Copper price soars to 3-month highWorkers at the Escondida copper mine in Chile put down quite a marker in the third round of contract negotiations with part-owner and operator BHP.

The union is demanding a one-time bonus equivalent to 4% of dividends distributed to BHP shareholders in 2017.

That works out to about $34,000 per worker. It would be the biggest bonus payout to mineworkers ever in Chile.

The union also wants a wage increase of 5%, which is more than double the inflation rate in the South American nation.

Due to its size, Escondida can on its own change global copper supply dynamics.

BHP, which owns 57.5% of the mine, has spent nearly $8 billion expanding the mine (including a $3.4bn water plant) in the past five years to maintain output above one million tonnes (2018 guidance is 1.18–1.23mt).

That means Escondida is responsible for nearly 5% of the world’s primary copper supply.

Ahead of the copper industry’s annual gathering in Santiago in April, Colin Hamilton of BMO Capital Markets summed it up this way:BHP has spent some $8 billion over five years to maintain output above one million tonnes

“Put in simple terms, at more than 300kt Escondida's planned output recovery in 2018 will be the second largest year on year gain by a single operation in recent copper history, after Las Bambas in 2016.

“To have such reliance on a single operation for copper supply growth, particularly one with a history of output hiccups, clearly comes with some risk.”

Last year’s walkout lasted 43 days and ended only when workers invoked a legal provision that allows them to extend their existing contract by 18 months (to end July).

The 2017 strike at Escondida was the longest in Chile since the 74-day action at state-owned Codelco’s El Teniente mine in 1973, which took place shortly before the military coup that overthrew socialist President Salvador Allende.

The threat of copper supply disruptions due to a slew of labour contract negotiations in top producers Chile and Peru, boosted prices at the beginning of the year.

The majority of those talks quickly ended in deals.

There is little indication of that happening at Escondida.

The agreements gave the Chinese firms some access to users' data to help them build Facebook "experiences" on their own platforms.

Facebook said all the data collected remained on users' phones not servers.

The company is already under scrutiny over how it uses members' information.

Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009 but the company has been trying to find other ways to access the massive potential market.

'Legitimate concerns'
The New York Times reported earlier this week that Facebook had given at least 60 device-makers access to users' data - and that of their Facebook friends - without obtaining explicit consent and that in some cases the details were stored on the firms' own servers.

Facebook rejected claims that this had been a breach of privacy pledges that it had made to its members and a US regulator.

Senator Mark Warner, who sits on the US Senate Intelligence Committee, said news that Huawei was among the companies getting the privileged access to the Facebook data raised "legitimate concerns".

On Tuesday, Facebook responded by saying it "along with many other US tech companies have worked with them [Huawei] and other Chinese manufacturers to integrate their services onto these phones".

Francisco Varela, vice-president of mobile partnerships for Facebook, said the integrations with Huawei, Lenovo, OPPO and TCL were "controlled from the get go" and that "we approved the Facebook experiences these companies built".

"Given the interest from Congress, we wanted to make clear that all the information from these integrations with Huawei was stored on the device, not on Huawei's servers," he added.

In 2012, the US House Intelligence Committee warned US companies against dealing with Huawei and another Chinese telecoms firm, ZTE.

A report by the committee asked whether the firms were too close to China's Communist Party and its military. It also suggested their products and services could pose a long-term security threat to the US.

Facebook had already come under fire over its involvement in a scandal involving consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica.

The firms were at the centre of a dispute over the harvesting and use of personal data - and whether it was used to influence the outcome of the US 2016 presidential election or the UK's referendum on leaving the EU.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in May apologised to EU lawmakers for the company's role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal and for allowing fake news to proliferate on its platform.

Following the announcement by the Mongolian Government that 2018 is officially 'Year of Tourism', active measures have been taken in supporting green-eco tourism. Under the projects, service in restaurants and tourist camps has been improved. As we reported yesterday, a tourist hotline has been sent up providing foreign visitors with an information service, and also the possibility to complain when service standards are not up to scratch. In addition, specific rules and regulations are being developed for nature travellers.

Mongolia is definitely taking improving service standards seriously. One huge area marked for improvement is providing modern toilets to replace the ubiquitous squat loos. The country is also benchmarking best-practice models, such as the eco tourism treks of South Korea's Jeju Island.

In the first quarter of 2018, Mongolia saw 705,000 foreign tourists, up 11 percent from the same period last year, according to the National Statistical Office of Mongolia. Government has a plan to increase to the number to 1 million by 2020.

On June 4, Foreign Ministers held official talks with Minister V.Makei, following a ceremony to lay a wreath at Victory Monument in Minsk. During the official talks, the Ministers expressed their satisfaction with intensifying traditional friendly relations and cooperation between Mongolia and Belarus during recent years and constantly running high-level political talks. They also emphasized an importance of intensifying cooperation in the fields of food, agriculture, light industry, mining, road and transportation and increase exchanges of culture, education and humanitarian sectors in order to enrich bilateral tie with economic content.

