Kitco Mining Channel

SQM-Codelco tie-up to submit environmental study for Salar Futuro lithium project in June
Novandino Litio, the joint venture between Chile’s Codelco and SQM, will submit the environmental impact study for its Salar Futuro lithium project in June, local media reported on Thursday.The project is estimated to cost between $2 billion and $3.5 billion.Salar Futuro aims to produce 280,000 to 300,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) annually.Codelco chairman Maximo Pacheco told journalists that Salar Futuro represents the most important challenge for the partnership.Codelco’s 2026 copper production will exceed 2025 levels, Pacheco said.

Argentine province eyes copper boom with up to $20 billion in exports by 2035
Argentina’s San Juan mining province aims to become a major copper exporter by 2035, the province’s production minister told Reuters, projecting that the province’s annual copper exports could reach a value of between $15 billion and $20 billion by that year.Situated in the Andes Mountains near Argentina’s border with Chile, San Juan does not currently produce copper, but is home to four significant copper projects: Vicuña (a joint venture between BHP and Lundin Mining), Los Azules (McEwen Copper), El Pachón (Glencore), and Altar (Aldebaran Resources).

UK to cut steel import quotas, raise tariffs to protect domestic industry
Britain will lower its tariff-free quota on imported steel and double the tariff on imports exceeding that quota, the government said on Thursday, launching a plan to protect its small but strategically and politically sensitive steel sector.Steelmakers have struggled to survive in the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution after decades of decline driven by long-term de-industrialization and, more recently, by high energy costs and a global glut of cheap steel.













