The LME three-month copper price was higher at the close on Tuesday June 9, breaching nearby resistance at $5,700 per tonne against strong turnover, while selling pressure saw nickel futures fail to finish above $13,000 per tonne. Copper's outright price on the London Metal Exchange closed at $5,774 per tonne on Tuesday afternoon, climbing from an intraday low of $5,676 per tonne, while turno...Read More

Brazilian base metals producer Nexa Resources will reopen part of its zinc, lead and silver Atacocha unit in Peru following a local decree that regulated medium-sized mining companies can return from a Covid-19 quarantine, the company said on Monday June 8. Open-pit mine San Gerardo, part of the Atacocha unit, is expected to resume operations in mid-June, Nexa said. However, the Atacocha undergrou...Read More

RAPAPORT... BlueRock Diamonds has sold a parcel of rough for $700,000 in a private sale, noting that the average realized price was approximately 15% below pre-pandemic levels.The miner sold 2,400 carats from its Kareevlei mine in South Africa at an average price of $290 per carat, the miner said Monday. In the fourth quarter of 2019, the company's rough garnered an average price of $410 per...Read More

RAPAPORT... Signet Jewelers' net loss increased to $190.4 million in the first fiscal quarter as the company closed all its stores for most of the period due to the coronavirus pandemic.That figure compares with a loss of $10 million during the same period a year ago, the retailer, which owns Kay, Jared and Zales, reported Tuesday. The company began closing locations in late March.Revenue dec...Read More

RAPAPORT... Tiffany & Co. reported a strong rebound in its operations in mainland China during April and May, after Covid-19 lockdowns resulted in heavy first-quarter losses for the jeweler. "While sales in key markets like the US and Japan were down significantly during the first quarter, our business performance in mainland China, which was the first market impacted by the virus, is ind...Read More

The London Metal Exchange three-month nickel price declined in the morning on Tuesday June 9, with its price falling from a morning low of $13,100 per tonne, while a sizable delivery of 10,000 tonnes of zinc ingots into LME-registered warehouses pressured the galvanizing metal's underlying price.LME nickel's outright price was recently at $12,880 per tonne, down by over $200 per tonne from a spike...Read More

RAPAPORT... Angola plans to create a diamond hub and exchange to help streamline sales and marketing of the rough the country produces.The hub will include an Angolan Diamond Bourse (ADB), a gemological academy and a technological research center. It will be located within a free-trade zone, Angola's Ministry of Mineral Resources and Petroleum (MIREMPET) said Monday. Angola is one of the worl...Read More

Despite a mixed picture this morning, Tuesday June 9, generally strong uptrends are underway in most of the base metals. The exception is the infrastructure heavy-weight zinc, although the galvanizing metal is also widely used in the auto industry, which may be why it is lagging behind. Asian-Pacific equities are for the most part stronger this morning, led by a 2.53% gain in the Australian ASX 20...Read More

RAPAPORT... Mountain Province plans to sell $50 million worth of rough diamonds to an entity owned by one of its major shareholders, generating liquidity amid weak prices.The first sale of $22 million in diamonds to Dunebridge Worldwide will take place on June 11, Mountain Province said Monday. The deal will enable the miner to sell its run-of-mine goods - under 10.8 carats - at the current m...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Angola is to establish a national bourse and diamond hub as it seeks to consolidate its position as a player on the world market.It's currently the sixth biggest diamond producer but has yet to explore 60 per cent of its potential kimberlite reserves.The government believes it could actually increase its rough production as other countries see theirs decline."The main ambition...Read More

US hot-rolled coil prices continue to notch steady gains, and the next test is whether tags can remain on firm ground as idled furnaces restart, some market participants said.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $25.98 per hundredweight ($519.60 per ton) on Tuesday June 9, up 0.4% from $25.88 per cwt on Monday and up 3.5% from $25.10 per cwt a week ago on J...Read More

(IDEX Online) - British miner BlueRock says COVID-19 knocked 15 per cent off the price of rough diamonds sold from its Kareevlei mine, in South Africa.The company yesterday announced the private sale of 2,400 carats for a total of $700,000, averaging $290 a carat."The parcel sold did not contain any notable high value diamonds and therefore the price achieved is approximately 15% below what we wou...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A court in India has approved the confiscation of assets owned by billionaire diamantaire Nirav Modi.It's the first time new powers to seize have been exercised since the country's Fugitive Economic Offenders Act came in to force two years ago.Modi, 49, (pictured) is currently in prison in London, fighting extradition to India, where he is accused of defrauding the Punjab...Read More

The export market for flat steel products from the Commonwealth of Independent States improved during the week to Tuesday June, 9 on strong iron ore prices and increasing demand from Asia. Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel hot-rolled coil, export, fob Black Sea, CIS, was $395-410 per tonne on Tuesday, up from $365-375 per tonne on January 1."Offers, and the market...Read More

CIS rebar and wire rod producers increased offers in the first half of June, supported by strengthening import scrap prices in Turkey as well as increased finished long steel prices. The Turkish market is considered indicative of price momentum because the country is one of the world's major scrap importers and long steel exporters. Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix...Read More

Export slab prices from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) continued to strengthen over the week to June 9, while suppliers managed to win higher sales prices, sources said.One large cargo of Ukrainian material was reported sold to Turkey slightly above $370 per tonne cfr, which would be equivalent to $360 per tonne fob Black Sea, Fastmarkets learned.Initial offers from the supplier were...Read More

The prices for steel rebar in the United Arab Emirates remained stable over the past week, but market sources expect it to increase soon because of rising raw material prices, Fastmarkets heard on Tuesday June 9.Fastmarkets' daily index for 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao was $104.60 per tonne on June 9, rising from $101.32 per tonne on June 2.Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix...Read More

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Ferrous scrap exports from the United States declined by 15.6% month on month in April due to shipments to Turkey nearly halving compared with March volumes, according to latest figures from the US Census Bureau.US exports of ferrous scrap totaled 1,190,118 tonnes in April, down by 219,871 tonnes compared with 1,409,989 tonnes in March and 1,436,500 tonnes in February.Shipments to Turkey, which fe...Read More

Ferrous scrap prices in Mexico remained largely sideways this week in the steelmaking regions of Monterrey and Bajio as manufacturing activity began to resume with the easing of Covid-19-related restrictions.Fastmarkets assessed the steel scrap No1 busheling, consumer buying price, delivered mill Monterrey unchanged at 6,100 pesos ($279) per tonne on Tuesday June 9, while the steel scrap No1 heavy...Read More