The past year was a difficult one overall for the metals, with the main standouts to the upside being a geopolitical risk-driven gain in gold, a China-driven rise in iron ore and a surge in uranium on broadening global support for nuclear power (Figure 1). A jump in global interest rates to near two-decade highs saw recession fears persist all year, and while one still did not actually eru...Read More

This year the post-global health crisis boom was brought to an end by a surge in inflation to forty-year highs, a major rise in global interest rates in an attempt to curb the rising prices and surging geopolitical risk after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While precious metals held up reasonably well as markets turned to them as a risk hedge, by Q2/22 the higher interest rates put an end t...Read More

Chile is the world leader in copper production, at 28.5% of the total in 2020, and this looks set to continue, with the country having the largest global reserves, at 23.0% of total. It is also the global leader for molybdenum, which is often found along with copper, and is a major lithium player, holding 51.1% of global reserves. Read More

Newfoundland has become a gold exploration hotspot over the past few years, with the sector seeing some of its strongest activity ever. While the province remains a small contributor to Canadian gold production, it has a substantial mineral industry well supported by the government, focused on iron ore, copper and nickel, and the surge in exploration suggests that gold output from the...Read More

Nevada is the core of the U.S. gold output, accounting for by far the majority, at 75.4% on average for the past year. The state looks set to remain a dominant player in U.S. gold, as it accounts for 49% of total U.S. reserves, with Alaska slightly ahead with 51% of reserves, but just 8.6% of current production. The U.S. accounts for 6.1% of global gold output, making Nevada one of the largest gol...Read More

The Golden Triangle in northwestern British Columbia has historically been a major site of Canadian gold production, beginning as early as the mid 1800s. There was a wave of production in the 1990s which cooled as the gold price declined, but larger scale production resumed in 2017, and the area has seen surging exploration interest over the past year, given that the region has some of the largest...Read More

In this report we outline the Quebec gold mining industry, including its major producers, and a survey of many of the junior miners focused on the province. Quebec accounts for 34% of Canadian gold production (second to Ontario, with 44%) and remains a major focus for both producers and junior miners.Read More

Red Lake has been one of the most prolific gold mining districts in Canada and the world, with exploration having started in the 1920s, and production, which began in the 1930s, continuing to the present day. The district is known for the high grade of its gold, its infrastructure, and strong institutional support, given the long history of mining in the area.Read More

This is the most significant reality of the world picture now: The wishes of the manager class are going in one direction while the actual dynamics of economy and politics go in the opposite direction.The managers wish for their management of systems to become as centralized and top-down as possible; but the very systems they manage are breaking down and seeking to reorganize at smaller scale, dis...Read More

I admit, I wasn't fussed about the whole Hunter Biden conviction. But I couldn't understand why. I mean, they finally got a Democrat on something.But Hunter Biden is such a dirtbag; gun charges don't do him justice.No, this isn't the same as getting Al Capone on tax evasion. It's more like getting Lex Luthor on a jaywalking charge.Let's not mince words. Hunter is a crackhead who shagged his dead b...Read More

Touch off the rockets! Light the sparklers! Raise a joyous toast!That is because May's inflation data came issuing this morning. And it disappointed expectations or rather exceeded expectations.A Dow Jones survey of economists had divined a 3.4% inflation rate. Yet the United States Department of Labor reported a mere 3.3% inflation rate.We can only assume you are as gleeful as us. Media outlets...Read More

The state is a transformer that takes on different appearances in different ages, depending on resources, traditions, technologies and geography.History chronicles theocratic despotisms, feudal lords, exploitative slavocracies, imperial autocracies, peaceful republics, small-scale democracies, divine-right monarchies, murderous party dictatorships and many more besides.What is the 21st-century for...Read More

Money being scarce saves us from many pernicious forms of mischief, and having too much money/credit leads to catastrophe. This is of course the exact opposite of the conventional belief that having lots of money makes life not just easier but expansive and, well, as perfect as human life can be.On the scale of nation-states, having too much money/credit leads to the catastrophe of wars of choice,...Read More

We remain besieged by responses to our D-Day coverage.Certain readers nearly chain us Mr. Benedict Arnold. Reader B.H. for example.From whom:I find the comments about D-Day very disturbing. There was no need to disrespect D-Day on that day. Whatever your views on D-Day they could have been discussed at any time than on that day. You do all Americans a disservice when you have to dig into every a...Read More

The paint isn't even dry on the freshly-split NVIDIA shares and the financial media is already crowning it as the next big addition to the Dow.It's all just speculation at this point. But if NVDA keeps pace with its historic run, it would certainly be a welcome addition to the industrials. After all, NVDA just casually added another trillion bucks to its market cap as it stacks up a gain of nearly...Read More

