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

I've lived in Italy for 19 months and still can't speak Italian fluently.My six-year-old son, Micah, speaks excellent Italian, and his friends' parents, my peers, are more than happy to ignore me and talk with him.It saves me a job.But to improve, I started translating words and phrases I often use. It's a common strategy to improve speaking ability.A few Fridays ago, I stood in Piazza San Secondo...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Almost three quarters (74 per cent) of Chinese consumers believe natural diamonds are more valuable than lab growns according to research for Chow Tai Fook.The jewelry group, which has over 7,200 outlets, says natural diamonds will continue to dominate the market, thanks to consumer demand.It has just published its first Jewellery Consumer Trends Report, based on a survey of 5,000...Read More

(IDEX Online) - There were swathes of price drops during October, especially among rounds. Indian manufacturers are being urged to support a voluntary ban on rough purchases (15 October to 15 December).Alrosa halted all rough sales during September and October, and Okavango, Botswana's state-owned diamond company, announced last week that it was doing likewise, cancelling its November auction...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Two workers have been accused of stealing $670,000 of diamonds from their employer in Mumbai, India.They are alleged to have helped themselves to gems they were showing to clients.The owner of JB & Brothers, which has an office at the Bharat Diamond Bourse, Bandra-Kurla Complex, filed a complaint with the police after discovering the alleged fraud.Officers are looking out for t...Read More

Jim Rickards was correct.Jim forecast that the Federal Reserve would sit upon its hands today no rate hike.And in fact the Federal Reserve sat upon its hands today no rate hike.Mr. Powell left his sword in its sheath.The stock market reacted initially with a shrug of its slumping shoulders.That is because it did not anticipate a rate increase. Thus its expectations were merely affirmed.Stocks...Read More

The stock market continues to drag investors into a pit of despair as the major averages post another ugly week of losses.The Nasdaq took the brunt of the damage, tumbling more than 5% in just ten trading days as the once bulletproof mega-cap tech stocks began to unravel. The bears have now come for the biggest and best stocks on the market, with major players like Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) suffering d...Read More

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the Federal Reserve System (the Fed) is meeting today and tomorrow for the purpose of discussing the economy and setting monetary policy going forward.Today I'm giving you a preview of the meeting, a forecast of Fed policy and what it means for the economy going forward. Let's start with what's happening tomorrow with the Fed...Tomorrow, the Fed will lea...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Signet Jewelers has pledged to raise another $100m for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases.The biggest jewelry retailer in the US, with over 2,800 outlets and global sales of $8.32bn last year, says it will continue its support for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which is based in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, and has eight affiliate clinics.Signet has r...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Gem Diamonds has recovered its four and fifth +100-ct diamonds of the year at its Letseng mine, in Lesotho.The UK-based miner yesterday (30 October) announced it had found two "high quality" stones, both Type IIa D color diamonds, weighing 117.47 carats and 110 carats.Letseng, known as the highest dollar per carat kimberlite diamond mine in the world, saw its revenue from rough sal...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE) yesterday (30 October) released a video calling on the industry to stand united with Israel in the wake of the Hamas massacre that claimed over 1,400 lives.The terror attack of October 7 was not only an attack on Israel, says IDE, but also on the shared values on which the world diamond community is based, namely peace, justice, freedom, and brothe...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Exports of Swiss watches grew again during September, driven by a huge 24 per cent increase in Hong Kong, the world's third biggest market.But sales in the US, representing about a sixth of demand globally, slipped by 6.4 per cent to CHF 344.7m ($381m) following a 13.5 per cent rise in August, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry Exports (FHS).China showed s...Read More

We saw what happened in the Hamas attack on Israel across the Gaza Strip. What's coming next in this war? How far will the escalation go?You're well aware of the surprise attack by Islamic Hamas berserkers on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7. Hamas does not have an air force or armor, but they improvised an assault with mundane substitutes.They used paragliders of a kind that can be found at almost any...Read More

(IDEX Online) -  Kering, the French luxury group that owns Boucheron and other high jewelry maisons, suffered a a 13 per cent decline in Q3 sales.Group revenue was down to to ?,?4.46bn ($4.72bn) in the face of what it called "challenging macroeconomic conditions and softening demand across the luxury industry".Revenue from its fashion brands - Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta - al...Read More

(IDEX Online) - India's gross exports of polished diamonds fell again during September, compared with the same month in 2022.But actual foreign sales in dollars are increasing month on month, according to new figures from the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC). Exports during September were $1.67bn, up almost 19 per cent on August. In turn August exports were up almost...Read More

(IDEX Online) - India's Greenlab Diamonds has signed a $120m deal to manufacture lab growns for Saudi Arabia's Dana Al Alami Jewelry.Greenlab has four factories in Surat producing 200,000 carats of lab growns a month. It also the company that grew the 7.5-carat diamond that India's prime minister Narendra Modi presented to US First Lady Jill Biden Prime during a state visit in June....Read More

(IDEX Online) - De Beers says its full-year production forecast for 2023 remains unchanged - at 30m to 33m carats - despite a 23 per cent drop in Q3 output.Most of that was because of its Venetia mine, in South Africa, switching from open-pit to underground production. Output there fell 78 per cent, from 1.65m carats in Q3 2022 to 365,000 carats.Overall De Beers' production fell from 9.1m car...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A jeweler was robbed at gunpoint hours after he posted a $150,000 Patek Philippe watch for sale on Instagram.Two men waited outside his store, at Jeweler's Row, in the center of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, and followed him to his home 30 miles away in Newtown, Bucks County."They sat outside of our store for three hours, where I had walked in and out of the store a few tim...Read More

Of course, you realize that if this tragic business in the Middle East gets out of hand millions of people might die, maybe even you and me. Any way you cut it, looks like Islam wants to rumble.Basic problem: The little slab of land on the Mediterranean at issue is in the possession of one group of people and another group of people wants to drive them out. There is no "two state solution" because...Read More

In the course of almost four years, and really dating back a decade and a half, I've managed to read most of the writings of the intellectuals, titans of industry and government officials who constructed the strange reality of 2020 and after.They wanted to conduct a science experiment on the human population. Because infectious disease knows no borders, they knew for sure it would have to be a glo...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Charles Michel, President of the European Council, said the G7 and EU were committed to taking coordinated action to curb Russia's earnings from the diamond trade.He told 450 delegates at the FACETS 2023 Diamonds For Change conference in Botswana yesterday (25 October): "Natural resources should never finance war or human rights abuses. Rather they should breathe life into pea...Read More