|

Korea Zinc is struggling

Korea Zinc’s ambitious 10-year growth plan has stalled in its first year, derailed by an eight-month control battle with private equity firm MBK Partners, raising concerns about the company’s financial health and strategic direction.

The world’s top non-ferrous metal smelter laid out its long-term vision in December 2023 during its first-ever investor day in Seoul, pledging to invest 11.9 trillion won ($8.8 billion) over the next decade in battery materials and other new businesses, with a target of 10% annual growth.

The dispute has overshadowed hopes that Korea Zinc could benefit from U.S. President Donald Trump’s renewed tariff push and global supply chain realignment. “They’ve already wasted eight months,” said an industry source. “If this continues, the company may miss its window of opportunity.”

Source – The Chosunilbo

Similar Posts

  • /

    Indonesia trade ministry supports extending Freeport’s copper export permit

    Freeport’s last export permit expired at the end of 2024, but the company has requested it can continue selling copper concentrate abroad because its local copper smelter was in repair after a fire in October last year.

    “The trade ministry supports a plan to relax the export policy after weighing the cost and benefit analysis … while also observing the sustainability of the government’s natural resource downstreaming policy,” deputy minister Dyah Roro Esti said in a statement.

    Freeport Indonesia said that it’s currently negotiating with the government over the export permit and believed the government “would accommodate” it.

    Source – Mining.com

  • /

    2025 Uncirculated coin set

    The 20-coin 2025 Uncirculated Coin Set is slated for sale to the general public by the United States Mint beginning at noon Eastern Time July 17.

    The sets are offered at $33.25 each, with a maximum output of 190,000 sets, offered without household order limits.

    Each set contains two separate blister-pack folders of 10 coins each, one pack apiece from production at the Philadelphia and Denver Mints. Coins included in the set have an Uncirculated finish but are struck to higher standards than their circulating counterparts.

    Source – Coin World

  • /

    Silver price remains below $30.00 due to improved market sentiment

    Silver price (XAG/USD) retraces its recent gains from the previous session, trading around $29.80 per barrel during the Asian hours on Wednesday.

    People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Pan Gongsheng stated on Monday that “interest rate and reserve requirement ratio (RRR) tools will be utilized to maintain ample liquidity.” Gongsheng reaffirmed China’s plans to increase the fiscal deficit and emphasized that China will continue to be a driving force for the global economy.

    Source – FX Street

  • /

    Freeport – McMoRan Inc is developing new technology

    After 154 years of digging at Morenci, all the easily recoverable copper has been mined. Left behind are towering piles of waste rock that hold nearly 10 million tons of the metal seen as critical to global electrification. It’s a cache that could prove key to President Donald Trump’s ambition to boost US production of critical minerals.

    Freeport-McMoRan Inc., which owns Morenci, is trying to develop technology that can burrow within those gigantic waste piles and extract low-grade copper that miners previously saw as too expensive and difficult to process.

    “For a long time, we just didn’t think it was possible to recover any of this stuff,” said Robert Pollock, Morenci’s site manager, gazing up at a waste pile the size of a Manhattan office building. “But now, all this historical copper – we’re going after it.”

    Source – Bloomberg

  • /

    CEO says Barrick will continue in Mali once they can ship gold

    Barrick Gold will resume operations at its shuttered Loulo-Gounkoto mine in Mali once authorities in the country allow it to resume gold shipments, CEO Mark Bristow said on Wednesday.

    “We will start the operations as soon as we get approval to ship the gold and we need to ship the gold to pay anything to the government,” Bristow said, adding that Barrick paid $460 million to the Mali government last year.

    “So if you calculate that to per week… and every week we don’t do this it hurts everyone,” he added.

    Source – Reuters