Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
JUST STUFF.......
~*~Welcome to Mining & Metals GraveYard Shift~*~
Daily Dispatches
India's March gold imports to drop 90% as prices surge, sources tell Reuters
Submitted by admin on Thu, 2024-03-28 10:55 Section: Daily Dispatches
By Rajendra Jadhav
Reuters
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
MUMBAI -- India's gold imports are set to plunge by more than 90% in March from the previous month to hit their lowest level since the COVID pandemic as banks cut imports after record-high prices hit demand, a government official and two bank dealers told Reuters.
Lower imports by India, the world's second biggest consumer of the precious metal, could limit a rally in global prices that hit a record high earlier this month on expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this year.
The drop in imports could also help India narrow its trade deficit and support the rupee.
India's gold imports are likely to fall to 10 to 11 metric tons in March from 110 metric tons in February, said a government official, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to talk to the media. ...
... For the remainder of the report:
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/indias-march-gold-imports-set-drop-90-prices-surge-sources-2024-03-2**************;
*******************************************
Jim Rickards: Why gold is the everything hedge
Submitted by admin on Wed, 2024-03-27 19:32 Section: Daily Dispatches
By James G. Rickards
The Daily Reckoning, Baltimore
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Excerpted from his commentary tonight at The Daily Reckoning, "Gold Is the Everything Hedge":
https://dailyreckoning.com/goldilocks-is-gonna-get-it/
Gold prices are being driven higher by U.S. threats to steal $300 billion in U.S. Treasury securities from the Russian Federation. Those assets were legally purchased by the Central Bank of Russia as part of their reserve position.
The actual securities are held in custody in digital form at European banks, U.S. banks, and the Brussels-based Euroclear clearinghouse. Only about $20 billion of those Treasury securities are held by U.S. banks; the majority are held by Euroclear. Those assets were frozen by the United States at the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
Freezing assets means the Russians cannot collect interest or sell or transfer the assets or pledge them as collateral. Asset freezes are used frequently by the United States, including in the cases of Iran, Syria, Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, and other nations. Often the assets are frozen for years but ultimately released to the owner as happened in the case of Iran after 2012.
Now the U.S. wants to go further and actually seize the assets, which may be viewed as outright theft under international law. The U.S. proposes to use the $300 billion to finance the war in Ukraine. European entities have expressed considerable uncertainty about this plan but the U.S. has maintained the pressure and wants to complete the theft before the June and July summits of G7 leaders and NATO members.
If the U.S. steals these assets, Russia will likely confiscate an equivalent amount of industrial and commercial assets located in Russia and owned by German, French, and Italian interests among others.
The bottom line is that if U.S. Treasury securities are not a safe investment, then securities of Germany, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and Japan are no better.
The only reserve asset free of this kind of digital theft is gold. Nations are beginning to diversify into gold in order to insulate themselves from digital confiscation by the collective West.
*****************************************************
Federal Reserve refuses to provide records of foreign gold holdings
Submitted by admin on Wed, 2024-03-27 15:41 Section: Daily Dispatches
By Ken Silva
Headline USA, Charlotte, North Carolina
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Weeks after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell evaded a congressman's questions about the central bank's foreign gold holdings, the Fed has also declined to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request for records about such holdings.
The Federal Reserve's lack of transparency comes amid reports that countries are removing their gold and other assets from the U.S. in the wake of the unprecedented Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
According to a 2023 Invesco survey, a "substantial percentage" of central banks expressed concern about how the U.S. and its allies froze nearly half of Russia’s $650 billion gold and forex reserves.
U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., asked Powell about the matter in a December letter, only to have the Fed chair respond last month with evasive non-answers, telling him that the Federal Reserve does not own gold but holds it as a custodian for other entities -- a fact that the congressman presumably already knew.
Following Powell's evasive response, Headline USA filed a FOIA request with the Fed for records reflecting how much gold the Federal Reserve Bank of New York currently holds in its vault, as well as records reflecting the ownership stake that each of FRBNY's central bank/government clients have in that gold. The FOIA request also sought records about the Fed's gold holdings prior to Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. ...
... For the remainder of the report:
https://headlineusa.com/federal-reserve-refuses-to-provide-records-of-foreign-gold-holdings/
*****************************
Secret national police report warns Canadians may revolt once they realize how broke they are
Submitted by admin on Wed, 2024-03-27 11:53 Section: Daily Dispatches
When Americans discover the same thing, their revolt may make Canada's seem like a tea party.
