Stock markets are forever cyclical, an endless series of alternating bulls and bears. And after one of the greatest bulls in U.S. history, odds are a young bear is now gathering steam. It is being fueled by record Fed tightening, bubble valuations, trade wars, and mounting political turmoil. Bears are dangerous events driving catastrophic losses for buy-and-hold investors. Different strate...Read More
SANTIAGO - Chilean miner Collahuasi, owned by Anglo American Plc and Glencore Plc, has applied for an environmental permit to extend the life of its deposit with an estimated $3.2 billion investment, the company said on Thursday.The project at Collahuasi, one of the world's largest copper mines with an estimated 2018 production of 545,000 tonnes, will upgrade operations to improve efficiency and p...Read More
Coups, rebel conquests, assassin's bullets - they've all ended presidencies in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This weekend, the vast central African nation is banking on a new method: the ballot box.With three main candidates vying to replace Congo's long-serving leader, Joseph Kabila, Sunday's elections could lead to the mineral-rich country's first transfer of power through voting since indep...Read More
Weary investors who endured the September and October stock market "crash season" felt they should be richly rewarded for their incredible patience... with a wondrous Santa Claus rallyPlease click here now. The traditional Santa Claus rally has morphed into a hideous Santa Claws mauling of millions of US stock market price chasers. It's a gruesome sight. The good news, clearly, is that my p...Read More
After a strong start to 2018, the value of the world's largest mining stocks began turning down well before summer as worries about a China-US trade war continued to mount.Even before the Trump-Xi tariff battles began, fears of a slowdown in China, consumer and producer of nearly half the world's metals and minerals, were gnawing at investors hoping for another year of strong gains for the industr...Read More
Teck Resources Limited (TSX: TECK.A and TECK.B, NYSE: TECK) ("Teck") announced this week that it has acquired 12,500,000 common shares of Sun Metals (TSX.V: SUNM) a Vancouver-based mineral exploration company.The shares were acquired for an aggregate purchase price of $3.5m, and were acquired privately on Dec. 20, 2018 pursuant to a donation arrangement. As a result, Teck holds approximately 13.8%...Read More
Russia's state-owned nuclear power company Rosatom has offered Chile's government technology it says can boost output of lithium, a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries, according to lobbyist transparency filings reviewed by Reuters.In separate meetings in late November, lobbyists for the Uranium One Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rosatom, told officials at two Chilean agencies they c...Read More
Earlier this year, Crown Mining (TSXV: CWM) bought 100% of the Moonlight-Superior property in northeastern California for $375,000 in cash and 2.75 million shares.The land package is best known for its Superior and Engels deposits, which produced over 161 million lb. copper as underground mining operations between 1915 and 1930.But the property, 200 km northeast of Sacramento and 145 km northwes...Read More
China's top copper smelters on Thursday raised their floor treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) for the first quarter of 2019 by 2.2 percent, sources with knowledge of the matter said.At a meeting in Shanghai, the 10-member China Smelters Purchase Team (CSPT) set the TC floor for the first quarter at $92 per tonne and the RC floor at 9.2 cents per pound, up from $90 per tonne and 9 cents per po...Read More
As we've been saying, the stock market will have great influence on Gold. It has been easy to see in recent months.The S&P 500 has cracked, losing both its 200-day and 400-day moving averages. Gold and gold stocks have benefitted and gained in recent months even with a stable to rising U.S. Dollar.The past 65 years of history shows us that in almost any context (but not all) the time between t...Read More
All three major US equity indexes gained at least 4% on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones closing just short of a 5% surge. It's the first time that has happened since 2011, according to Bloomberg.Major mining companies were caught up in the market frenzy on Wednesday with lithium producers and potash miners enjoying some of the heaviest buying.Among fertilizer producers, Israel Chemical l...Read More
China's Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co will invest $147.2 million to build a copper project in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as it extends the exploration of its mining assets in the country, the company said in a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange on Tuesday.The project will be located in the Lukuni region in the south of DRC, and will have annual electro-deposited copper production capacity...Read More
For the past nine months, a U.S. company that is the world's largest producer of lithium - a key ingredient in electric-car batteries - has been locked in battle with the Chilean government over pricing issues, production quotas and environmental compliance. With no resolution in sight, the fight is sending tremors all the way up the electric vehicle supply chain that provides batteries to Tesla I...Read More
Globally, there were 1,349 announced mining deals valued at $86.3 billion through December 18 this year, up 60% from the 2017 total, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.During the heady days of the China-induced supercycle in metals demand, mergers and acquisition in the industry topped $100 billion three years in a row, peaking at $149 billion in 2012 before slumping to little over $50 billi...Read More
In early December, Teck Resources announced it had sold a 30% indirect interest stake in Compania Minera Teck Quebrada Blanca S.A., owner of QB2, to the Sumitomo Corporation and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. for 1.2B."QB2 is one of the world's premier undeveloped copper assets and this transaction further confirms the value of the project," said Don Lindsay, President and CEO of Teck said at the time....Read More
BMO Capital Markets' metals and mining division faced upheaval this year after losing its two veteran co-heads during an already tough time for the resource industry. Its new leaders aim to prove the investment bank remains as strong as ever in the sector.The Bank of Montreal unit is accelerating lending and adding more bankers, including a sales-and-trading team poached from Bank of Nova Scotia,...Read More
NEW DELHI - An Indian court on Friday said Vedanta cannot reopen its South Indian copper smelter until its hears a case challenging an order by the country's environment court which provided relief to the conglomerate, the petitioner in the case said.The smelter was ordered shut permanently by the Tamil Nadu state government in May following violent protests against its operation, killing 13 and i...Read More
JAKARTA - A special mining permit given to Freeport McMoRan unit PT Freeport Indonesia on Friday is valid up to 2031, and could be extended to 2041, an energy ministry official said.* Copper ore output from Freeport's Grasberg mine is expected to decline in 2019 once open pit mining ends this year, Freeport Indonesia chief executive Tony Wenas said* Output from the mine is expected to increase onc...Read More
Canada's First Quantum Minerals (TSX:FM) became the first top miner with operations in Zambia to react to a planned mining tax increase in the southern African nation by announcing on Friday it would have to lay off 2,500 workers at its local mines.In an internal memo, the Toronto-based miner said the job cuts will be implemented in phases during the first quarter of 2019, adding they'll be equall...Read More
The dovish Federal Reserve lit a fire under gold and its miners' stocks this week. As universally expected the FOMC hiked rates for the 9th time in this cycle. But it also lowered its 2019 rate-hike outlook bowing to the stock-market selloff. Traders dumped gold initially thinking that wasn't dovish enough. But market reactions to the FOMC formed over a couple days, and gold surged overnig...Read More