I suspect you thought that June 6, 1944, was D-Day, when U.S.-British-Canadian and other Allies invaded Normandy, France, eighty years ago today. Yes, I know that the event is called D-Day, but for reasons I'll explain in a moment, let's go with the letter "L." Bear with me...Who Put the "D" in D-Day?D-Day is a confusing label. There's no correct explanation for the letter "D," not now nor back on...Read More

Yesterday's reckoning drew a heaping mail.We reckoned that the United States contributed less to World War II victory than the Russian contribution.Thus we have offended the national pieties.We may as well have denounced the institution of motherhood, pies with apples in them and the Declaration of Independence.Reader K.K deals with us this way:What a lousy thing to write on D-Day. Any other day,...Read More

I'm sure you recall the banking crisis of March to May 2023.It began with the collapse of the little-known Silvergate Bank on March 8. This was followed the next day by the collapse of the much larger Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on March 9. SVB had over $120 billion in uninsured deposits.Bank deposits over $250,000 each are not covered by FDIC insurance. Those depositors stood to lose all their mone...Read More

Eighty years ago this day the Allied powers massively raided the French beaches at Normandy.It was a superexcellent event the greatest maritime invasion in all of history.Its plotting, its organizing and its implementation remain astounding wonders.Over 4,000 Allied men fell down that day and never stood back up over half were American.Thousands and thousands more were slain in subsequent camp...Read More

Beware the sting in the tail.In the context of today's reckoning, beware the sting in the banking tail.Beginning March last year, the banking system absorbed a substantial clout.A score of regional banks sank to their knees... and plunged into receivership.By way of background:Their portfolios were loaded through with long-term Treasury bonds. The banks purchased these "safe" bonds in a period of...Read More

The steady path toward World War III continues. U.S. and NATO support for Ukraine in the war with Russia has been one long failure, but that hasn't stopped them from escalating the war with new weapons and tactics.Russia has met the escalation with its own escalation every step of the way. At what point do rational leaders in the West (if there are any left) pause, consider that the war is lost in...Read More

The full ramifications of the guilty verdict against Trump have yet to be felt. It was the first time in U.S. history that any president has been convicted of a crime during or after leaving office.Now Trump will have to run for president as a "convicted felon," which the media has been repeating over and over again. But so far the verdict seems to have benefitted Trump.Trump got a six-point jump...Read More

All hell broke loose on the New York Stock Exchange early Monday morning as traders slammed shares of Berkshire Hathaway, opting instead to gobble up GameStop calls as meme madness returned to the markets with a vengeance.OK, that story's not exactly true.But you have to admit this would be one of the most hilarious (and irrational) market narratives of all time. Imagine investors cratering Uncle...Read More

This contrarian sees a strong consensus around the notion that hyperinflation is the inevitable end-game of nation-states/central banks issuing fiat currencies, i.e. currencies that are not restrained by being pegged to tangible assets such as gold reserves.The temptation to issue (via “printing” or borrowing new currency into existence by selling sovereign bonds) more currency becomes...Read More

Thomas Jefferson would've pooped his pants if he saw what Congress is doing right now. There should be no such thing as fiscal dominance; fiscal policy should be frugal. Spend enough to keep the lights on and let the people drive the economy.Jefferson would've hated our Hamiltonian central bank as well, rap musicals be damned.But over the past few years, we’ve learned that printing money did...Read More

"Stocks can't ignore the issue any longer."What is the issue stocks can no longer ignore? And why can they no longer ignore it?Answers shortly. First we look in on stocks themselves the stocks that can ignore the issue no longer.The Dow Jones absorbed a 330-point lacing today. The S&P 500, a 31-point blow. The Nasdaq Composite, meantime, went 183 points backward.Why? CNBC informs us that:Sto...Read More

As you know by now, Donald Trump was found guilty yesterday on all felony counts in his hush money trial in New York.Sentencing in the case is scheduled for July 11, 2024. That's just four days before the Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee on July 15. That's not a coincidence, by the way. It's calculated to further tarnish his image ahead of the convention.It's part of the pattern...Read More

It is Memorial Day... when we pause to honor the nation's war dead.Most Americans will not, of course.It merely represents a chance to lie flat on a beach... to munch frankfurters... to dream the tall dreams of approaching summer.We will be among them.We will not be planting tiny American flags atop forgotten graves today.We will not be bugling taps.It is unlikely we will thank a veteran for his s...Read More