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

(IDEX Online) - A man spent the night locked inside a jewelry vault at the World Diamond Tower, at 580 Fifth Avenue, New York.An employee is understood to have closed the doors at around 8.45pm on Tuesday night (24 October), unaware the man was inside accessing his safety deposit box.Firefighters spent 10 hours trying to penetrate the 30-inch steel-reinforced concrete walls, in the basement of the...Read More

We learn today the gross domestic product expanded at an annualized 4.9% rate last quarter.CNBC:Gross domestic product, a measure of all goods and services produced in the U.S., rose at a seasonally adjusted 4.9% annualized pace in the July-through-September period, up from an unrevised 2.1% pace in the second quarter, the Commerce Department reported Thursday...The sharp increase came due to cont...Read More

(In association with Quantumrock) Professional investors are being offered a new and lucrative opportunity to put their capital into rough emeralds and ultra-rare alexandrite.Quantumrock, an pioneering investment solutions company, says it aims to achieve value increases in excess of 25 per cent a year, over a two-year term.It has launched what it describes as the first structured, professional in...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Okavango Diamond Company (ODC) has halted all rough sales as global demand remains at record low levels.It says it has cancelled its November auction and may do likewise in December."For the first time, we have had to build up inventory as we do not want to just irresponsibly release goods into a market which is already oversupplied," managing director Mmetla Masire said in an inte...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

I must disclose this immediately: I utterly loathe the World Economic Forum. To quote Obi-Wan Kenobi, "You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."From Jacinda Ardern, the Woman Who Would Be Queen (of New Zealand), to Chrystia Freeland, granddaughter of one Nazi and chief cheerleader for another, to Justin Trudeau, the chip off the old block, all who associate with the World Econo...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The US jewelry sector shrank yet again in Q3 of this year, with the overall loss of 485 retailers and almost 140 wholesalers and manufacturers, as measured by Jewelers Board of Trade (JBT) listings.  The total number of businesses fell by 2.6 per cent compared with the same three months in 2022, according to new statistics and trend data published earlier this week by JBT...Read More

"Luxurious languor"…We hazard the epoch of luxurious languor 18th-century philosopher David Hume's delicious expression is closing.It acquired its existence through the post-2008 imposition of artificially reduced interest rates.Rates at or near zero reigned for an entire decade and longer. Credit was essentially... costless.The United States economy got accustomed to it even dependent...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Groups representing the diamond and jewelry industries have issued messages of support after Hamas terrorist massacred 1,400 people in Israel.The American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) said it stood in "full support of Israel and our Israeli friends, family, and colleagues during these trying times".It put out a joint statement with the Diamond Manufacturers and Importers Associatio...Read More

Where were you on March 9, 2022, when President Biden signed the death warrant on American freedom?On that day, in a hushed ceremony at the White House without the approval of Congress, the states or the American people, Biden signed into law Executive Order 14067.Buried in his order are a few paragraphs, titled Section 4. The language in Section 4 makes Order 14067 the most treacherous act by a s...Read More

(IDEX Online) -  A 20.19-carat fancy intense VVS1 pink diamond will lead the Phillips' inaugural Geneva Jewels auction next month, with an estimate of $11m to $16.5m.It is one of the four largest fancy intense pink diamonds ever to be auctioned and is the most valuable jewel ever presented by Phillips.The cut-cornered rectangular modified brilliant-cut diamond (pictured) is accented with...Read More

(IDEX Online) - India's polished diamond exports could fall by as much as 35 per cent this financial year, the ratings agency Crisil, to $14bn to $15bn.It blames weak consumer demand in the US, EU and China (which together account for 75 per cent of foreign sales), rough supplies disrupted by the war in Ukraine and the plunging price of lab growns.The Mumbai-based agency notes that Israel...Read More

There's a lot going on in the world right now that bears close monitoring. But we can't forget about the elites' war on our freedoms.You've no doubt heard about the "Green New Deal" a set of government proposals designed to fight the "climate change crisis."If enacted, these laws would impose radical changes on nearly every facet of society, costing companies billions of dollars while diminishin...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Tiffany says it bought the largest fancy vivid yellow diamond ever found in Canada - for an undisclosed sum - and has created from it two emerald-cut gems, weighing over 15 carats and 20 carats.The octahedron diamond, weighing 71.26 carats, was found at the Ekati mine, in Northwest Territories, in 2021.Tiffany bought the rough stone last summer, and showed it to VIP clients at priv...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Production at Canada's three diamond mines hit a record high of  US $1.58bn (CAN $2.17bn) in 2022, according to the government department Natural Resources Canada (NRCan).That's a 28 per cent increase for Ekati, Diavik and Gahcho Kue, all located in Northwest Territories.But it's unlikely the figure will be exceeded. Diavik, operated by Rio Tinto, is ramping dow...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Zimbabwe's biggest diamond producer is now conducting almost all its sales in Dubai, in a move it has described as a "game changer".The state-owned ZCDC (Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company) has sold 4m carats there so far this year, up from 850,000 carats in the whole of 2022."For us, Dubai has been a game changer," sales and marketing manager Enock Moyo told Bloomberg News...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A man stood motionless in a storefront window, posing as a mannequin, then stole jewelry and other items after it closed.Police in Warsaw, Poland, released this picture (above) of the 22-year-old suspect holding a handbag in a clothing store, with two genuine dummies.They arrested the man, who is accused of stealing items from the store's jewelry counter, as well as a change o...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Rio Tinto is to hold The Beyond Rare Tender, showcasing polished pink and red diamonds from the now-closed Argyle mine in Australia, and yellow stones from Diavik, beneath a frozen lake in northern Canada.A total of 48 lots will be offered for sale in a series of invitation-only events staring next month.The first collection comprises 87 diamonds, weighing 29.96 carats in total, an...Read More

(IDEX Online) - De Beers CEO Al Cook has written an open letter to G7 leaders urging them to adopt the World Diamond Council's (WDC) proposal to outlaw Russian diamonds.It is one of four frameworks being considered - the others are from Belgium, India and France - to enforce sanctions following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.The G7 nations, responsible for 70 per cent of g...Read More

I would summarize the economic flow of recent events as:2020-21: massive stimulus and pandemic restrictions build up household savings and generate a stock market “meme stock” bubble.Mid-2021-22: “Revenge Spending” splurging generates massive spike in consumption, profiteering and inflation.2023: Renewed bubbles in housing and stocks, a classic “rebound / echo”...Read More