Prices in the US copper market continued to push upward on Thursday March 28, with macroeconomic data outweighing recent growth in market participants' bearish speculative positioning.The copper price for May settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange inched up by 1.15 cents to $2.8745 per lb on Thursday.On the technical side, the net speculative length has declined marke...Read More
Robin Scheiner will lead a merged aluminium-alumina department at Glencore following the departure of David Streule, sources close to the matter told Fastmarkets. "Change will take place in the coming weeks or months," a source close to the matter said, while two sources said Streule will be departing by the end of June.Streule will leave Glencore...Read More
Gold futures fell on Wednesday to settle at their lowest in nearly a week, as some strength in the dollar contributed to a second straight session decline for the metal. A rally in government bonds across the globe, however, pointed to increased appetite for assets perceived as havens, and uncertainty surrounding Brexit and U.S.-China trade developments helped to limit losses for the yellow metal,...Read More
K92 Mining (TSXV: KNT) has intersected 175 metres of 0.28 gram gold per tonne and 0.22% copper from 259 metres downhole at its Blue Lake porphyry prospect, 4 km southwest of its Kora deposit at the Kainantu gold mine in Papua New Guinea.The hole ended in mineralization.The company discovered the prospect in 2017 after a surface mapping and sampling program. It completed a soil grid at 50-metre spa...Read More
Brazilian miner Vale sold its nickel products at a $545 per tonne premium over the London Metal Exchange benchmark price in 2018, the company said in an earnings report published on Wednesday March 27.The premium of 4.20% above LME prices was the highest achieved by the company since 2002, it said.According to Vale, the average realized price in the year was $13,667 per tonne, with the company foc...Read More
Chile's state miner Codelco, the world's No.1 copper producer, plans to boost production at its El Teniente mine to more than 500,000 tonnes per year by 2025, a first in the operation's history.The production increase would position the mine, which produced 465,000 tonnes of the red metal in 2018, among the world's five largest copper operations, local paper El Mercurio reports.El Teniente is the...Read More
Small miners are finding it increasingly difficult to raise capital to fund new ventures despite the positive demand outlook for several commodities and a world still largely awash with cheap credit.The problems facing these 'junior' mining explorers may also have implications beyond a bunch of seemingly inconsequential companies struggling to progress. How they cope is likely to affect how the mi...Read More
The Federal Government of Australia today launched the Critical Minerals Strategy 2019, aimed at putting emphasis on what politicians call "the industries of the future." In their view, these sectors include agritech, aerospace, defense, renewable energy and telecommunications."We have some of the world's richest stocks of critical minerals and while the market for some of our minerals such as lit...Read More
Canada's Walker River Resources (TSXV: WRR) announced this week that it signed a letter of intent with Smooth Rock Ventures (TSXV: SOCK) to enter into an exploration agreement with option to form a joint venture on the Garfield Flats project, located in Mineral County, Nevada.Smooth Rock can earn an undivided 50% interest in the property by funding $600,000 in exploration expenditures. Walker, o...Read More
Market participants expect alumina prices to plummet upon any future announcement that Hydro's alumina refinery, Alunorte, can return to full capacity, but agree the scheduled court date does not provide any further clarity. Alunorte, the largest alumina refinery in the world, has been running at only 50% of its production capacity since March 2018 because of restrictions imposed by authorities in...Read More
Domestic prices for cold-rolled coil (CRC) in Southern Europe have fallen this week due to limited demand, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday March 28.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for domestic CRC in Southern Europe was ?,?530-560 ($598-630) per tonne ex-works on March 27, down by ?,?30 per tonne compared with ?,?560-590 per tonne ex-works a week earlier.Italian mills were reported to be...Read More
Steel billet import prices fell in Egypt in the week ended Thursday March 28, with demand remaining weak, but the domestic price for rebar held steady, Fastmarkets has heard.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel billet imported into Egypt was $460-480 per tonne cfr on Thursday, widening downward from $475-480 per tonne cfr last week.CIS-origin billet was offered to the country at $480-485...Read More
United Arab Emirates-based United Iron & Steel Co (UISC) has started producing its own cold-rolled coil at its plant in Abu Dhabi for processing into hot-dipped galvanized coil.The new 250,000 tonnes-per-year CRC facility consists of an in-line push-pull pickling line, a single-stand cold-rolling mill and a continuous galvanizing line to process both hot- and cold-rolled coil, equipment suppl...Read More
Weaker-than-expected demand from steel mills following the introduction of new rebar standards in China and increased use of ferro-niobium there have hit the ferro-vanadium market with prices in Europe now trading at levels last seen in December 2017. So far this month, the European ferro-vanadium price has fallen by more than 25%. Fastmarkets assessed the price for ferro-vanadium, 78% min, free d...Read More
China's domestic hot-rolled coil prices were flat on Thursday March 28, with market participants taking a wait-and-see approach.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,850-3,860 yuan ($573-574) per tonne, unchangedNorthern China (Tianjin): 3,790-3,800 yuan per tonne, unchangedA few buyers raised their procurement rates amid gains in the futures market in the earlier part of the day, sources said.But o...Read More
Vancouver-based NexGen Energy has been busy with feasibility stage drilling at its 100% owned Rook I property in the Athabasca Basin.In the A2 sub-zone, the emphasis is on converting indicated to measured resources. Nineteen closely spaced drill holes (9.0 to 16.7 metres) successfully intersected the sub-zone. In the shear only, composite and off-scale radioactivity results were routinely measured...Read More
Drilling at the Rook I uranium project in the Athabasca Basin. (Image: NexGen Energy)SASKATCHEWAN - Vancouver-based NexGen Energy has been busy with feasibility stage drilling at its 100% owned Rook I property in the Athabasca Basin.In the A2 sub-zone, the emphasis is on converting indicated to measured resources. Nineteen closely spaced drill holes (9.0 to 16.7 metres) successfully intersected th...Read More
Brazilian miner Vale expects iron ore sales volumes in 2019 to be cut by 50-75 million tonnes, from a previous internal, undisclosed target of 382 million tonnes of sales during the year, chief financial officer Luciano Siani said on Thursday March 28 in a conference call with analysts.The reduction will be caused by the mine closures that ensued after an accident at the C??rrego do Feij??o unit,...Read More
RAPAPORT... Eurostar Diamond Traders, one of the biggest names in theAntwerp industry, has entered bankruptcy following a legal battle with itsbanks. The Antwerp Corporate Court ruled Thursday in favor of thatoutcome. Eurostar plans to appeal the decision, according to the company'schairman and founder, Kaushik Mehta. "For Kaushik Mehta and Eurostar, this is a verydisappointing day, which he...Read More
RAPAPORT... The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) is rolling out a new grading report that will highlight the country from which a diamond was recovered. The company will issue the Diamond Origin Report for stones that were submitted to the lab for analysis in rough form and again as a polished stone, so that it can match the two and confirm the country of origin. "In recent years, there has...Read More