The precious metals all soared in 2025, and while a continued monetary expansion and geopolitical risk could still drive gains especially for gold in 2026, a pullback in silver, platinum and palladium is possible after recent partly speculative surges.Read More

The AOCE and WB have moderate overall forecasts for the metals in 2025 inline with IMF forecasts for a decline in economic growth and inflation, although we see the probability of a stagflationary scenario as still reasonably high.Read More

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

Venezuela President Nicol??s Maduro says the army must do a better job stopping environmental destruction caused by unregulated mining. Maduro, leader of the ostracized South American country since 2013, made the comments in a national year-end TV address. It was just days after Titanic actor Leonardo DiCaprio criticized the regime for allowing state-sanctioned gold mining to accelerate the loss...Read More

The mayors of five municipalities in northern Colombia's Cesar mining corridor want the government of President Gustavo Petro to phase out mining operations with a smooth transition into other industries instead of an abrupt halt.About 90% of the corridor's economy is based on mining and related activities.The mayors expressed concern regarding Petro's stance on mining, according to local media, p...Read More

Osisko Gold Royalties (TSX: OR; NYSE: OR) is offering Metals Acquisition (NYSE: MTAL.U) US$75 million in funding to help it purchase the CSA copper mine in Australia from Glencore (LSE: GLEN). Metals Acquisition will be able to draw on the US$75 million, which is from a copper stream on the mine, to help pay for its US$1.1 billion takeover of the site about 700 km northwest of Sydney, Osisko said...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The holiday season saw a 5.4 per cent drop in year-on-year jewelry sales in the US, despite a growth in overall spending of 7.6 per cent.Shoppers opted to spend their dollars on eating out - restaurants raked in 15.1 per cent more than in 2021, according  to Mastercard SpendingPulse's report on US retail sales across all payment types.Spending on clothes also rose, by 4.4...Read More

The diamond industry was one of the winners as the world economy rebounded from the effects of the pandemic. Consumer demand for diamond jewelry grew last year, while supply remained constrained.This year, the $80 billion industry saw more turmoil as cutters, polishers and traders hunted for ways to keep buying from Russia - Russian miner Alrosa (MCX: ALRS) accounts for about a third of global rou...Read More

First Quantum Minerals (TSX: FM) says production is continuing normally at its giant copper mine in Panama after the head of the Canadian miner flew down to restart talks with the government this week while a care and maintenance deadline looms. Panama President Laurentino Cortizo has given the miner until Jan. 6 to mothball the Cobre Panama copper mine unless talks begun again this week under a...Read More

Our TNM Drill Down features highlights of the top gold assays of the past week. Drill holes are ranked by gold grade x width, as identified by our sister company Mining Intelligence.Projects in Australia and Canada led drilling results for the period of Dec. 16 - 22.Red 5 (ASX: RED) earned the week's top grade x width at its Darlot project in the Yilgarn area 850 km northeast of Perth, Australia....Read More

Anglo American (LON: AAL) wants to reuse water in a pipeline hundreds of kilometres long used to transport iron ore from its Minas Rio operation in Brazil in what could be the country's largest conservation project of its kind. The 529-km pipeline running east from Concei????o do Mato Dentro municipality in southeastern Brazil to the port at S??o Jo??o da Barra may carry as much as 0.3 cubic metr...Read More

2022 taught gold investors a very important lesson: The value of the U.S. dollar influences gold prices much more than inflation data.In fact, gold pretty much ignored rising U.S. inflation in 2022, despite prices increasing at their fastest levels in four decades.The beginning of 2022 started off strong for gold.Driven by a general rally in commodity prices stemming from geopolitical conflict bet...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Alrosa says it expects to find more diamonds in Yakutia and beyond, which could take total reserves to an estimated 1.1bn carats.It also says rough production for 2022 is expected to total 35.5m carats, an increase on earlier forecasts of 34.3m.Russia's state-controlled miner, currently sanctioned by the US, says the most promising new territories are the north of Yakutia, in...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The global lab market is set to reach almost $50bn by 2030, according to a new report.That's an increase of almost two-and-a-half times on current estimates of the market value for 2020, of $19.3bn.For context, the total value of the retail diamond jewelry market last year was $85.5bn, according to Tacy's 2021 Diamond Pipeline.US-based Allied Market Research says growth i...Read More

As we end off 2022, The Northern Miner takes a look at the top 10 most-clicked stories on our website from Jan. 1 to Dec. 15. No. 1: Canada's Top Ten precious metals juniors By Northern Miner Staff (Jul. 7, 2022) Our most-read story of the year ranked the Top Ten Canadian-headquartered precious metals juniors according to market capitalization as of Jun. 7, 2022. The list of companies with pr...Read More

Following a difficult and unpredictable year full of uncertainty, 2022 ends with a heightened sensitivity to risk. To discuss what lies ahead for miners in 2023, The Northern Miner spoke in mid-December with Matthew Bey, Senior Global analyst for the risk intelligence company RANE. The Northern Miner: This year has seen multiple crises, both geopolitical and economic - some call it a 'polycrisis....Read More

Is this just more liberal greenwashing or is the government on to something here? I'll admit it's getting harder and harder to tell nowadays, especially in the renewable energy sector. According to recent news releases, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has found the green fuel it believes will replace diesel, gasoline, and any other carbon-polluting fuel on the market. It's a project th...Read More

This week's episode features Lucara Diamond president and CEO Eira Thomas in conversation with Northern Miner podcast host Adrian Pocobelli at the Canadian Mining Symposium in London, England. Eira discussed the latest developments in the diamond market, including the growing importance of ESG and provenance in the diamond industry and how the war in Ukraine has changed the diamond industry.All th...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Contemporary artist Pablo Lucker has chosen the surface of a diamond as the "canvas" for his latest work.He used a laser to create a series of heart designs on the table of 12 one-carat stones, and a "crown jewel" of 2.75-carats.Lucker partnered with high-end jewelers Trophy by Gassan (both are based in Amsterdam) for what is being described as the smallest work of art on a diamond...Read More

While Majuba Hill Copper (CSE: JUBA; US-OTC: JUBAF) expects to release in the next three months an initial resource for its namesake property in Nevada, it anticipates releasing assays from three deep holes.Underpinned by a non-compliant resource estimate, Buster Hunsaker, consulting geologist for Majuba Hill, says an initial development scenario for the project in Pershing County would look at a...Read More

It has never been more expensive to operate or build a mine, according to new research from CostMine, although not all costs are rising equally. In late November, Michael Sinden, vice-president of data with The Northern Miner Group, presented inflation data at the Canadian Mining Symposium in London, showing that mining operational and capital expenditures are reaching 20-year highs.Sinden poin...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Two men indicted for the fatal armed robbery of a US jeweler have been found guilty by a federal court.Mark Vuono was shot dead in what police in Stamford, Connecticut, described as a "cold blooded murder".He was found lying in front of his open safe with a head wound at Marco Jewelers after a customer called police, in March 2020.  Three men were arrested two days later after...Read More

In the midst of all this incredible political and economic chaos, I was tasked with packing up my mother's things to prepare for her move to assisted living. It's a gravely emotional experience for anyone, as I'm sure you know.I adore that woman. It's hard to see her get old. Also, that house contained 100 years or more of family history. All this stuff takes up space. With everyone on the move, i...Read More