Once again, if you want to END the manipulative price suppression, which was THE WHOLE POINT of the "silver squeeze", you must...(by Half Dollar) I've been biting my tongue, but now I'm starting to throw up a little bit in my mouth, so I can bite no longer.Why has the silver squeeze failed to see silver thrusting above $30 since the end of January?I won't call out specific people, because I have t...Read More

At some point, maybe already, the world will reach Peak Silver Production. When that occurs, investors will... by Steve St Angelo of SRSrocco ReportWith the results finally out, the top Silver Mining Industry's average yield fell to the lowest level ever. While the pandemic shutdowns reduced overall silver production significantly, it didn't impact the ore grades all that much. Since 2005, t...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view. This month's key North American steel forecast highlights: US hot-rolled coil prices continued to move in line with our forecasts in February, although actual prices again modestly exceeded our forecasts. Domestic HRC prices averaged $1,194 per ton in February, exceeding our forecast price of $1,150 per ton for the month. U...Read More

Export prices for steel billet in the Black Sea basin have continued to soften in mid-March amid a lack of trading activity, Fastmarkets has heard.Customers preferred to refrain from billet bookings while the costs for steel scrap and finished long steel products were falling.Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), North Europe origin, cfr Turkey, was calculated at $430.63 p...Read More

The prices of lead, zinc and copper showed the steepest declines on the London Metal Exchange at the close of trading on Tuesday March 16, with the US Dollar Index at its highest for a week at 91.91 and the market braced for a US Federal Reserve policy announcement on Wednesday."Market attention will turn to the US Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting, which will conclude on March 17. The gene...Read More

RAPAPORT... The World Diamond Council (WDC) and the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) have agreed to work together on key issues such as the Kimberley Process (KP), conflict diamonds and sustainability.The two organizations have entered into a cross-membership partnership, meaning the RJC has become a member of the WDC, and the WDC has become a member of the RJC, they said Tuesday. The grou...Read More

RAPAPORT... US e-commerce sales will hit $1 trillion for the first time next year, as the pandemic continues to impact consumer habits, Adobe Analytics predicted Monday.Digital spending will reach $850 billion to $930 billion this year based on the current growth trajectory, the company noted. Between March 2020 and February 2021, online sales rose 20% year on year to $844 billion, a difference of...Read More

RAPAPORT... Arctic Canadian Diamond Company has appointed former Northwest Territories (NWT) mining minister Wally Schumann as its senior adviser on aboriginal and northern affairs."[Schumann] joins the company at a very exciting time, as we embark on the next stage of our journey with Ekati, and renew...relationships with our employees, stakeholder communities in the north, the government of the...Read More

RAPAPORT... The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has started providing specific information on post-growth treatments for synthetic diamonds, marking the latest shift in its approach to the category.The institute's Laboratory-Grown Diamond Reports now say if there is evidence of a treatment to change the color of a stone, or if there is no evidence, a GIA spokesperson told Rapaport News...Read More

(IDEX Online) - VILLAGERS in south-eastern Zimbabwe claim they're being evicted from their homes to make way for gold and diamond mining - rather than dairy farming.Over 12,000 residents of Chilonga Village, in Chiredzi, say the project proposed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa is a "cover story".They say the real reason they're being removed is to allow large-scale mineral extraction in...Read More

Treatment and refining charges for copper concentrate fell again to new 10-year-lows in the week ended Friday March 12, with Fastmarkets' copper concentrate index dropping to less than $30 per tonne/3 cents per lb for the first time.The spot market has been in a prolonged downtrend since 2014, but a recent bout of tightness has seen terms dip by 27% in the past two weeks.TC/RCs, which are discount...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A jeweler was robbed of his $500,000 Richard Mille watch by an armed gang as he sat at a restaurant table in Beverly Hills, California, USA.Shay Belhassen reportedly grabbed a gun from one of the three hooded raiders and wrestled them to the ground but they made off with his RM 11-03 rose gold Flyback Chronograph.Four shots were fired in the daylight robbery, one of which struck a...Read More

(IDEX Online) - De Beers boss Bruce Cleaver and two other Anglo American directors have sold $5.5m of their shares in the company.The share price has surged by almost 40 per cent since the commodities rally began last November.Cleaver (pictured), CEO of De Beers, sold 25,000 shares for just over ?, ?$1m, according to a report in Shares magazine.Didier Charreton, Anglo's director of peopl...Read More

Fastmarkets has amended the frequency of its assessment of two lead ingot premiums for Southeast Asia.After a month-long consultation, which ended on March 12, Fastmarkets has altered the frequency of assessment of the two premiums from bi-weekly to monthly.Monthly assessment of these prices will start from Tuesday March 16, 2021. The assessments affected are:MB-PB-0107 Lead 99.97% ingot premium,...Read More

The world's largest producer of high-grade nickel expects to restore full capacity at its flooded mines in Siberia in the next 3-4 months but revised its metal production volumes to reflect the mining halt, it said on March 16.Nornickel's Oktyabrsky and Taimyrsky mines have been closed since February 24 following an inflow of groundwater into the two mines. The nickel production shortfall should b...Read More

Cancellations of aluminium out of London Metal Exchange warehouses in Port Klang, Malaysia, have begun, after more than 600,000 tonnes was delivered over the past week.About 85,000 tonnes were shown as freshly canceled on March 16, with 83,850 tonnes of that at Port Klang and additional, small cancellations in Johor and Singapore.Market participants told Fastmarkets they believe big queues could b...Read More

A summary of Antofagasta's financial results for the full year of 2020, as stated in its preliminary results, and its production guidance for 2020, as per a company report published on Tuesday March 16.Financial results - in brief: Antofagasta's revenue in 2020 was $5.1 billion, an increase of 3.3% from 2019, which the company attributed to "increases in copper and gold realised prices, partially...Read More

Flat steel import prices to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia continued to increase sharply while buyers were hesitant to make bookings because they were uncertain if prices would stay high, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday March 16."The market is not absorbing the price increases until now but if the increases continue like this, there would be no other option than to accept," one trad...Read More

Steel billet and rebar buyers in the United Arab Emirates preferred to wait during the week to Tuesday March 16 so any price changes were small, sources told Fastmarkets.Rebar producers in the UAE are expected to announce new prices soon so buyers are waiting to place import orders, market participants said.The country's steel producers are officially offering rebar at 2,530-2,545 dirhams ($689-69...Read More

Independent traders in Europe have joined forces to oppose the extenstion of safeguard measures against 26 steel product categories, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday, March 16.A consortium of 33 mostly medium and small businesses connected to the steel trade and steel processing have teamed up to form 'Companies Against Import Restrictions' (Cair) to fight against protectionism in the Euro...Read More