The copper concentrate processing and refining fee (TC/RC) in China continued to decline last week, with scarce trading activities and market participants waiting for the quarterly guidance price from the China Copper Smelting Group (CSPT). CSPT held a meeting last week and proposed several measures, including not setting the fourth-quarter guidance price, adhering to the benchmark processing fee pricing mechanism for the 2026 long-term contract, setting the bottom line for the spot bidding processing fee of copper concentrate, paying attention to the secondary clauses of copper concentrate purchase contracts such as the gold payment clause, and suggesting that the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association coordinate with the General Administration of Customs and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to strengthen supervision. Agence France-Presse released the weekly average index of copper concentrate TC/RC on June 27th. The index on October 31st was -73.80 US dollars/ton and -7.38 cents/pound, lower than -73.60 US dollars/ton and -7.36 cents/pound on October 24th. The weekly purchasing index of smelters from Agence France-Presse dropped from -42.10 US dollars/ton and -4.21 cents/pound to -42.30 US dollars/ton and -4.23 cents/pound during the same period. The trading price of clean ore -43 US dollars/ton TC was sold to smelters during the quotation period of M+1/4, with delivery scheduled for December. The trading price of the trader remained at -40 US dollars median/ton, while the counter-offer of the smelter was at -40 US dollars low/ton. The bidding for the 10,000-ton Red Chris concentrate tender to the trader ended on October 30th, with the shipment time set for December to January, but the bidding price has not been announced yet.
The Indonesian mining company Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara (AMNT) is expected to obtain a copper concentrate export license due to the force majeure event at its Batu Hijau smelter in West Sumbawa. The validity period of the export license is six months. Given that AMNT's copper concentrate production capacity is 900,000 tons/year, market participants expect to export 400,000-450,000 tons of copper concentrate. This event may alleviate the medium-term supply shortage, but the trading price and smelter counter-offers from traders and smelters have not changed after the news was released. The copper production of the mining dynamics group has decreased. The company tends to produce zinc and molybdenum because it mined low-grade copper ore from its mines in Mexico and Peru. The Coeva, the environmental assessment committee of Chile, unanimously approved the modernization and expansion of the copper metallurgical complex of the state-owned Paipote at a cost of 1.7 billion US dollars on October 29th. First Quantum, headquartered in Canada, saw a decline in copper production in the third quarter compared to the same period last year, and the company lowered the upper limit of its full-year production guidance. Glencore, headquartered in Switzerland, lowered its production guidance for copper, nickel, and cobalt for 2025, despite an increase in copper sales in the third quarter, but the production of these products in the first nine months continued to lag behind the original plan. The construction of the Tia Maria copper mine in Peru is 23% complete. The Mexican producer Southern Copper Corporation stated in its third-quarter report. Global mining group Anglo American Group's copper production in the third quarter was basically the same as that of the same period last year, but the company warned that due to the low grade of the ore at its Collahuasi mine in Chile, its production guidance for next year may be lowered. The Canadian private equity firm Kinterra Capital announced the complete acquisition of the Antler copper mine project in Arizona from the Australian company New World Resources. The Chinese diversified metal and mineral producer Luoyang Molybdenum plans to increase the copper output of its Kisanfu copper-cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
