Junior miners, struggling to fund exploration as institutions seek lower risk and better returns from larger rivals and newer industries, sought to sell potential investors on projects on Thursday, with mixed success.The proliferation of index funds, sluggish gold price growth and a shift into cannabis and cryptocurrencies by risk investors has left junior miners short of funding.While the mining...Read More
The cryptocurrency company Grayscale has launched a multi-million dollar marketing campaign imploring investors to drop gold and buy bitcoin. It is a slick video and the campaign is getting plenty of attention, but does it make any sense?The "Drop Gold" campaign kicked off Wednesday and features a 39-second commercial that shows a man and woman who race frantically around a financial district whil...Read More
TMAC Resources has recorded its first positive earnings for Q1 2019. The quarterly revenue was C$67.9 million (compared to C$33.0 million in the same quarter a year earlier). That translated into a comprehensive profit of C$7.2 million for the recent quarter (compared to a Q1 2018 loss of C$15.0 million) after taxes, foreign exchange, corporate costs and cost of sales.TMAC produced 40,050 oz. of g...Read More
The differential between the Chinese and European ferro-vanadium prices has continued to widen since the beginning of March, with European demand lagging behind and prices in Europe now trading at its lowest level since November 2017.Currently, the price gap between the Chinese and European markets has widened to around $8.50-11 per kg, according to Fastmarkets data.The most recent Fastmarkets MB'...Read More
Investor sentiment should be bearish at a major bottom.Instead, anecdotal evidence suggests investors are bullish on gold.Gold stock weakness also warns that gold hasn't bottomed yet.In most cases when an asset such as gold experiences a corrective decline over a period of several weeks, investor sentiment tends to become bleak as the decline nears its nadir. This is in keeping with the tenden...Read More
Copper continued its sell-off on the London Metal Exchange on Thursday May 2, with the absence of Asian markets a key factor in the downturn while strength in the US dollar caps commodity investment. Volumes were moderately high, with more than 20,000 lots of copper changing hands by the close, indicating strong selling momentum. Open interest has fallen by 3,824 positions overnight, dipping below...Read More
Zinc bears are betting that the London Metal Exchange zinc price will fall to $2,500 per tonne in June, with massive orders for put options placed in recent weeks, Fastmarkets learned.Current open interest on the LME Select platform shows 5,125 lots of put options are active for the June declaration at a $2,500-per-tonne strike price, representing an equivalent of 128,125 tonnes of the metal. Opti...Read More
Higher offers and concerns over possible supply disruptions gave the seaborne coking coal market a boost on Thursday May 2 despite the absence of Chinese participants during the day."I made an inquiry for a cargo of premium mid-vol hard coking coal for loading in June. But the miner told me that the particular cargo could fetch more than $205 per tonne fob Australia due to tight supply," an Indian...Read More
A week after finalization of the Newmont-Goldcorp merger, operations were suspended at its largest gold-silver mine in Mexico. Here's why it matters...by Steve St. Angelo of SRSrocco ReportIn just a little more than a week after the mighty Newmont-Goldcorp merger was finalized, the company suspended operations of its largest gold-silver mine in Mexico. The Penasquito Mine, which produced more th...Read More
Toronto-based Kirkland Lake Gold can't seem to miss drilling high grades at its Macassa gold project in the town of Kirkland Lake. Recent excellent results highlight the potential for growing resources and new discoveries, says the company.Drilling east of the South Mine Complex (SMC) has returned 118.8 g/t gold over 2.0-metres core length, 62.7 g/t over 1.9-metre true width, and 73.8 g/t over 2.7...Read More
Not only was yesterday's volume almost half of annual production, but we're continuing to see attacks on the COMEX for physical silver. Harvey explains...by Harvey Organ of Harvey Organ BlogMAY 1//GOLD DOWN $1.20 TO $1282.80 AT COMEX CLOSE//SILVER DOWN 23 CENTS//IN ACCESS MARKET: GOLD DOWN TO $1276//SILVER DOWN TO $14.67//FOMC: DANGEROUS: THE FEDS' LOWER IOER AS COLLATERAL AROUND THE WORLD DISAPPE...Read More
"...the one CFTC commissioner who often spoke out about how he did feel there was illegal trading activity going on in the silver market."by Chris Marcus of Arcadia EconomicsIn Memory of Bart ChiltonLike many others in the precious metals community, I was deeply saddened upon hearing the news of Bart Chilton's passing this weekend.Bart will forever be known (especially by those in the silver commu...Read More
Global demand for gold grew to 1,053.3 tonnes in Q1, up 7% year-on-year, according to the latest report by the World Gold Council. A big reason for the stronger demand is central banks, which continued to buy gold for diversification and liquidity purposes. Another is improvement in the India market.Central banks around the world bought 145.5 tonnes of gold this quarter, the largest increase in gl...Read More
After a short rally in the first quarter peaking in March, the gold price fell during the year, then rebounded in December. In 2018, the global average all-in sustaining costs (AISC) fell 6%, as companies reacted quickly when the gold price was on decline, and gold miners found ways to keep costs down.The AISC metric serve as a benchmark of a mine's operating efficiency. They provide a more comp...Read More
Wednesday's trading session was bearish, as investors reacted to the FOMC Rate Decision release. However, the S&P 500 index has managed to reach yet another new record high of 2,954.13, before reversing and closing 0.8% lower. Was it a downward reversal or just some quick profit-taking action?The U.S. stock market indexes lost 0.6-0.8% on Wednesday, as investors reacted to the Fed's Statement...Read More
The European molybdenum market moved up in the first half of the week starting Monday April 29, supported by molybdenum oxide supply tightness, sources said.Spot market activity picked up at the beginning of the week, with both the alloy and oxide market prices increasing week on week on Wednesday May 1.The continued material tightness supported the oxide market, with Fastmarkets assessment for th...Read More
Zinc bears are betting that the London Metal Exchange zinc price will fall to $2,500 per tonne in June, with massive orders for put options placed in recent weeks, Fastmarkets learned.Current open interest on the LME Select platform shows 5,125 lots of put options are active for the June declaration at a $2,500-per-tonne strike price, representing an equivalent of 128,125 tonnes of the metal. Opti...Read More
Grayscale Investments launches anti-gold, pro Bitcoin campaign. THe company believes that our future lies with digital assets. The cryptocurrency asset management company Grayscale Investments, which is a part of Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group, launched Drop Gold campaign, designed to lure investors from gold to digital assets. “The gold...Read More
Global demand for gold grew to 1,053.3 tonnes in Q1, up 7% year-on-year, according to the latest report by the World Gold Council. A big reason for the stronger demand is central banks, which continued to buy gold for diversification and liquidity purposes. Another is improvement in the India market.Central banks around the world bought 145.5 tonnes of gold this quarter, the largest increase in gl...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday May 2 that are worth another look.Peruvian tin producer Minsur resumed normal operations at its San Rafael mine in the southern province of Melgar, following the end of a workers' strike that was first announced on April 30, the company said on Wednesday May 1.Zinc bears are betting that the London Metal Exchange zinc price wil...Read More