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Value of 50 biggest mining companies drops by $126 billion Frik Els | January 15, 2025
The world’s 50 biggest miners are now worth $1.35 trillion after losing a combined $126 billion over the course of 2024 as the copper rally faded and gold stocks once again underperformed bullion.
At the end of 2024, the MINING.COM TOP 50* ranking of the world’s most valuable miners had a combined market capitalization of $1.28 trillion, down $126 billion for the year after a dismal final quarter when even gold firms succumbed to overall bearish sentiment.
The total stock market valuation of the world’s biggest mining companies declined by 9% or a combined $126.2 billion over the course of 2024.
A promising Q3, when the index touched its second highest level on record, quickly turned sour and only eight constituents made gains over the final three months of the year.
The Top 50 is now trading a stomach churning $480 billion below the peak hit in the second quarter of 2022, when the entire mining complex was riding high from uranium and nickel to copper and gold.
Much of the blame for the drift lower can be laid at the door of mining’s traditional champions.
Sprott Launches Silver Miners & Physical Silver ETF January 15, 2025 08:00 ET | Source: Sprott Asset Management
Only U.S.-Listed ETF Providing Pure-Play Exposure to Silver Miners and Physical Silver
Silver Miners ETF Adds to Sprott’s Expanding ETF Suite
TORONTO, Jan. 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sprott Asset Management LP (“Sprott Asset Management”) today announced the launch of the Sprott Silver Miners & Physical Silver ETF (Nasdaq: SLVR) (the “ETF” or “SLVR”), the only1 ETF focused on providing pure-play2 exposure to silver miners and physical silver, an undervalued precious metal with evolving industrial and technological uses. The ETF is the most recent addition to Sprott Asset Management’s suite of ETFs and draws on its extensive experience in the precious metals and critical materials space.
“Silver is one of the world’s best-known precious metals, and we believe it’s positioned to perform well in today’s market. In addition, demand for silver is growing in applications ranging from clean technology and solar energy to the automotive and healthcare industries. We believe silver and its miners have significant investment potential, as silver is both a precious metal and an industrial metal critical to new energy,” said John Ciampaglia, CEO of Sprott Asset Management. “With our specialized expertise in precious metals and critical materials, we’re pleased to offer a focused opportunity to invest in silver miners and physical silver through this ETF.”
The Sprott Silver Miners & Physical Silver ETF seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the total return performance of the Nasdaq Sprott Silver Miners™ Index (NSLVR™) by investing at least 80% of its total assets in securities of the Index. The Nasdaq Sprott Silver Miners Index is designed to track the performance of a selection of securities in the silver industry, including silver producers, developers and explorers, and physical silver.
SLVR joins Sprott Gold Miners ETF (SGDM) and Sprott Junior Gold Miners ETF (SGDJ) as well as a suite of critical materials ETFs providing pure-play2 exposure to uranium, copper, lithium, and nickel miners.
The article below is an excerpt from our Q3 2024 commentary.
Natural Gas In the volatile world of U.S. natural gas, the past quarter unfolded with all the drama of a Shakespearean act. Prices began at a modest $2.60 per Mcf, buoyed by the quiet equilibrium of early spring. But by mid-June, the plot had transformed. An unseasonal heat wave gripping the central United States sent prices soaring to $3.15, a rally that spoke as much to the market’s sensitivity as it did to the hot weather. Yet, as quickly as the heat arrived, it receded. Milder temperatures reclaimed the stage and gas prices tumbled in response, bottoming at $1.90 by the end of August.
While market participants obsessed over weather patterns, few paused to consider the silent protagonist in this unfolding drama: inventories. The 2023–2024 winter, among the warmest on record, left a legacy of near-record storage levels. At the outset of the injection season, inventories stood at a staggering 700 Bcf—or 40%— above the ten-year average. Yet, tight fundamentals have nearly erased this surplus in a remarkable turn. Over the third quarter alone, inventories were drawn down by almost 400 Bcf. By quarter’s end, storage levels stood less than 5% above the norm, a quiet but profound shift that few have fully grasped.
This brings us to the present moment, where the market stands at a crossroads. If the coming winter delivers typical cold—after two years of unseasonable warmth—U.S. natural gas prices could well align with international benchmarks which currently hover near $14/MMBtu. The implications are vast, mainly as U.S. natural gas production, once seemingly boundless, now hints of rolling over.
