In its 2019 forecast, the Australian bank put the average price for the upcoming March quarter at below US$1,200 per ounce.This forecast means a drop from the current price of $1,231/oz can't be far off."[The] US-China trade war is a source of market anxiety and, therefore, potential support for gold and silver prices. But for now, buoyant US economic activity and the US Fed's ongoing rate-hike cy...Read More
Brazilian miner Vale will invest an additional $500 million in its Vale New Caledonia (VNC) nickel operations in the South Pacific due to expectations of increased demand from rising electric vehicle (EV) output, chief executive officer Fabio Schvartsman said on Tuesday December 4."We will need all of the capacity of VNC to meet this demand," Schvartsman said.In two years, nickel output from VNC w...Read More
Rio Tinto has reached another milestone in the development of its Amrun project in Queensland, Australia, shipping its first bauxite cargo six weeks ahead of schedule, the company announced on Monday December 3.Rio Tinto estimated the shipment of over 80,000 tonnes of bauxite will arrive at the company's Yarwun alumina refinery in Gladstone next week.The US$1.9 billion-invested Amrun project was p...Read More
China Molybdenum Co will take direct control of metals trader IXM in a $495-million buyout of a fund it set up to originally purchase the firm from Louis Dreyfus, according to a notice issued on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Tuesday December 4.The deal exceeds the $466 million paid by the China Molybdenum-backed NCCL Natural Resources Investment Fund in May after initial agreements were signed l...Read More
The company first reported the blockade on June 28, saying sporadic demonstrations and road blockades had primarily targeted the mining sector since the change in government in May.By early August, Lydian said it had sacked 100 employees or 30% of its workforce and "idled" 1,000 construction contractors as local blockades continued.The company last week said it had secured short-term access to its...Read More
- Gold's "setup" is "similar to natural gas before its big rally"- Gold is gaining favour over stocks, bitcoin and cryptos- Metals may be primary beneficiaries of imminent greenback peak- Silver "appears ready for a potential longer-term recovery"- GoldCore editors note: Natural gas is 56% higher year to dateby Bloomberg Intelligence (appeared first on the Bloomberg Terminal)Metals should be pr...Read More
Fastmarkets MB proposes to launch two new manganese ore China port indices on a free-on-truck (fot) basis.The two new indices will be based on ores with manganese ore content of 37% and of 44%. China is the world's biggest consumer of manganese ores, accounting for 60-70% of all seaborne trades. Demand for manganese ores has been steadily growing over recent years due to anticipated new projects i...Read More
(Updates with closing prices)By Eric OnstadLONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Copper fell to its lowest level ina week on Wednesday after comments by U.S. President DonaldTrump stoked more worries about trade tensions with top metalsconsumer China.Most other industrial metals were in the red due to concernabout growth in China and after the country's currency slipped.Markets were unconvinced when China exp...Read More
An uptick in the usage of tellurium in key downstream industry, such as thin-film solar photovoltaic and infrared detection, will continue to lend support to the international and domestic Chinese tellurium markets, speakers told delegates at the 2018 Chinese Minor Metals Forum in Kunming.Global production of solar photovoltaics is estimated at 98 gigawatts in 2017, of which 2.3 gigawatts came fro...Read More
Turkish steel producers resumed their deep-sea scrap bookings as soon as they received lower prices from a European supplier, sources said on Wednesday December 5.Mills in Turkey were looking for prices at around $300-305 per tonne cfr for HMS 1&2 (80:20) while the offers for the material were firm at $310-320 per tonne cfr from suppliers in the United States and the Baltic Sea.But a steel mill in...Read More
European government bond yields fell to multi-month lows Wednesday, following yesterday's moves in U.S. Treasuries that have ignited concerns over the prospect of recession in the world's largest economy, as investors continue to pull away from risk markets and test the Federal Reserve's resolve on future interest rate hikes. Benchmark 10-year German bund yields, a proxy for risk-free borrowing...Read More
A sample of lithium-bearing pegmatite from Redzone's Fortner Boyd claims (also known as the Lucky Mica claim group. Source: Redzone Resources Ltd.Redzone Resources Ltd. [REZ-TSXV; REZZF-OTC; REZ-FSE] said Wednesday December 5 that it has agreed to acquire the Wells vanadium project in British Columbia.Redzone is an exploration company with a focus on metals that make up and support the rapid evolu...Read More
: Exploring the Lac Gueret Project in northern Quebec. Source: Mason Graphite Inc.Mason Graphite Inc. [LLG-TSXV; MGPHF-OTCQX] shares were active Wednesday December 5 after the company released an updated feasibility study and economic results for its Lac Gueret Project in northern Quebec, where pre-construction work is underway.The initial capital expenditure for the project is now forecast at $25...Read More
Comex copper prices staged a modest recovery during morning trading on Wednesday morning in the US amid calmer market conditions after yesterday's major equity sell-off. The copper price for March settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 0.30 cents to $2.7620 per lb. Despite optimism from the recent Group of Nations (G20) meeting in Argentina over the weeken...Read More
Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed in the morning of Wednesday December 5, with zinc and copper up by 0.4% and 0.3% respectively, while the rest of the complex was little changed or weaker. This follows a volatile day in markets on Tuesday, when the base metals were mixed, but when US equity markets were hit hard by nervousness over the flattening of the yield c...Read More
Brazilian miner Vale will be investing an additional $500 million in VNC, its nickel operations in the South Pacific country of New Caledonia on expectations of increased demand from rising electric vehicle (EV) output, chief executive officer Fabio Schvartsman said on Tuesday December 4. The executive also announced during the annual investor presentation in the New York Stock Exchange an ag...Read More
By the time of his death in 1937, John D. Rockefeller had amassed a wealth of roughly $340 billion in today's dollars.That's four times what Bill Gates had last year.And just to put a little bit more perspective on this astronomical figure, consider that when Rockefeller was laid to rest, his oil fortune was equal to 1.5% of America's total economic output.Sit back and think about that for a seco...Read More
Image Resources NL (ASX: IMA) is Australia's newest Mineral Sands producer, following the recent development of its high-grade, zircon-rich Boonanarring Project in the North Perth Basin in Western Australia. We learned from Patrick Mutz, Managing Director of Image Resources, that they have been in the process of constructing a mine and a processing facility, since the first of April 2018, and, in...Read More
The Wednesday Market Minute Global stocks slide following last night's sharp selloff on Wall Street amid increasing question over the fate of U.S. China trade talks.Bond markets steady after flashing recession signals Tuesday, with the spread between 2-year and 10-year yields rising to 10.5 basis points.Global oil prices drift lower after a stronger-than-expected buildup in U.S. crude supp...Read More
Trading activity in China's domestic hot-rolled coil market picked up on Wednesday December 5 on concerns among buyers that prices would increase further in the days to come, sources told Fastmarkets MB.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,730-3,770 yuan ($545-551) per tonne, up 40-70 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tianjin): 3,630-3,650 yuan per tonne, up 50 yuan per tonneWhile prices in Shanghai we...Read More