A declining rebar market in China coupled with elevated prices for scrap have put a squeeze to the profit margins of electric-arc furnace operators in the country since September.Amid a pessimistic outlook for demand and prices, market participants are expecting these EAF operators - which account for close to a third of the supply of the long steel product in China - to cut their output soon.EAF...Read More

Bearish macroeconomic signals and oversupply have put minor metals and ferro-alloys prices variously under pressure over 2019; the structure and terms of contracts agreed over the coming weeks will show how market participants are accounting for those signals ahead of 2020. A slowing global economy alongside uncertainty over the China-United States trade dispute and Brexit have slowed minor metals...Read More

The protracted United States-China trade war has deterred trading in many minor metals for most of 2019, with bismuth in particular taking a hit. The trade dispute between the two largest global economies has directly resulted in the introduction of import tariffs in both China and the US, making it more expensive to trade and causing oversupply because of slower downstream consumption.The US intr...Read More

The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange was higher at the close of trading on Friday October 25, settling above the $5,900 per tonne level for the first time since September amid thin turnover, while zinc futures similarly closed higher. Copper's outright price closed at $5,925 per tonne on Friday, climbing by around 1.2% from its intraday low of $5,862 per tonne and settling at...Read More

The London Metal Exchange has set out its requirements for responsible sourcing, outlining three routes to compliance. The requirements will be underpinned by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) due diligence guidance. The exchange's announcement on Friday October 25 follows the close of a market-wide consultation on June 30 into the introduction of responsible sour...Read More

Seaborne coking coal prices dropped on Friday October 25 to the surprise of some participants following several weeks of robust buying activity from China.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $146.40 per tonne, down $6 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $161.53 per tonne, down $2.54 per tonneHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $129.36 per tonne, down $0.69 per tonne.Hard co...Read More

Copper has attempted to rebound since early September following a marked sell-off in the summer months where macro and fundamental forces have been prevalent.On the macro front, copper has benefited from a slight easing in US-China trade tensions and more monetary policy easing across the globe - including China, where copper consumption is the most exposed - that has shored up investor sentiment....Read More

Diamond-producing countries on the African continent received about $8.1-billion in 2018, or 9.5% of the $85.9-billion worth of revenues generated from the sale of diamond jewellery, and some still may consider that an insufficient share, World Diamond Council (WDC) president Stephane Fischler told delegates attending the Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, Russia, earlier this week.He stressed  t...Read More

ASX-listed Lucapa Diamonds' continued focus on operational and productivity improvements and reductions in operating costs at the Mothae mine, in Lesotho, and the Lulo mine, in Angola, enabled it to deliver robust results for the quarter ended September 30, despite the headwinds facing the diamond sector, MD Stephen Wetherall said on Thursday.“The decline in global rough diamond demand t...Read More

Golden Mile goes back to the futureSPONSOREDgolden mile resourcesProduction from Katanga rose by 13% quarter on quarter to 59,400 tonnes, while a shutdown at one of the copper smelters at Mopani saw output at the mine plummet from 10,300t in Q2 to 1,200t in Q3.Read More

Polymetal building with good momentumSPONSOREDpolymetal internationalMather told the Gold and Alternative Investments Conference in Sydney that SolGold was the "most important company to evolve in the past 10 or 20 years".Read More

Golden Mile goes back to the futureSPONSOREDgolden mile resourcesThat's in addition to the group's 2019-20 spend of $30 million across its Australia and US holdings, with the former looking for a repeat of the miner's highly profitable DeGrussa copper-gold mine in Western Australia's Bryah Basin. Golden Mile goes back to the futureSPONSOREDgolden mile resourcesSimich said the addition of MOD'...Read More

Oriole's deepening footprint in West Africa is paying offSPONSOREDoriole resourcesPoster South Africa mine regeneration on trackSPONSOREDorion mineralsSilver Mines times Bowdens to perfectionSPONSOREDsilver mines limitedAfrica's rising resource nationalism ups stakes for minersSPONSOREDverisk maplecroftTo help it get there, it would eliminate up to 500 permanent jobs, "some of which we exp...Read More

Key data from the pricing sessions in Europe, Asia and the United States for the week ending Friday October 25.China The seaborne manganese ore prices in China continued to fall amid aggressive offer prices and persistently weak market sentiment. Higher grade offer prices fell but liquidity was light indicating many buyers anticipated the market would soften further.   Port-side manganes...Read More

* Lead touches 15-month peak * Copper hits highest in more than a month * GRAPHIC-2019 asset returns: (Updates with closing prices) By Eric Onstad LONDON, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Zinc prices rose on Friday asLondon Metal Exchange inventories touched the lowest level in 12years, though analysts said the higher prices failed to reflectlarge amounts of hidden stock. Inventories in LME-registered warehouse...Read More

The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange was higher at the close of trading on Friday October 25, settling above the $5,900 per tonne level for the first time since September amid thin turnover, while zinc futures similarly closed higher. Copper's outright price closed at $5,925 per tonne on Friday, climbing by around 1.2% from its intraday low of $5,862 per tonne and settling at...Read More

An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their latest price moves.Read More

Stocks of base metals other than nickel in Shanghai Futures Exchange-approved warehouses fell in the week to Friday October 25.Aluminium stocks decreased the most in percentage terms, followed by zinc, lead, copper and tin. Nickel inventories rose marginally.Aluminium stocks fell by 6.8% or 21,629 tonnes in the week of October 21-25 to 294,837 tonnes. The largest outflow in aluminium inventories w...Read More

The widening arbitrage loss and low buying interest weighed on the Shanghai copper cathode premiums in the week ended Friday October 25. Fastmarkets' copper grade A cathode premium, cif Shanghai fell to $68-80 per tonne on Friday, down by $2 from $70-82 per tonne on Thursday and the second straight day of decline. Market participants pointed to a widening arbitrage loss and low buying interes...Read More

Switzerland-based commodity trading and mining company Glencore recorded a year-to-date decrease in copper and nickel production for the third quarter of 2019, while zinc production increased.Copper and nickel production for the first nine months of 2019 fell by 4% and 2% respectively compared with the corresponding period of 2018, while zinc output increased by 3% over the same period. Glencore's...Read More