(Kitco News) - The beginning stages of a new relationship between bitcoin and gold have been discovered by RBC Capital Markets.The correlation is described as a “marginal[ly] negative” one by Christopher Louney, commodity strategist at RBC Capital Markets.“When we saw interest in bitcoin peak [in December], as measured by Google Trends, that is when we noticed this marginal negat...Read More
Say what you will about the underlying causes moving gold lower or higher, but the bottom line and the real truth is that dollar weakness or dollar strength is an unremovable component of gold pricing, not an outside market.While it is an entirely fair statement to say that there are external markets that are influencing gold prices, one of the most significant factors both during the last rally a...Read More
(Kitco News) - Gold and silver prices ended the U.S. day session solidly lower Wednesday, with gold hitting a four-week bottom and silver a six-week low. Fully bearish “outside markets” were behind the selling pressure in the precious metals today, as the U.S. dollar index rallied sharply and crude oil prices were solidly lower and hit a five-week low. April Comex gold futures were las...Read More
(Kitco News) - Equity markets continue to recover from Monday’s flash crash and while volatility is back, it would take a much bigger correction to boost gold and precious-metals prices on a safe-haven trade, according to one commodity analyst.In a telephone interview with Kitco News, Martin Murenbeeld, president of Murenbeeld & Co., said that while the drop in equity markets was shockin...Read More
(Kitco News) - Gold would face some cross-currents from rising inflation expectations, benefitting as an inflation hedge but also facing potential selling as Treasury yields rise, says Mitsubishi in a weekly report on precious metals. Meanwhile, strategist Jonathan Butler points out that palladium’s premium over platinum is slowly disappearing. Global equities sold off sharply at the start o...Read More
Editor's Note: Welcome to Kitco's new Bitcoin Daily Technical Alert. Every trading day veteran Kitco technical analyst Jim Wyckoff will provide you with a concise and easy-to-understand near-term technical brief on Bitcoin. Importantly, Jim will glean the short-term charts and technical studies, and then alert you to the signals he sees regarding upcoming potential bigger price moves or price tren...Read More
(Kitco News) - Gold continues to experience pressure as investors generate liquidity in the wake of the global equity shakeout. The bounce in equity valuations yesterday was actually a negative for gold prices, as investors assumed the recent drop was merely a retracement, as with past sell-offs, and jumped back into the equity space. Gold, a proxy for liquidity, came under selling pressure as inv...Read More
(Kitco News) - Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE, TSX: ABX) says it will take a pre-tax $429 million impairment charge for the fourth quarter due to a reclassification of reserves at its Pascua-Lama project located on the border between Argentina and Chile.Last month, Chile’s Superintendencia del Medio Ambiente ordered the closure of existing infrastructure on the Chilean side of the project as part...Read More
The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Wednesday February 7.Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange closed the day lower across the board on Tuesday February 6, with nickel's 2.4% decline leading the charge. Read more in our live futures report. Here are how LME prices looked at Tuesday's close:Meanwhile, Comex copper prices were pulled lower on Tuesday by a combination...Read More
The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Wednesday February 7.Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange closed the day lower across the board on Tuesday February 6, with nickel's 2.4% decline leading the charge. Read more in our live futures report. Here are how LME prices looked at Tuesday's close:Meanwhile, Comex copper prices were pulled lower on Tuesday by a combination...Read More
The heads of mining companies should not be complacent about higher prices and need to continue to run their operations as efficiently as possible, the chief executive officer of Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) told Metal Bulletin. Steve Din said during an interview on the sidelines of the Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town, South Africa that the mining sector must avoid a tendency to become exubera...Read More
Copper premiums in the United States and China were broadly unchanged over the past week, while those in northern Europe softened amid lower offer prices from sellers. Lower offer prices sink northern European premiumsUS copper premium steady, potential near-term rise eyedShanghai premiums broadly flat ahead of Lunar New Year holidays Copper premiums eased lower in northern Europe this past...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange plunged at the 5pm ring close on Wednesday February 7 amid a strong recovery in the dollar leading to copper prices plummeting 2.4%. The three-month copper price declined $196 to close below $7,000 per tonne, hitting a new 2018 low and the lowest since December 19, 2017. "The open of the Chinese night session and Comex saw renewed pressure across the...Read More
Tungsten miner Almonty Industries reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) for the three months ended September 31, 2017, that were the same as in the previous quarter, at C$2.88 million ($2.31 million).This was a significant increase from earnings of C$951,000 recorded in January-March, which was the second quarter of Almonty's financial year, the Canada-ba...Read More
Yilmaden Holding has sent a team of senior representatives to Mining Indaba to secure investment opportunities in markets including cobalt, vanadium and molybdenum. The company, a subsidiary of Turkish industrial conglomerate Yildirim Group, is looking for diversification opportunities in Central Asia, Africa and South America. The group already owns chrome assets in Turkey, Sweden, Russia and Kaz...Read More
Nyrstar, the world's second largest zinc smelter, has filed an arbitration request to the operator of Century Zinc mine to enforce "long-standing Life of Mine agreements" for the offtake of zinc concentrates, the company told Metal Bulletin. The dispute centers on a life of mine offtake agreement Nyrstar had for concentrate from the Century mine in Australia, recently revived via tailings reproces...Read More
Trading houses Transamine and Mercuria have entered into long-term offtake agreements for zinc concentrates from the Century zinc mine, beating competition from nine other parties, operator New Century Resources said on Wednesday February 7. The two traders will take an estimated total of 750,000 tonnes of 54% zinc concentrates from the project at floating spot market terms, half of the 1.5 millio...Read More
An overview of the minor metals markets and the reasons for any price moves. Read More
Ivanhoe Mines will meet the higher taxes and royalty requirements expected to be introduced by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) provided it is counterbalanced by stability and transparency into how the additional revenues are spent, the company's executive chairman said. Local communities must benefit from mining revenues in the manner that was intended at the outset of projects, Robert Frie...Read More
The Turkish steel mills stayed out of the scrap markets on Wednesday February 7, making no deep-sea bookings, but were still expected by market sources to book more cargoes for March.There were rumors of a European cargo being sold at $340-342 per tonne cfr for HMS 1&2 (80:20), but the supplier denied this."I heard the same rumor but it is not correct," the supplier source said....Read More