Over the past fifteen months, growth in U.S. gas production has stalled. Indeed, in the past seven months, production has begun to contract. Since peaking in December 2023, U.S. dry gas supply has fallen by 3 Bcf per day—a 3% decline. Year-over-year data tells a similar story, with dry gas production now down by 1.2 Bcf per day, slightly more than 1%.
The natural gas bears, ever resourceful, have latched onto recent productivity data, pointing to gains in drilling efficiency across several shale plays as evidence of a potential resurgence. Yet this narrative, seductive though it may be, demands scrutiny. Our analysis, informed by deep neural networks, reveals that these productivity gains are not the herald of renewed growth but rather the predictable consequence of declining rig counts.
Consider this: in August 2022, the Baker Hughes natural gas rig count stood at 166. By February 2024, that number had dropped to 121, a 27% decline. Over the past seven months, the rig count has fallen further, reaching just 101—a 17% plunge in a remarkably short time. As every seasoned industry observer knows, exploration and production companies cut their least productive rigs first, leading to an inevitable but temporary boost in reported drilling productivity.
But this veneer of efficiency masks a more profound truth. Producers, facing dwindling options, have concentrated their remaining rigs on the final Tier 1 drilling areas within their plays. This “high-grading” of inventories explains the reported productivity gains of the past eighteen months but also signals an endgame. Our analysis suggests that Tier 1 drilling inventory in these plays is rapidly being exhausted. The accompanying graphics in this letter’s “Shale Fields and the Hubbert Curve” section lay bare this reality, using the Marcellus as a case study in depletion dynamics.
The broader picture is no less sobering. All U.S. natural gas production sources, whether from dedicated shale gas plays or associated gas from shale oil operations, are plateauing. Against this backdrop, demand is poised to surge. LNG exports are set to expand dramatically, while the data center boom adds another layer of consumption to the mix.
The result? A market that is shifting, after fifteen years of structural surplus, toward a long-running structural deficit. The abundance of shale gas has defined the natural gas story for the past decade and a half. That era, we believe, is drawing to a close, and the implications for prices—and the broader energy landscape—are profound.
Oil “Hedge Funds Have Never Been This Bearish on Brent Crude Before.” — Bloomberg, September 13th, 2024
The global crude oil market is steeped in gloom, its mood defined by a persistent, almost compulsive bearishness. The numbers tell the story: West Texas Intermediate crude has fallen 16%, while Brent is down 14%. Investors, spurred by fears of weak demand, whisper of a resurgence in U.S. shale production, and rumors of OPEC retreating from its production cuts, have retreated en masse. The malaise is so pervasive that even casual observers can’t miss it—headlines like Bloomberg’s serve as both symptom and diagnosis.
Yet, this moment offers something extraordinary for those with a contrarian bent. To them, today’s bearish consensus echoes another time and place: 2003. It’s an audacious comparison but not an unwarranted one. For readers who need reminding, 2003 was a year of extraordinary pessimism in oil markets. The Economist, never shy about forecasting the end of an era, ran a now-infamous August 2003 cover story titled “The End of the Oil Age.”
Economist coverSource: Economist
The reasons for their bearishness then are eerily similar to those dominating headlines today: weak demand, this time exacerbated by structural changes in the post-9/11 economy and surging non-OPEC supply.
What happened next, of course, defied nearly everyone’s expectations. Oil prices, seemingly buried under the weight of bearish consensus, staged a rally for the ages, climbing nearly fivefold over the subsequent five years. At the heart of this surge was something no one saw coming: a sharp, unexpected slowdown in non-OPEC supply growth. Only a handful of voices, including ours, predicted this pivotal shift, rooted in dynamics first described by King Hubbert.
Today, we find ourselves standing at a similarly critical juncture. Forces like those of 2003 are re-emerging, this time with U.S. shale oil at the epicenter. Just as the North Sea and Mexico’s Cantarell fields dominated non-OPEC supply growth in the 1990s, U.S. shale has been the primary driver of non-OPEC growth over the past fifteen years. But the signs of exhaustion are mounting. Production growth is slowing rapidly across nearly all shale plays, with the Permian Basin as the lone, albeit faltering, exception.
