The AOCE and WB have moderate overall forecasts for the metals in 2025 inline with IMF forecasts for a decline in economic growth and inflation, although we see the probability of a stagflationary scenario as still reasonably high.Read More

The past year was a difficult one overall for the metals, with the main standouts to the upside being a geopolitical risk-driven gain in gold, a China-driven rise in iron ore and a surge in uranium on broadening global support for nuclear power (Figure 1). A jump in global interest rates to near two-decade highs saw recession fears persist all year, and while one still did not actually eru...Read More

This year the post-global health crisis boom was brought to an end by a surge in inflation to forty-year highs, a major rise in global interest rates in an attempt to curb the rising prices and surging geopolitical risk after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While precious metals held up reasonably well as markets turned to them as a risk hedge, by Q2/22 the higher interest rates put an end t...Read More

Chile is the world leader in copper production, at 28.5% of the total in 2020, and this looks set to continue, with the country having the largest global reserves, at 23.0% of total. It is also the global leader for molybdenum, which is often found along with copper, and is a major lithium player, holding 51.1% of global reserves. Read More

Newfoundland has become a gold exploration hotspot over the past few years, with the sector seeing some of its strongest activity ever. While the province remains a small contributor to Canadian gold production, it has a substantial mineral industry well supported by the government, focused on iron ore, copper and nickel, and the surge in exploration suggests that gold output from the...Read More

Nevada is the core of the U.S. gold output, accounting for by far the majority, at 75.4% on average for the past year. The state looks set to remain a dominant player in U.S. gold, as it accounts for 49% of total U.S. reserves, with Alaska slightly ahead with 51% of reserves, but just 8.6% of current production. The U.S. accounts for 6.1% of global gold output, making Nevada one of the largest gol...Read More

The Golden Triangle in northwestern British Columbia has historically been a major site of Canadian gold production, beginning as early as the mid 1800s. There was a wave of production in the 1990s which cooled as the gold price declined, but larger scale production resumed in 2017, and the area has seen surging exploration interest over the past year, given that the region has some of the largest...Read More

In this report we outline the Quebec gold mining industry, including its major producers, and a survey of many of the junior miners focused on the province. Quebec accounts for 34% of Canadian gold production (second to Ontario, with 44%) and remains a major focus for both producers and junior miners.Read More

Red Lake has been one of the most prolific gold mining districts in Canada and the world, with exploration having started in the 1920s, and production, which began in the 1930s, continuing to the present day. The district is known for the high grade of its gold, its infrastructure, and strong institutional support, given the long history of mining in the area.Read More

Looking south east over the Black Star Open Cut pit towards Glencore Mount Isa Mines surface infrastructure and the city of Mount IsaApart from steelmaking raw materials iron ore and coking coal, zinc is the best performing mined commodity in 2016. Trading at $2,374 a tonne, the metal is up 47% year to date.Zinc's prospects brightened considerably after the shutdown of two major mines last year -...Read More

The rise of paranoid politics could make America ungovernable - and the FBI is fuelling the fire ... Nothing can disprove the fears of a paranoiac. Indeed, everything confirms them ... It takes away politicians' incentive to understand one another and get things done. It says that if you scream loud enough, established norms will buckle under the pressure. And while those norms might be annoyi...Read More

The rise of paranoid politics could make America ungovernable - and the FBI is fuelling the fire ... Nothing can disprove the fears of a paranoiac. Indeed, everything confirms them ... It takes away politicians' incentive to understand one another and get things done. It says that if you scream loud enough, established norms will buckle under the pressure. And while those norms might be annoyi...Read More

Four Steps to Save American Politics ... Donald Trump has taken a battering ram to longstanding political norms — the unwritten conventions that make governance possible ... Immediately after the election, one of the most pressing questions will be how to restore them. To answer that question ... what are the minimal norms on which we might agree? Here are four suggestions. -BloombergCass R....Read More

Four Steps to Save American Politics ... Donald Trump has taken a battering ram to longstanding political norms — the unwritten conventions that make governance possible ... Immediately after the election, one of the most pressing questions will be how to restore them. To answer that question ... what are the minimal norms on which we might agree? Here are four suggestions. -BloombergCass R....Read More

Activists in the Democratic Republic of Congo are pressing the government to revive plans for a new mining code, claiming the country, which is Africa's top copper producer and the world's largest source of cobalt, needs the higher revenues a revised legislation would generate.Congo began reviewing the 2002 mining code in 2012 and last year it proposed hiking profit taxes to 35% from 30%, raising...Read More

