.41-20.81/lb) again today. The LME contract is based on 99.3% grade cobalt with warrants in different LME warehouses and does not factor in location and grade premiums. "The LME prices does not have much impact on the physical price, and it will not have a direct relation to it until physical delivery starts," another trader commented. Physical delivery of the miner metal against the LME warrants is due to begin next month. After a volatile period in February-March when prices were depressed by some low sales, the cobalt market has found its feed over the past month and has established a firm floor above $20.50/lb. Most market participants believe that supply of minor metal will fall short of demand this year, with only one third of industry and market participants who took part in a recent Metal-Pages poll suggesting cobalt will be in oversupply in 2010. According to CDI statistics published this month, global apparent consumption of cobalt fell 8% last year to 56,000 tonnes, as a sharp drop in consumption in Asia and Europe offset increased consumption in China. Global supply outpaced apparent consumption, with a total reported production of 59,851 tonnes, according to CDI, up 5.33% from 56,821 tonnes produced in 2008. CDI members (Russian producer Norilsk Nickel left CDI last year) produced 25,074 tonnes between them. | |
| March 25, 2010 Building a Cheaper (Maybe Cleaner) Catalyst Publisher: Science News Author: Alexandra Witze | |
| [Another use for cobalt as a catalyst] Chemical engineers have found a cheaper and possibly better material than platinum for cleaning up the exhaust streams of diesel vehicles. Many automobiles use platinum-containing catalytic converters to help clean their exhaust streams of various pollutants, notably the nitrogen oxide compounds that can contribute to smog. But the high and volatile price of the precious metal makes it difficult to build an economical catalyst. An alternative material, known as perovskite, is far less expensive than platinum and may do the job more effectively, engineers from the research arm of General Motors report in the March 26 Science. "It's excellent work, really groundbreaking to be able to have an alternative to platinum-based catalysts," says Louise Olsson, a catalysis researcher at Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg, Sweden, who was not involved in the research. "It's going to save a lot of money." Diesel cars can cost $1,000 to $5,000 more than comparable gasoline models because of the need to modify the engine and add more expensive catalytic converters to meet emissions standards. Platinum, used in many of those converters, sells for about $1,590 per troy ounce. In Europe, about half of passenger vehicles run on diesel. The percentage is far lower in the United States, although many large vehicles and freight trucks run on diesel because of the high fuel efficiency of those engines. The problem is that diesel engines need to burn "lean," or in the presence of extra air, compared with regular gasoline engines. The additional oxygen makes it harder to remove the resulting nitrogen oxide compounds. A team led by Wei Li at GM's Global Research and Development branch in Warren, Mich., decided to focus on a particular chemical reaction in diesel exhaust streams, in which platinum is used to convert NO to NO2, which can be further processed and released to the atmosphere as nitrogen gas. "This is a critical reaction required in the diesel system," explains Li. "For most gas applications people have already moved away from platinum, but for diesel we cannot." In their laboratory the researchers replaced a commercial platinum-based catalyst with one based on perovskite oxides made of cobalt or manganese combined with oxygen. By adding a bit of strontium and lanthanum into the mix, Li's team showed that the manganese-based perovskite catalysts converted NO to NO2 about as well as platinum-based ones did. The cobalt-based perovskite catalyzed the reaction at rates significantly higher than platinum. "We were looking for a good catalyst, but we were not expecting it to be that good," says Li. The new catalysts are not, however, entirely free of precious metals. The team had to add a bit of palladium -- which goes for about one-quarter the cost of platinum -- to eliminate some sulfur buildup. There's a long way to go before perovskite-based catalysts appear in automobiles, notes Jim Parks, a catalyst researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Knoxville, Tenn. Li's team performed its tests in simulated exhaust streams; now other GM researchers are doing experiments to see how the perovskite catalysts handle real pollutants, Li says. The new work is "a step in the right direction, but there will be more to do with developing this technology," says Parks. -END- | |
