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

Data from The 2016 Hays Compensation, Benefits, Recruitment and Retention GuideSalaries for the top jobs at mining companies have stayed the same from a year ago, according an end of year salary survey by Hays.The recruiting company released its wage tally today.It said wage trends in the mining industry matched trends in the broader economy as a whole, and any wage increases next year will be...Read More

More than half (55%) of mining employers cut staff in 2015 and an additional 40% expect to cut in 2016, according to an industry survey by the recruiting firm Hays.Under-staffed businesses are resulting in burnout and low morale, and current employees are "feeling pressure more than ever", says Hays.While companies cut, employers in the resource and mining industry have expressed concern over gr...Read More

Zald?-var copper mine is located about 1,400 km north of Chile's capital Santiago. (Image courtesy of Barrick Gold)Top gold miner Barrick Gold (TSX, NYSE:ABX) announced Tuesday it has completed the sale of a 50% stake in its Zald?-var copper mine in Northern Chile to London-listed Antofagasta Plc (LON:ANTO) for a shade over $1 billion in cash."The sale of 50 percent of Zald?-var has strengthened o...Read More

A tailings pond for the Mount Polley mine burst in August 2014 and spilled millions of cubic metres of waste water into Polley Lake - BIV ArchivesThe provincial government has granted Imperial Metals' (TSX:III) Mount Polley mine a short-term permit to release treated water from a tailings dam.The volume of water behind the dam has been rising and concerns had been raised in recent weeks about what...Read More

BHP and Rio Tinto's Escondida copper mine in Chile's Atacama Desert is the world's largest copper-producing mine.BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP), the world's largest mining company, is making a bold bet on copper by deciding to ramp up output while slashing production costs.The company's copper boss, Daniel Malchuk, said Tuesday that BHP expects to lower production costs to $1.08 per pound during the 2017...Read More

Lightship today announced that KGHM International, which is working towards the development of the Ajax Copper-Gold project near the city of Kamloops, B.C., will be using the Lightship application to manage and protect field employees working on mine development. The application, also called Lightship, provides site managers with a real time, bird's-eye view of an entire worksite. It tracks and re...Read More

IMF approves China's yuan as reserve currency … Inclusion in elite list alongside US dollar and euro described as a milestone for world's second largest economy. With the decision, the yuan, also known as the renminbi, will join the US dollar, euro, Japanese yen and British pound next year in the list of currencies the IMF uses as an international reserve asset. – Al JazeeraDom...Read More

Hours Before the Terror Attacks, Paris Practiced for a Mass Shooting … Since the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January, from which 16 people died, Paris-area ambulance crews and emergency personnel have taken part in regular exercises designed to test their readiness for possible attacks. One such exercise was held on Friday morning, the day of the latest terror attacks. In a twist of fate, the s...Read More

IMF approves China's yuan as reserve currency … Inclusion in elite list alongside US dollar and euro described as a milestone for world's second largest economy. With the decision, the yuan, also known as the renminbi, will join the US dollar, euro, Japanese yen and British pound next year in the list of currencies the IMF uses as an international reserve asset. – Al JazeeraDom...Read More

Hours Before the Terror Attacks, Paris Practiced for a Mass Shooting … Since the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January, from which 16 people died, Paris-area ambulance crews and emergency personnel have taken part in regular exercises designed to test their readiness for possible attacks. One such exercise was held on Friday morning, the day of the latest terror attacks. In a twist of fate, the s...Read More

A couple of weeks ago, mining and metals analysts at Barclays put out a research note warning investors that while the sector is having its worst run in fifty years better days aren't necessarily around the corner.This is how the investment bank summarized the current state of the industry when it downgraded the entire sector:"The last 5 years have now been the worst period of performance since 19...Read More

Tabas coal mine in central Iran. Source: Mehr News AgencyCopper, iron ore and heavy rare earth elements could be worth "much more" than Iran's crude oil revenues Mojtaba Khosrowtaj, deputy minister in Iran's Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade tells Bloomberg.Iran is opening $29 billion of mining projects to foreign investors once international sanctions are lifted, roughly equal the oil and gas...Read More

Dark times ahead for Australia's mining industry. (Image via YouTube)Australia's mining industry is likely to see up to 20,000 jobs fade by the end of 2018 as one of the country's leading research firm forecasts a further 58% fall in investments in the sector over the next three years.According to BIS Shrapnel's report, Mining in Australia 2015 to 2030, investment in the country since 2014 has fal...Read More

When the instinct is strongest to curl up in a ball and wait out the ravages of the down market is also when smart companies snap up distressed projects and get to work while capital costs are low. In this interview with The Gold Report, veteran investors Bob Moriarty of 321gold.com and Adrian Day of Adrian Day Asset Management share their messages to mining company CEOs and investors about advanc...Read More

Migrant crisis laid bare: 1.5 MILLION people have entered EU countries illegally this year … The staggering figure was revealed by European Council President Donald Tusk, as leaders from across the continent desperately tried to thrash out a way of stemming the flow of refugees into Europe. Hundreds of thousands of migrants – many fleeing war and persecution from North Africa and the M...Read More

Fo Real S'kebei … Pidgin english is now officially a language Na Pali Coast, Kauai, Hawaii Don't 'oe be givin me no stink eye, this is fo real s'kebei. After hundreds of years, Hawaiian Pidgin has been officially recognised as a language. A US census survey into languages, which was released on November 3, included both Hawaiian Pidgin and Pidgin in its official list for the...Read More

Migrant crisis laid bare: 1.5 MILLION people have entered EU countries illegally this year … The staggering figure was revealed by European Council President Donald Tusk, as leaders from across the continent desperately tried to thrash out a way of stemming the flow of refugees into Europe. Hundreds of thousands of migrants – many fleeing war and persecution from North Africa and the M...Read More

Fo Real S'kebei … Pidgin english is now officially a language Na Pali Coast, Kauai, Hawaii Don't 'oe be givin me no stink eye, this is fo real s'kebei. After hundreds of years, Hawaiian Pidgin has been officially recognised as a language. A US census survey into languages, which was released on November 3, included both Hawaiian Pidgin and Pidgin in its official list for the...Read More

Copper producers in China are taking drastic measures to arrest the plummeting price.On Saturday it was announced that nine large copper smelters will cut production by over 200,000 tonnes in 2016, which is around 5 percent of 2015 levels.The move comes as copper prices on the London Metal exchange and in Shanghai fell to six-year lows, on the back of low growth and an oversupplied market. Growth...Read More

Rio Tinto Aluminium Weipa celebrated 50 years of operations in 2013. (Image courtesy of Rio Tinto)Rio Tinto (LON:RIO), the world's second-largest mining group, has approved a $1.9 billion bauxite project in Australia, bucking a trend among most top miners that have mostly delayed new mines to weather the effects of slumping commodity prices.The South of Embley project, located on the Cape York Pen...Read More