The parallels with 2003 don’t end there. Back then, as non-OPEC supply growth sputtered, OPEC began regaining market share and pricing power—a position they leveraged to stunning effect. We believe this pattern is about to repeat. This letter’s “Hubbert Peak” section lays out the forces driving the current slowdown in shale production, which has accounted for 90% of non-OPEC supply growth over the past decade and a half. Just as in 2003, OPEC stands poised to reassert its dominance— and, just as before, they are likely to wield their power with precision.
The sheer magnitude of bearish sentiment makes today’s setup particularly intriguing. Markets have a peculiar way of punishing consensus and the current alignment of factors suggests that today’s pessimism may be tomorrow’s opportunity. History tells us that significant shifts in oil markets often arrive unannounced and when they do, the magnitude of change can be breathtaking.
At the close of 2003, few could have imagined the bull market in oil that was about to unfold. Yet it did, fueled by dynamics many failed to appreciate until long after. Today, the stage is set for a similar reversal. The global oil market weighed down by the relentless pessimism of the crowd is once again presenting a rare investment opportunity.
The lesson of 2003 is as relevant now as it was then: when conventional wisdom becomes too comfortable, the market’s pendulum is often poised to swing the other way. Investors would do well to remember that history, like oil itself, tends to flow in cycles.
Coal The coal market was quiet and trendless through the third quarter. In the U.S., Powder River Basin prices eked out a modest 3% gain, while Central Appalachian coal slid by 10%, and Illinois Basin coal followed suit with an 8% decline. Overseas, the picture was similarly mixed: Australian thermal coal prices, represented by Newcastle benchmarks, advanced 9%, while South African thermal coal, measured at Richards Bay, dipped by 6%. Meanwhile, Chinese steelmakers’ warnings of severe overcapacity cast a shadow over seaborne hard-coking coal prices, sending Australian hard-coking coal down nearly 10%.
U.S. coal equities—what few remain publicly traded—faltered dramatically in July and August, plunging by nearly 15%. But then mid-September saw a sharp reversal. China announced a major stimulus plan which ignited a furious rally, leaving the Dow Jones/Wilshire U.S. Coal Index up 15% for the quarter. History, as it often does, offered its own commentary: coal stocks have been the vanguard of every commodity bull market over the past 125 years. The pattern appears intact. Since the broader natural resource equity market bottomed in the summer of 2020, coal stocks have risen nearly sevenfold—outstripping other commodities and every major equity index, including the high-flying Nasdaq 100.
Since their peak in the summer of 2022, coal stocks have traded sideways. Yet signs suggest the Dow Jones/Wilshire Coal Index may have broken out to the upside. Should natural gas prices surge, as anticipated, utilities could pivot back to coal—a substitution the U.S. hasn’t seen in over a decade. Additionally, the re-election of Donald Trump to the presidency introduces a political wildcard. A less coal-hostile administration could ease the regulatory pressures that have weighed on utilities, slowing the closure of coal plants still in operation.
Coal stocks, in the meantime, languish at remarkably low valuations. After two years of listless trading, they could be poised for a resurgence. The natural gas market faces transformative shifts and, when combined with a friendlier political backdrop, the stage is set for a potential rally of notable proportions. For investors not constrained by ESG considerations, the opportunity seems compelling: coal stocks, long maligned, may once again earn their place in the limelight.
Gold & Precious Metals Gold and silver prices increased in the third quarter, with gold climbing 13% and silver advancing 6%. Both metals have broken through significant technical levels— gold at the end of February and silver at the beginning of May—and their subsequent trajectories have been extraordinary. Since its breakout, gold has surged nearly 35% while silver, following its May rally, has gained 25%. These moves’ sustained strength and persistence suggest that precious metals have entered robust, new bull markets.
For a deeper dive, see the precious metals section of this letter where we explore the renewed interest of Western investors in the physical gold and silver markets. We also examine the notable behavior of central banks and the puzzling apathy Western investors continue to exhibit toward gold equities. This investor indifference, particularly striking given the compelling valuations of gold stocks, is a theme we analyzed in detail in our previous letter. The early stages of a gold and silver bull market are unfolding, offering investors a rare opportunity. With precious metals markets gathering momentum, we believe it is essential to maintain substantial exposure to this sector.
Uranium Despite a steady price performance in the third quarter, the news flow in the uranium market was anything but quiet. Prices began the quarter at $86 per pound, high for the period, and drifted slightly lower to close at just under $82 per pound. While price volatility was absent, the torrent of uranium-related news more than compensated.
