http://business.financialpost.com/Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. and parent Rio Tinto Group's ambition to build one of the world's largest copper and gold mines, called Oyu Tolgoi, in Mongolia's Gobi Desert, has hit a number of stumbling blocks in recent weeks.Last week, Jean-Sebastien Jacques, the chief executive of Rio Tinto, flew to Mongolia's capital city to meet with prime minister Ukhnaagiin...Read More
I added a new stock to my portfolio today.A pretty straight forward story.The stock is Metalla Royalty and Streaming and is listed on the CSE under the symbol MTA.I bought my position at 72 cents per share this morning.The company is a precious metals royalty and streaming company that pays a very very small monthly dividend. Monthly cash flow!Please do your own due diligence.Some links to get you...Read More
Eskom cannot afford to expand its nuclear power capacity, Calib Cassim, acting CFO of the South African utility, said yesterday. Cassim was speaking to reporters during the release of Eskom's financial results for the six months to 30 September 2017.Eskom, which operates the sole nuclear power plant on the African continent, reported a 34% drop in interim profits to ZAR 6 billion ($504 million) du...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange closed in positive territory across the board on Wednesday January 31, supported by dollar weakness. The three-month nickel price remained the strongest performer of the complex throughout the day, supported from dip-buying. "A combination of surging China imports, tightening supplies and fund interest are expected to sustain prices of stainless stee...Read More
An 8% year-on-year drop in Norilsk Nickel's 2017 full-year nickel output pushed up the nickel full-plate premium cif China in the third quarter of 2017 and encouraged Norilsk to offer a historically high long-contract nickel premium of $300-320 per tonne to Chinese trading firms for 2018. Norilsk's total nickel output in 2017 came to 217,000 tonnes, down from year-ago levels of 236,000 tonnes, mai...Read More
Behavioural finance author Ken Norquay adopts a Buddhist prayer to offer his take on some strategic investment advice for the new year. We've just been through what I call The Season of Happy-Happy New Year, Happy Christmas, Happy Holidays. It's that time of year when we wish our fellow humans to be happy. Our Buddhist friends take it one step further: "May everyone be happy; May everyone be free...Read More
Tin premiums for standard material were stable globally in the week ended Tuesday January 30 but the market is looking hungrier for Indonesian material and keenly awaiting exports to resume as expected in the coming days. 99.9% tin premiums stable in Europe and China but a bit higher in the United States Indonesian export permit renewal process still main focus Low-lead tin premiums a...Read More
Sometimes I wonder if the Fed is just toying with the financial media and economic analysts. The Fed's constant threat to raise rates and unwind its balance sheet seems to be taken seriously by most commentators. Even the few analysts I respect, like David Stockman, include the assumption the Fed will reduce its balance sheet by a few hundred billion per year.And yet, nearly 5 years past Ber...Read More
Finnish stainless steelmaker Outokumpu expects to encounter continued cost pressure from high prices for graphite electrodes and ferro-silicon in 2018, it said on Wednesday January 31."We're seeing increases in graphite electrode [contract] prices into the early part of 2018 of more than 300% [year-on-year from the average cost in 2017]," chief financial officer Christoph de la Camp said during a...Read More
Tharisa plans to build two new plants and upgrade another, part of its aim to lift production to 2 million tonnes per year of chrome concentrate by 2020, the South African miner said on Wednesday January 31.An upgrade of the miner's Genesis Plant is scheduled for commissioning in July this yearTharisa is aiming for an increase of 15% or 180,000 tonnes per year in plant throughput, it said, adding...Read More
Canacol Energy (CNE.TO) has been on a winning streak lately as the success ratio of its exploration program in Colombia is very high. After having made numerous discoveries, the Pandereta 2-well completely surpassed our expectations. This well encountered a net gas payzone of 130 feet with an absolute open flow fate of a stunning 140MMcf per day. Using the more 'appropriate' stable flow rate, 35 M...Read More
Tharisa plans to build two new plants and upgrade another, part of its aim to lift production to 2 million tonnes per year of chrome concentrate by 2020, the South African miner said on Wednesday January 31.An upgrade of the miner's Genesis Plant is scheduled for commissioning in July this yearTharisa is aiming for an increase of 15% or 180,000 tonnes per year in plant throughput, it said, adding...Read More
Red Eagle Mining (R.TO) has re-started the Santa Rosa mill at the beginning of this month, as the company felt comfortable with the size of its stockpile. The development of the underground San Ramon mine is still ongoing with a total of almost 5,300 meters having been completed in 2017 which resulted in the completion of 18 working attack ramps.Of these 18 ramps, 12 are in production (resulting i...Read More
The appreciation of the South African rand since mid-November 2017 should preclude near-term price drops for the country's ores and alloys and will probably lead to further increases, according to producers. Metal Bulletin's indices for South African manganese ore, chrome ore and charge chrome have all been rising since early in December amid strong demand from China. Of those three commodities, t...Read More
The past-producing Snip Mine's 440 Portal and technical crew in BC's Golden Triangle region. Source: Skeena Resources Ltd.Skeena Resources Ltd. [SKE-TSXV] is gearing up for a big exploration program this year in a bid to revive two of Canada's most successful high grade precious metal mines - Snip and Eskay Creek - both located in northwest British Columbia's Golden Triangle region.If the company...Read More
Emerald Health Therapeutics Inc. (TSXV:EMH) and Namaste Technologies Inc. (CSE:N) ink an LOI to develop a fully-integrated e-commerce platformSmallCapPower | January 31, 2018: Emerald Health Therapeutics Inc. (TSXV:EMH) and Namaste Technologies Inc. (CSE:N) announced on January 30, 2018, that the two companies have signed a letter of intent (LOI) whereby Emerald Health and Namaste Technologies hav...Read More
New market entrant Syrah Resources forecast a macro change in graphite global supply in the coming years, with battery and EV end markets leading China to become a net importer of the mineral. The graphite market will undergo a shift in structure and pricing that could see China becoming a net importer of natural graphite to meet forecast local demand for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, according...Read More
Hand sample from Nasigon NE showing disseminated copper minerals (bornite, covellite, malachite) in calc-silicate rock at the Mitchi Project in Quebec. Source: Kintavar Exploration Inc.Kintavar Exploration Inc. [KTR-TSXV] on Wednesday January 31 released assays from the first four holes of a 2017-2018 winter drilling program at the Mitchi property, which the company has described as the only pure...Read More
field crew surface sampling breccia pipe 6 (2.1 g/t gold; 93.8 g/t silver) at Soledad Project in Peru. Source: Condor Resources Inc.Chakana Copper Corp. [PERU-TSXV] shares began trading on the TSX Venture Exchange Wednesday January 30 as the company released new assays from its Soledad copper-silver-gold project in Peru. By early afternoon Wednesday, the shares were trading at 85 cents, up $0.76 o...Read More
Billet import volumes into Turkey have fallen over the past three years, with the producers opting to buy scrap because the price margin between these two products has widened since the second half of 2016, making scrap imports more profitable.In 2015, Turkey imported 7.85 million tonnes of steel billet, while scrap imports totaled 16.25 million tonnes in the same year, according to the Turkish St...Read More