Moreover, the dignitaries expressed mutual interest to use thoroughly a potential to cooperate under the Eurasian Economic Union and Mongolia-Russia-China Economic Corridor, alongside the continuation of bilateral collaboration within the framework of the United Nations, OSCE and other international organizations.

As a result, peatlands suffer the same fate. They are also damaged by mining, road construction, and steppe fires. Climate change is making things worse. A weak ecological balance is fracturing. The peatlands are the last fertile pastures in Mongolia. Without disturbance, they absorb the water from the melted snow and the rain that they filter and release into the rivers and lakes.

They prevent soil erosion and maintain the levels of groundwater that sustain crops and forests while avoiding desertification. But the area covered by peat in Mongolia has been reduced by almost half in the last 50 years. This had a dramatic impact on the permafrost: huge frozen lenses left by the ancient glaciations.

When the peat decomposes, the permafrost loses a protective layer that isolates it from the elements and begins to thaw. Currently, Mongolia has about one third less permafrost than just under 50 years ago.

How Mongolia addresses this challenge will be instructive for other countries with peat bogs that are trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to 2008 data compiled by Wetlands International, Mongolia is the seventh largest emitter of CO2 in the world by degrading peatlands.

More than a dozen countries have larger peat areas than Mongolia. According to the organization, global emissions from degraded peatlands are increasing, especially in developing countries.

The fight to save the peatlands in Mongolia will take place in the countryside, as well as in political symposiums and legislatures. The result will shape the future of their pastoralist communities, which, for most of the world, constitute the stereotyped image of the country.

The new Permian coal deposit, now being referred to as BNU South as it is situated about 12km south of the mine’s infrastructure, was uncovered during an exploration program targeting shallow open cut mineable coal within the company’s Mongolian mining licences.

Multi-stage ground geophysics initially defined 5km of Permian target strike for exploration and a phase one drilling program completed 42 polycrystalline diamond (PCD) holes for 6803m.

Reporting to the market today, TerraCom said multiple coal intersections occurred along the 5km of strike, including very thick intersections of up to 122m of total gross coal.

“The large shallow coal intersections in this area are by far the thickest thus far discovered within the company’s licenses in Mongolia,” TerraCom stated.

A phase two exploration drilling program has already begun with the thick intersections being considered a “high priority area”. The program will include both PCD drilling and diamond core drilling.

In addition, TerraCom said work streams have been activated to fast-track the start of mining the BNU South deposit on the assumption that further exploration will confirm the target.

Mining operations
Located in Mongolia’s South Gobi province, the BNU mine produces an estimated 1.5 million tonnes per annum of coal which is then exported to China.

Mining to date has been from the initial three open pits located on the northern side of the Noyon coal basin, although TerraCom has been progressively developing pits along the Noyon basin sub crop.

Given its close proximity to the BNU mine infrastructure, TerraCom believes the BNU South deposit could potentially become part of the BNU operation.

TerraCom also operates the Blair Athol coal mine in Queensland, Australia, which commenced mining operations in August last year and has been forecast to produce 1.9Mt of product in its first full year.

In April, the company completed construction and commissioning of a new train load-out facility, which enabled the cessation of a trucking and is projected to deliver an additional A$20 per tonne improvement in margin.

Showing faith in the company, TerraCom director James Soorley snapped up A$37,000 worth of company shares through an on-market trade last week.

TerraCom shares rose 8.96% to A$0.365 on the BNU South discovery announcement by afternoon trade.

The five-month campaign is aimed at encouraging gold miners and individuals to sell their gold to the central bank and commercial banks, increasing the gold reserves, intensifying training and promotion on the process of gold purchase among the public and introduce relevant laws and regulations, the Bank of Mongolia said in a statement.

The Bank of Mongolia purchased over 3.2 tons of gold from legal entities and individuals in the first four months of this year, which is an increase of 257.6 kg from the same period last year.

The government of Mongolia has carried out a number of measures directed at enriching the treasury fund and improving the legal environment on foreign exchange over past five years. As a result, gold miners submitted 20.01 tons of gold to the central bank in 2017, contributing 800 million dollars to the state budget.

Annual gold production had not surpassed 20 tons since 2005 when it reached its record high at 25 tons.

Net losses amounted to $9.9m, compared to a profit in 2016 of $10.8m.

The company had expected to commence its first drilling operation in six years during 2017.

However, it became evident that the drilling rig contracted for the programme would not achieve the required certification to international standards.

The company therefore took the decision to defer drilling until 2018.

'While disappointing, the this did provide the company with additional time in which to review and revise its financing and operational strategy,' Petro Matad said.

At 8:14am: (LON:MATD) Petro Matad Ltd share price was -0.3p at 11.7p