The most significant supply-side development came on August 23rd, when Kazatomprom, the world’s largest uranium producer, announced a substantial downgrade to its 2025 production guidance. In August 2023, the company had laid out ambitious plans to produce 79–80 million pounds of uranium in 2025—a dramatic 45% increase over 2023 levels. These goals had raised eyebrows during our April 2024 visit to Almaty, where we met with Kazatomprom executives. Our observations strongly suggested these targets were unattainable, a conclusion we shared in a blog post published two days before the company’s announcement. True to our forecast, Kazatomprom’s half-year update revealed a 13-million-pound shortfall against its initial 2025 projections, exacerbating the structural deficit in global uranium markets through 2030.
During our Almaty meetings, we also probed Kazatomprom on how much of its projected 2024 and 2025 production increases had been sold forward through contracts. While the company deflected our queries, their 2024 half-year financial statements revealed a notable 20% year-over-year decline in U3O8 inventories. It appears that reduced production targets for 2024 have been offset by inventory drawdowns, with 3.3 million pounds of uranium sold from stockpiles. Kazatomprom’s inventories now stand at 16 million pounds—a 40% reduction from five years ago. This sharp inventory decline raises the possibility that Kazatomprom may eventually need to enter the spot market to fulfill forward sales commitments, creating a potentially bullish inflection point.
The quarter’s most surprising news arrived just as it drew to a close. Microsoft announced a landmark deal to reopen the Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear facility which has been idle since 2019. Under the agreement, Microsoft will purchase 100% of the facility’s output to power its data centers. Following this, Google and Oracle unveiled plans to invest in small modular reactors (SMRs) for their own data center energy needs.
For a deeper analysis of these developments, refer to the uranium section of this letter, where we delve into the implications of these announcements. They reinforce our conviction that SMRs will dominate the nuclear power industry in the decades to come. This transformation carries enormous implications—not just for global climate goals, as SMRs replace coal-fired generation, but also for economic growth. SMRs are up to six times more energy efficient than hydrocarbon-based power generation, capable of providing the surplus energy needed to drive an increasingly power-intensive global economy.
The adoption of SMRs represents a paradigm shift in uranium demand, introducing step-change increases that remain conspicuously absent from most analysts’ models. With fundamentals for the uranium market growing increasingly bullish, these recent developments underscore the transformative potential of nuclear power in the 21st century.
Agricultural Agricultural markets remained subdued in the third quarter as the 2024 North American harvest progressed. The USDA’s latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) offered few adjustments to 2024–2025 grain ending stocks. Against this backdrop, grain prices drifted lower, weighed down by persistent bearish sentiment.
Corn prices averaged $3.90 per bushel in the third quarter, a 12% decline from the $4.45 average in the second quarter. Soybeans averaged $10.25 per bushel, down 14% from $11.85, while wheat prices fell 10% to $5.45 per bushel from their previous $6.10 average. Speculative traders maintained historically bearish positions, particularly in corn and soybeans. July saw corn futures hit their second-largest net short position ever, with nearly 240,000 contracts sold short. Similarly, soybean futures recorded their second-largest bearish position in August, with 185,000 net shorts, only surpassed by March’s record of 200,000. Though slightly less aggressive, wheat traders ended the quarter still net short.
Yet, this bearish speculative activity sharply contrasts commercial traders’ behavior— the so-called “smart money.” Commercials have maintained near-record long positions, a strong indicator that the two-and-a-half-year bear market in grains, which has seen prices retreat by over 50% from their post-Russian invasion highs, could be nearing its end.
What might catalyze a reversal?
At our 2024 Investor Day, Shawn Hackett, author of the Hackett Agricultural Report, provided compelling insights into potential drivers. Hackett’s presentation focused on the alignment of solar and planetary cycles, suggesting the onset of another Gleissberg Cycle—an 88-year phenomenon tied to eight 11-year solar cycles. Historically, the last Gleissberg Cycle coincided with the devastating Dust Bowl of the 1930s. While this theory remains controversial, Hackett and we at Goehring & Rozencwajg see a connection.
