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Mining operations in Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and parts of Canada began to pick up slowly in May, as countries halted global mining operations in March, in line with government imposed curbs on covid-19.
According to data compiled by Reuters, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak have forced global miners to cut their capital expenditure by about $6.4 billion (about 19%) in 2020, and cut the outlook for copper production this year by 8% or slightly less than 400000 tons.
For example, Anglo American reduced its capital expenditure this year from $5.25 billion in advance to $4.25 billion, down 19.1%. Antofagasta also reduced its capital expenditure plan from $1.5 billion to $1.3 billion, down 13.3%.
Glencore, the world’s leading bulk commodity company, reduced its annual capital expenditure plan by 22.7% to US $4.25 billion, while Freeport McMoRan, the copper producer, reduced its expenditure from US $2.8 billion to US $2 billion, down 28.6%. Meanwhile, it adjusted its annual copper capacity guidance target to 1.4 million tons from the original 1.6 million tons.
Rio Tinto, the world’s second-largest mining company, also reduced its annual expenditure from $7 billion to $5.5 billion, a drop of more than 20%. Its copper production capacity was also reduced to 497000 tons, a drop of 9.6% from the original planned 550000 tons.
Vale’s capital expenditure decreased by 8%, from $5 billion to $4.6 billion, and its copper production capacity decreased by 7.5% to 370000 tons from 400000 tons as planned.
With the spread of novel coronavirus in the world, metal demand has also been hit and forced to block some countries or parts of the country to control the epidemic.
By March 2020, with the global spread of the covid-19 pandemic, the market value of the mining industry had evaporated by $282 billion.