RAPAPORT... US e-commerce sales will hit $1 trillion for the first time next year, as the pandemic continues to impact consumer habits, Adobe Analytics predicted Monday.Digital spending will reach $850 billion to $930 billion this year based on the current growth trajectory, the company noted. Between March 2020 and February 2021, online sales rose 20% year on year to $844 billion, a difference of...Read More

RAPAPORT... Arctic Canadian Diamond Company has appointed former Northwest Territories (NWT) mining minister Wally Schumann as its senior adviser on aboriginal and northern affairs."[Schumann] joins the company at a very exciting time, as we embark on the next stage of our journey with Ekati, and renew...relationships with our employees, stakeholder communities in the north, the government of the...Read More

RAPAPORT... The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has started providing specific information on post-growth treatments for synthetic diamonds, marking the latest shift in its approach to the category.The institute's Laboratory-Grown Diamond Reports now say if there is evidence of a treatment to change the color of a stone, or if there is no evidence, a GIA spokesperson told Rapaport News...Read More

(IDEX Online) - VILLAGERS in south-eastern Zimbabwe claim they're being evicted from their homes to make way for gold and diamond mining - rather than dairy farming.Over 12,000 residents of Chilonga Village, in Chiredzi, say the project proposed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa is a "cover story".They say the real reason they're being removed is to allow large-scale mineral extraction in...Read More

Treatment and refining charges for copper concentrate fell again to new 10-year-lows in the week ended Friday March 12, with Fastmarkets' copper concentrate index dropping to less than $30 per tonne/3 cents per lb for the first time.The spot market has been in a prolonged downtrend since 2014, but a recent bout of tightness has seen terms dip by 27% in the past two weeks.TC/RCs, which are discount...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A jeweler was robbed of his $500,000 Richard Mille watch by an armed gang as he sat at a restaurant table in Beverly Hills, California, USA.Shay Belhassen reportedly grabbed a gun from one of the three hooded raiders and wrestled them to the ground but they made off with his RM 11-03 rose gold Flyback Chronograph.Four shots were fired in the daylight robbery, one of which struck a...Read More

(IDEX Online) - De Beers boss Bruce Cleaver and two other Anglo American directors have sold $5.5m of their shares in the company.The share price has surged by almost 40 per cent since the commodities rally began last November.Cleaver (pictured), CEO of De Beers, sold 25,000 shares for just over ?, ?$1m, according to a report in Shares magazine.Didier Charreton, Anglo's director of peopl...Read More

Fastmarkets has amended the frequency of its assessment of two lead ingot premiums for Southeast Asia.After a month-long consultation, which ended on March 12, Fastmarkets has altered the frequency of assessment of the two premiums from bi-weekly to monthly.Monthly assessment of these prices will start from Tuesday March 16, 2021. The assessments affected are:MB-PB-0107 Lead 99.97% ingot premium,...Read More

The world's largest producer of high-grade nickel expects to restore full capacity at its flooded mines in Siberia in the next 3-4 months but revised its metal production volumes to reflect the mining halt, it said on March 16.Nornickel's Oktyabrsky and Taimyrsky mines have been closed since February 24 following an inflow of groundwater into the two mines. The nickel production shortfall should b...Read More

Cancellations of aluminium out of London Metal Exchange warehouses in Port Klang, Malaysia, have begun, after more than 600,000 tonnes was delivered over the past week.About 85,000 tonnes were shown as freshly canceled on March 16, with 83,850 tonnes of that at Port Klang and additional, small cancellations in Johor and Singapore.Market participants told Fastmarkets they believe big queues could b...Read More

A summary of Antofagasta's financial results for the full year of 2020, as stated in its preliminary results, and its production guidance for 2020, as per a company report published on Tuesday March 16.Financial results - in brief: Antofagasta's revenue in 2020 was $5.1 billion, an increase of 3.3% from 2019, which the company attributed to "increases in copper and gold realised prices, partially...Read More

Flat steel import prices to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia continued to increase sharply while buyers were hesitant to make bookings because they were uncertain if prices would stay high, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday March 16."The market is not absorbing the price increases until now but if the increases continue like this, there would be no other option than to accept," one trad...Read More

Steel billet and rebar buyers in the United Arab Emirates preferred to wait during the week to Tuesday March 16 so any price changes were small, sources told Fastmarkets.Rebar producers in the UAE are expected to announce new prices soon so buyers are waiting to place import orders, market participants said.The country's steel producers are officially offering rebar at 2,530-2,545 dirhams ($689-69...Read More

Independent traders in Europe have joined forces to oppose the extenstion of safeguard measures against 26 steel product categories, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday, March 16.A consortium of 33 mostly medium and small businesses connected to the steel trade and steel processing have teamed up to form 'Companies Against Import Restrictions' (Cair) to fight against protectionism in the Euro...Read More

Steel rebar and wire rod producers in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) had to decrease their asking prices to foreign customers in mid-March because of unsupportive market fundamentals.Falling prices for steel scrap and for iron ore in the week ended March 12, together with insufficient demand for finished long steel products, forced suppliers to cut their offers to attract customers.R...Read More

The global steel industry has never been an easy one to navigate but now the onslaught of Chinese steel production has affected many steelmakers around the world, Fastmarkets heard.The surge in Chinese steel exports in the last few years and the expansion of Chinese steel companies into Southeast Asian countries, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, have led many companies to rethink their commercial a...Read More

China's domestic rebar prices halted their downward trend on Tuesday March 16 amid stronger end-user demand. DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 4,680-4,700 yuan ($720-723) per tonne, unchanged Buyers from the construction sector raised their procurement rates upon seeing the early gains in futures.The mild weather also led to improved construction activity, leading to good demand for rebar. Though...Read More

Micon Awarded Front End Engineering Design and Definitive Feasibility StudySPONSOREDmicon internationalRex ready to rollSPONSOREDrex mineralsDavyhurst back producing gold; can it produce a lot more?SPONSOREDora banda miningSolaris Resources on winning streak in EcuadorSPONSOREDsolaris resourcesThe latest payout meant a full year dividend of 54.7c/sh, equating to 100% of underlying earnings per sha...Read More

Huntsman Set to Expand Nickel Sulphide Discovery at CanegrassSPONSOREDhuntsman explorationYesterday's results included 4.9m at 7.99% copper-equivalent within 25.9m of continuous mineralisation.Foran said the MS zone had delivered copper-equivalent grades roughly double the average grade of the overall resource estimate for that zone.Huntsman Set to Expand Nickel Sulphide Discovery at CanegrassSPON...Read More

Micon Awarded Front End Engineering Design and Definitive Feasibility StudySPONSOREDmicon internationalRex ready to rollSPONSOREDrex mineralsDavyhurst back producing gold; can it produce a lot more?SPONSOREDora banda miningSolaris Resources on winning streak in EcuadorSPONSOREDsolaris resourcesIt had submitted a request for appeal in January over the negative federal permitting decision issued in...Read More