Current conditions lend weight to the argument. Extreme droughts are already gripping major agricultural regions like Brazil, Ukraine, and Russia—among the worst in over a century. Could these record droughts be early signs of the Gleissberg Cycle’s influence on global climate patterns? And could the U.S. Midwest, which has thus far been spared, soon experience similar drought conditions?
Hackett highlighted an intriguing parallel: the recent dry spell in the eastern United States. Cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., have set records for lack of precipitation, with New York experiencing its second-longest dry stretch in recorded history. Moreover, much of the country, especially the Midwest, is now grappling with moderate to extreme drought conditions, a pattern reminiscent of the fall of 1929, which preceded the historic drought of 1930 and the onset of the Dust Bowl.
Valuations in agricultural markets remain extraordinarily cheap and bearish psychology still dominates. If the Gleissberg Cycle does usher in a prolonged drought, it could fundamentally alter global grain market dynamics, driving prices sharply higher and positioning agricultural equities as market leaders. This potential inflection point is one we will monitor closely in the months ahead.
Base Metals & Copper Base metals and copper prices firmed in the third quarter, driven by the Chinese government’s unexpected stimulus package announced on September 24th. Measures included reducing mortgage rates for existing homeowners, lowering commercial banks’ reserve requirements, and creating a $100 billion facility to accelerate sales of unsold housing stock and support the stock market. The announcement sparked a sharp rally in Chinese equities and ignited investor optimism that China’s economic slowdown might stabilize.
Zinc led the base metals rally with a 5% gain, followed by aluminum (up 3.5%), copper (up 2.5%), and nickel (up 1.5%). Copper and base metal equities also performed strongly. The COPX copper equity ETF advanced 4.8%, while the XBM CN ETF, which tracks the S&P Global Base Metals Index, rose 5.22%.
This letter’s introductory essay explored the increasingly uncertain outlook for renewable energy and its implications for global copper demand. Investors in copper markets have adopted bullish stances in recent years, heavily influenced by aggressive demand forecasts from consulting firms. These forecasts are rooted in assumptions about widespread renewable energy adoption—assumptions we now view as overly optimistic due to the low energy efficiency of renewables.
For a deeper dive, we encourage you to read the copper section of this letter, where we examine emerging supply and demand dynamics in the global copper market. Despite intensifying challenges in China’s property development sector, Chinese copper consumption continues its strong growth. This growth appears tied to massive investments in wind and solar farms to reduce China’s reliance on imported energy. We attempt to disentangle copper consumption driven by these renewable projects from the baseline copper demand required to support China’s growing per capita GDP. As we’ve highlighted in previous letters, China is now overconsuming copper for the first time in twenty-five years—a trend that is partially linked to its renewable energy investments, a largely underexplored aspect of global copper demand that we aim to quantify.
While we remain bullish on copper in the short term due to strong demand and a deceleration in supply growth over the past nine months, we urge caution over the long term. Cracks are beginning to form in the widely accepted bullish copper narrative. Both supply and demand dynamics warrant closer scrutiny, particularly as demand assumptions tied to renewables face growing challenges.
VANCOUVER, BC, Jan. 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - Silvercorp Metals Inc. ("Silvercorp" or the "Company") (TSX: SVM) (NYSE American: SVM), its Ecuadorian subsidiary Curimining S.A. ("Curimining"), and Salazar Resources Limited ("Salazar", together with Silvercorp and Curimining, the "Companies"), are pleased to provide a progress report on the El Domo Project (the "Project"). The Companies are still targeting to bring the Project into production in the second half of 2026 and have recently awarded the earthworks contract to a large international mining contractor with over 10 years of experience working in Ecuador (see below).
Progress Report
Since Silvercorp completed its acquisition of Adventus Mining Corporation ("Adventus") by way of a plan of arrangement on July 31, 2024, the Companies have made substantial progress in advancing the Project, highlights include:
a.
Streamlined the Ecuadorian Operations: Optimized the organization chart by moving the management team and personnel to the El Domo and Condor project sites from the Quito office, and by initiating the winding down or transfer of most of the non-core regional projects.
b.
Continued Community Engagement: Maintained open lines of communication with local communities and government representatives, keeping them informed of changes in the Project ownership and leadership, as well as on construction plans.
c.
