Company news

Americas

• Antofagasta announces a surprise 70% reduction to its final dividend in response to a tightening of COVID-19 containment measures in Chile due to an upsurge in infection rates.
• Hochschild Mining announces it has met all the requirements established by the Peruvian government to restart operations at its Immaculada and Pallancata mines.
• Equinox Gold reports strong March quarter bolstered by production from newly acquired assets; achieves record gold production and record earnings from mine operations, despite navigating challenges related to the pandemic.

EMEA

• Tharisa reports better than expected first half results, while operations began ramping up to full capacity from May 1; both chrome shipments and PGM deliveries also resumed.
• Japan Gold says strict prevention measures have enabled its large Barrick Alliance regional exploration programme to kick off in Japan during the evolving covid-19 pandemic.
• Vale reopened its Teluk Rubiah Maritime Terminal in Malaysia on Saturday after being granted "essential resources" to operate safely during covid-19 pandemic.
• Freeport-McMoran plans to operate the giant Grasberg copper-gold mine in Indonesia with a minimum team after a rise of COVID-19 cases in the area.
• Rand Refinery restarts its gold smelting plant as the gold refiner gradually reinstates some operations amid South Africa's ongoing lockdown.
• BlueRock Diamonds restarts operations at its South Africa mine, but is making operational changes to keep production costs low amid COVID-19-related economic uncertainty.
• SMT Scharf, the German underground mining logistics firm, says it expects the pandemic to have a significant impact on demand in the global mining equipment market.

Australasia

• Newcrest Mining gives A$200,000 backing to Olitek's ventilator prototype, which is in the final stages of performance and validation testing.
• Newmont revises its guidance for 2020 to reflect the impact of COVID-19 on production, costs, and project timing.
• Rio Tinto is starting to de-escalate some of the controls it has put in place to deal with the COVID-19 crisis, including its fly-in, fly-out rosters in Western Australia.

Commodities & market outlook

• Earth-i and Marex Spectron's SAVANT Global Copper Smelting Index, which usually sees annual lows in April, shows first signs of recovery due to unique circumstances set by COVID-19.
• Macquarie tells Dow Jones News that iron-ore shipments from Brazil have fallen by almost a quarter in May because of the pandemic, which is one of the worst in the world. Meanwhile, Credit Suisse says Brazil is driving a surge in the iron ore price, on the assumption that the situation in the country will cause further supply losses.
• CRU expects copper demand for China to fall 5% in 2020, and 6% for the rest of the world as a result of the pandemic, representing the biggest downturn since the 1970s and China's first year of negative growth since 2006.
• RBC says the outlook for gold equities is better now than at any point in recent years.

Industry bodies, government departments & regulators

• South Africa's Department of Mineral Resources and Energy issues guidelines for a Mandatory Code of Practice on the Mitigation and Management of COVID-19 at mining operations.
• South Africa president Cyril Ramaphosa warns of an "inevitable increase" in COVID-19 cases as a gradual easing of the country's lockdown restrictions began this month.
• New South Wales resources regulator says inspection program found mine operators responded quickly and appropriately to risks posed by the COVID-19 virus and overall standards were high.
• Western Australia's government slashes environmental assessment timeframes for major projects by up to 12-months to minimise delays and speed A$100 billion worth of major projects down the development pipeline amid COVID-19 uncertainty.