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

Looming property default in China raises fears of broader crisis … Nomura said the number of ghost towns has spread beyond the well-known disaster stories of Ordos and Wenzhou to at least eight other sites … China faces the biggest property default on record as credit curbs threaten to break the housing boom, leaving a string of "ghost towns" across the country. The Chinese n...Read More

'It could be structured by cows and we'd rate it' … A popular narrative of the ratings agencies' role in the financial crisis goes something like: banks paid ratings agencies a lot of money to rate mortgage-backed securities, so the ratings agencies gave a lot of those securities undeserved AAA ratings, so a lot of investors were deceived into thinking those securities were s...Read More

Looming property default in China raises fears of broader crisis … Nomura said the number of ghost towns has spread beyond the well-known disaster stories of Ordos and Wenzhou to at least eight other sites … China faces the biggest property default on record as credit curbs threaten to break the housing boom, leaving a string of "ghost towns" across the country. The Chinese n...Read More

George Soros Predicts Ukraine Could Ruin The EU … The billionaire financier says in its tepid response to Russia's Crimea land grab, the EU flubbed a key chance to breathe new life into the stale union. George Soros, one of the world's leading investors, has warned that the European Union is in danger of falling apart if it fails to confront Vladimir Putin's naked aggression in U...Read More

Gold is king, but there may be a better way to store wealth … A great investing mistake is to try to predict the future. Really, an investment decision is more about the price you pay and whether you can afford to be wrong … Bitcoin needs to move past its current use as a payments processing tool to a realistic medium-term store of value. Its chief competitor is clearly gold. – S...Read More

George Soros Predicts Ukraine Could Ruin The EU … The billionaire financier says in its tepid response to Russia's Crimea land grab, the EU flubbed a key chance to breathe new life into the stale union. George Soros, one of the world's leading investors, has warned that the European Union is in danger of falling apart if it fails to confront Vladimir Putin's naked aggression in U...Read More

Gold is king, but there may be a better way to store wealth … A great investing mistake is to try to predict the future. Really, an investment decision is more about the price you pay and whether you can afford to be wrong … Bitcoin needs to move past its current use as a payments processing tool to a realistic medium-term store of value. Its chief competitor is clearly gold. – S...Read More

John Kerry: Russia has until Monday to reverse course in Ukraine … Secretary of State John Kerry warned of serious repercussions for Russia on Monday if last-ditch talks over the weekend to resolve the crisis in Ukraine failed to persuade Moscow to soften its stance. Kerry will travel to London for a Friday meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ahead of a Sunday referendum vote...Read More

Holder backs plan to ease sentences for low-level drug dealers – Justice department says plan would lower dealer's average sentence by 11 months and reduce size of US prison population …The Obama administration on Thursday threw its weight behind a proposal designed to help reduce the massive US prison population … Attorney general Eric Holder on Thursday endorsed a proposal...Read More

John Kerry: Russia has until Monday to reverse course in Ukraine … Secretary of State John Kerry warned of serious repercussions for Russia on Monday if last-ditch talks over the weekend to resolve the crisis in Ukraine failed to persuade Moscow to soften its stance. Kerry will travel to London for a Friday meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ahead of a Sunday referendum vote...Read More

Holder backs plan to ease sentences for low-level drug dealers – Justice department says plan would lower dealer's average sentence by 11 months and reduce size of US prison population …The Obama administration on Thursday threw its weight behind a proposal designed to help reduce the massive US prison population … Attorney general Eric Holder on Thursday endorsed a proposal...Read More

Bank of England Sharpens Its Claws … There are lots of theories to explain the bubble and bust that wrecked so many people's lives over the past 10 years, but none is pithier than the common attitude of "I'll be gone, you'll be gone" among mid-level finance employees who actually make the big decisions about where to take risk. That's why the Bank of England should...Read More

The political classes have brought UKIP on themselves … In a seminal referendum in California in 1978, the public endorsed Proposition 13, limiting property taxes. It was described as a "primal scream by the People against Big Government". The British public are now delivering a primal scream of their own. Politicians, beware: only 23 per cent of people are satisfied with the way t...Read More

Bank of England Sharpens Its Claws … There are lots of theories to explain the bubble and bust that wrecked so many people's lives over the past 10 years, but none is pithier than the common attitude of "I'll be gone, you'll be gone" among mid-level finance employees who actually make the big decisions about where to take risk. That's why the Bank of England should...Read More

The political classes have brought UKIP on themselves … In a seminal referendum in California in 1978, the public endorsed Proposition 13, limiting property taxes. It was described as a "primal scream by the People against Big Government". The British public are now delivering a primal scream of their own. Politicians, beware: only 23 per cent of people are satisfied with the way t...Read More

AIS files class-action suit against gold-fix banks … A U.S. investment-management firm has filed a lawsuit against the five banks that set the London benchmark gold price, alleging that the banks conspired to manipulate the price of gold for their own gain. – MarketWatchDominant Social Theme: Why would these people file a class-action lawsuit? They're bottom feeders. Gold is not ma...Read More

It seems as though marijuana isn't as bad as everyone thought. Last week the federal Minister of Justice Peter MacKay floated the idea of allowing police to give tickets to people in possession of marijuana rather than haul them through the criminal justice system. He told the Ottawa press gallery that he directed his ministry to look at the issue and possibly draft legislation because the pri...Read More

AIS files class-action suit against gold-fix banks … A U.S. investment-management firm has filed a lawsuit against the five banks that set the London benchmark gold price, alleging that the banks conspired to manipulate the price of gold for their own gain. – MarketWatchDominant Social Theme: Why would these people file a class-action lawsuit? They're bottom feeders. Gold is not ma...Read More

It seems as though marijuana isn't as bad as everyone thought. Last week the federal Minister of Justice Peter MacKay floated the idea of allowing police to give tickets to people in possession of marijuana rather than haul them through the criminal justice system. He told the Ottawa press gallery that he directed his ministry to look at the issue and possibly draft legislation because the pri...Read More

Ukraine may have to go nuclear, says Kiev lawmaker … Ukraine may have to arm itself with nuclear weapons if the United States and other world powers refuse to enforce a security pact that obligates them to reverse the Moscow-backed takeover of Crimea, a member of the Ukraine parliament told USA TODAY. The United States, Great Britain and Russia agreed in a pact "to assure Ukraine's...Read More