Advanced Detailed Engineering:
a)
Reviewed the previous technical work, including interviewing all consulting firms to confirm all previous studies and detailed engineering designs for optimization;
b)
Optimized design with Klohn Crippen Berger (KCB) for the Tailing Storage Facilities (TSF), starter dam and impound area, Saprolite Waste Dump (SWD), and non-contact water channels;
c)
Selected a new site for the process plant so that its preparation will provide the required non-acid generating rocks for the construction of the starter dam of the TSF, while minimizing trucking distances;
d)
Optimized open pit mine design for mining, stripping, and scheduling, and coordinated the mining schedule with ongoing tailings dam raises using stripped waste rock;
e)
Commenced metallurgical test work on selective flotation – potentially leading to higher recoveries and improved payabilities (see Silvercorp's August 21, 2024 press release); and
f)
Started Detailed Engineering Design (EP) for the process plant, including engaging a consulting engineer, equipment selection, purchasing and detailed engineering drawings.
d.
Advanced Project Infrastructure:
a)
Optimized designs for a new public bypass road and internal operational haul roads;
b)
Executed a powerline contract with the Ecuadorian state-owned power company (CNEL EP). The construction contractor will be selected once the updated engineering design is completed; and
c)
Commenced permitting for standby diesel power generation for the dry season, as climate change has impacted the power supply situation in Ecuador.
e.
Produced Project Materials Balance: including total cubic metres of cutting, filling, cement, and amount of high-density polyethylene material, and bill of quantities for the major construction projects of the mine and process plant, which are divided into three bidding packages:
a)
Bid Package 1: Construction of temporary camp, TSF to starter dam phase, SWD, non-contact water channels, internal haul roads, and preparation of the process plant site and permanent camp site;
b)
Bid Package 2: Mining, stripping and ongoing tailings dam raises using stripped waste rocks; and
c)
Bid Package 3: Construction of the process plant, tailings discharge and back water systems, water treatment plants, permanent camp, and other site infrastructure.
f.
Adopted "Unit Cost" Criteria (as compared to "Open Book") for potential contractors to bid on the three construction packages outlined above. For example, "Unit Cost" for blasting or cutting one cubic metre of rock or saprolite, then loaded and trucked to, within two kilometres, shall include all personnel and management cost, plus any profit contractor intends to have for the work. Monthly total payments will be based on measured cubic metres of cutting.
Award of Commercial Contract for Bid Package 1
The Companies invited three mining contractors with operations at Ecuadorian mining or construction sites, and the forth contractor which Curimining had engaged previously, and the Companies received a total of four bids based on the "Unit Cost" criteria.
After interviews, visiting their current operating sites in Ecuador, and considering the total bid price, the Companies have awarded Bid Package 1 to CRCC 14 Bureau Group CO., Ltd., a company with a regional headquarters in Quito and over ten years operating experience in Ecuador building infrastructure in open pit mines and in the heavy civil construction sectors.
The Companies plan to award Bid Packages 2 and 3 in Q1 2025 to ensure the project stays on schedule to start production in the second half of 2026.
About Silvercorp
Silvercorp is a Canadian mining company producing silver, gold, lead, and zinc with a long history of profitability and growth potential. The Company's strategy is to create shareholder value by 1) focusing on generating free cashflow from long-life mines; 2) organic growth through extensive drilling for discovery; 3) ongoing merger and acquisition efforts to unlock value; and 4) a long-term commitment to responsible mining and ESG. For more information, please visit our website at www.silvercorpmetals.com.
About the El Domo Project
El-Domo is a high-grade copper-gold project located in Central Ecuador, approximately 150 km northeast of the major port city of Guayaquil – about a 3-hour drive. The project concessions span low-lying hills and plains between 300 to 900 masl. El Domo is a flat-lying tabular shaped VMS deposit, with mineralization beginning at 30 metres from surface and dimensions of approximately 800 x 400 metres. Three well-maintained gravel roads provide direct site access to El Domo.
For further information:
Silvercorp Metals Inc. Lon Shaver President Phone: (604) 669-9397 Toll Free 1(888) 224-1881 Email: investor@silvercorp.ca Website: www.silvercorpmetals.com
Video: How innovation and accountability could help green gold portfolios Northern Miner Staff | December 31, 2024 |
TNM Podcast Host Adrian Pocobelli (L) in conversation with chief owner of McEwen Mining, Rob McEwen; founder of Rule Investment Media, Rick Rule; Synergy Capital partner Gonzalo Waldman; and Lowell Resources Fund CIO John Forwood. Credit: Martina Lang
Chile's Codelco seeks permit for $800 million mine extension
Reuters Mon, December 23, 2024 at 6:24 AM PST 1 min read
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chilean miner Codelco has requested an environmental permit to extend the life of its Gabriela Mistral copper mine by more than 25 years with an $800 million investment, the state-run company said on Monday.