| February 22, 2010 London Metal Exchange Expands With Molybdenum, Cobalt Publisher: Bloomberg Author: Claudia Carpenter | |
| Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The London Metal Exchange, the world's biggest metals market, began trading today in cobalt and molybdenum, commodities used in everything from jet engines to stainless steel. The 133-year-old exchange offered futures on the metals on its floor starting at 12:20 p.m. local time. Codelco, the world's second-largest molybdenum producer, wants to support the molybdenum contract, according to Gonzalo Cuadra, a Codelco managing director. The LME is expanding into so-called minor metals as it opens a first overseas office in Singapore and proposes a venture with the London-based Baltic Exchange to bring trading of freight derivatives onto a new exchange. The bourse handled $7.41 trillion of contracts last year, including 49.7 million in aluminum, 26.5 million in copper and about 30,000 in Mediterranean steel billet. Trading in the new contracts may exceed steel "because moly and cobalt have a history of volatility and they have a wide range of industrial applications," said Stephen English, marketing manager of SFP Metals (U.K.) Ltd. in London, who has traded cobalt for more than 30 years. LN Metals International Ltd. traded the first two metric tons of cobalt at $43,650 a ton ($19.80 a pound)[for Grade "B", 99.3% purity], Nigel Dentoom, chairman of the company, said at the LME. He declined to say if LN Metals was the buyer or seller. Molybdenum Traded Molybdenum traded earlier today at $35,000 a ton ($15.88 a pound), exchange spokesman Stephen White said. Total trading volume won't be available until tomorrow, he said. About five companies were involved in trading by midday today, said Chris Evans, head of business development at the LME. Cobalt prices dropped 2.4 percent to $19.52 a pound this year, according to Metal Bulletin. The benchmark molybdenum oxide contract quoted by Metal Bulletin climbed 43 percent to $17.25 a pound. The LME estimates both markets combined at about $7 billion, compared with $5 billion for tin, which the bourse already trades. "While we do not intend to utilize the molybdenum contract upon its launch, we will continue to monitor the activity on the exchange," said Bill Collier, a spokesman for Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., the world's largest molybdenum producer. Production of molybdenum last year was about 440 million pounds (199,581 tons), while cobalt output was 54,000 tons, according to Eric Taarland, a senior consultant at London research company CRU. Output of both metals exceeded demand, according to CRU estimates. Molybdenum Demand Molybdenum demand has gained because of growth in stainless steel output, while cobalt consumption was driven by sales of rechargeable batteries, according to Taarland. There are 12 cobalt and molybdenum brands registered for delivery against the LME contracts, including Vale SA's Vale Inco unit and Molibdenos y Metales SA. The LME plans to combine its Mediterranean and Far East steel billet futures into a global contract. Volumes reached about 3.3 million metric tons of steel, worth $1.4 billion, since they were introduced in April 2008 to Feb. 12, according to the exchange. --Editors: Dan Weeks, Tony Barrett. | |
| January 12, 2010 Automakers plan for an electrified future, but plenty of hurdles remain Publisher: The Plain Dealer Author: Robert Schoenberger | |
| DETROIT -- The head of BYD Co.'s export division took the stage today at the North American International Auto Show and explained matter-of-factly how China's fourth-largest car company would become No. 1 globally by 2025: by building and selling lots of electric cars. "Electric vehicles have become a mainstream solution for mobility," Henry Li said. Like BYD, plenty of other car companies are also gearing up for an electrified future. But while electric vehicles show a lot of promise, there's a long way to go before they become widely available, affordable, reliable and able to meet consumer expectations. "Until the battery technologies get to the point where batteries are affordable, full-speed electrics are going to be expensive," said Curt Westlake, U.S. marketing director for Korea's CT&T, a company that hopes to sell low-speed electric vehicles in this country by the end of the year. Some of the world's largest car companies are promising electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids for sale within the next year or two. Still, many of the models on display today during a press preview of the Detroit show, which opens to the public Saturday, were either extremely expensive, highly impractical or both. Take the Tango, from Commuter Cars of Spokane, Wash. The two-passenger car looks something like a Chevrolet Aveo