For years, currency analysts (myself included) have looked for signs of an international monetary "reset" that would diminish the dollar's role as the leading reserve currency and replace it with a substitute, which would be agreed upon at some Bretton Woods-style monetary conference.Now, it looks like the move towards the long-expected Great Reset is accelerating.At the recent G7 summit in the UK...Read More

I've written for years about different nations' persistent efforts to dethrone the U.S. dollar as the leading global reserve currency and the main medium of exchange.At the same time, I've said that such processes don't happen overnight; instead, they happen slowly and incrementally over decades.The dollar displaced sterling as the leading reserve currency in the twentieth century, but it took t...Read More

Since the word inflation is so loaded, let’s use the more neutral (and more accurate) term, decline in purchasing power: an hour of your labor buys fewer goods and services of lesser quality than it did a decade ago or a generation ago.While the conventional discussion focuses on monetary inflation, i.e. expansion of money supply, the real rip-your-face-off sources have nothing to do with mo...Read More

The biggest financial story today is fear of inflation. Inflation has spooked the bond market and raised expectations that the Fed will soon have to raise interest rates to fight inflation. Any increase in rates will also hurt stocks because stocks and bonds compete for investor dollars. If yields on bonds go up, prices on stocks will go down.Growth stocks, like many leading tech stocks, are espec...Read More

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The market has thrown in with the Federal Reserve - it expects inflation to prove "transitory."May's consumer price index came issuing from the Department of Labor this morning.In the technical vernacular, May's numbers came in "hot" - 5% - the greatest scorching in 13 years. CNBC:The consumer price index, which represents a basket including food, energy, groceries, housing costs and sales across...Read More

Join Fastmarkets and the London Metal Exchange on Tuesday June 29 for a webinar about European aluminium premiums ahead of the launch of the LME's new cash-settled futures contract.The LME will launch its new European duty-paid aluminium premium cash-settled contract on July 19, which is settled against Fastmarkets' benchmark aluminium P1020A premium, in-whs dp Rotterdam.The LME previously la...Read More

Hot-rolled coil prices across China's domestic market continued to move lower on Tuesday June 22, while futures prices extended their decline, sources said.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 5,270-5,310 yuan ($815-821) per tonne, down by 90-120 yuan per tonne.The most-traded HRC contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange slipped in morning trade, approaching a four-week low of 5,070 yuan per tonne i...Read More

China's domestic rebar prices tumbled further on Tuesday June 22 on weakening demand caused by falling futures.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 4,800-4,840 yuan ($743-749) per tonne, down by 80 yuan per tonne The October rebar futures contract traded below Monday's settlement price of 4,991 yuan per tonne throughout Tuesday, which kept the spot market bearish.Buyers booked limited quantities and...Read More

The Cobalt alloy grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lbtrade log including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets publishes trades logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparencyinto the markets it covers and the pricing process it applies.Fastmarkets assessed Cobalt alloy grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb at 20.85-21.50 on Tuesday June 22,...Read More

The Cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb trade log including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets publishes trades logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparencyinto the markets it covers and the pricing process it applies.Fastmarkets assessed Cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb at 20.80-21.50 on Tuesday June 22,...Read More

Miners China Moly and IX Metal have joined Glencore and Huayou's Fair Cobalt Alliance (FCA), a body whose aim is to professionalize the artisanal mining sector in the global heartland of cobalt production - the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)."[Because we are] a large industrial miner that maintains strict product control and custody procedures, artisanal and small-scale mining [ASM] sits outsi...Read More

A summary of China's battery raw materials exports for May 2021.In brief Exports of cobalt tetroxide fell in May amid falling downstream demand for batteries used in consumer electronics outside of China as a result of a lack of semi-conductor chips and a resurgence...Read More

A summary of China's battery raw materials imports for May 2021.In brief Imports of cobalt intermediates declined from April amid logistical disruptions while buying appetite thinned compared with the first quarter due to falling downstream cobalt salts prices.Imports of cobalt metal slightly decreased on a month-on-month basis but almost doubled year on year, with cargoes booked via short-term co...Read More

The preliminary economic assessment for the Casino copper-gold-molybdenum project is positive, says owner Western Copper and Gold (TSX: WRN; NYSE: WRN). The PEA considered an open pit mine, a 120,000-tonne-per-day concentrator, and a 25,000tonne-per-day gold heap leach facility.The study forecast an after-tax net present value (at an 8% discount rate) of $2.3 billion and an after-tax internal rate...Read More

Nexus Gold (TSXV: NXS; US-OTC: NXXGF) has released the first assays from a recently completed diamond drill program at its 100%-owned Dakouli 2 gold project in central Burkina Faso, about 100 km north of the capital Ouagadougou.Highlights included drillhole DK-21-DD-001, which intersected 23 metres grading 0.95 gram gold per tonne starting from 112 metres, including 15 metres of 1.01 grams gold....Read More

Labrador Gold (TSXV: LAB; US-OTC: NKOSF) has reported the highest gold intercept to date at its Kingsway project in the central Newfoundland gold belt, about 18 km northwest of Gander.Drillhole K-21-17, a 30-metre step out to the northeast, intersected 1.85 metres grading 50.38 grams gold per tonne starting from 71.85 metres, including 0.55 metres of 160.42 grams gold.Drilled on the Big vein, K-...Read More

This week's episode features Ken Hoffman, senior expert for McKinsey's Basic Materials Institute (BMI), in conversation with Mining.com executive editor Frik Els at the Global Mining Symposium. Ken discusses the nickel market in-depth, and how battery makers, particularly in the West, are increasingly concerned about how they can secure a steady, ESG-friendly nickel supply over the coming decade.K...Read More

German carmaker BMW has set up a closed-loop material cycle for production tools made of tungsten, it said.Starting in June, BMW will begin collecting secondary tungsten obtained from old drill and milling bits at its plants in Germany and Austria that will be recycled and used to manufacture new industrial machinery.These BMW plants generate almost nine tonnes per year of scrap from carbide tools...Read More

A new strategic partnership on raw materials has been announced between Canada and the European Union. This follows the June 14 summit in Brussels between Ursula von der Leyen (President of the European Commission) and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The leaders also reaffirmed their ambitious commitments on fighting climate change and protecting the environment.The mining industry in Cana...Read More