The world's biggest copper miner aims to extend the mine's lifespan beyond 2028 to 2055 and end its use of domestic land-based water in 2035.
Water is essential for multiple copper mining processes and many mines in Chile, the world's leading copper producer, increasingly pump seawater directly to their operations to move away from using water from lakes, rivers and reservoirs.
Codelco said it will provide the same amount of water used by Gabriela Mistral to the northern Chilean region of Antofagasta, where the mine is located, switching from land-based water to third-party sources that meet environmental standards.
The company did not specify what sources would provide the alternative water supply.
Gabriela Mistral, one of Codelco's smallest mines, began operations in 2008, employs almost 4,000 people and produces about 110,000 metric tons of copper a year, the company says.
To extend the mine's lifespan, Codelco plans to extract copper oxides and then move on to sulfides, incorporating salt in the chlorinated leaching process to improve recovery rates.
The miner has been struggling to boost production after quarter-century lows in the past two years, hit by delays at major expansion projects.
(Reporting by Fabian Cambero and Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Alexander Villegas and David Goodman)
I have SVM. Making money when others don't. And it's nice to have cash in a cash-starved sector. Shorts don't like this Canadian company because they have operations in China. But that hasn't stopped me. So I have a 7% position. Manageable.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell Says, 'We're Not Allowed to Own Bitcoin' Amid Trump’s Push for Bitcoin Strategic Reserve
Mehab Qureshi Wed, December 18, 2024 at 12:31 PM PST 3 min read
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has ruled out the possibility of the central bank adding Bitcoin to its balance sheet, citing legal restrictions under the Federal Reserve Act.
Powell addressed the issue during a Dec. 19 press conference, emphasizing that the Fed is not pursuing any legislative changes to alter this position.
"We’re not allowed to own Bitcoin. The Federal Reserve Act says what we can own, and we’re not looking for a law change," Powell said. "That’s the kind of thing for Congress to consider, but we are not looking for a law change at the Fed."
Bitcoin faced its first drop in four days following Powell’s comments and a more cautious tone from the Federal Reserve. BTC fell 5.9% to $100,605, retreating from its record-breaking high of $108,000 achieved on Dec. 18.
The global cryptocurrency market also dropped, with its market capitalization falling to $3.67 trillion — a 7.6% drop in the last 24 hours. Other major cryptocurrencies were also hit hard. Ethereum, XRP, and Solana recorded losses ranging from 4% to 11%, reflecting a broader market correction.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter-point, bringing the target range to 4.25%–4.5%. Stocks reacted negatively too, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite each falling 0.4%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing roughly 100 points, marking its 10th consecutive losing day.
Powell noted that the central bank’s rate policy is now “significantly less restrictive” after a full percentage point reduction since its peak. He said future cuts in 2025 would depend on incoming economic data, with a focus on inflation progress and labor market strength.
Despite the pullback, analysts at Santiment observed a potential silver lining.
"Considering BTC has stayed above $100K (for the time being) and not dipped as aggressively as its normal fluctuations compared to the S&P 500, this can actually be interpreted as a sign of strength once the dust settles over the next 24-48 hours," wrote analysts at Santiment, a blockchain analytics platform.
Trump’s Push for a Bitcoin Reserve President-elect Donald Trump has reiterated his vision for a strategic Bitcoin reserve, a concept he first proposed during his campaign.
On Dec. 12, Trump said, “We’re gonna do something great with crypto because we don’t want China, or anybody else … but others are embracing it, and we want to be ahead.”
The U.S. government already holds 212,847 BTC, valued at $22.3 billion, from law enforcement seizures. However, it remains unclear whether Trump’s proposed reserve would incorporate these holdings or involve additional market purchases.
Trump has consistently championed Bitcoin as a strategic asset, promising to position the United States ahead of nations like China in the cryptocurrency race. Speculation is growing that an executive order could formalize Bitcoin’s status as a reserve asset shortly after Trump takes office on Jan. 20, 2025.
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