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
The plunge in commodity prices has forced many mining companies to sell assets or metal streams to boost their liquidity. But their work is far from finished.TD Securities analysts Greg Barnes and Craig Hutchison studied the liquidity of base metal miners and found that if prices remain low, liquidity will become “extremely tight” for many of them by the end of 2017, if not sooner.&ldq...Read More
Falling base metal prices are putting major pressure on producer balance sheets, especially for those miners that are carrying a lot of debt. Canaccord Genuity analyst Peter Bures is among those cautioning investors to be very careful in this sector right now.“With producers feeling the squeeze of over-levered balance sheets amidst a backdrop of significantly lower commodity prices, we belie...Read More
With safety issues increasing the likelihood of a work stoppage at Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold Inc.’s Grasberg project in Indonesia, coupled with a strike set to begin Nov. 10 at the Antamina mine in Peru, the probability of a deficit in the copper market has significantly risen.Estimates suggest that these two labour disruptions could remove 84,000 tonnes of mined copper supply throu...Read More
First Quantum Minerals Ltd. and Lundin Mining Corp. have enough nickel exposure to provide investors with an opportunity to benefit from higher prices, but there are plenty of ways they differ.Neither company faces the risks associated with excessive nickel exposure since the primary focus of both companies is copper, but Tom Meyer, a mining analyst at CIBC World Markets, noted First Quantum&rsquo...Read More
Base metal stocks have been battered in recent months as commodity prices declined, regardless of their quality. Buying them after a sell-off is a risky proposition, so Raymond James analyst Alex Terentiew waded through the muck to determine which ones have been punished unfairly.He evaluated the stocks from a number of angles, including a sensitivity test to see how they would withstand a prolong...Read More
Copper already accounts for about 25% of overall revenue at Teck Resources Ltd., but the base metal’s role in the company’s portfolio should become even greater after 2014.Deutsche Bank’s Jorge Beristain, who was part of a group of analysts that recently toured two of Teck’s copper assets in Latin America, noted that ongoing expansion in the region points to approximately 2...Read More
It goes without saying that beating guidance is a good way to earn favour from investors. The market has been simply brutal to mining companies that failed to meet their own expectations — or those of analysts — in the last 12 months (just ask Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd).So which companies do a good job of meeting guidance, and which don’t? Canaccord Genuity base metal analysts Gary...Read More
The underperformance of Canadian equities versus their U.S. counterparts may be coming to an end.With investor sentiment towards U.S. stocks suggesting excessive optimism and recent comments from the Fed and ECB signaling a less dovish near-term stance, David Doyle of Macquarie Capital Markets thinks global equities may be entering a consolidation phase.The strategist believes this could bring abo...Read More
As metal prices plunged on the eve of the financial crisis in September 2008, Peru’s billionaire Brescia family paid about $400 million to buy the world’s largest tin deposit in the Amazon jungle.Now their mining company Minsur SA sits alone among mostly Asian rivals as the only major producer in 2014 that can raise output of a metal increasingly in demand because it’s mixed into...Read More
Global miner Rio Tinto surprised investors with a 15 percent dividend hike after reporting a huge jump in second-half profit on Thursday, putting it in a strong position for a big capital return in 2015.Rio’s result will set the pace for other mega miners, who have shelved projects, axed costs, sold assets and cut debt over the past 18 months to satisfy shareholders wanting a bigger share of...Read More
Slowing growth and credit concerns in China have taken an enormous toll on base metal prices. The related mining stocks have been hammered as well in recent weeks, and according to analysts at Dundee Capital Markets, there could be worse to come.“The bottom line is that with stimulus being tapered, China’s slowing fundamentals will likely reassert themselves and we believe miners will...Read More
Thursday was such a dreadful day for global markets (and especially for precious metals) that investors and media took little notice of base metals, which also took a tumble. Copper is now trading just above US$3.00 a pound, way down from a high of more than US$4.50 in 2011.Jessica Fung, a commodity strategist at BMO Capital Markets, noted that a slight bounce back is possible in the short term. B...Read More
By Veronica Brown and Melanie BurtonLONDON — Copper fell to its lowest in a month on Tuesday after disappointing U.S. employment data on Friday raised concerns about slowing growth, while a slight fall in China’s copper imports did little to shore up sentiment.Losses were limited, however, by the view that China’s economic slowdown was not drastic, with off-take for copper seen k...Read More
While global markets have not been kind to stocks in recent days, it’s mining stocks that have taken the biggest beating — and are now at levels not seen since mid-2010.“Energy, base metals and gold stocks remain more than 20% off their cyclical peaks of a year ago,” said Ste??fane Marion, chief economist and strategist with National Bank.Mining stocks have not been this lo...Read More
By Silvia AntonioliLONDON — Copper was steady on Thursday, after a 2 percent fall the previous session, and was on track for a 10 percent increase this quarter, although doubts over demand in China and over the pace of economic recovery in the U.S. made investors cautious.Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) traded at $8,330 a tonne in official rings, little changed from a clo...Read More
Detour Gold last month sold C$277 million of equity to investors willing to bet on its promising gold project – a hefty sum that bankers say the Canadian company would have struggled to raise barely two months earlier.Detour’s success in raising funds is one of many small signs that the malaise that gripped miners, explorers and investors in late 2011 is easing. A brighter economic out...Read More
By Ted NilesLevon Resources' (TSX:LVN) preliminary economic estimate of its Cordero project was originally intended for internal use only. President and CEO Ron Tremblay admits that normal procedure is to drill off the resource before working on the economics, but Cordero is unusually large. He explains, “We’ve just started our Phase 4, 130,000-metre drill program, so there’s an...Read More
By Susan ThomasLONDON — Copper was steady on Tuesday after the euro trimmed gains against the dollar on waning enthusiasm over a survey showing Germany, Europe’s largest economy, was holding up despite the debt crisis, but gains were limited by scant signs of buying from top metals consumer China.Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was $8,430 a tonne in official rings from...Read More
OTTAWA — Commodities entered 2012 on more positive footing after the eurozone debt crisis sent resource prices into sharp retreat in the latter half of 2011, Scotiabank said Tuesday.“Sentiment has improved in early 2012,” said Patricia Mohr, author of Scotiabank’s Commodity Price Index, “with some investment and hedge funds shifting from short to long positions in bas...Read More
Commodity markets are looking up this year with a strong start to 2012, after prices were a mixed bag in 2011.But as the Aesop Fable shows, it takes more than a strong start to win the race, according to CIBC senior economist Peter Buchanan.While diminished risk aversion helped reduce prices for commodities and other volatile assets, Mr. Buchanan says they have better traction in 2012.Commodity ma...Read More