Iron ore prices jumped on Thursday March 14 amid a positive destocking of steel products in China and signs of loosening restrictions on steelmaking operations.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $87.26 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $2.48 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines Index: $86.38 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $2.48 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index-Low Alumina: $89.50 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $2.80...Read More
Forward cargoes of seaborne coking coal continued to fetch lower prices on Thursday March 14, with some buyers in China saying that they would take a wait-and-see approach amid the emergence of what appears to be a downtrend.On the Global Coal trading platform, a June-laycan cargo in the branded segment of premium hard coking coal was traded at $202.40 per tonne fob Australia, lower than the trans...Read More
Import prices for steel billet in Southeast Asia moved up on Thursday March 14, amid an uptick in trading activity and higher scrap values, market participants said.Fastmarkets' daily import price assessment for billet in Southeast Asia was $485-495 per tonne cfr Manila on Thursday, up $5 per tonne from $480-490 per tonne cfr on Wednesday. Numerous deals involving Malaysian billet were concluded i...Read More
Base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange were almost universally trading down during the morning session on Thursday March 14 due to continually weakening data from China."We have Chinese industrial production slowing down and Chinese car sales for February down 14% [while] Chinese consumer buying has pretty much dried up," Malcolm Freeman of Kingdom Futures said. Only the three-month LME a...Read More
Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed this morning, Thursday March 14, with copper, nickel, lead and zinc down by an average of 0.4%, while lead and tin were up by 0.1% 0.4% respectively.Three-month copper was recently quoted at $6,444 per tonne, down by 0.3% compared with Wednesday's close at $6,466 per tonne.Volume was below average, with 5,913 lots traded on LME...Read More
Exchanges have an important role to play in the growing push for the use of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria in investing, the chief executive officer of the London Metal Exchange said. Matthew Chamberlain said that the lack of a global regulatory body policing ESG criteria meant that sometimes it falls to exchanges and other market infrastructure players to step up and use thei...Read More
An overview of the minor metals markets and the reasons for any price moves.Read More
South African state power utility Eskom has implemented load shedding for the first time this month amid lingering power constraints, sparking predictions of ferro-chrome price spikes if the situation deteriorates. Load shedding - controlled power outages - were last implemented in mid-February and were reported to have affected large industrial power users, including ferro-chrome smelters. After...Read More
Domestic stainless steel prices in China dropped over the past week , reflecting weakness in nickel futures, while demand for finished products was stable.Fastmarkets MB's domestic price assessment for benchmark 304 stainless cold-rolled coil in the major market of Wuxi was 14,700-15,200 yuan ($2,191-2,265) per tonne including value-added tax for the week ended Wednesday March 13, down 300-400 yua...Read More
A drill program last year to validate historic resources at Reunion Gold's (TSXV: RGD) Nivre deposit in French Guiana has resulted in a 43-101 resource that is similar to its counterpart reported in 1998.The Nivre deposit contains 18.9 million indicated tonnes grading 1.09 grams gold per tonne for 665,000 oz. gold and 26 million inferred tonnes grading 1.06 grams gold for 883,000 oz. gold.The mine...Read More
It’s hard to get away from the big gold mining companies when it comes to mining news of late, and headline figures such as the $4.7bn in synergies that Barrick and Newmont will gain from their new joint venture in Nevada are hard to beat. The deal, for those who missed it, means Barrick’s $18bn hostile bid for Newmont is off the table and Newmont’s $10bn merger with Gol...Read More
Uranium Participation Corp (TSX:U) is an incredibly straightforward company. It’s also one of the only ways you can gain direct exposure to the price of uranium.The company’s mission is simple: invest nearly all of its assets in uranium. The firm’s primary investment objective is to achieve “appreciation in the value of its uranium holdings through increases in the uranium...Read More
A Toronto-Dominion Bank Securities report recently forecast that the Bank of Canada would keep the benchmark rate on hold until late 2020. Stepping in line with many oddsmakers, the forecast suggests that a rate cut is the more likely move in 2019 due to soft economic data. Earlier this week I'd discussed how much pressure the moderate credit crunch was putting on consumers.If this forecast turns...Read More
Teck Resources (TSX:TECK.B)(NYSE:TECK) has long been known as a coal company — a resource so volatile and controversial that many investors believe it could ultimately drive the company to financial ruin. Last year, I addressed whether Teck Resources could go completely bust.However, peering under the hood, Teck Resources’s management team has been positioning the company for success...Read More
Bob Moriarty ArchivesMar 15, 2019In 1956 I was ten. We lived in a tiny house in Phoenix, Arizona. Grammar school was just down the road perhaps a mile away. The management of the school system in Phoenix didn’t have much imagination. The name of the school was Madison #2. At the time I think there were six elementary schools in Phoenix all named Madison.I was in the 4th grade. My teacher&rsq...Read More
Metals Ex revealed last month previous management had wildly overstated the recoveries at the Runruno gold mine in the Philippines. At the start of 2019, Darren Bowden came in as the new CEO, replacing Ian Holzberger.The company has remained in financial peril since the change. There is now US$44 million due at the end of March, although the company has asked lenders HSBC...Read More
The many automotive applications for rare earths. Source: Medallion Resources Ltd.Medallion Resources Ltd. [MDL-TSXV; MLLOF-OTCQX], a company that is pursuing the production of magnet metals, said Friday March 15 that it is raising $495,000 by way of a private placement financing. The news sparked active trading in the shares, sending them down 16.67% or $0.02 to 10 cents on volume of 3.7 million....Read More
Gold ore (with much native gold) in a quartz vein from the Privateers Mine on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Source: Troubadour Resources Inc.Troubadour Resources Inc. [TR-TSXV] shares rallied sharply Friday March 15 following a resumption of trading after the company announced that it has signed a letter of intent that gives it the option to acquire all the issued and outst...Read More
Construction Photos from the Buritic?? Project Source: Continental GoldContinental Gold Inc. [CNL-TSX; CGOF-OTCQX] on Friday March 15 announced details of a US$175 million financing package that will be used in part to fund the advancement of its Buritica Project in Colombia.Continental shares rallied on the news, jumping 15.4% or 40 cents to $3.00 on volume of 1.18 million shares. The shares trad...Read More
The price of rhodium is quietly breaking out - and no one is paying attention.Since the beginning of the year, rhodium prices have increased by over 55%.What is rhodium?Rhodium is a member of a group of metals known as the platinum group metals (PGMs). These metals have similar physical and chemical properties and include platinum, palladium, ruthenium, iridium, osmium, and rhodium.Rhodium is an i...Read More