Barents Blue partners with Proton Ventures on Barents Clean Ammonia project, Europe's largest clean ammonia production plant
Nel ASA - investment decision to begin construction on up to 1 GW of production capacity
Freeport Indonesia may be forced to suspend operations at its Manyar smelter at the end of October due to a lack of copper concentrate, according to local press reports. The news follows the mudslide at the Grasberg mine in September, which killed seven workers. Grasberg, which represents almost 3% of global copper mine production, has halted production and Freeport says that it may not return to pre-accident operating rates until 2027. Stocks of copper concentrate at Grasberg were estimated to be only sufficient to operate the Manyar smelter until the end of October. The $3.7 billion Manyar smelter only resumed operations in May after a fire broke out in October last year, damaging the plant.
ADNOC has received bids for its Ruwais Sulphur Terminal expansion. The project aims to expand the existing sulphur handling terminal facilities, SHT-1 and SHT-2, located in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi. The purpose of the expansion is to increase the capacity of the Ruwais sulphur handling terminal to accommodate an additional 10,600 t/d of liquid sulphur from the Hail and Ghasha offshore sour gas field development.
Aurubis says that it is in discussions with the US government about possible financial support for the construction of a new copper smelter. Reuters reports comments from Aurubis CEO Toralf Haag during LME Week that there had been a positive response from the Trump administration. The US is currently only able to supply about half of its refined copper demand of 1.7 million t/a from domestic production, and the gap may widen as demand increases.
The Indonesian government has moved to limit new licenses for nickel projects in an attempt to correct overdevelopment of the industry and the subsequent crash in global nickel prices. The permit restriction applies to new nickel processing companies that produce intermediate products, both with pyrometallurgical (RKEF) and hydrometallurgical (HPAL) technologies. Currently, Indonesia already has 54 nickel processing plants operating, 38 in the construction stage, and 45 are still under planning.
While sulphuric acid production is dominated by sulphur burning or metallurgical acid routes, pyrite roasting remains a niche sector, particularly in China.
Ardea Resources says that its Kalgoorlie Nickel Project in Western Australia has secured a crucial renewal of its major project status from the federal government for another three years, underscoring the project’s strategic importance, granting it streamlined approvals and direct access to the country’s major project facilitation agency. Located 80 km from Kalgoorlie, the project hosts what Ardea says is the world’s largest undeveloped nickel-cobalt resource, containing 854 million tonnes averaging 0.71% (6.1 million tonnes) of nickel and 0.045% (386,000 tonnes) of cobalt.
Ukraine has mounted several strikes on the Russian Black Sea port of Tuapse, hitting oil infrastructure with airborne and seagoing drones and missiles. Tuapse is a tanker loading terminal, one of two main oil export facilities on Russia’s Black Sea coast, with the capacity to transship around 17 million t/a of oil products. A raid on November 2nd reportedly damaged two tankers, halted fuel exports and refinery operations for days, caused an oil spill and forced tankers to abandon the port. Russia’s national rail company has halted rail shipments to Tuapse port, citing insufficient train car handling capacity.
Arianne Phosphates has signed a memorandum of understanding with Travertine Technologies Inc.for the production of purified phosphoric acid using Travertine’s proprietary process on high-purity phosphate concentrate from Arianne’s planned Lac à Paul project in Quebec Province.