Stable contangoes on the London Metal Exchange helped push the Rotterdam duty-unpaid aluminium premium to its highest since June 28, 2018.Fastmarkets assessed the benchmark Rotterdam P1020 premium at a near 10-month high of $87-97 per tonne Monday April 1, up $2 per tonne from last Friday's assessment of $85-95 per tonne. Multiple deals were reported on Monday at premiums of $90-100 per tonne, whi...Read More

Based on initial research and a consultation among market participants, Fastmarkets proposes to launch a weekly assessment of electrolytic manganese flake, 99.7% basis, fob China, $/tonne. The introduction of the price will expand Fastmarkets' current price coverage for electrolytic manganese flake, which tracks the Chinese manganese flake market on a regular basis. The proposed new assessment wil...Read More

Brazilian miner Vale's revenue from its cobalt business rose in 2018 despite reduced sales thanks to high cobalt prices, according to its production results released on Wednesday March 27. Vale's cobalt sales volumes totaled 4,974 tonnes in 2018, down from 5,013 tonnes a year before. But cobalt revenues were higher year on year at $313 million last year compared with $258 million in 2017. Cobalt p...Read More

The threshold for electric vehicles (EVs) to receive subsidies in 2019 has been increased again while the value of subsidies has been cut sharply, which was expected by the majority of market participants who are now cautiously checking the resulting impact on the battery supply chain.Subsidies for EVs with a driving range below 250km will be phased out after a transitional period between March 26...Read More

Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were slightly firmer during morning trading on Tuesday April 2, up by an average of 0.2% but still down from Monday's highs.Nickel once again led the way with a 0.5% rise, this after a 0.9% rise on Monday, with the metal's three-month price recently quoted at $13,180 per tonne, up from Monday's close at $13,115 per tonne.Copper, aluminium...Read More

Since exploration began in August 2017 at its Soledad copper-gold-silver project in Peru, Chakana Copper (TSXV: PERU; US-OTC: CHKKF) has drilled four of 17 confirmed breccia pipes, pinpointed another 12 targets, and tripled its land position in the district to 31 square kilometres.The company drilled 25,200 metres in 94 holes in its first round of exploration at the project, 260 km northwest of Li...Read More

Stop me if you've heard this before. Precious Metals disappointed again.The miners were leading the metals but the metals broke down from bear flag patterns and that took the miners lower, suggesting an interim top is in place.The technicals suggest weakness could be ahead for the sector but the fundamentals are finally turning bullish.Before we get to fundamentals, let's look at the technicals. T...Read More

Saving for retirement with a well-diversified RRSP portfolio will enable your financial goals to come to life under different economic scenarios, as the benefits of diversification work their magic.One sector that is a safe, diversifying anchor in a portfolio is the gold sector.The U.S. dollar is strongly correlated to movements in gold prices. As the U.S. dollar rises, the price of gold falls, as...Read More

The following three TSX index energy stocks have questionable value at the moment from market ratios that are slightly too high to a lack of data that makes inherent value hard to analyze. However, from uranium to big-name utilities, these stocks are worth holding in a portfolio based on other aspects of their data, from strong track records to positive outlooks.Cameco (TSX:CCO)(NYSE:CCJ)This uran...Read More

Stop me if you've heard this before. Precious Metals disappointed again.The miners were leading the metals but the metals broke down from bear flag patterns and that took the miners lower, suggesting an interim top is in place.The technicals suggest weakness could be ahead for the sector but the fundamentals are finally turning bullish.Before we get to fundamentals, let's look at the technicals. T...Read More

The stock market has been rising relentlessly since Christmas, riding on a crest of increasingly bearish economic reports. Maybe the hedge fund algos are anticipating that the Fed will soon start cutting rates. Data indicates foreigners and retail investors are pulling cash from U.S. stocks. This for me implies that the market is being pushed higher by hedge fund computer algos reacting to any bul...Read More

He decided his best recourse would be to wind down its activities and return the funds under management to its investors.Read More

However RBC analyst Tyler Broda noted Vale's ability to draw down on stockpiles and tipped the Brazil-based miner would ship more tonnes into the seaborne market this year than in 2018, also pointing to the iron ore price easing. The benchmark 62% fines iron ore price is returning towards a record high due to recently-announced supply constraints, rising above US$90/t again yesterday to $90.1...Read More

Kirk WoodmanThe Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claims to have kidnapped and killed Canadian geologist Kirk Woodman while he was working in Burkina Faso, West Africa, according to published reports.Woodman's body was found on January 16, 2019, two days after his abduction by a dozen gunmen at a mining site operated by privately owned Vancouver company Progress Minerals.A report by Reuters n...Read More

The First Cobalt Refinery near the town of Cobalt, northeastern Ontario. Source: First Cobalt Corp.First Cobalt Corp. [FCC-TSXV; FTSSF-OTCQB; FCC-ASX) shares rallied sharply Wednesday April 3 after the company said it has successfully produced a battery grade cobalt suflate.The company said it achieved this result by using the First Cobalt Refinery flowsheet, a milestone that brings the company cl...Read More

Alamos Gold's 100%-owned Mulatos gold mine located 220 km east of Hermosillo, Sonora State, Mexico. Source: Alamos Gold Inc.Alamos Gold Inc. [AGI-TSX, NYSE] said Wednesday April 3 that its Mulatos Mine in Mexico produced its two millionth ounce of gold in March 2019. This milestone marks the end of the 5% net smelter royalty, representing a saving of approximately $65 per ounce at the current gold...Read More

Every young Saudi prince knows the story.The source of their family's oil wealth starts back during the 1930s, when a small group of wildcatters drilled the Dammam No. 1 well.It was the first oil well ever drilled in Saudi Arabia.And it turned out to be a dud.So was the next. And the next. And the next.You get the point.For these early drillers, the seventh time was the charm.On December 7, 1936,...Read More

You will recall that last Wednesday a warning was posted before the open that gold was about to break sharply lower from a bear Flag, which it did the very next day, so you had a full day of trading to prepare, either by exiting positions, placing stops or purchasing inverse ETFs or Puts, and I was pleased to learn that some of you did just that. As we can see on gold's latest 8-month chart bel...Read More

By: Ira Epstein Read More

Bitcoin's sharp rally on Tuesday was being described by some as a 'mystery surge', but it is no mystery at all for anyone who has seen the film Night of the Living Dead. Buffs may recall that the movie's flesh-eating zombies were activated by radioactive contamination from an exploding space probe that had visited Venus. Although no similar explosion has been reported by NASA, it seems entirely...Read More