RAPAPORT... The Gemological Institute ofAmerica (GIA) has committed $1.3 million to deploying its free gemology guidefor artisanal miners across multiple countries in Africa. The kit will be available to 10,000 miners over four years inMadagascar, Nigeria, Rwanda and Zambia, GIApresident and CEO Susan Jacques said Tuesday. It follows a successful pilot project in Tanzania, which the institute comm...Read More

RAPAPORT... Belgium's diamond trade slowed in September, continuing adownward trend for the year. A 25% decline in polished exports reflected lowervolumes and a fall in the average price.  Read More

(IDEX Online) - Petra Diamonds announced a 23-percent drop in revenue to $61.6 million in Q1 2020 compared to $80.2 million in the same quarter of 2019. By volume, the number of carats fell from 626,541 to 603,626. The company said the drop in revenue resulted from lower diamond prices and volumes and a poorer product mix at Finsch, Williamson and Koffiefontein.Production increased 1 percent...Read More

Trade unions representing workers for Chile's state-run miner Codelco have called on their members to mobilize in support of protests against the government.Union No1 for Codelco's Chuquicamata has joined Sindicato No1 for BHP's Escondida in backing protestors, whose opposition to inequality in the country has escalated into alleged looting and arson, and to violent confrontations with the militar...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Diamcor Mining sold over 4,000 carats at its first Q3 tender and sale. With proceeds totaling $424,072.44, sales resulted in an average price of $105.15 per carat. Diamcor has been processing historical tailings and stockpiled materials at the Krone-Endora at Venetia Project, which led to an expected lower average price per carat. The company said price weaknesses in certain c...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Anglo American today (Tuesday) announced that De Beers' Q3 production dropped 14 percent to 7.4 million carats compared to Q3 2018 (8.7 million carats). The company said the lower figures were expected with the Victor mine in Canada coming to the end of its life and the transition of Venetia in South Africa to underground production. Year-to-date, De Beers' diamond p...Read More

London-listed Petra Diamonds is on track to achieve its full year production target of about 3.8-million carats, despite a challenging diamond market.CE Richard Duffy on Monday stated that the company’s cashflow would benefit from the sale of an exceptional 20.08 ct Type II blue diamond recently recovered from its mine in Cullinan, South Africa, and implementation of the company’s Proj...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Tuesday October 22 that are worth another look.Anglo American has raised the 2019 iron ore production guidance for its Minas Rio operations in Brazil while maintaining the one for its Kumba operations in South Africa.Europe's largest copper producer, Aurubis, has announced its annual copper cathode premium for 2020 at $96 per tonne, unc...Read More

A summary of base metals premiums from across the globe for the week to Tuesday October 22.Please click...Read More

Fastmarkets incorrectly published its monthly calculations of the Shanghai aluminium premiums on Tuesday October 22, due to a scheduling error.Following a market consultation, Fastmarkets reduced the frequency of publication of a number of base metals price assessments in July, and changed the schedule for the Shanghai aluminium premiums so they are published on a monthly basis.As a result, Fastma...Read More

Three people have been killed in an incident at Russian multi-metal miner Nornickel's Siberian Taimyr mine on Tuesday October 22, the company has announced.According to sources at the company, which is Russia's largest miner and the second-largest global nickel producer, three workers were found dead at 16.30 local time at the company's Siberian site.The particulars surrounding the accident...Read More

Golden Mile goes back to the futureSPONSOREDgolden mile resourcesProtests turned violent Friday following the implementation of a 3-4% increase in Metro fares in capital Santiago, which resulted in the government declaring a state of emergency and invoking publicRead More

Europe's largest copper producer, Aurubis, has announced its annual copper cathode premium for 2020 at $96 per tonne, unchanged from last year's level, the company confirmed to Fastmarkets on Tuesday October 22. Aurubis spokesperson Malte Blomback confirmed the annual premium to Fastmarkets this afternoon, while market participants also suggested that the company would begin contractual negotiatio...Read More

China will become a net exporter of refined lead in 2020 as a result of higher forecasted production and unimproved domestic consumption next year, a senior analyst said at the 2019 Lead & Zinc Week gathering in Kunming, China, on Thursday October 17. Chinese lead smelters are likely to increase production to take advantage of good profits for lead smelting due to higher treatment charges (TCs) fo...Read More

Canadian investment firm BMO said KGHM's copper sales figure of 167 kt - which was down 1% year on year - was 10% lower than expected, which it said was possibly due to the timing of deliveries.Read More

Golden Mile goes back to the futureSPONSOREDgolden mile resources"Anglo American has reported Q3/19 production and sales that were better than expected overall," said BMO analyst Edward Sterck.Read More

CIS rebar and wire rod producers increased offers for foreign customers in the second half of October following the recovery of scrap and billet prices globally.But buying activity remained limited as customers waited to see more evidence of market stabilization and improvement of demand from end-users.Early last week, offers for Russian wire rod were reported at $425 per tonne fob Black Sea, with...Read More

Golden Mile goes back to the futureSPONSOREDgolden mile resourcesTaseko's operations team have over the past nine months commissioned the 24-hole test wellfield, with injection, recovery and monitoring wells, and ramped up a solvent extraction-electrowinning plant to design capacity. The company said the project complied with all environmental guidelines during the process.CEO Russell Hallbau...Read More

Export prices for Chinese cold-rolled coil and hot-dipped galvanized coil fell during the week to Tuesday October 22 on weak demand in the export market and aggressive pricing strategies adopted by suppliers in other regions, market sources said.Despite facing stiff competition for export sales, Chinese producers are reluctant to slash prices much further because of stable prices in the domestic m...Read More

Macro factors still the dominant force To some extent the base metals are able to trade their own fundamentals, but macro headwinds remain the dominant force overall. This makes a sideways-to-lower grind the default for most metals unless supply disruption threats emerge and are deemed severe enough to change the underlying narrative for a while. Aluminium: Technically getting more bullish Based o...Read More