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

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks shot to new highs after Republican leaders said they’ll release the final version of the tax overhaul bill Friday evening. The dollar gained as investors assessed messages from the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank meetings this week.All major equity gauges spiked higher earlier in the session, after fence-sitting Senator Marco Rubio said he’d support...Read More

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. equities turned lower with the dollar as investors try to assess the tax overhaul package with leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives aiming to finalize compromise legislation and hold floor votes next week. The euro retreated with the European Central Bank remaining cautious about the prospects of reaching its inflation goals.The S&P 500 Index climbed at the op...Read More

(Bloomberg) -- Mark Schmehl flouts Warren Buffett, thinks valuation is overrated and says most other rules of investing are “total baloney.”The portfolio manager, who just completed Fidelity Investments’ most successful Canadian fund launch ever, eschews investing obsessions such as earnings, cash flow and price-earnings ratios and invests at the extremes of the market instead, i...Read More

* Graphic: World FX rates in 2017 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh* European shares dip* Dollar nurses losses after Fed decision* Pound slips after BoE keeps rates on hold* Euro steady after ECB keeps rates on hold* Stronger than expected German, euro zone PMIsBy Ritvik CarvalhoLONDON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - World shares eked out modest gains on Thursday as cautious comments on inflation from the U.S. Federal...Read More

* Graphic: World FX rates in 2017 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh* European shares dip* Dollar nurses losses after Fed decision* Pound, euro, await BoE, ECB* Stronger than expected German, euro zone PMIsBy Ritvik CarvalhoLONDON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - European shares and the euro dipped on Thursday as cautious comments on inflation from the U.S. Federal Reserve gave investors pause before a series of central...Read More

* Dollar weakens broadly after Fed forecast 2 more hikes in 2018* Fed upbeat on economy; notch up 2019, 2020 forecast* Oil at 6-week high on U.S. inventory, Iran nuke deal worriesBy Hideyuki SanoTOKYO, March 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar was on the defensive on Thursday after posting its largest loss in two months when the Federal Reserve turned out to be less hawkish than anticipated.Worries abo...Read More

Main ConclusionsBritish Columbia's NDP government recently announced a series of new policies intended to lay the foundation for "universal", government-subsidized, $10-per-day daycare across the province.This major policy intervention seems unnecessary as there does not appear to be a wide -spread lack of daycare spots in British Columbia: as of 2016, the province-wide average daycare vacancy rat...Read More

With his stock in freefall, First Quantum Minerals Ltd. chief executive Philip Pascall hopped on a hastily arranged conference call Wednesday morning to soothe investors about a surprise US$7.9 billion tax bill that Zambian authorities sent this week.Pascall rejected the US$7.9 billion figure - more than two-thirds of the company's US$9.5 billion market capitalization. Still, Vancouver-based First...Read More

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. is hoping to talk its way out of a US$7.9 billion tax assessment in Zambia. Investors aren’t so sure, with shares down 17 per cent in the two days since news of the claim emerged.The Vancouver-based miner “completely refutes” the claim and doesn’t understand the authorities’ assessment, chief executive Philip Pascall said on a conference ca...Read More

Climate change giveth, and climate change taketh away — that is, if you can attribute anything to climate change.Last December, Toronto-based Centerra Gold Inc. shut down the mill at its Mount Milligan mine in British Columbia after anemic snowmelt runoff and an unexpected extreme cold snap froze the shallow supply of water in its tailing ponds. On Friday, the company announced that same mil...Read More

Drilling by Archer Exploration Limited (ASX:AXE) has confirmed 'particularly encouraging' copper and gold mineralisation at its Blue Hills Copper Project in South Australia.The recently completed Rotary Air Blast (RAB) geochemical drilling program at the project comprised 226 holes for 2,661m, providing a first pass test of previously identified soil geochemical anomalies. It intersected strong an...Read More

BENGALURU, June 14 (Reuters) - Gold prices inched lower on Thursday as the Federal Reserve forecast two more U.S. rate increases this year after raising rates on Wednesday, although lingering worries over trade tensions between Washington and Beijing prevented steeper losses.FUNDAMENTALS* Spot gold XAU= was down 0.1 percent to $1,298.61 per ounce at 0047 GMT. It touched an over one-week low at $1,...Read More

June 19 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening 4 points lower at 7,627 on Tuesday, according to financial bookmakers.* ANGLO AMERICAN: Miner Anglo American Plc AAL.L clinched hundreds of permits this month to explore for copper in a remote part of northern Brazil, Brazilian authorities said, as the growing electric vehicle market and a scarcity of shovel-ready mining projects...Read More

(Repeats June 26 column with no changes to the text. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.)* Chilean copper production: https://tmsnrt.rs/2KnTcZ7By Andy HomeLONDON, June 26 (Reuters) - Copper has fallen almost nine percent in price over the last couple of weeks.In London three-month copper CMCU3 was this morning struggling to hold the $6,700 level, a chart a...Read More

* Asian shares hit 9-month lows as trade worries intensify* U.S. oil prices hit 3 1/2-year high as supply seen disruptedBy Hideyuki SanoTOKYO, June 28 (Reuters) - Asian stocks slumped to nine-month lows on Thursday on growing worries the U.S. administration's approach to trade is harming global economic growth even as it appeared to be modifying its approach to curb Chinese investments in U.S. tec...Read More

(Repeats June 26 column with no changes to the text. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.)* Chilean copper production: https://tmsnrt.rs/2KnTcZ7By Andy HomeLONDON, June 26 (Reuters) - Copper has fallen almost nine percent in price over the last couple of weeks.In London three-month copper CMCU3 was this morning struggling to hold the $6,700 level, a chart a...Read More

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.)* Chilean copper production: https://tmsnrt.rs/2KnTcZ7By Andy HomeLONDON, June 26 (Reuters) - Copper has fallen almost nine percent in price over the last couple of weeks.In London three-month copper CMCU3 was this morning struggling to hold the $6,700 level, a chart area last breached in early April.Copper has been cau...Read More

OPEC’s production-cutting deal had set the stage for the oil market in 2017, but base metals prices hinge on policy coming out of China.Industrial metals continue to see support from strong Chinese buying and the reflationary trade that followed Donald Trump’s election victory.However, analysts at J.P. Morgan think prices have run ahead of fundamentals, with the exception of zinc.The o...Read More

TORONTO — Nickel prices have jumped almost 40 per cent since bottoming out in January, yet most miners of the steelmaking metal are still bleeding cash at a rapid rate.Canadian nickel miner Sherritt International Corp. noted this week that more than 60 per cent of global output is losing money on a simple cash margin basis. Once capital spending and other costs are added in, the actual perce...Read More

After many months in the gutter, two of the world’s least-loved metals are enjoying an honest-to-goodness turnaround.Zinc and nickel are both soaring this summer after recovering from shocking depths early in the year. Zinc touched US$1.00 a pound on Thursday for the first time since mid-2015, while nickel jumped to a nine-month high of US$4.73 a pound. Zinc is up 48 per cent from its Januar...Read More