Gold futures finished lower on Tuesday to mark their first two-session skid in nearly three weeks. Still, the price move was modest, showing little reaction to the U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's first day of testimony to Congress, at which he backed a wait-and-see mode. Some weakness in stocks, falling yields and a softer dollar - all factors that would ordinarily support bullion -...Read More
A weaker secondary aluminium market in Europe and a lack of domestic demand drove the UK secondary aluminium market down by 2.9% on Wednesday February 27. Fastmarkets assessed the price of LM24 pressure diecasting ingot on a delivered consumer works basis at ?1,380-1,440 ($1,839.18-1919.15) per tonne on Wednesday, with deals concluded toward the lower end of the range. This is the lowest pri...Read More
Queensland Rail had stowed a train carrying copper, lead and zinc concentrate from Glencore's operations in the Australian state on 31 January as a precautionary measure.That was not sufficient to protect the 80-wagon Mount Isa train after historic rainfall of as much as 1.16 meters by February 7 near Townsville, where Glencore's copper refinery servicing its Mount Isa Mines is located.According t...Read More
BHP Group Ltd, the world's biggest miner, announced a raft of management changes on Thursday, in line with its "transformation agenda" led by Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie.The executive-level changes at BHP include the appointment of a chief commercial officer and the resignation of its president of petroleum operations.Mackenzie late last year set up a so-called transformation office that repo...Read More
An overview of the noble alloys markets and the reasons for any price moves.Read More
The Chilean government will actively be seeking investors for 25 new mining projects when it attends the PDAC Convention in Toronto next week. The projects, which include the mining of a variety of metals including copper, gold, lithium and cobalt, will represent an investment of $500 million and are estimated to lead to 1,500 new jobs in the construction phase alone.Chile's Minister of Mining, Ba...Read More
* U.N. meeting in Jamaica to work on deep sea mining law* China holds most licences, Belgium has technological edge* DeepGreen has partnership with Denmark's Maersk* DEME unit Global Sea Mineral Resources tests technologyBelgian group DEME and Canada's DeepGreen are carrying out tests and research to collect nodules containing copper, cobalt and other minerals from the ocean floor, as a race to mi...Read More
Chile's Codelco, the world's No. 1 copper producer, plans to kick off underground operations at its century-old Chquicamata mine by mid-year, chairman Juan Benavides said Wednesday.The $4.9 billion-switch, part of Codelco's 10-year, $39 billion-overhaul of its core mines, is expected to extend the mine's life by at least 40 years. This will allow the copper giant keep production rates, despite f...Read More
Exyn Technologies and Dundee Precious Metals (TSX:DPM) announced this week that they have joined forces to automate the latter's underground gold mining operations.The first step to achieving such a goal was that Exyn's Autonomy Aerial Robots or A3Rs were made commercially available, a development that took place in the past days.According to the tech company, A3Rs comprise a fully autonomous aeri...Read More
Rio Tinto's (ASX, LON:RIO) investors will be celebrating Christmas in February, as the miner is giving them a $4 billion special dividend, or $2.43 cent a share, after posting its highest annual underlying earnings since 2014.The world's second largest miner reported Wednesday a 2% increase in underlying profit, up to $8.8 billion, beating market forecasts of $8.5 billion on the back of rising rev...Read More
Zinc ingot premiums fell to their lowest levels in eight and a half years in Antwerp and Rotterdam on Tuesday February 26 due to market sellers offloading units in reaction to tightening London Metal Exchange future price spreads. European zinc premiums drop sharply Shanghai zinc market flat South and East Asia lead markets unchanged with little buying European zinc premiums drop to 8...Read More
Mining giant Rio Tinto's (ASX, LON:RIO) relentless search for a major copper deposit may have finally paid off as it announced it had made a promising find at its Winu prospect in Western Australia."It is early days and we have more work to do, but the initial results from drilling are pretty encouraging," Chief Executive Jean-S?(C)bastien Jacques said on Wednesday, after Rio posted its highest an...Read More
Tin premiums were unchanged across the board on Tuesday February 26, with a climbing outright tin price capping spot business in Europe and the United States, while Chinese participants are yet to feel the downstream effects of this week's suspension of key tin producer Yinman Mining. European demand holds up despite Indonesian export delays US participants concerned over climbing tin price China...Read More
Noranda Income Fund (NIF) forecasts higher zinc metals production and sales this year but said concentrate market conditions remain the main challenge for its processing facility. NIF, which owns the Canadian Electrolytic Zinc (CEZ) facility in the Canadian province of Quebec, expects 2019 zinc metal production and sales to be between 270,000 and 280,000 tonnes. This is up from earlier forecasts o...Read More
The London Metal Exchange has received its first application ahead of its introduction of the Registered Intermediating Brokers (RIBs) membership category, according to a note to members on Wednesday February 27.Freight brokerage firm Simpson Spence & Young (SSY) confirmed to Fastmarkets that the firm's membership is now being considered by the LME and circulated to existing members for approval....Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mostly lower during morning trading on Wednesday February 27, with a softer US dollar index and continued optimism over US-China trade talks failing to spur consistent price rallies across the complex. That said, both copper and nickel futures have continued to hold the gains made over the last week, with the former trading near $6,500 per tonne...Read More
Significant copper concentrate stocks from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are now sitting in bonded warehouses in Zambia, awaiting an unlikely roll-back of the import duty enforced by the Zambian government, Fastmarkets has learned. A 5% import duty has been applied on Zambian copper concentrates imports since the start of 2019, causing major smelters including Vedanta's KCM and Chinese-ow...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Wednesday February 27 that are worth another look.Following reports of a potential power shortage in one of China's major ferro-alloy production hubs in the second quarter of this year, market participants have downplayed any immediate impact on ferro-alloy prices in the country, saying they intend to adopt a wait-and-see stance in...Read More
Vancouver-based Blue Sky Uranium Corp. has announced positive results from the preliminary economic assessment of its Ivana uranium-vanadium deposit. The deposit is part of the company's Amarillo Grande project in the Rio Negro Province.The PEA calls for an open pit mine that will produce both uranium and vanadium for 13 years. The pre-production capex will be $128.1 million including $28.3 milli...Read More
Prices for hollow steel sections in the domestic European market were unchanged week on week on Wednesday February 27, but increases in hot rolled coil (HRC) prices will soon have a knock-on effect, market sources told Fastmarkets.For the second time in less than a month, ArcelorMittal has announced a ?,?30-per-tonne ($34) price increase for its European coil steel products and while this has not...Read More