By Tristin Hopper
National Post, Toronto
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
A secret Royal Canadian Mounted Police report is warning the federal government that Canada may descend into civil unrest once citizens realize the hopelessness of their economic situation.
"The coming period of recession will ... accelerate the decline in living standards that the younger generations have already witnessed compared to earlier generations," reads the report, entitled "Whole-of-Government Five-Year Trends for Canada."
For example, many Canadians under 35 are unlikely ever to be able to buy a place to live," it adds.
The report, labelled secret, is intended as a piece of "special operational information" to be distributed only within the RCMP and among "decision makers" in the federal government. ...
... For the remainder of the report:
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/secret-rcmp-report-warns-canadians-may-revolt-once-they-realize-how-broke-they-are
***************************************
Switch to gold standard could stabilize prices, Philly Fed researchers find
Submitted by admin on Tue, 2024-03-26 16:47 Section: Daily Dispatches
From Central Banking, London
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Long-run price stability could be a key feature of the gold standard, researchers with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia find.
In their working paper, published in February, Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde and Daniel Sanches explore how the gold standard would operate as a monetary framework in a hypothetical small open economy.
They argue that the price level would consistently converge to its long-run equilibrium value. Inflation and deflation would be "merely temporary phenomena." ...
... For the remainder of the report:
https://www.centralbanking.com/central-banks/monetary-policy/7961027/switch-to-gold-standard-could-stabilise-prices-philadelphia-fed-research
(/NOW SWITCHING TO GOLD) FOR NEWCOMERS, HERE ARE THE DETAILS
SPREADING LIQUIDATION HAS NOW COMMENCED AS WE HEAD TOWARDS THE NEW ACTIVE FRONT MONTH OF FEB. WE ARE NOW INTO THE SPREADING OPERATION OF GOLD
HERE IS A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF HOW THE CROOKS FLEECE UNSUSPECTING LONGS IN THE SPREADING ENDEAVOUR ;MODUS OPERANDI OF THE CORRUPT BANKERS AS TO HOW THEY HANDLE THEIR SPREAD OPEN INTERESTS:HERE IS HOW THE CROOKS USED SPREADING AS WE ARE NOW INTO THE NON ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF NOV HEADING TOWARDS THE ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF FEB., FOR GOLD: AND MARCH FOR SILVER
YOU WILL ALSO NOTICE THAT THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST STARTS TO RISE BUT SO IS THE OPEN INTEREST OF SPREADERS. THE OPEN INTEREST IN WILL CONTINUE TO RISE UNTIL ONE WEEK BEFORE FIRST DAY NOTICE OF AN UPCOMING ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH (APRIL), AND THAT IS WHEN THE CROOKS SELL THEIR SPREAD POSITIONS BUT NOT AT THE SAME TIME OF THE DAY. THEY WILL USE THE SELL SIDE OF THE EQUATION TO CREATE THE CASCADE (ALONG WITH THEIR COLLUSIVE FRIENDS) AND THEN COVER ON THE BUY SIDE OF THE SPREAD SITUATION AT THE END OF THE DAY. THEY DO THIS TO AVOID POSITION LIMIT DETECTION. THE LIQUIDATION OF THE SPREADING FORMATION CONTINUES FOR EXACTLY ONE WEEK AND ENDS ON FIRST DAY NOTICE.”
WHAT IS ALARMING TO ME, ACCORDING TO OUR LONDON EXPERT ANDREW MAGUIRE IS THAT THESE EFP’S ARE BEING TRANSFERRED TO WHAT ARE CALLED SERIAL FORWARD CONTRACT OBLIGATIONS AND THESE CONTRACTS ARE LESS THAN 14 DAYS. ANYTHING GREATER THAN 14 DAYS, THESE MUST BE RECORDED AND SENT TO THE COMPTROLLER, GREAT BRITAIN TO MONITOR RISK TO THE BANKING SYSTEM. IF THIS IS INDEED TRUE, THEN THIS IS A MASSIVE CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD AS WE NOW WITNESS A MONSTROUS TOTAL EFP’S ISSUANCE AS IT HEADS INTO THE STRATOSPHERE.
https://harveyorganblog.com/2024/03/28/march-28-blog-first-day-notice-for-both-the-gold-and-silver-april-contract-month-gold-in-record-territory-with-respect-to-all-currencies-gold-closed-up-26-30-to-2218-30-silver-closed-up-0-20-to/
Column: Funds stampede into copper as price breaks higher Clearly, plenty of fund managers are buying into the change of narrative but whether others will join them depends on whether copper can consolidate its chart gains.
