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
Russia’s Putin: why did Britain call Brexit referendum ... Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday questioned why British Prime Minister David Cameron had called a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. “If it’s such a problem, why did he initiate this, if he is against it himself?” Putin said of Cameron at a meeting on the sidelines of the St...Read More
President Obama plans to visit a memorial in Hiroshima, Japan, that displays a large photograph of the city's destruction seven decades ago. The striking image is typically identified as a mushroom cloud. But nuclear experts say it actually shows billowing smoke from a raging firestorm. -NY TimesWe missed this report from the New York Times last month pointing out that the photograph of the atomic...Read More
The U.S. administration sought on Friday to contain fallout from a leaked internal memo critical of its Syria policy, but showed no sign it was willing to consider military strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces called for in the letter signed by dozens of American diplomats. – ReutersTwo statements issued recently show that Left and Right both expect Hillary to be...Read More
El-Erian: Raghuram Rajan's departure is bad news, and not just for India ... Saturday's announcement that Raghuram Rajan would not serve a second term as governor of the Reserve Bank of India, the country's central bank, is bad news. -YahooIt is bad news, according to Yahoo, because the next central banker in charge of the central bank of India will print more money than Rajan did.Of course, centr...Read More
Russia’s Putin: why did Britain call Brexit referendum ... Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday questioned why British Prime Minister David Cameron had called a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. “If it’s such a problem, why did he initiate this, if he is against it himself?” Putin said of Cameron at a meeting on the sidelines of the St...Read More
President Obama plans to visit a memorial in Hiroshima, Japan, that displays a large photograph of the city's destruction seven decades ago. The striking image is typically identified as a mushroom cloud. But nuclear experts say it actually shows billowing smoke from a raging firestorm. -NY TimesWe missed this report from the New York Times last month pointing out that the photograph of the atomic...Read More
Brazil’s Rio state declares financial disaster before Games ... The acting governor of Rio de Janeiro state has declared a state of financial disaster so he has more leeway to manage the state’s scarce resources less than two months Brazil hosts the Olympic Games. Francisco Dornelles announced the decision on Friday. It will allow Rio’s state government to change its budgetar...Read More
Brazil’s Rio state declares financial disaster before Games ... The acting governor of Rio de Janeiro state has declared a state of financial disaster so he has more leeway to manage the state’s scarce resources less than two months Brazil hosts the Olympic Games. Francisco Dornelles announced the decision on Friday. It will allow Rio’s state government to change its budgetar...Read More
When it comes to which candidate is best prepared to tackle matters of public health, the choice is clear to Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates. [He] told STAT News in an interview published Friday that while his organization would “approach any administration with a positive open mind,” he has more experience with both Hillary and Bill Clinton through the Clinton Found...Read More
When it comes to which candidate is best prepared to tackle matters of public health, the choice is clear to Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates. [He] told STAT News in an interview published Friday that while his organization would “approach any administration with a positive open mind,” he has more experience with both Hillary and Bill Clinton through the Clinton Found...Read More
The Australian mining industry is exposing themselves to the unnecessary risk of losing multi-million dollar assets, according to leading legal experts. Despite only taking several minutes online, and costing less than the morning newspaper and cup of coffee, many Australian businesses are failing to protect their legal rights of ownership.The Personal Properties Securities Register (PPSR), a sing...Read More
US-based Mosaic Co. (NYSE:MOS), the world's largest producer of phosphate fertilizer, is said to be in talks with Vale (NYSE:VALE) to acquire the Brazilian mining giant's fertilizer unit, in a deal worth about $3 billion.According to sources quoted by Reuters, a cash-and-stock deal remains the favourite option at this point, though the parties are also discussing other alternatives.Vale is the big...Read More
Hillary Clinton’s emails are a non-scandal ... Given longstanding weaknesses in the State Department system, she made a rational decision. The pseudo-scandal over Hillary Clinton's emails bubbled up again with the recent release of the State Department Inspector General's report. -USA TodayRichard Ben-Veniste has written an editorial at USA Today that argues Hillary's decision to keep her...Read More
Gold price hit another high this week – how can you invest? - The WeekGold didn't just have a good week, it's having a good year.Gold prices have moved up significantly since May 2014 and gained even more momentum since the beginning of 2016. Gold is the best performing major asset class this year.A spate of positive articles in the mainstream media regarding the progress of both gold an...Read More
Hillary Clinton’s emails are a non-scandal ... Given longstanding weaknesses in the State Department system, she made a rational decision. The pseudo-scandal over Hillary Clinton's emails bubbled up again with the recent release of the State Department Inspector General's report. -USA TodayRichard Ben-Veniste has written an editorial at USA Today that argues Hillary's decision to keep her...Read More
Gold price hit another high this week – how can you invest? - The WeekGold didn't just have a good week, it's having a good year.Gold prices have moved up significantly since May 2014 and gained even more momentum since the beginning of 2016. Gold is the best performing major asset class this year.A spate of positive articles in the mainstream media regarding the progress of both gold an...Read More
Hillary Clinton Plays Trump Perfectly As GOP Nominee Flip Flops On Terror Watch List Gun Ban ... Hillary Clinton is perfectly pulling Trump’s strings as presumptive GOP nominee announced that he is flip-flopping and now supporting a bill that would prohibit people on the terror watch list from legally buying guns. – PoliticoAccording to this Politico article, Donald Trump has decided...Read More
The U.S. Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and signaled it still planned to raise rates twice in 2016, though it said slower economic growth would crimp the pace of monetary policy tightening in future years. The central bank’s decision to stick with its 2016 rate path, however, appeared shakier, with six of its 17 policymakers projecting just one increase this yea...Read More
China’s Supercollider Higgs Factory Will Be Twice The Size Of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider ... China could soon rival Europe and the U.S. as a global leader in the field of particle physics. The world’s most populous country now also aims to build the world’s most powerful supercollider to have a better understanding of the Higgs boson, the so-called god-particle. -Tech T...Read More
Hillary Clinton Plays Trump Perfectly As GOP Nominee Flip Flops On Terror Watch List Gun Ban ... Hillary Clinton is perfectly pulling Trump’s strings as presumptive GOP nominee announced that he is flip-flopping and now supporting a bill that would prohibit people on the terror watch list from legally buying guns. – PoliticoAccording to this Politico article, Donald Trump has decided...Read More