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

S&P settles suits over crisis-era mortgage ratings … Credit-rating firm Standard & Poor's will pay $1.5 billion to resolve a collection of lawsuits over its ratings on mortgage securities that soured in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, concluding one of the U.S. government's most ambitious cases tied to the housing collapse. The settlement comes after more than two...Read More

Pot Is Making Colorado So Much Money They Literally Have To Give Some Back To Residents … The state constitution limits how much tax money the state can take in before it has to give some back. That means Coloradans may each get their own cut of the $50 million in recreational pot taxes collected in the first year of legal weed. It's a situation so bizarre that it's gotten Republican...Read More

S&P settles suits over crisis-era mortgage ratings … Credit-rating firm Standard & Poor's will pay $1.5 billion to resolve a collection of lawsuits over its ratings on mortgage securities that soured in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, concluding one of the U.S. government's most ambitious cases tied to the housing collapse. The settlement comes after more than two...Read More

Pot Is Making Colorado So Much Money They Literally Have To Give Some Back To Residents … The state constitution limits how much tax money the state can take in before it has to give some back. That means Coloradans may each get their own cut of the $50 million in recreational pot taxes collected in the first year of legal weed. It's a situation so bizarre that it's gotten Republican...Read More

Economy grows, incomes shrink … Americans continue to lose money while corporate profits soar … The first data on 2013 incomes show continuing bad news for Americans, my analysis of a new Internal Revenue Service report shows. … This is the latest sign of a disturbing trend. An ever-shrinking share of national income flows to individuals while corporate profits expand. – Al...Read More

Greek debt: growing acknowledgment that it is simply unsustainable and some accommodation will be necessary … Approach has much to commend it and deserves a hearing in EU capitals … The whistlestop tour of European capitals by Greece's new leaders is finding doors if not wide open, at least ajar. The mood music is still that Greece must honour its debts, that forgiveness is out, bu...Read More

Economy grows, incomes shrink … Americans continue to lose money while corporate profits soar … The first data on 2013 incomes show continuing bad news for Americans, my analysis of a new Internal Revenue Service report shows. … This is the latest sign of a disturbing trend. An ever-shrinking share of national income flows to individuals while corporate profits expand. – Al...Read More

Greek debt: growing acknowledgment that it is simply unsustainable and some accommodation will be necessary … Approach has much to commend it and deserves a hearing in EU capitals … The whistlestop tour of European capitals by Greece's new leaders is finding doors if not wide open, at least ajar. The mood music is still that Greece must honour its debts, that forgiveness is out, bu...Read More

Republicans gutting Dodd-Frank as Wall St. goes subprime again … It is not mortgages but subprime car loans that U.S. banks are repackaging now for foreign investors … Teams of bank lobbyists [are] rewriting laws up on Capitol Hill these days … Little by little, these influence-buyers are gutting and filleting the Dodd-Frank Act, the package of bank regulations that was among the...Read More

Jeb Bush is a hypocrite about marijuana, Rand Paul says … Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, accused Jeb Bush of "hypocrisy" Friday after a report in the Boston Globe chronicled Bush's marijuana use during high school. Bush, a former Florida governor and potential 2016 presidential candidate, opposes the use of marijuana for medical or recreational purposes. "This is a guy who no...Read More

Republicans gutting Dodd-Frank as Wall St. goes subprime again … It is not mortgages but subprime car loans that U.S. banks are repackaging now for foreign investors … Teams of bank lobbyists [are] rewriting laws up on Capitol Hill these days … Little by little, these influence-buyers are gutting and filleting the Dodd-Frank Act, the package of bank regulations that was among the...Read More

Jeb Bush is a hypocrite about marijuana, Rand Paul says … Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, accused Jeb Bush of "hypocrisy" Friday after a report in the Boston Globe chronicled Bush's marijuana use during high school. Bush, a former Florida governor and potential 2016 presidential candidate, opposes the use of marijuana for medical or recreational purposes. "This is a guy who no...Read More

Europe's creditors play with 'political fire' in pushing Greece to the brink. "The creation of the euro was a terrible mistake but breaking it up would be an even bigger mistake. Anything could happen," warns former IMF bail-out chief … The North European power structure has issued stern and inflexible warnings to Greece. Syriza's triumphant radicals must pay the co...Read More

John McCain doesn't regret calling anti-war protesters "low-life scum" … Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, offered no apologies on Sunday for his scolding of anti-war protesters during a Senate hearing this week, calling the demonstrators "terrible people" who deserved what they got. The protesters disrupted a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thurs...Read More

Europe's creditors play with 'political fire' in pushing Greece to the brink. "The creation of the euro was a terrible mistake but breaking it up would be an even bigger mistake. Anything could happen," warns former IMF bail-out chief … The North European power structure has issued stern and inflexible warnings to Greece. Syriza's triumphant radicals must pay the co...Read More

John McCain doesn't regret calling anti-war protesters "low-life scum" … Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, offered no apologies on Sunday for his scolding of anti-war protesters during a Senate hearing this week, calling the demonstrators "terrible people" who deserved what they got. The protesters disrupted a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thurs...Read More

The case for liberal optimism … John Micklethwait, who has edited this newspaper since 2006, leaves today. These are his parting thoughts … THIS newspaper churlishly deprives its editors of the egocentric adornments of our trade. Tragically, these pages include no weekly "editor's letter" to readers, underneath a beaming, air-brushed picture. Online, there is a weekly e-m...Read More

First Native American tribe to start growing and manufacturing medical marijuana on their tribal land … The Pinoleville Pomo Nation is the first Native American tribe to announce that they will start growing and manufacturing medical marijuana on their tribal land. The tribe signed a deal to develop an indoor grow facility in Northern California. "We anticipate construction to begin in...Read More

The case for liberal optimism … John Micklethwait, who has edited this newspaper since 2006, leaves today. These are his parting thoughts … THIS newspaper churlishly deprives its editors of the egocentric adornments of our trade. Tragically, these pages include no weekly "editor's letter" to readers, underneath a beaming, air-brushed picture. Online, there is a weekly e-m...Read More

First Native American tribe to start growing and manufacturing medical marijuana on their tribal land … The Pinoleville Pomo Nation is the first Native American tribe to announce that they will start growing and manufacturing medical marijuana on their tribal land. The tribe signed a deal to develop an indoor grow facility in Northern California. "We anticipate construction to begin in...Read More