Gold has big year in 2020 and outlook for this year robust. Learn about monetary expansion and gold future prices.Read More
The gold futures price reached US$1,767/ounce this week before retreating, which was the second time it has surpassed US$1,760 in the past two months, marking some of gold's highest levels in several years.Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices stayed largely flat on Friday February 8 with China's week-long public holiday coming to an end, though there was some activity in the high-grade segment.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $85.53 per tonne cfr Qingdao, unchanged. MB 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines Index: $86.37 per tonne cfr Qingdao, unchanged. MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index-Low Alumina: $87.32 per tonne cfr Qingdao, unchange...Read More
Gold futures suffered a fifth consecutive loss on Thursday, with overall strength in the U.S. dollar prompting the metal to post its longest streak of declines since June 2017. However, risk-off sentiment, on the back of a selloff in U.S. and European stocks, capped losses for haven gold. Gold for April delivery GCJ9, +0.30% fell 20 cents to settle at $1,314.20 an ounce. It was down a fifth strai...Read More
Precious metals will once again become very important and relevant. David Morgan explains why...David Morgan interviewed by Kerry Lutz on the Financial Survival NetworkDavid Morgan is one of the most knowledgeable precious metals authority on the planet. He's been doing it for 40 years. We had a wide ranging discussion covering the folly of the Fed, why precious metals are the ultimate hedge and h...Read More
Glencore is cutting the workforce at its Mutanda copper and cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo to lower costs before a possible shift in production methods, according to people familiar with the matter.The company is studying the economic viability of those deposits, given rising production costs and an uncertainty political environment in CongoLabour unions met on Friday to discuss t...Read More
Glencore's Zambian unit Mopani Copper Mines Plc said on Friday it had suspended operations at its Mindola north shaft after three workers were killed in a fire accident.Mopani is one the biggest mining companies in Zambia - Africa's No. 2 producer of the metal - with an output of around 100,000 tonnes a year. It was not immediately clear how much production would be lost owing to the suspended pro...Read More
Ecuador-focused explorer SolGold (LON, TSX:SOLG) said Friday it was "surprised and disappointed" at how quickly Cornerstone Capital Resources (TSX-V:CGP) dismissed a takeover approach, adding that it will bring the offer directly to the target's shareholders.Last month, SolGold put forward what it called a "premium" offer for Cornerstone's 15% share of the Cascabel copper-gold project in exchange...Read More
Heavy rains in northern Chile, which forced state miner Codelco to halt operations at its Chuquicamata and Ministro Hales copper mines, have also impacted Freeport-McMoRan's El Abra.Codelco, the world's No.1 copper producer, said Friday it had sent its daytime shift of workers home as a preventative measure and would evaluate whether to cancel its night shift as well.Freeport-McMoran (NYSE: FCX),...Read More
Pig iron suppliers to the United States have increased their offer prices despite another fall in the price of prime scrap grades, citing lower availability and higher iron ore costs, Fastmarkets has heard.Fastmarkets' import price assessment for pig iron in the US was $350-360 per tonne cfr on Friday February 8, increasing from $340-345 per tonne cfr a week before."The prime-grade scrap price has...Read More
Transaction prices for grade-304 cold-rolled (CR) stainless sheet in Europe have increased this week for the first time since mid-2018. The increase is largely the result of firmer nickel costs, which themselves began rising at the start of 2019 after decreasing throughout the second half of 2018. Distributors said that, looking at recent costs, it was clear that alloy surcharges for stainless ste...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mostly lower at the close of trading on Friday February 8, hampered by low liquidity conditions due to Lunar New Year national holidays while dollar strength and broad risk-aversion continues to limit commodity investment.Nickel's three-month price was the biggest decline over the day, falling over 3% to close just above $12,500 per tonne and do...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their price moves from the past week.Read More
The Comex copper price softened during US morning trading on Friday February 8 with trading volumes reduced due to Lunar New Year. The copper price for March settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped 0.45 cents to $2.8240 per lb. Yet the copper price has experienced short-covering so far this year, according to Fastmarkets MB research."While investors were ex...Read More
Aluminium producer UC Rusal's profits from aluminium sales in the fourth quarter of 2018 were down by 16% year on year because the company was operating under trading sanctions imposed by the United States, according to an earnings statement published on Friday February 8. Rusal's aluminium production in October-December totaled 943,000 tonnes, up by 0.4% quarter on quarter. Smelters in Siberia co...Read More
Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange continued to trend lower during morning trading on Friday February 8, with the metal's midweek surge largely attributed to a sharp rise in iron ore prices while consumer demand remains hampered by a dearth in Chinese stainless steel production. Nickel's three-month price has since corrected itself during the latter part of the week, falling m...Read More
US cold-rolled coil and coated base prices have continued to hover in the $40- to $41-per-hundredweight range, despite domestic mills announcing $2-per-cwt price increases in late January, market participants said.Fastmarkets AMM's assessments for domestic cold-rolled coil and hot-dipped galvanized base prices stayed flat week on week at $40.50 per cwt ($810 per short ton) and $40 per cwt ($8...Read More
The definitive measures taken by the European Commission (EC) in its safeguard case against steel product imports will not result in changes to the imported volumes or domestic prices of hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil or plate, market sources told Fastmarkets this week.The situation, however, is different in hot-dipped galvanized coil (HDG), for which import volumes might decline, giving suppor...Read More
Coated-steel prices in Turkey continued to increase in the week ended Friday February 8, with some producers continuing to close their sales books because they were short of the hot-rolled coil (HRC) used as a base material.Coated-steel producers had low stocks of HRC, and chose to wait and see how much the price of HRC would increase before announcing their new prices for coated coil, sources tol...Read More
Ukraine's largest long steel producer, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, sold almost 80% of its steel output to foreign outlets in 2018, the company said in a report published on Thursday February 7.The company's steel product sales totaled 4.5 million tonnes in 2018, of which just 22% was sold domestically, the report showed.Of the total volume, around 2.9 million tonnes were long steel products, mainly...Read More
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), lying pretty much in the centre of Africa, is geographically the eleventh-biggest country in the world and is well known for its mineral riches.In its most recent report, published in 2014 and titled ‘The Mineral Industry of Congo (Kinshasa)’, the US Geological Survey (USGS) notes that the country “played a globally significant role in the...Read More
Steel coil prices in Turkey increased again this week because of the high cost of scrap alongside other global price increases, with local demand strong because of restocking, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday February 8.Stocks of hot-rolled coil (HRC) were low in the country because buying has been weak for a long time, with prices falling. But now that prices are increasing rapidly, buyers are...Read More