Reuters | March 27, 2024 | 8:54 am Intelligence Markets China Europe Copper
with MMGYS Soundtrack
The most recent COTRs capture the build in long positions just before copper peaked above $9,000 per ton. Much of the money entering the market was likely reacting to the chart break and the resulting upwards price momentum.
LME three-month copper has since retraced all the way to a current $8,860 per ton, a key technical level that acted as resistance in the previous year-long trading range and which, bulls hope, will now provide support for a new higher range.
If that resistance-turned-support thesis holds, heavier-weight money may well follow the shorter-term technical funds into the market. If, however, copper can’t hold its gains and falls back into the old range, some of its new fund friends may disappear as quickly as they came.
Check out the full read with charts here
https://www.mining.com/web/column-funds-stampede-into-copper-as-price-breaks-higher/
Choosing Mining Stocks Through The Eyes Of The Beer-holder
MARKET MOVERS
COMPANY +CHANGE% LAST TRADE
Premier American Uranium 0.52 20.81 $2.99
Endeavour Mining 0.44 1.74 $25.71
Capstone Copper 0.23 2.89 $8.20
Dundee Precious Metals 0.23 2.34 $10.08
Gold Fields 0.22 1.45 $15.38
Cameco 0.20 0.35 $57.19
SSR Mining 0.19 3.51 $5.60
NovaGold Resources 0.19 5.49 $3.65
Awalé Resources 0.18 22.50 $0.98
Aura Minerals 0.16 1.68 $9.71
Jaguar Mining 0.16 7.02 $2.44
Eldorado Gold 0.16 0.87 $18.47
Artemis Gold 0.13 1.66 $7.98
Newmont 0.12 0.35 $34.04
Wesdome Gold Mines 0.12 1.26 $9.62
HIGH VOLUME
COMPANY VOLUME LAST TRADE
Gabriel Resources 6,395,737 $0.01
The Metals Company 6,233,101 $1.35
Uranium Energy 4,349,136 $6.77
Anfield Energy 4,031,014 $0.09
Orecap Invest 3,773,983 $0.08
Kinross Gold 3,513,370 $7.73
Awalé Resources 3,158,705 $0.98
ATEX Resources 2,950,156 $1.46
B2Gold 2,747,109 $3.41
First Quantum Minerals 2,212,494 $13.32
OceanaGold 2,156,529 $2.90
NuLegacy Gold 2,125,000 $0.01
i-80 Gold 2,008,929 $1.71
Calibre Mining 1,953,650 $1.62
Goldsource Mines 1,658,496 $0.47
Cocoa is more expensive than copper as it tops $9,000
Bloomberg News | March 25, 2024 | 5:44 am Markets Africa Copper
with MMGYS Soundtrack
Cocoa extended its surge — surpassing $9,000 a ton for the first time ever — as a supply crunch grips the market and chocolate makers grapple for beans.
Futures are up about 50% this month alone and have more than doubled already this year. Poor harvests on the back of bad weather and crop disease in West African growers, where most of the world’s cocoa is grown, and little sign of production relief elsewhere have left the industry in a bind.
The rally has sent prices toward $10,000 — a level that seemed unthinkable only a few months ago — and even made cocoa more expensive than bellwether industrial metal copper.
Cocoa’s advance will feed through into higher chocolate costs throughout the year. Easter eggs are already getting more expensive due to last year’s price jump, and some manufacturers are curbing bar sizes or promoting varieties with other ingredients to soften the blow.
Futures rose as much as 5.2% to $9,400 in New York. Prices have kept climbing despite a technical gauge being in overbought territory for much of the last couple of months. Cocoa in London also climbed.
“Chocolate may be even more expensive in Easter 2025, if cocoa-tree diseases and inclement weather prolong the deficit amid high sugar prices,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Diana Gomes said in a note on Friday.
