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

Three U.S. military personnel were tragically killed and at least 34 wounded, some seriously, over the weekend in what the U.S. government claimed was a drone attack in northern Jordan. There’s some doubt about whether it was a drone because 37 casualties is a large number for a drone attack. A larger missile is a possibility. There’s also some doubt about the reported Jordanian locati...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A TikTok video of a woman who accidentally broiled her topaz and diamond ring in the oven with Brussel sprouts for Thanksgiving Day has had over 2.4m views.Jacki Gansky, 29, was concerned it wouldn't survive 30 minutes in a 415F/215C oven, but she needn't have worried.Diamonds and topaz are both formed at temperatures of around 2,000F/1,050C.Jacki, a US actress received t...Read More

(IDEX Online) - LVMH saw improved performances from its watches and jewelry businesses during 2023, with reported revenue up three per cent to $11.84bn.Organic revenue grew by a "robust" 7 per cent and profit from recurring operations was also up 7 per cent, the company said in its full year results published on 25 January.The French luxury conglomerate, which owns 75 maisons, reported total...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A luxury lab grown startup has won an investment of just over $315,000 on the UK reality TV show Dragons' Den.Sidney Neuhaus and Jessica Warch, friends from Antwerp, established the jewelry brand Kimai in 2018 and found fame a year later when Meghan Markle wore a pair of their earrings. They sent her a cold email.The pair impressed Steven Bartlett, one of the dragons (judges)...Read More

(IDEX Online) -  A tourist from France found one of the largest diamonds ever recovered at the Crater of Diamonds State Park, in Arkansas, USA.Julien Navas unearthed a 7.64 carat chocolate brown stone, after days of heavy rain washed away soil at the "dig your own diamond" attraction.Visitors using basic tools search the 37-acre field - the eroded surface of a volcanic crater - for a variety...Read More

As Donald Trump consolidates his election mojo defying the forces arrayed to destroy him and more of the country turns against the creepy apparition in the White House purportedly running against him, you hear evermore chatter that a panicked Democratic Party will insert Michelle Obama in a last-minute convention switcheroo next August.The explications I hear in the chat media all sound lame o...Read More

Donald Trump will certainly get the Republican nomination. With that the issue of truth and honesty about what happened on March 13, 2020, and beyond will likely not be pushed by the executive branch even if Trump wins.No one in his circles wants any talk of this subject, even if just about every bit of the current national crisis (health, economics, cultural, societal) traces to those grim days o...Read More

CNBC:"The U.S. economy grew at [a] blistering 3.3% pace in Q4 while inflation pulled back."CNBC cites the latest economic data, issuing this morning from the Department of Commerce.Continues CNBC:The economy grew at a much more rapid pace than expected while inflation eased in the final three months of 2023, as the U.S. easily skirted a recession that many forecasters had thought was inevitable, t...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Thieves used a vehicle as a battering ram to smash their way through glass doors into a jewelry store in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.They fled with what police describe as "substantial" amount of jewelry from Griffin Jewellery Designs in a 4am heist at the Tecumseh Mall on Tuesday (23 January).The front of the building was badly damaged and the vehicle used in the ramming was later fo...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Trans Atlantic Gem Sales (TAGS) sold just over $14m of rough at its latest tender in Dubai, with buyers appearing a little more positive.Bidding was strong across all ranges, the company said, and many prices 3grs to +10cts were up a few per cent on the previous tender in December.However a quarter of the goods offered - 20,000-plus carats valued at over $20m - remained unsold.Nine...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Six people are reported to have died when a small plane headed for Rio Tinto's Diavik diamond mine, in Canada's remote Northwest Territories, crashed shortly after take-off yesterday (23 January).There has been no official confirmation of the death toll, but AFP (Agence France-Presse) quotes an aviation source as saying six people died and one survived.The tragedy comes l...Read More

Some 33% of Americans distrust elections.That is, 33% of Americans distrust the granite beneath democracy the ballot itself.They believe the thing rests upon limestone foundations. Or worse... sand foundations.Thus American democracy is down with a wasting disease.Today we propose a solution. It will restore American democracy to pink and vigorous health, to the highest pristinity.What is it? An...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Mountain Province Diamonds (MPD) today (24 January) reported FY 2023 sales of $243.7m, down 18 per cent on the previous year.The Toronto-based miner sold 2.7m carats in both 2022 and 2023 from the Gahcho Kue mine it operates as a joint venture with De Beers in Northwest Territories, Canada, but average per carat prices fell from $112 to $90.It said price drops reflected the lower-v...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Richemont saw revenue from Buccellati, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and its other jewelry brands climb 12 per cent to $4.3bn (at constant exchange rates) during the last three months of 2023.Specialist watchmakers sales rose by 3 per cent, reflecting a retail outperformance, notably at A. Lange & Sohne, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Vacheron Constantin.The Swiss luxury conglomer...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Canada's vast, frozen Nunavut territory has been granted control over its natural resources in a move that could attract prospectors seeking diamonds, gold and other deposits.De Beers is among a small number of miners which already have interests in the sparsely-populated Arctic region. It is seeking approval for the Chidliak Project, a diamond deposit on Baffin Island, Canada...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Kiran Gems has moved staff out of the new Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) just months after it opened, and back to Mumbai's Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB). It's a blow for the brand new $388m SDB - the world's largest office building - which opened last November but has so far failed to attract major tenants aside from Kiran.Kiran Gems is a privately-owned company, desc...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Christie's New York is to sell a collection of 32 watches owned by Sir Elton John, as part of a unique home clearance.The 76-year-old Rocketman singer is auctioning the contents of his home on Peachtree Road, Altanta, USA, (after which he named his 2004 album) in a series of eight sales. John, one of the top-selling solo artists of all time, is a passionate watch collecto...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Australian jeweler Michael Hill has closed six under-performing stores and axed some senior positions amid "challenging" retail conditions.Sales actually rose by 4.1 per cent during the half year ending 31 December 2023, to US$239m (AUS$362.8m), across the 302 outlets in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.Australia and New Zealand saw retail revenue rise by just over 10 per cent. St...Read More

(IDEX Online) - De Beers has introduced a new online "sealed bid" tender for some of its rough diamonds.The Offer, which went live last week, allows buyers to key in the price they're prepared to pay for a lot, unseen by other bidders.It is an additional sales channel rather than a replacement for the online auctions that have been taking place since 2008.Online auctions have accounted for th...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Arnold Schwarzenegger, former governor of California and star of The Terminator movies, was ordered to pay a $38,000 fine in cash after failing to declare an Audemars Piguet watch at Customs.He was stopped at Munich airport last Wednesday, en route to a Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative event in Austria, where the specially-made watch wnet on to sell at a charity auction for $295,0...Read More