Investing.com - Gold prices slipped on Wednesday as the dollar pushed higher amid renewed concerns over the prospect of a trade war between the U.S. and China and after steep falls on Wall Street and in Asia led by a selloff in tech stocks.Gold futures for April delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange slid $1.7 or 0.13% to $1,340.30 a troy ounce by 05:13 AM ET (09:13 GMT...Read More

RAPAPORT... Baselworld 2018, which ended Tuesday, saw a year-on-yeardecline from 1,300 exhibitors to approximately 650, and was shortened fromeight days to six. Considering that the world's largest watch and jewelry fairhosted 1,500 participants in 2016, this year's drop seems even more dramatic. Moredefections are expected next year as contracts with exhibitors expire. In a terse statement in No...Read More

Adapted from white paper by SAPAccording to Harvard Business Review (HBR 2017), billions of dollars are being invested in blockchain technology, and some of the smartest people on the planet are engaged in understanding how this technology can reinvent organizations and industries. A report from PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC 2017) has named blockchain as a 'tech breakthrough megatrend' for CIOs, wh...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Botswana's Debswana Diamond Mining said output rose sharply last year - up 11 percent to a three year high - and it expects further growth this year as lower taxes in the United States leave consumers with more money to spend.   De Beers Executive Vice-President, Diamond Trading, Paul Rowley, explained in an interview with Reuters that diamond sales had received a boost from a...Read More

New float hopeful Metals 479, which takes its name from a portmanteau of the atomic numbers of silver (47) and gold (79), was established last year with Spott, supported by Australian fund managers and high net worth individuals.Read More

Japan's JXTG Holdings Inc on Wednesday raised its net profit forecast by about 12 percent for the ongoing fiscal year despite an impairment loss of 125 billion yen ($1.2 billion) at its Caserones copper mine in Chile due to higher production costs.The Japanese energy and metals company said annual net profit for the year ending March 31 would touch 335 billion yen, against an earlier estimate of 3...Read More

RAPAPORT... Israel's Get Diamonds has signed an agreement to sell stones directly to the Chinese jewelry market, the company said this week. Get Diamonds, the e-commerce platform of the Israel Diamond Institute(IDI), will partner with Rock & Trade, an Israel-based company thatprovides a loose-diamond platform specifically for Chinese jewelers andsuppliers. Get Diamonds is a website that enable...Read More

LONDON (Reuters) - The euro held near a six-week high on Wednesday as investors turned more optimistic about the outlook for global markets in the second quarter, with relatively higher-yielding currencies such as the Australian dollar well supported.Carry trades were back in favor as traders renewed their appetite for leveraged bets via borrowing in low yielding currencies such as the Japanese ye...Read More

SHANGHAI, Mar 28 (SMM) – This is a roundup of global macroeconomic news last night and what is expected today.Last nightThe US dollar rebounded overnight as concerns of a trade war eased. Month-end capital flows and a weakening euro also buoyed the index.Most base metals climbed up but with limited gains due to the rebound in the greenback. SHFE copper inched up, while zinc dipped. LME...Read More

(Bloomberg) -- Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) Group completed its exit from coal with a bang, agreeing to sell more than $4 billion of Australian mines in just a week.The world’s second-biggest miner on Tuesday agreed to sell its last coal mine, the Kestrel operation in Australia’s Queensland state, for $2.25 billion to private equity firm EMR Capital and Indonesia’s PT Adaro Energy. Th...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The CARAT+ show is planning a series of talks and seminars hosted by leading industry experts.   This follows the recent announcement that GIA Executive Vice President and Chief Laboratory and Research Officer, Tom Moses, will speak at a GIA GemFest on May 7.   Jonathan Chippindale, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of augmented retail solutions and software provider, Holiti...Read More

Metal Bulletin has gathered some of the major talking points from its 19th Asian Ferro-Alloys conference in Hong Kong on March 20-22. 1. Demand for steel and ferro-alloys will come from India, Russia, OBOR and Southeast Asia "From my point of view, market means population. China [has a population of] 1.4 billion people," Mark Shujun Ma, chairman and chief executive officer of metals technology and...Read More

The company announced today that it has signed a non-binding term sheet for a US$150 million stream facility with an "international financial institution of good standing", is in "advanced discussions" for debt financing of US$300-350 million and intends to raise the remainder of a US$775-825 million package through "private and/or public equity or debt offerings".Read More

RAPAPORT... Stornoway Diamond Corporation recorded a loss in 2017, as lower-than-expectedrough prices forced it to devalue its Renard mine. The miner reported a net loss of $88.8 million (CAD 114.6million), versus a profit of $15.2 million (CAD 19.6 million) in 2016,it said Monday. The loss was primarily driven by a $132.6 million (CAD 171million) "impairment charge" due to the Renard devaluation....Read More

BEIJING/SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged his commitment to denuclearization and to meet U.S. officials, China said on Wednesday after his meeting with President Xi Jinping, who promised China would uphold friendship with its isolated neighbor.After two days of speculation, China and North Korea both confirmed that Kim had traveled to Beijing and met Xi during what China ca...Read More

SHANGHAI, Mar 28 (SMM) –Copper: LME copper rose above the five-day moving average overnight for the first time in five to six days. This trend is likely to stabilise, but growing inventories of LME copper will weigh on the prices. We see it trading at $6,620-6,680/mt today. SHFE copper lacks strong support as domestic demand has not fully recovered and as supply of refined cop...Read More

RAPAPORT... Hong Kong-based jeweler Chow Sang Sang saw a 3% rise insales in 2017, brought about by a stronger Chinese currency and an improvementin consumer sentiment. Sales were $2.12 billion (HKD 16.63 billion) for the year,with jewelry-retail revenue  increasing by the same percentage to $1.85 billion (HKD14.52 billion). Revenue from other businesses, including property, also grew 3% to $2...Read More

Wood Mackenzie said the US$1.7 billion price tag was at a 41% premium to its valuation for Hail Creek. It assumed a zero valuation for the Valeria project.The premium paid implied a long-term benchmark hard coking coal price of $146 per tonne and a benchmark thermal coal price of $83/t, signalling confidence in higher for longer prices.The inclusion of Hail Creek is expected to boost Glencore's me...Read More

European alloy surcharges for April deliveries of grade-304 cold-rolled (CR) stainless steel sheet have risen amid further increases in nickel costs, making it the third consecutive month with a rise in the surcharge.The April alloy surcharge for 2mm grade-304 CR stainless steel sheet - based on data published by Outokumpu, Acerinox and Aperam - is ?,?1,336-1,407 per tonne ($1,659-1,748). This up...Read More

NYATIKE, Kenya (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Scorching sun beats down on half a dozen women as they carry large sacks of crushed ore on their backs at the Osiri-Matanda gold mine near Kenya’s border with Tanzania.On wooden tables, they sieve the powdered ore into metal pans, add mercury, and heat the mixture over a charcoal fire. The air fills with fumes as the liquid metal evaporates - lea...Read More