Oil prices are trading lower in pre-market actionDow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) futures are trading cautiously above fair value ahead of the final day of the Fed meeting. While next to no one is expecting an interest rate hike, investors are still keen to hear economic projections from Fed Chair Jerome Powell at a 2:30 p.m. ET press conference. U.S.-China trade talks remain in focus, too, esp...Read More

A new ?165 million (about $218 million) coal mine, Woodhouse Colliery, has been unanimously approved by councillors in the county of Cumbria, in northwest England. The mine promises hundreds of jobs, but also protests by environmental activists.West Cumbria Mining plans to open the country's first new deep coal mine next to the site of the former Hag colliery in Whitehaven, which closed down t...Read More

Gas and iron ore operations on Australia's west coast are bracing for an approaching cyclone just as a severe storm in the nation's northeast dumps heavy rain on Rio Tinto Group's biggest bauxite mine.Tropical cyclone Veronica is 545 kilometers (339 miles) north of Port Hedland, a key export point for Western Australia's iron ore shipments. The storm is forecast to intensify as it moves closer to...Read More

South Africa's labour court ruled on Wednesday that the extension of a wage agreement to cover all gold unions and non-unionised employees of mining group Sibanye-Stillwater is valid and lawful, the miner said.Sibanye had in December extended the agreement, reached the previous month with the National Union of Mineworkers, UASA and Solidarity, to all employees at its South African gold operations,...Read More

South Africa's labour court ruled on Wednesday that the extension of a wage agreement to cover all gold unions and non-unionised employees of mining group Sibanye-Stillwater is valid and lawful, the miner said.Sibanye had in December extended the agreement, reached the previous month with the National Union of Mineworkers, UASA and Solidarity, to all employees at its South African gold operations,...Read More

Gold prices have managed to achieve a rebound from the sub-$1,290 levels seen earlier this month to challenge $1,305 at the time of writing. What can be watched as a potential positive driver for Gold over the coming trading sessions is that risk-off sentiment appears to be creeping back into the markets, amid reports that China is pushing back against the United States in trade negotiations. The...Read More

* GRAPHIC-2019 asset returns: (Updates with closing prices)By Eric OnstadLONDON, March 20 (Reuters) - Zinc prices rose on Wednesdayas inventories in London Metal Exchange warehouses hit freshlows, but other industrial metals dipped on uncertainty overglobal demand.Low inventories of many metals in LME-registered warehousesare helping to bolster prices despite weak economic data fromtop metals cons...Read More

Zinc prices climbed to $2,845 a tonne on Wednesday after data showed LME warehouses now hold little over 58,000 tonnes of the metal; less than two days' worth of global consumption.Inventories are down 55% this year and are on course to arrive at levels last seen in 1990. Zinc stocks peaked in 2012 at the height of the commodities boom, reaching 1.2 million tonnes.Inventories held by the Shanghai...Read More

Energy and resources open innovation platform Unearthed joined forces with Adelaide-based OZ Minerals to launch the Explorer Challenge, a competition that brings together data scientists, geoscientists and mining professionals to create machine learning-based mining solutions.Competitors who achieve the goal of predicting the next big mineral deposit in South Australia using real geoscientific dat...Read More

Energy and resources open innovation platform Unearthed joined forces with Adelaide-based OZ Minerals to launch the Explorer Challenge, a competition that brings together data scientists, geoscientists and mining professionals to create machine learning-based mining solutions.Competitors who achieve the goal of predicting the next big mineral deposit in South Australia using real geoscientific dat...Read More

Energy and resources open innovation platform Unearthed joined forces with Adelaide-based OZ Minerals to launch the Explorer Challenge, a competition that brings together data scientists, geoscientists and mining professionals to create machine learning-based mining solutions.Competitors who achieve the goal of predicting the next big mineral deposit in South Australia using real geoscientific dat...Read More

Researchers at Australia's Curtin University announced that they are working on a project to develop a new fingerprinting tool capable of delving deeper into the Earth's rock layers.In a press release, the scientists said the mechanism promises to be crucial for the country's mining and petroleum sectors because it will enhance their understanding of the Earth's sedimentary rocks.Northern Star Res...Read More

Researchers at Australia's Curtin University announced that they are working on a project to develop a new fingerprinting tool capable of delving deeper into the Earth's rock layers.In a press release, the scientists said the mechanism promises to be crucial for the country's mining and petroleum sectors because it will enhance their understanding of the Earth's sedimentary rocks.Northern Star Res...Read More

South Africa's Petra Diamonds (LON:PDL) is keeping founder Adonis Pouroulis as chairman, despite some shareholders voting against his renewal at the 2018 annual general meeting.The company, which last month appointed former gold miner Richard Duffy as chief executive effective in April, said the appointment of a new chair was "not appropriate" at this time.Petra said the board and nomination comm...Read More

South Africa's Petra Diamonds (LON:PDL) is keeping founder Adonis Pouroulis as chairman, despite some shareholders voting against his renewal at the 2018 annual general meeting.The company, which last month appointed former gold miner Richard Duffy as chief executive effective in April, said the appointment of a new chair was "not appropriate" at this time.Petra said the board and nomination comm...Read More

Cigarette stocks have been among the best option plays latelyThe Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) is down nearly 50% from the beginning of the year. It's the biggest year-to-date drop at this point in the year in the history of the "fear index" (data back to 1990). In other words, volatility expectations are way down since the beginning of 2019. This is good news for options traders, because it means o...Read More

* FTSE 100 down 0.5 pct * FTSE 250 down 0.8 pct * Financials, housebuilders slip after Brexit delay request * Miners fall on oversupply concerns * Kingfisher down after results, CEO change plan * Inmarsat jumps on go-private talks * Kier skids after results, dividend cut (Adds news items, analyst comment, updates to closing prices)By Shashwat Awasthi and Yadarisa ShabongMarch 20 (Reuters) - Financ...Read More

"One of last year's best-performing hedge funds says the "trade of the century" is to buy gold and sell stocks https://t.co/b5C8ytrbEA via @markets"Read full newsRead More

"One of last year's best-performing hedge funds says the "trade of the century" is to buy gold and sell stocks https://t.co/b5C8ytrbEA via @markets"Read full newsRead More

With the Fed expected to leave interest rates unchanged at its meeting today, short of a surprise hawkish approach towards inflation, we suspect factors other than changes in monetary policy will be driving gold stocks for the foreseeable future. With that in mind, we thought our comments contained in the March Top 20 Gold Stock report remain timely for investors.One of the themes we continue to...Read More