The AOCE and WB have moderate overall forecasts for the metals in 2025 inline with IMF forecasts for a decline in economic growth and inflation, although we see the probability of a stagflationary scenario as still reasonably high.Read More

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

Moody's Investors Service has injected some fresh optimism into the global mining industry by changing its outlook for base metals to stable from negative, which basically means it believes prices for aluminum, copper, nickel and zinc have already bottomed out."We view prices for base metals as having likely bottomed following the sharp decline beginning late last year, and consequently we have re...Read More

BRIEFRyan Lochte, Jimmy Feigen, Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger's celebratory night out in Rio continues to get weirder. First the group said they were mugged in a taxi. Then the story changed to include a stop at a gas station restroom. Now authorities have focused on the gas station restroom and there is apparently security footage that shows one of the swimmers "breaking down" a door and "fighting...Read More

BRIEFFake human sacrifice filmed at Cern, with pranking scientists suspected … Scientific users' of the Geneva facility 'let their humour go too far' with staging of occult rite ... The video, which circulated online, shows several individuals in black cloaks gathering in a main square at Europe's top physics lab, in what appears to be a re-enactment of an occult ceremony. The video includ...Read More

BRIEFUS moves nuclear weapons from Turkey to Romania ... Two independent sources told EurActiv.com that the US has started transferring nuclear weapons stationed in Turkey to Romania, against the background of worsening relations between Washington and Ankara.- Euractiv (here)Always the nukes.Whenever there is military tension anywhere in the world that involves the US, it often involves the nucle...Read More

Credit ratings agency Moody's warned at the beginning of the year that the current downturn in raw materials was like no other and that defaults among mining and metals companies could reach levels last seen during the height of the financial crisis.As a result, Moody's embarked on a sector-wide review of the 87 global mining majors that it covers. The review started off with a bang in January whe...Read More

Signs of resurgence in platinum, a stronger gold price and growing coal exports to India should be triggers for South Africa's mining leadership to grasp the opportunities that it missed in the last commodity boom, according to consulting engineers and scientists SRK Consulting (South Africa)."It is time for the mining sector to get some traction from the National Development Plan, Mining Operatio...Read More

Bolivia, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, has began shipping lithium to China in what is considered the first step towards fulfilling its ambitions to becoming the world's No. 1 exporter of the commodity, used in high tech devices such as smart phones and electric cars, as well as in the pharmaceutical industry.With a price tag of barely $70,000, Bolivia's lithium shipment to China...Read More

By any objective measure, Donald Trump is poised to lose the November election by a wide margin. Taking into consideration new swing-state polls from Quinnipiac University that show Trump trailing Hillary Clinton by 12, 10 and 3 points in Virginia, Colorado and Iowa, respectively, we can use RealClearPolitics’s average of recent polls in swing states (and 2012 results everywhere else) to e...Read More

NPR is killing off comments. That's great news! ... NPR made a big announcement Wednesday: It is ending its users' ability to offer comments at the bottom of each story posted on its site. “We’ve reached the point where we’ve realized that there are other, better ways to achieve the same kind of community discussion around the issues we raise in our journalism,” Scott Mon...Read More

China is the leader in extracting gold, zinc, lead, molybdenum, coal, tin, tungsten, rare earths, graphite, vanadium, antimony and phosphate, and holds second place in mine production of copper, silver, cobalt, bauxite and manganese.A new report from BMI Research shows the country's domestic mining output growth has slowed dramatically and will average far below levels attained in the last decade...Read More

London HQ'ed Capital Economics, an independent research and consulting firm, has launched a new publication tracking China's industrial metals demand. In the grand tradition of the economics discipline, the July report has some good news and bad news.Parts of industry key to metals demand continued to strengthen last monthCapital Economics says industrial production data from China for the mo...Read More

South Africa's Harmony Gold (JSE:HAR) (NYSE:HMY) is said to be considering the acquisition of Barrick Gold's stake in Acacia Mining (LON:ACA), as the miner looks to expand operations across Africa.Reporting annual results for the year ended in June, Harmony - the world's fifth-largest gold producer and South Africa No. 3 miner of the precious metal - revealed Wednesday that it was on a hunt for ac...Read More

Michael Moore: Trump Is Self-Sabotaging His Campaign Because He Never Really Wanted the Job in the First Place ... He’s running for president to get a better deal for “The Apprentice.” Michael Moore, AlterNetHas film-maker Michael Moore revealed the truth about Donald Trump's campaign? Is it just a publicity stunt gone wrong, and a malicious one?Despite his tremendous success, th...Read More

Loonie closes at highest level in more than a month; stock markets pull back ... The Canadian dollar continued to ride higher with oil prices Tuesday, as both the currency and a barrel of crude climbed in value for a fourth straight day. The loonie added 0.38 of a cent to 77.80 cents U.S., closing at its highest level in more than a month amid a weakening U.S. dollar.It's never been clear why...Read More

Trust in public power companies misplaced ... Former Labor minister Patrick Conlon urges carbon price to fix electricity system ... A SENIOR Labor figure is urging a carbon price on electricity to lower household bills by kickstarting investment in new-generation power plants. - The AdvertiserAustralian politicians have been obsessed with taxing carbon ever since the tax was briefly imposed and...Read More

Fixing America’s Roads Is a Great Opportunity ... Many politicians and commentators are calling for a big burst of spending on infrastructure. On his blog, my esteemed Bloomberg View colleague Tyler Cowen raises an interesting question: What is the opportunity cost of government spending — that is, what is the value of the other uses to which the money and resources could be put? ...Read More

Michael Moore: Trump Is Self-Sabotaging His Campaign Because He Never Really Wanted the Job in the First Place ... He’s running for president to get a better deal for “The Apprentice.” Michael Moore, AlterNetHas film-maker Michael Moore revealed the truth about Donald Trump's campaign? Is it just a publicity stunt gone wrong, and a malicious one?Despite his tremendous success, th...Read More

Zinc is the best performing base metal so far this year and measured from its multi-year low struck mid-January the zinc prize is up 54%.Zinc's prospects brightened considerably after the shutdown of two major mines last year - Australia's Century and the Lisheen mine in Ireland. The two mines had a combined output of more than 630,000.Top zinc producer Glencore has been out in front when it comes...Read More

Bolivia has nationalized three Glencore operations in nine years. Bloomberg reports Glencore has announced: "after almost nine years of negotiations without receiving any compensation for the nationalization of three of its operations, Glencore had no other option but to initiate arbitration proceedings to enforce its rights under international law."From a total of four operations in Bolivia, Glen...Read More

An aerial view of the Mount Polley mine tailings pond shows the area where the dam wall gave way early on the morning of August 4. (Image from archives)Two years after a dam containing a small lake of water and mine slurry at the Mount Polley copper mine near Likely, B.C. gave way, the tarnished Golden Triangle environmental and economic fallout continues.The trees in the flood's path weren't the...Read More