after an encounter with a trash compactor. Company founder and president Rick Woodbury said the plan is for consumers to buy the $150,000 car in three parts from different vendors and assemble it themselves -- a way to get around federal safety rules for cars. "It only takes a few hours," Woodbury said. "It's really easy." Myers Motors of Tallmadge, which is not represented at the Detroit show, makes a three-wheeled, single-seat electric vehicle called the NmG, for "no more gas." It plans to have a two-seat model, the DUO -- an acronym for Doesn't Use Oil -- on sale late this year for less than $30,000. The highest-profile electric is General Motors' Chevrolet Volt, a vehicle the company has promised will be available late this year for about $40,000, after a $7,500 federal tax credit. "We are doing a tremendous amount of preparation for this launch," Chevrolet General Manager Jim Campbell said in an interview. The Volt will be capable of driving 40 miles on electric power. When the battery runs low, a small gasoline engine will run the car's electric drive system and recharge the batteries. GM plans to produce about 25,000 Volts per year starting in 2011. Other more mainstream electric vehicles planned include Toyota's plug-in hybrids and battery-powered cars for 2012, and Ford's promised battery-powered Focus by 2012. Ford this week said it would spend $450 million to make battery packs in Michigan, a move that could bring 1,000 jobs to the United States from Mexico. But GM, Ford and Toyota are planning small production runs and limited sales efforts on their electric vehicles. The overwhelming majority of cars coming out of those companies for the next several years will be traditional gasoline-powered cars and trucks, said Erich Merkle, president of consulting firm Autoconomy.com. "They're testing the market," Merkle said. "You've got to have your foot in the water and be prepared for market-changing shifts. But they're not getting ready to shift large portions of their production capacity." Merkle said in the near term, expensive electric cars will appeal to niche customers -- tech fans who want to latest gadgets possible, environmentally minded shoppers willing to pay a huge premium to avoid emissions and commercial customers looking for low-speed vehicles to perform specific tasks. Companies are targeting more mainstream buyers, but Merkle said the prices are still too high to attract legions of buyers. Tesla Motors, the company that makes the $101,500 Roadster sports car, today showed off the latest version of its Model S, a family car it hopes to sell next year. After tax credits, the seven-seat Model S should cost just under $50,000 for the base model, about double the cost of the larger, gasoline-powered Chevrolet Traverse, also a seven-seater. CT&T's Westlake said commercial buyers have already turned to electric vehicles for many uses, such as moving people and equipment across large college campuses and theme parks. He said he believes there is a consumer market for low-speed, inexpensive electric cars, but he acknowledged that other electric car companies have yet to sell similar vehicles in large numbers. Still, there's BYD, the company that believes it will become No. 1 in China by 2015, mostly by selling more plug-in hybrids and electric cars. Li said that company has begun working with consultants to redesign its cars for more-stringent U.S. safety requirements, and he believes the products will be on sale here late this year. "We will be in this market with electric vehicles," Li said. BYD made similar statements last year and in 2008. -END- | |
| January 08, 2010 Cobalt hits highest for 14 months on new year demand surge Publisher: MinorMetals.com Author: Editing by Mark Shaw | |
| London, 08 January 2010 - Cobalt prices climbed to their highest levels since November 2008 in Europe on Friday, with the first full week of 2010 witnessing an upsurge in demand from end-users, traders said. High-grade 99.8 percent metal was quoted at $22.00/23.00 per pound, while 99.3 percent Russian metal stood at $21.00/22.00, both up some $2.00 from prevailing levels at the turn of the year. "There does seem to be an upturn in enquiries at the moment," one trader said. End-users had flocked back to a market that is perennially tight of metal, others said, with many producers unable to offer metal until early in the second quarter. China's Jinchuan has also upped its offer price to $25.50 per pound [from] $23.50. "This market is tighter than salt supplies in West Berkshire... we are looking at a price of $25 next week," another trader said. The move was also exacerbated by some speculative interest ahead of next month's futures contract debut on the LME. The LME will introduce its cobalt futures contract on February 22, just less than two months away. So far, the LME has approved brands from Vale Inco, Votorantim Metais Niquel, Sumitomo Metal Mining and Jinchuan Group for delivery against the contract. Prices are likely to advance further after the LME contract launch, traders said, because very little stock available will be available to be warranted in warehouses, resulting in the potential for technical tightness. "If you look at nickel, there are over 150,000 tonnes of stock, which would cost around $6.5 bullion to buy," the second trader said. "In cobalt, there won't be much more than 1,000 tonnes, which can be bought for $44 million - there are plenty of firms who could snap that up if they wanted to." | |
