The London Metal Exchange three-month nickel price rallied over 3% in the second half of the day on Thursday January 14 on building expectations for President-elect Joe Biden to announce a $1.5 trillion deal stimulus package for the United States. The nickel price rose to $18,281 per tonne at 5pm, the metal's highest closing price of the year so far and a rise of 3.4% from Wednesday's 5pm price of...Read More

RAPAPORT... Lucapa Diamond Company will temporarily close its Mothae mine in Lesotho during a 14-day nationwide lockdown.Starting Thursday, the company will put the deposit on care and maintenance for two weeks to ensure the health and safety of its workers, it said Wednesday. The suspension will likely put Lucapa slightly behind its production plan for the first quarter, but should not affect it...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Natural diamonds are increasingly being found in parcels of lab-grown melee sent for grading. The undisclosed higher-value gems have been spotted among lab-growns on "numerous occasions" in recent months, according to the US-based lab GSI.The mix-up is probably because both types of stone are handled in the same factories, said Debbie Azar, the lab's president and co-foun...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Mountain Province today said 2020 revenue from its Gahcho Kue mine, in Canada, was down more than a fifth on the previous year. But it recovered well in Q4.The miner said March to September were particularly tough, as the pandemic put the market under unprecedented pressure, but the outlook for 2021 was "more positive".Mountain Province's revenue share from the mine, which it...Read More

RAPAPORT... What parameters would one use to assess a company's performance? For our analysis, sales provide the best indication of how a business is doing. Taking that a step further, revenue generated across a group of companies within a sector provides valuable insight into the market's performance.Investors in stocks consider many more factors. Expectations for the company - and for the e...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A diamond security firm says it can now apply the smallest ever logo or characters below the surface of a diamond.They have a diameter of just a micron (0.001mm) and are visible only at 100 times magnification.UK-based Opsydia says its technology works on even the highest-clarity gem - with virtually no impact on its grade. It applies a nano-scale logo, serial number or encryp...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Insurers Jewelers Mutual have donated $500,000 to US charities, based on a poll of its policy holders.The proceeds of last year's Band Together charitable campaign will be divided between Feeding America ($194,000), Kids In Need Foundation ($156,000), and Stand Up To Cancer ($150,000). Every year the company selects three national non-profits and asks policy holders to vo...Read More

Copper scrap discounts in the United States rose this week in response to the strong Comex copper price, along with slowing demand as some mills finished purchasing scrap metal for the month."There has been a little widening of spreads due to the high Comex," a scrap seller said.A copper scrap trader said that "some spreads had tightened from mid-December, but now that a couple of mills have fille...Read More

Rio Tinto is to become the first producer of high-quality scandium oxide in North America and will produce around one-fifth of the current level of world supply from a planned plant in Qu?(C)bec, Canada.The plant, currently under construction at the company's Rio Tinto Fer et Titane (RTFT) metallurgical operation in Sorel-Tracy, will begin commercial production in June this year. The RTFT Research...Read More

Russian mining company Nornickel is to join the Responsible Sourcing Blockchain Network (RSBN), an industry collaboration across the minerals supply chain that uses blockchain to support responsible sourcing and production practises from mine to market.The move will see Nornickel's supply chains - including each stage of the company's vertically-integrated operations, from Russian mines to refiner...Read More

The London Metal Exchange's latest off-warrant stock data showed an increase of 3.9% in material held outside the LME warehouse network in November 2020. The amount of metal held off-warrant increased by 72,640 tonnes in November, a similar rise to that seen in October, when it rose by 78,092 tonnes. Data collected by the LME showed there was a total of 1.96 million tonnes of metal held off-warran...Read More

Rio Tinto's New Zealand Aluminium Smelter (NZAS) in Tiwai Point will continue to operate until December 31, 2024 after reaching an electricity agreement with Meridian Energy, the producer said on Wednesday January 13. Rio Tinto had said in July last year that it would shut the smelter by August 2021 after a strategic review showed the business was no longer viable due to high energy costs and...Read More

Zinc registered the biggest fall and nickel was the only metal to post gains in the morning session at the London Metal Exchange on Thursday January 14.The base metals complex remains unsettled ahead of United States president-elect Joe Biden's impending stimulus announcement. Zinc's three-month price was down 1.7% to $2,727.50 per tonne on Thursday at 9am, down from Wednesday's 5pm...Read More

Last week's price increases by domestic producers have propelled US rebar prices to their highest point in over nine years.Fastmarkets assessed the price of steel reinforcing bar (rebar), fob mill US at $39.50 per hundredweight ($790 per short ton) on Wednesday January 13, up 4.6% from $37.75 per cwt the week before and increase of 25.4% from $31.50 per cwt one year ago. US marketDomestic reb...Read More

Trident aims to fill valuable nicheSPONSOREDtrident royaltiesThe company said drilling also intercepted mineralisation considerably beyond the 200m average depth-extent of historical drilling at Warintza Central. Highlights included 1,067m grading 0.Read More

Trident aims to fill valuable nicheSPONSOREDtrident royaltiesThe company produced 1.21Moz gold and 119Mlb copper in the December quarter, achieving average prices of US$1,874/oz and $3.25/lb.Read More

The domestic price for hot-rolled coil rose day on day in Northern Europe on Thursday January 14 due to limited prompt supply, sources told Fastmarkets. Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe at ?,?705.12 ($858.99) per tonne on Thursday, up by ?,?13.87 per tonne day on day from ?,?691.25 per tonne on Wednesday. The index was also up by ?,?3...Read More

Neo Lithium moving closer to productionSPONSOREDneo lithiumPantoro charging towards second gold mineSPONSOREDpantoro limitedMaximus ready to resume search for more Wattle Dam richesSPONSOREDmaximus resourcesDecade of performance: Pitram delivers diamond standard for Argyle diamond mineSPONSOREDmicromineGold production fell 30% year on year in the December quarter to 13,534 ounces, while coppe...Read More

Flat and long steel imports into Brazil increased in December, amid strong price increases in both markets, according to the latest figures from the country's economy ministry.Brazilian total flat steel imports came to 91,522 tonnes in December, up by 54.99% from 59,051 tonnes in the same month in 2019.Imports of hot-rolled coil from Russia reached 4,037 tonnes in December 2020. In comparison, Bra...Read More

Sentiment in the CIS export steel billet market has been negatively affected by recent developments in import scrap prices in Turkey, with buyers being inactive and expecting prices to fall, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday January 14.Buyers had mostly prepared to adopt a wait-and-see approach, considering the recent reverse of sentiment in the Turkish import scrap market [LINK], and were expe...Read More