Glencore is planning to close its Horne smelter, Canada’s largest copper metal-producing operation, due to environmental issues and the millions of dollars needed to upgrade the facility, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.
The London-listed miner does not disclose copper metal production figures for its Canadian operation, but industry sources estimate annual output at more than 300,000 metric tons.
Meanwhile… REGULATORY RELIEF FOR CERTAIN STATIONARY SOURCES TO PROMOTE AMERICAN MINERAL SECURITY
‘Sokay – seems there is a copper mine opening in Personitoba shortly. The concentrate will be shipped to Quebec for final refining.
Quebec!
There’s the key.
If it’s true Glencore seems to be going out of their way to deny it.
Interesting to note in the article that the world is facing copper shortages and that prices are quite high for the commodity.
But, here is the thing that leftards simply can’t grasp; if it costs more to produce than it can be sold for, companies, being rational, will not produce it! If it costs $1.10 to make a bag of jelly beans, but you can only sell it for $1.00, guess what? You’re not going to want to produce jelly beans for very long.
I deal with a number of people (extremely well compensated people) that think that you can just raise taxes on the oil industry and increase costs through regulation and the oil companies and their investors will happily fork it over. They can’t fathom that, even though this is where the oil is, if you lose money pumping it, you take your money elsewhere! These same [professional] people go absolutely nuts if their professional overhead goes up by half a percent!
I hope the smelter is not closed due the devastating effect it will have on the people whose lives depend on it. Really don’t want them poisoned with arsenic either.
Why does the Canadian government hate its people?
The future of copper pricing is great if you have a mine, if the EV folks win the grand argument between petrol or electric vehicles, or if you think going to AI for answers to basic questions and fun to view videos is the way forward for everyone.
https://cdn.ihsmarkit.com/www/prot/pdf/0722/Future-of-Copper.pdf
This has been posted previously here and it’s from 2022 though not much has changed except for the general decline of Canada. As for Glencore, the decline of Canada and the price of doing business in Canada may have more to do with their future view than the actual price of copper.
I expect Glencore would deny rumors to most media groups, after seeing what the media has turned into, most thinking people would.
Hopefully the smelter stays open, at some point Quebec will wish it did something with all that cheap electricity (like “build something” which most folks need) it has instead of just keep the lights on and export the rest to ConEd.
It may be spelled, Cuba,
but it’s pronounced, Canada.
There’s a simple explanation for the story:
the company is fishing for a big government (i.e. tax payer) bailout.
Carney and Trudeau handed out almost one Beellion dolares to the current owner of Al-go-ma Steel to keeo the lights on, go electric, etc.
Doug Ford better get building roads-rails into the north or feel a “ring of fire” around the sphincter.
I don’t doubt the threat of closure but I find the timing interesting given the Federal Government is about to open its purse strings to mining industry projects. What better project than to update an existing smelter to world-beating environmental standards – and for Quebec to grab a big part of the Federal cash in the process? Just spit-balling here.
BTW Quebec just changed its mining law for mining claims. Great if you’re the government and horrible if you’re a mining company engaged in exploration.
It’s comforting to know that the Ring of Fire will soon be coming to the rescue in Ontario (well, maybe not so
soon…)
Faster.
Harder.
Will this drive the price of “scrap copper” higher?
Shall be great,roving bands of “Dr’s and Engineers” stripping substations of every piece of exposed metal.
Without Canadian Copper producers,will the scrap price be in $US as well?
This could be our “new unit of exchange”..
Copper ingots.
Every significant roll of copper wire, fittings, and breakers are behind locked cages in my local Home Depot(s). I guess copper prices are high enough to be a constant threat of theft.
And in a related story of EXPENSIVE components of the building trades … every faraway corner of the SF Bay Area is filled with illegal dumping. Piles of everything imaginable. Why? Here is what our local news isn’t reporting at all – the high cost of LEGAL disposal. My local ‘sanitary landfill’ charges $125.00 per pickup bed sized load to dump. I have personally spent nearly $10k in dump fees associated with my remodel … and I am required to turn in recycling receipts to a website called “Green Halo”.
And your government officials DEMAND that somebody build “affordable” housing. What an empty slogan. Communist sloganeering with absolutely ZERO acknowledgement of reality.
There’s a reason why the U.S. did that currency exchange with Argentina beyond making a little money off the deal and helping out Milei’s government.
I wonder how many Canadians are aware that Canadian companies are mining copper in The Congo. And, it’s not just copper. The Canadian mining presence in the Congo (DRC) is massive. Some would say it totally contradicts the governmental position on mining in Canada. And, the environmental stance is total hypocrisy.
It works the exact same way as Chinese Carbon emissions! 1300 coal fired power plants have no effect whatsoever on the environment but your F150 has already caused 3000 deaths today!
I would guess that mining in Congo involves child labor or even child slavery.