| December 11, 2009 How B.C. firm won 'greenest mine' rights Publisher: Globe and Mail Author: David Ebner | |
 To build a $140-million cobalt mine in a national forest in Idaho, tiny Vancouver junior miner Formation Metals Inc. (FCO-T2.16-0.03-1.37%) turned to the state's chief rainmaker, Cecil Andrus. Mr. Andrus was Idaho's longest-serving governor, a Democrat who was elected four times. Between two stays at the governor's mansion in Boise he was part of President Jimmy Carter's cabinet as secretary of the interior. During his years in office, Mr. Andrus was known for his environmental passion, and opposition to a proposed mine in the state helped get him elected in 1970 to his first term as governor. He was exactly the man needed by Formation Metals to help open an underground mine in a national forest in federally protected mountainous wilderness. The company wanted to unearth a metal used in turbines for jet engines and batteries, where demand could spike as electric cars become more common. It would be the only cobalt-focused mine in the United States. Now Formation Metals has cleared a major hurdle by passing a nearly decade-long environmental assessment completed by the U.S. government, which this week approved the company's plan of operation. Clearing trees from the site is set to begin in January and work on the main facilities is scheduled for spring, with the mine to open in 2011. The little-known Vancouver upstart had staked a cobalt claim on public land in the mid-1990s in Salmon-Challis National Forest. In 2001, the long process to obtain the required permits began. Though there had been mining in the region in the past, Formation Metals was still fighting through the paperwork in 2007, six years after it started, when chief executive officer Mari-Ann Green convinced Mr. Andrus that the cobalt mine made sense, environmentally and economically. Mr. Andrus, who joined the company's board of directors, went to work, trumpeting the merits of the mine to officials in Idaho, and especially at the Department of Agriculture in Washington, of which the Forest Service first reference is a part. "When you're dealing with the bureaucracy, it always helps to talk to the heads of the various departments, so they understand what you're trying to do," Mr. Andrus, 78, said in an interview from Boise Thursday. "It's easier to do that face to face, eyeball to eyeball, rather than in e-mails that go unread." Before the mine can be built, Formation Metals needs to close deals for debt and equity to finance the project; it officially began that process in November and hopes to conclude before year's end. The company has periodically raised chunks of cash in its two-decade history, including $20-million in 2007 and $9-million this year. The TSX-listed company has already sunk $50-million into the cobalt project and owns a metals refinery in Idaho. "There were some very hard days," Ms. Green said an interview Thursday. "We've gone without paycheques from time to time. When we set out, we set out to find our shareholders a mine and we've done that and we're going to bring that to fruition. We staked the mine at a time people weren't really looking for cobalt. It was difficult to raise money for it. Now everybody's talking rare-earth minerals and lithium and cobalt." Ms. Green was educated far from the mining business. She has a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Manitoba and worked as a school principal in that province, British Columbia and Alberta before moving to Calgary in the early 1980s to join the corporate world. She was hired in a do-everything role at small junior energy company and learned on the job. "I had an entrepreneurial streak," she said. In 1988, she and a trio of geoscientists started Formation Metals, which now has about 50 employees. Ms. Green met Mr. Andrus several years ago and sold the green politician on a mine that would bring jobs without destroying the land. Mr. Andrus was eventually convinced and in turn quelled opposition among environmentalists in the state with the promise of the "greenest mine in America." "He's a statesman," Ms. Green said. "He really