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1) Argentina is looking to become a top 10 global producer by 2030 as the race for the metal heats up and demand is projected to skyrocket. The country currently produces no copper as its last working mine was closed in 2018, however it has projects that could produce around 793,000 tons per year by the end of the decade, according to government forecasts. The biggest project that could jumpstart this goal is Lundin Mining's Josemaria project in the San Juan province, which aims to produce over 130,000 tons a year and currently in a pre-construction phase. Following Josemaria are Glencore's $4.5 billion El Pachón, MARA, owned by Yamana Gold, Glencore and Newmont, First Quantum Minerals' Taca Taca and McEwen Los Azules. "With Pachón, Altar and Los Azules we can add immense potential in terms of copper that the world is demanding for the energy transformation that is already underway," said Carlos Astudillo, mining minister of key copper province San Juan.
2) Barrick Gold's Mark Bristow is on the hunt for takeovers as Newmont is looking to close a mega-deal by taking over Newcrest Gold, creating the world's largest gold mining company. He did mention that the company had the benefit of picking and choosing M&A opportunities, as it improved its operations after it tookover Rangold five years ago. He said that "because of our broad footprint of exploration across all prospective tier-one gold and copper jurisdictions, we have our geologists on the front lines. We have a much better understanding of the M&A activity than most of our peers." Bristow is also confident that both the price of gold and copper will be high in the future saying "there's significant upside risk for the gold price and the copper price" due to the tightening supply of both and the threats to the US dollar.