"We believe Seabridge provides investors with ownership in one of the most strategically compelling and prolific copper?EUR?gold projects in the world, the KSM project in BC, at one of the lowest market caps per ounce to the investor," analyst Don MacLean wrote in an Oct. 26 research report on Seabridge Gold Inc. (SEA:TSX; SA:NYSE.MKT).Seabridge announced the new PEA for KSM in an Oct. 6 press rel...Read More

Global energy markets will need around $50 trillion in new investment to fund expected growth in energy demand over the next two decades, according to one of Australia's pre-eminent business and industry experts.Such investment would be needed to fund an energy market expected to grow by 40% through until 2035 - with that higher consumption continuing to rely in part on baseload fossil fuels.The f...Read More

Half Of Americans Believe 9/11 Conspiracy Theories ... "The United States is a strongly conspiratorial society." ... A majority of Americans believe that the government is concealing information about the 9/11 attacks, one new survey suggests. And that's not the only conspiracy theory believed by a wide swath of Americans: Around 40 percent believe the government is hiding information abou...Read More

Half Of Americans Believe 9/11 Conspiracy Theories ... "The United States is a strongly conspiratorial society." ... A majority of Americans believe that the government is concealing information about the 9/11 attacks, one new survey suggests. And that's not the only conspiracy theory believed by a wide swath of Americans: Around 40 percent believe the government is hiding information abou...Read More

The board of directors at Brazilian mining giant Vale (NYSE:VALE), the world's largest iron ore producer, has approved the sale of the firm's fertilizer business, amid a global oversupply of potash that has caused prices to tumble in the past year, leading to layoffs and mine closures across the sector.With the deal, Vale is expected to fetch about $ 3.5 billion.According to local newspaper Valo...Read More

Canada's largest diversified miner, Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.B) (NYSE:TCK) logged Thursday better-then-expected quarterly revenue thanks mainly to a sustained rally in coking coal as well as the firm's cost-cutting measures implemented in the three months to Sept. 30The Vancouver-based company, the best-performing Canadian stock in seven years, swung to a profit of Cdn$234 million ($174.9 million...Read More

Energy Fuels Resources resumed shaft sinking operations at Canyon Mine in November last year. (Image courtesy of US Forest Service)Canada's Energy Fuels (NYSE MKT: UUUU; TSX: EFR), the largest conventional uranium producer in the US, has discovered high-grade copper at its Canyon project in northern Arizona, which is already the highest grade uranium mine being developed in the country.With this...Read More

The price of cobalt is set to double.The electric vehicle revolution will continue to reinforce the unquenchable demand for cobalt.Cobalt is primarily a by-product of nickel and copper mining and subject to extreme jurisdictional risk.Combine the growing supply-demand deficit with an unstable supply chain, you have the perfect recipe for the most extreme bull market within the mining sector in the...Read More

Imagine Jailing the Central Bankers Who Saved the world ... The U.K. may be on the verge of an unprecedented experiment in public accountability. The courts may soon be invited to consider the following question: Should government officials face prosecution if the actions they took to support the financial system during the credit crisis stink in hindsight? – BloombergFinally central banke...Read More

Imagine Jailing the Central Bankers Who Saved the world ... The U.K. may be on the verge of an unprecedented experiment in public accountability. The courts may soon be invited to consider the following question: Should government officials face prosecution if the actions they took to support the financial system during the credit crisis stink in hindsight? – BloombergFinally central banke...Read More

Mick Davis' X2 Resources, the mining fund once touted as the driver of much-needed investment into the mining industry during the worst of the commodities price rout, has freed investors from their financial commitments after failing to score any deals in three years.Relatively high assets valuations and an investor veto on deals frustrated Davis and his team in their search for mining bargains....Read More

Canada's Seabridge Gold (TSX:SEA) (NYSE:SA), the company behind the massive KSM project in northern British Columbia, considered the world's largest undeveloped gold-copper project by reserves, has just identified a large, untested target at another of its ventures in the region.Exploration at Seabridge Gold's 100%-owned Iskut project, which shares geological similarities with KSM, has revealed a...Read More

The Globalization of Rage Why Today's Extremism Looks Familiar ... Militant secessions from a civilization premised on gradual progress under liberal democratic trustees-the kind of civilization that D'Annunzio and his peers denounced as feeble and corrupt-are once again brewing within the West and far beyond it: and as before, they are fueled by a broad, deep, and volatile desire for destructio...Read More

Editor of Austria's Largest Paper Charged with 'Hate Speech' over Migrant Article ... An editor of Austria's largest paper, Kronen Zeitung, is to be tried for hate speech over a commentary he wrote about the migrant crisis last year. -Breitbart NewsThis is part of a larger attack on the Western media, especially the alternative media.It's surely not a coincidence that these attacks are being launc...Read More