Antofagasta, Jiangxi agree major drop in 2025 copper TC/RCs, sources
LONDON - Chilean miner Antofagasta and Jiangxi Copper have agreed significantly lower copper concentrate processing fees for 2025, four sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
The agreement between Antofagasta and Jiangxi Copper for treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) of $21.25 a ton and 2.125 cents per pound represents a drop of 73.4% from the $80/8 cents industry benchmark for 2024, a sign of concerns about sufficient availability of copper concentrate in the spot market in 2025.
Antofagasta declined to comment. Jiangxi Copper was not immediately available for comment.
The fees, known as treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs), a key source of revenue for smelters, paid by miners when they sell concentrate, or semi-processed ore, to be refined into metal.
The charges tend to fall when ore supply declines and rise when more concentrate is available.
The fees agreed are lower than estimates in a Reuters poll of industry participants last month, where charges were seen at a 15-year-low - between the high-$20s and mid-$30s a ton.
The first agreement between global copper miners and smelters in China, the world's dominant processor, has often set a benchmark for fees of other industry players in recent years.
However, this year, according to one of the sources, other Chinese smelters are willing to negotiate their own fees with slight changes to that reached between Antofagasta and Jiangxi.
In the spot market, copper concentrate supply has tightened this year due to unexpected mine operations disruptions and rising smelting capacity, and the tightness is expected to persist in 2025.
The copper concentrate deficit is expected to widen to 950 000 t in 2025 from 1 600 t in 2024, according to analysts at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI).
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Showroom
Rentech provides renewable energy products and services to the local and selected African markets. Supplying inverters, lithium and lead-acid...
VISIT SHOWROOM
From batteries for boats and jet skis, to batteries for cars and quad bikes, SABAT Batteries has positioned itself as the lifestyle battery of...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
