LONDON – Major copper miners and Chinese smelters have moved closer to agreement on treatment and refining charges (TC/RC) for 2022, two sources with knowledge of the talks said on Friday.
TC/RCs are paid by miners to smelters to process copper concentrate into refined metal.
The first settlement between a major miner and a smelter in top copper consumer China in annual negotiations usually becomes the benchmark for the year ahead and has a large role in determining profitability.
The two sides are $8 a tonne apart on where they would like the treatment charge benchmark to be, with smelters seeking around $69 a tonne and miners $61, a mining source said.
That’s a narrowing of the gap from last month, when miners sought a rollover of this year’s benchmark agreed by Freeport-McMoran at $59.50 a tonne and smelters were aiming for $70, the source added.
Chile’s Antofagasta has also set the benchmark in recent years.
