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

Donald Trump will certainly get the Republican nomination. With that the issue of truth and honesty about what happened on March 13, 2020, and beyond will likely not be pushed by the executive branch even if Trump wins.No one in his circles wants any talk of this subject, even if just about every bit of the current national crisis (health, economics, cultural, societal) traces to those grim days o...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Trans Atlantic Gem Sales (TAGS) sold just over $14m of rough at its latest tender in Dubai, with buyers appearing a little more positive.Bidding was strong across all ranges, the company said, and many prices 3grs to +10cts were up a few per cent on the previous tender in December.However a quarter of the goods offered - 20,000-plus carats valued at over $20m - remained unsold.Nine...Read More

CNBC:"The U.S. economy grew at [a] blistering 3.3% pace in Q4 while inflation pulled back."CNBC cites the latest economic data, issuing this morning from the Department of Commerce.Continues CNBC:The economy grew at a much more rapid pace than expected while inflation eased in the final three months of 2023, as the U.S. easily skirted a recession that many forecasters had thought was inevitable, t...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Thieves used a vehicle as a battering ram to smash their way through glass doors into a jewelry store in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.They fled with what police describe as "substantial" amount of jewelry from Griffin Jewellery Designs in a 4am heist at the Tecumseh Mall on Tuesday (23 January).The front of the building was badly damaged and the vehicle used in the ramming was later fo...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Six people are reported to have died when a small plane headed for Rio Tinto's Diavik diamond mine, in Canada's remote Northwest Territories, crashed shortly after take-off yesterday (23 January).There has been no official confirmation of the death toll, but AFP (Agence France-Presse) quotes an aviation source as saying six people died and one survived.The tragedy comes l...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Richemont saw revenue from Buccellati, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and its other jewelry brands climb 12 per cent to $4.3bn (at constant exchange rates) during the last three months of 2023.Specialist watchmakers sales rose by 3 per cent, reflecting a retail outperformance, notably at A. Lange & Sohne, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Vacheron Constantin.The Swiss luxury conglomer...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Mountain Province Diamonds (MPD) today (24 January) reported FY 2023 sales of $243.7m, down 18 per cent on the previous year.The Toronto-based miner sold 2.7m carats in both 2022 and 2023 from the Gahcho Kue mine it operates as a joint venture with De Beers in Northwest Territories, Canada, but average per carat prices fell from $112 to $90.It said price drops reflected the lower-v...Read More

Some 33% of Americans distrust elections.That is, 33% of Americans distrust the granite beneath democracy the ballot itself.They believe the thing rests upon limestone foundations. Or worse... sand foundations.Thus American democracy is down with a wasting disease.Today we propose a solution. It will restore American democracy to pink and vigorous health, to the highest pristinity.What is it? An...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Canada's vast, frozen Nunavut territory has been granted control over its natural resources in a move that could attract prospectors seeking diamonds, gold and other deposits.De Beers is among a small number of miners which already have interests in the sparsely-populated Arctic region. It is seeking approval for the Chidliak Project, a diamond deposit on Baffin Island, Canada...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Australian jeweler Michael Hill has closed six under-performing stores and axed some senior positions amid "challenging" retail conditions.Sales actually rose by 4.1 per cent during the half year ending 31 December 2023, to US$239m (AUS$362.8m), across the 302 outlets in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.Australia and New Zealand saw retail revenue rise by just over 10 per cent. St...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Kiran Gems has moved staff out of the new Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) just months after it opened, and back to Mumbai's Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB). It's a blow for the brand new $388m SDB - the world's largest office building - which opened last November but has so far failed to attract major tenants aside from Kiran.Kiran Gems is a privately-owned company, desc...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Christie's New York is to sell a collection of 32 watches owned by Sir Elton John, as part of a unique home clearance.The 76-year-old Rocketman singer is auctioning the contents of his home on Peachtree Road, Altanta, USA, (after which he named his 2004 album) in a series of eight sales. John, one of the top-selling solo artists of all time, is a passionate watch collecto...Read More

(IDEX Online) - De Beers has introduced a new online "sealed bid" tender for some of its rough diamonds.The Offer, which went live last week, allows buyers to key in the price they're prepared to pay for a lot, unseen by other bidders.It is an additional sales channel rather than a replacement for the online auctions that have been taking place since 2008.Online auctions have accounted for th...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Registration for JCK 2024, the jewelry industry's key trade show, has opened.The Las Vegas show is expected to attract 18,000 visitors and 12,000 exhibitors, in line with last year's attendance.Organizers say the theme of its 2024 edition, which takes place from 31 May to 3 June, will be "love". Select events will start on 30 May."There are truly no connections like those...Read More

I've covered a wide variety of potential crises over the years. These include natural disasters, pandemics, social unrest and financial collapse. That's a daunting list.One thing I haven’t done is to cover the greatest potential calamity of all nuclear war. For the reasons explained below, now is the time to consider it.Nuclear warfighting is back in the air. The subject is receiving more...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Arnold Schwarzenegger, former governor of California and star of The Terminator movies, was ordered to pay a $38,000 fine in cash after failing to declare an Audemars Piguet watch at Customs.He was stopped at Munich airport last Wednesday, en route to a Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative event in Austria, where the specially-made watch wnet on to sell at a charity auction for $295,0...Read More

(IDEX Online) -  LVMH, parent company of Tiffany & Co, TAG Heuer and many other jewelry brands, is reportedly in talks with TikTok to crack down on sales of counterfeit goods on the Chinese video-sharing app.The "shoppable video" marketplace  TikTok Shop was launched in the US last September and aims to generate $17.5bn of e-commerce business this year, but it is becoming a popular m...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Sarine says its latest software will revolutionize rough diamond planning, adding as much as 5 per cent to the value of a polished stone.The Israel-based company says it Most Valuable Planning (MVP) is is a fully-automated cloud-based service that will be offered as an optional service to its Advisor 8.0 rough planning software package, and will be charged on a per-use basis.It is...Read More

(IDEX Online) - India's diamond industry is calling on the government to introduce for a range of tax and other breaks in its upcoming budget to ease the importation of rough stones.The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) wants a safe harbour rule for the sale of rough diamonds in Special Notified Zones (SNZs).It is also seeking the introduction of a Diamond Imprest License o...Read More

The nabobs and panjandrums of the World Economic Forum (WEF) met up at Davos, Switzerland, this past week to lay plans for their latest assault on humanity.This year's theme is "Rebuilding Trust." Did you just blow your coffee through your nose?The outfit that coordinated the world-wide Covid-19 response (that perhaps birthed the very concept of Covid-19 itself), and especially pushed mRNA vaccine...Read More