helped us." The Idaho Conservation League last year withdrew a threat of a court challenge when Formation Metals said it would put up $30-million in reclamation bonds and spend $150,000 annually on watershed projects when the mine operates. The cobalt mine could product 1,525 tonnes of the high-purity metal annually for at least a decade, the company has said. The volume is about 3 per cent of global production and would be enough to supply more than 10 per cent of the demand in North America. The U.S. is the biggest user of cobalt. Cobalt reserves are most prevalent in Democratic Republic of the Congo and selling is dominated by mining giants Xstrata PLC and Glencore International. The U.S. wants to wean itself off foreign oil, but the same sentiment exists in cobalt, where the country is "captive" to Xstrata, Mr. Andrus said. Local politicians in the Lemhi County, home of the mine, have backed the project from the beginning. "It's good for the country, to produce something for a change," said Robert Cope, a county commissioner. "I'd like to see this country move away from a service-based economy back to manufacturing." | |
| November 03, 2009 Jinchuan raises cobalt prices by Rmb20,000/tonne Publisher: Metal-Pages | |
| BEIJING 03-Nov-09. Jinchuan Group, the number one cobalt metal producer in China, raised its website offer prices for cobalt metal yesterday, supported by the recent increase in overseas cobalt prices. The company is now quoting Rmb 370,000/tonne ($24.63/lb) for 99.8% cobalt metal, in comparison with its previous quotation of Rmb 350,000/tonne ($23.30/lb) which had been in place since 3 August 2009. The producer has also raised its offer price for the plate shaped cobalt to Rmb 368,500/tonne ($24.53/lb) from the previous Rmb 348,500/tonne ($23.20/lb) basis, also representing an increase of Rmb 20,000/tonne. Market sources reported that some Shanghai-based suppliers have already increased their offer prices for 99.8% cobalt metal to about Rmb 370/kg ($24.63/lb) recently, and players suggested that the rise in Jinchuan cobalt prices is likely to prompt a further increase in price from other domestic suppliers. -END- | |
| October 30, 2009 First Quantum must pay Congo $6 mln damages -court Publisher: Reuters Author: Joe Bavier | |
| * Court rules against First Quantum in contract dispute * Orders company to pay $6 million to Congolese defendants KINSHASA, Oct 30 (Reuters) - First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO) must pay Congo $6 million in damages over three failed lawsuits it filed against the government and state agencies after a mining project was cancelled, court documents showed on Friday. Democratic Republic of Congo cancelled the Canadian miner's $500 million Kingamyambo Musonoi Tailings (KMT) copper and cobalt project in August as part of a government review of 61 mining deals. On Aug. 26 and Sept. 3, KMT and Congo Minerals Development (CMD), a wholly owned subsidiary of First Quantum, filed three suits against Congo, state miner Gecamines and the mining regulatory agency, CAMI, in the country's highest civil court. In the decision, which was seen by Reuters on Friday, the court in Congo's capital, Kinshasa, upheld the government's cancellation of the project and ordered KMT and CMD to pay damages for filing the cases. "In consequence, (the court) orders each of the plaintiffs to pay the defendants the equivalant of $3 million in damages and interest," the decision, sent to Congo's President Joseph Kabila and Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito, read. KMT and CMD must also pay court costs, the decision added. Contacted by Reuters about the ruling, First Quantum's president Clive Newall declined to comment. But he said the company would release a statement on the matter. Earlier this month, First Quantum attempted to withdraw the suits and many analysts expect the company to move the dispute to a court of international arbitration to defend its investment. Under Congolese law, however, both the plaintiff and defendant must agree to drop a civil case and the government, CAMI, and Gecamines refused to withdraw from the legal action. First Quantum's KMT operation is so far the only major mining project to be cancelled by the review, set up to boost state revenues from deals signed mostly during the chaos of a 1998-2003 war and the transitional government that followed. Freeport-McMoRan's (FCX.N) giant Tenke Fungurume (TFM) mine, believed to hold the world's largest undeveloped copper and cobalt reserves, has so far failed to clear the review. Officials from the U.S.-based firm have continued to negotiate with the government, and a spokesperson for TFM said on Friday that the company was now waiting for a decision on the contract. -END- | |
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