Access our research platformsSign-in to our platforms to access our extensive research, our latest insight, data and analytics and to connect to our industry experts.2020 will see lead transition into a market surplus after several years of significant deficit, according to Wood Mackenzie.Despite total exchange stocks of refined metal remaining near historical lows, softening demand has damaged se...Read More

Access our research platformsSign-in to our platforms to access our extensive research, our latest insight, data and analytics and to connect to our industry experts.India's renewables target of 175 GW capacity (100 GW of solar and 75 GW of wind) by 2022 is an ambitious endeavour. Even with significant cost declines, Wood Mackenzie expects about 76% of the target to be met by 2022 and this would s...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Diamond trading halls in Antwerp, Belgium, and Ramat Gan, Israel, have closed because of coronavirus restrictions.Trading halls at The Israel Diamond Exchange, with 15,000 employees, are subject to new rules announced on Saturday against gatherings of more than 10 people.Restaurants, the gym, and smoking rooms at the secure complex, known as The Bursa, will also close, although the...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The Royal Canadian Mint has produced the world's first diamond-shaped coin.It has a face value of CA$50, but is being sold to collectors for CA$1,499.95 in a limited edition of 700.The "coin" is made from 3oz of pure, matte-finished silver set with a 0.20-carat square-cut Forevermark Black Label diamond, mined at the Victor Mine, in Northern Ontario, before it closed in 2019.I...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A diamond merchant has been locked in an 11-year battle to recover uncut gems seized at a Canadian border post, according to the daily National Post newspaper.Tamba Thomas, from Australia, was found to have a plastic bag containing 28.13 carats of "forgotten" rough diamonds in his backpack as he crossed from the USA to Canada at Lacolle, Quebec, in November 2009.He had Kimberley pa...Read More

The world needs to limit global temperature increases to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius by the end of this century to avoid devastating climate change, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations body that provides policymakers with scientific information about climate change.Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 are now well over 400 parts per million and global em...Read More

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"#AustralianMines develops world-class #Cobalt-Nickel-Scandium Projects in Australia to meet the surging demand for ethically sourced #battery materials created by the global shift to cleaner, more #sustainable #energy solutions.Meet them at #MJSSydney on 23-24 March 2020!"Read full newsRead More

Gold prices have been rallying for a few months now. As a result, gold miner stocks have exhibited handsome movement. However, if you are worried about missing the rally, it’s still not too late. Contract drilling services company Major Drilling Group (TSX:MDI) has shown sustained weakness in the last few months. Interestingly, upbeat yellow metal prices could uplift this drilling services c...Read More

The three C’s we’re looking at today are copper, contrarians and crash. Is there a thesis for buying and holding the red metal during a stock market crash?Let’s explore the options for copper stocks as the bear market finally returns.Copper is a bellwether for the economyEffective today, the Bank of Canada just cut the interest rate for the second time this month. It wasn’t...Read More

The newly launched Prospector platform uses technology to increase access to information and capital for the mining industry.Its software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline publicly available technical information.Founded by Emily King, a geologist and entrepreneur, Prospector is the result of a development partnership between her consultancy, Glo...Read More

"You're going to jail or you're going to die."These were the options facing John Dawson Jr. in 2012. He was a marijuana dealer, swamped in debt and wondering what to do with his life. He was down and out.In what seems like divine providence, he met a businessman in Iowa who told him those very words. But then the businessman gave him a third option..."Let's start you a business."John went with doo...Read More

A historic headframe at Maple Gold Mines' Douay gold property in northern Quebec. Credit: Maple Gold Mines. An induced polarization (IP) survey completed at Maple Gold's 355-sq.-km Douay gold project in Quebec has expanded the 531 Zone target area and identified a new and undrilled target over 600 metres of strike. In addition, one of two holes drilled to deepen a hole from 2019 intercepted a h...Read More

Minsur operations (Credit: Tomra) With a rise in chrome demand driven by China's stainless steel industry, South Africa, the world's leading producer of chrome and ferrochrome, is struggling with rising costs at its operations as larger-scale mines are developed. These larger operations are less selective and produce marginal lower-grade material due to dilution of the orebody, which in turn incr...Read More

Image courtesy of CNNC Copper prices plunged on Monday after China released a set of economic data showing the deepest declines on record for industrial production and fixed asset investment.Copper trading in New York fell by more than 5% on Monday to a low of $2.335 a pound ($5,150 a tonne), the lowest since early November 2016. The copper price is also down 19% from its 2020 high, struck near t...Read More

Veladero, one of the largest gold mines in Argentina. (Image: Antonio Gritta | Wikimedia Commons) Barrick Gold announced Monday that the life of its jointly owned Veladero mine in San Juan, Argentina has been extended to at least 10 years following a comprehensive review of its strategy and business plan.In a media briefing conducted via video conferencing to comply with the Covid-19 related trav...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday March 16 that are worth another look.A sharp decline in market sentiment, linked to the spread of the coronavirus (2019-nCoV), has halted activity and reduced prices in the Japanese construction steel sector, steelmaker Tokyo Steel said.Rio Tinto has slowed work on the underground project at its Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine in Mongol...Read More

A key challenge for US primary aluminium production facilities is the high cost of electricity, which trade restrictions measures such as Section 232 do nothing to alleviate, according to a senior lawyer and former commissioner and vice chairman of the US International Trade Commission.According to Dean Pinkert, senior counsel at New York-based law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed, trade measures are of...Read More

The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange continued its descent at the close of trading on Monday March 16, settling at its lowest level since November 2016 after breaching key support levels throughout the day.The rest of the base metals complex similarly depreciated over the day's trading.Copper's outright price on the LME closed at $5,290.50 per tonne on Monday afternoon, l...Read More

Bob Moriarty ArchivesMar 16, 2020We have sailed off the map of the known world into totally uncharted waters. No one, including me, knows exactly where we are or where we are headed. Buthic sunt draconesis an excellent warning, here be dragons. If I was still flying and needed to give a brief to my passengers, I’d be saying, “I have some good news and some bad news. First the bad news....Read More