Toronto-based Kirkland Lake Gold has announced the retirement of board chairman Eric Sprott, effective after the annual meeting on May 7, 2019. He has been chairman since 2015. The vacancy will be filled by Jeff Parr as interim chairman until the AGM.Ronald Bougie is joining Nemaska Lithium in Quebec City as VP engineering and construction. His appointment and certain other changes at the company...Read More

In what looks to be a brow-raising move, Wesfarmers has made a bid to acquire a rare-earth producer for $1.5 billion, a foray into the clean energy space where rare-earths will play a vital role in the rollout of electric vehicles and other clean energy products.Following the announcement on Tuesday, shares in Lynas Corporation (ASX: LYC) rose 40% to close at $2.10 with the takeover bid valuing Ly...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

Russian nickel and palladium producer Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel) said it will invest up to 90 billion roubles ($1.4 billion) over four years in two major projects in Russia.The projects - expansion and reconstruction of the Talnakh ore concentrator and development of the South Cluster mine - come as Nornickel aims to ramp up nickel output and tap an expected boom in demand from electric vehicle ma...Read More

Stornoway Diamond (TSE: SWY) finished the 2018 calendar year with less production and revenue and more losses. Total net loss for the year was $329.4 million or $0.39 per share, compared to a net loss in 2017 of $114.2 million or $0.14 per share.The company pointed out that those numbers include a non-cash impairment of $83.2 million, a deferred income tax expense of $77.4 million, and $227.1 mill...Read More

Nickel stocks were supported by positive commodities news this week as a report found that stock exchanges are not generating enough support for junior miners and their crucial role in exploration.   Canadian explorer FPX Nickel Corp (FPX.V), which is developing the large-scale Decar Nickel District in British Columbia, tweeted a chart from Morgan Stanley’s latest commodity therm...Read More

Gold has been quietly regaining its lustre. In the midst of market volatility, investors turn to gold as a hedge against a recession. Having some sort of exposure to the precious metal is an important part of any diversification strategy.It’s no secret that the majors have struggled. Gold prices hit a peak in 2011 and then quickly crashed. Unfortunately, many of the majors were unprepared ha...Read More

Investing in mining stocks can be tricky. So much can go wrong.Emboldened by management’s rosy expectations, investors are often disappointed by eventual project delays, cost overruns, and political disruption. It’s no wonder that so many mining stocks have gone nowhere for decades at a time.With valuations in the billions of dollars, Yamana Gold Inc. (TSX:YRI)(NYSE:AUY) and Goldcorp...Read More

Alexco Resource has tabled a prefeasibility study (PFS) for its wholly owned Keno Hills silver project, in Yukon, that assigns the project a $101.3-million after-tax net present value at a 5% discount-rate, and a 74% after-tax internal rate of return (IRR).It assumes a life-of-mine $17.90 per oz. silver price.Alexco expects the underground operation would process 154,000 tonnes per year over an e...Read More

West Africa is well endowed with mineral resources, and many world-class deposits have been discovered there in recent years. The region is a key source of gold, iron ore, bauxite, diamonds, phosphate, uranium, and its mainly untapped mineral wealth provides exceptional greenfield development potential.But despite increased interest in the whole spectrum of commodities in West Africa, the region i...Read More

It looks like the Fed has finally reached the point where it should admit that, despite all its efforts, it can't put the economy back together again.All of its efforts and actions over the last 10 years need to be second guessed right now.Economic indicators are flashing red. We're looking at a significant moment with yield curve inversions, and there are few tools left for the Fed to deploy.The...Read More

Canada's Maverix Metals (TSX-V: MMX) entered into a life of mine purchase and sale agreement this week for silver produced from the El Mochito mine, owned and operated by Ascendant Resources (TSX: ASND) in Honduras.El Mochito's production guidance for 2019 is between 850,000 and 1,200,000 ounces of contained silver in concentrateIn a press release, Maverix said it will make an advance payment of $...Read More

American Manganese (TSX.V: AMY) announced this week that it will participate in a U.S. Department of Energy project to advance the economic recovery of lithium-ion battery materials from electric vehicles and other consumer goods.In a press release, the British Columbia-based firm said the project is titled "Lithium-Ion Battery Disassembly, Remanufacturing, and Lithium & Cobalt Recovery Project" a...Read More

Mar 29, 2019 Guest(s): Robert Archer Nevada has been named the most attractive mining jurisdiction in the world by the Fraser Institute, and one mining executive is looking to revive an old mine from the 1880s. Robert Archer, CEO of Newrange Gold, is rebuilding a historic mine for the Pamlico Gold Project, located in Nevada. "It's an old high-grade, past-producing district, and like the old exp...Read More

The sale of a 0.5% net smelter return royalty on its Pandora property to Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM) monetizes a non-core asset and reduces the junior's cost of acquiring its McKenzie Break and Swanson properties by $800,000,Monarch Gold Corp. (TSX: MQR; US-OTC: MRQRF) reports.The Pandora royalty was part of the assets that Monarch acquired from Richmont Mines in October 2017, along...Read More

An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their price moves from the past week.Read More

Base metals price on the London Metal Exchange were mostly higher at the close of trading on Friday March 29, with copper and zinc outperforming.Despite continued strength in the US dollar, risk appetite has improved.The three-month copper price closed almost 2% higher while volumes exceeded 20,000 lots. The metal's on-warrant stock count has recovered slightly over March after reaching its l...Read More

The London Metal Exchange has proposed an enhancement of its warehouse stock reporting model in a bid to garner further transparency against a recent tide of inordinate stock moves, it said in its latest warehousing discussion paper released on Friday March 29. In accordance with the LME's warehousing committee, the bourse has unveiled nine warehouse proposals to counter the expansion of ware...Read More

An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their price moves from the past week.Read More

Key data from the pricing sessions in Asia, Europe and the United States for the week ended Friday March 29. China  China's domestic ferro-chrome spot price softened after some suppliers dropped their offer prices to encourage sales after noticing that stainless steel mills were reluctant to accept prices higher than their April tender prices. The imported charge chrome...Read More