Several minor metals prices have increased sharply in the week ended Friday December 11 following rising offers from China and higher transportation costs while uncertainty about logistics and demand in the near term are preventing some traders from taking long positions, Fastmarkets learned. "Price increases are massive... Almost all materials are currently strongly moving higher," a minor metals...Read More

RAPAPORT... De Beers has reduced its production plan for the next two years, aiming to avoid releasing too much rough into the market as the diamond sector attempts to exit the crisis that dominated 2020.The miner expects to unearth 33 million to 35 million carats in 2021, down from its previous forecast of 34 million to 36 million carats, parent company Anglo American said Friday in a presen...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A fraudster who promised investors high returns and no risk in a rough diamond Ponzi scheme has been jailed for seven years by a US court.Jose Angel Aman, 52, and his partners claimed the money would be used to buy colored rough, which they'd sell on at a profit after having the stones cut and polished.Aman claimed the scheme was secured by an inventory he held worth $25m. He...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Grib Diamonds says it sold $35m of rough at its latest Antwerp sale, and described the market as "extremely buoyant".Overall prices were up by about five per cent, and all the 450,000 carats offered were sold."The main strength was in the bigger sizes but smalls and melees were also up," said head of sales Antony Dear. Increases among two-carat goods were in the high single di...Read More

(IDEX Online) - India's government is facing mounting pressure to reduce import duties on diamonds and precious metals to boost the jewelry industry's pandemic recovery.Manufacturers currently pay levies of 7.5 per cent on polished diamonds and 12.5 per cent on gold, silver and platinum."Duty reduction will boost the recovery, and help the industry, which is already a mega-employer, to g...Read More

Freeport-McMoRan Inc has completed the sale of its stake in the undeveloped Kisanfu copper-cobalt project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Molybdenum Co (CMOC), the company said. The project, which was discovered by Freeport's exploration team, was no longer deemed to be strategic to the company's long-term strategy after it sold its stake in the adjace...Read More

US copper miner Freeport-McMoRan and Chinese smelters including China Copper, Jiangxi Copper and Tongling Nonferrous have agreed annual copper concentrate supply contracts with terms set at their lowest levels in a decade. Treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs), discounts on exchange prices that compensate smelters processing concentrates into commodity-grade metal, were set at $59.50 per tonne /...Read More

UC Rusal has become the first aluminium producer to receive an 'A' level rating from CDP, parent company En+ Group said on Monday December 14. CDP is an international non-profit organization that supports companies and cities to disclose the environmental impact of major corporations. En+ Group said its metals segment Rusal was rated 'A' due to the work it had done to address climate risks ac...Read More

Chinese automotive production rose by 9.6% year on year in November, supporting prices of upstream materials such as steel and aluminium. Carmakers in the country produced 2.85 million units in November, up by 9.6% from a year ago and up by 11.5% from the month prior, China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said (CAAM) on Friday December 11. Auto sales totaled 2.77 million units, up by 12.6%...Read More

Bardoc eyes long-term growth in prime goldfields locationSPONSOREDbardoc goldDrill results multiply value options in front of YandalSPONSOREDyandal resources'Best discovery in my time': De Grey on the march at HemiSPONSOREDde grey miningOceanaGold commits to net zero emissions by 2050SPONSOREDoceanagoldThe pair first entered into negotiations in 2016 following CMOC's $2.65 billion purchase...Read More

US mining company Freeport-McMoRan has agreed 2021 copper concentrate treatment and refining charges with Chinese smelter counterparts at $59.50 per tonne / 5.95 cents per lb, the lowest since 2011, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Fastmarkets. Freeport first locked a deal with China Copper, making it the first time the Chinalco subsidiary has secured an annual contract on beha...Read More

Scoped for growth: Nevada Copper shifts into production modeSPONSOREDnevada copper corp.It also provided a production outlook to 2023, with the biggest increase seen in copper from 640,000-650,000t this year to 890,000t-1 million tonnes in 2023, once its 60:40 Quellaveco copper joint venture with Mitsubishi in Peru has come online."We expect to deliver sector leading volume growth of 20-25% over t...Read More

The nickel price rallied to a new year-to-date high in the morning of Monday December 14 on the London Metals Exchange, spurred by positive forecasts for electric vehicle sales in China and the approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in the United States. Nickel's three-month price touched a new 2020 high during early trading of $17,780 per tonne, overtaking the previous year-to-date high...Read More

Scoped for growth: Nevada Copper shifts into production modeSPONSOREDnevada copper corp.Cloak it all with the ESG allure of becoming a supplier of a full suite of battery materials for the green revolution, which is true for a time only, and the summary of IGO's A$1.Read More

Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil increased day on day in Northern Europe on Monday December 14 due to a materials shortage in the market, sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, at ?,?623.33 ($754.87) per tonne on Monday, up by ?,?17.08 per tonne day on day from ?,?606.25 per tonne on December 11.The index was al...Read More

Prices for flat steel products in the Brazilian domestic market have continued to increase, going up for the sixth month in a row in December amid material scarcity and a recovery in demand, Fastmarkets has heard.Flat steel makers have successfully applied the price increases announced late in November.Fastmarkets' monthly price assessment for steel hot-rolled coil, domestic, monthly, exw Brazil,...Read More

Egyptian rebar producers added E ?100-154 ($6.35-9.78) per tonne to their prices - in effect from Monday December 14 - sources told Fastmarkets.Producers are now offering rebar at E ?12,450-12,465 ($791-804) per tonne ex-works including 14% VAT, rising from E ?11,450-11,600 per tonne including VAT previously, market participants said.The last time prices changed was on December 7, while the latest...Read More

Steel billet exporters from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have largely stayed out of the market, are holding back volumes and waiting for a clearer picture in the scrap segment, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday December 14.Most CIS producers were still out of the market and withholding steel billet offers because they are waiting for prices to rise further, sources said."We're tak...Read More

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mainly firmer this morning, Monday December 14, following the pullback from highs at the end of last week, but the base metals on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were mainly weaker while they followed Friday’s weakness on the LME.* Germany to enter a hard lockdown on Wednesday, South Korea considers raising Covid-19 restrictions to highest le...Read More

Turkish deep-sea scrap import prices have continued to increase, reaching their highest point since August 2012 with a fresh Baltic Sea cargo traded over the weekend, sources said on Monday December 14.A steel mill in the Marmara region booked the Baltic Sea cargo, consisting of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $419 per tonne and shredded at $429 per tonne cfr. The cargo composition was not clear at the time of...Read More