While prices have soared, speculators have actually been pulling out of the market. Open interest — the number of outstanding contracts — has dropped from a peak in late January, and money managers cut their net-bullish wagers to a one-year low in the latest week. That suggests that physical buyers may have played a key role in the price rally.
There’s a risk the supply situation may worsen. Incoming European Union rules — aimed at stopping products that destroy forests from being sold in shops — may make it even harder for the bloc’s top chocolate makers to secure supplies.
Focus is now turning to West Africa’s upcoming mid-crop, the smaller of two annual harvests. Top grower Ivory Coast’s regulator expects that to shrink this season, Bloomberg reported earlier this month.
(By Megan Durisin)
https://www.mining.com/web/cocoa-is-more-expensive-than-copper-as-it-tops-9000/
Christina Aguilera - Candyman (Official Video)
“I Worked Hard and Got Lucky with Multiple Discoveries of Size While in My 30’s” explains Rick Rule 0:00 Introduction
MiningStockEducation.com
Mar 18, 2024 #goldstocks #miningstocks #juniormining
“I worked hard and got lucky with multiple discoveries of size while in my 30’s” explains Rick Rule in this MSE episode. Rick offers both timely and timeless junior mining stock wisdom in this interview with Brian Leni.
1:12 GLD outflows
4:56 Canadian Government's Review of Zijin's investment in Solaris Resources
8:30 Milei's election in Argentina - Impact?
13:15 Probability of Mexico's open pit mining ban?
15:05 Optimal breakdown of construction financing
18:57 Goal Setting as an investor
25:02 Learning through experience / making mistakes
26:51 How to attain wealth
31:07 Prospect Generator Boot Camp
36:10 Rick's view on Kenorland / Sumitomo deal
38:28 Rule Investment Symposium
Warning ! Doom loop for gold and silver sellers! - LFTV EP165
Mar 22, 2024
In this week’s episode of Live from the Vault, Andrew Maguire discusses how the resurgence of physically-driven demand from central banks and manufacturers have laid the groundwork for silver’s recent breakout rally.
The London whistleblower investigates how the Federal Reserve is injecting volatility into gold and Bitcoin ETFs, before looking closer at the mystery behind the COMEX’s impending “First Notice Day”.
Timestamps:
00:00 Start
03:30 A deep dive into the silver markets and how they operate
15:06 Is demand for silver still high?
21:20 What does Andrew see for gold?
32:00 The FED’s tactic to inject volatility into Bitcoin
34:44 An update on BRICS
36:30 Is the internal COMEX casino coming apart?
Gold hits fifth record high in March on Fed rate-cut view Gold hits all-time high of $2,222.39 per ounce
By Sherin Elizabeth Varghese
March 21, 20243:49 AM MSTUpdated 19 min ago
with MMGYS Soundtrack
Summary
Dollar slips to 1-week low after Fed verdict
Fed stands pat on rates and view on 2024 cuts
March 21 (Reuters) - Gold prices on Thursday hit record highs for the fifth time this month after the U.S. Federal Reserve signalled it would press ahead with three rate cuts in 2024 despite elevated inflation.
Spot gold was up 1.1% at $2,209.65 per ounce at 1035 GMT after hitting an all-time high of $2,222.39 earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures soared 2.4% to $2,212.40.
"The rally was started by yesterday's Federal Reserve comments, basically confirming their intention to eventually start cutting U.S. interest rates," said Julius Baer analyst Carsten Menke.
"The mood in the gold futures market is very bullish. So your hedge funds or any other short-term traders or trend followers are positioned for higher prices, and I think this is the segment that is in the driving seat while the physical gold market is rather soft."
Despite recent high inflation readings, Fed chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. central bank is still likely to reduce interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point by the end of 2024, but that it also depends on further economic data.
Fed funds futures traders are now pricing in a 74% probability that the Fed will begin cutting rates in June, up from 60% before the rate decision, according to the CME Group's FedWatch Tool.
The dollar slipped to a one-week low against its rivals, while benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields also dipped.
Lower interest rates decrease the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion and weigh on the dollar, making greenback-priced bullion more appealing for other currency holders.
Spot gold may retest resistance at $2,222 per ounce, a break above which could lead to a gain into the $2,228-$2,234 range, according to Reuters' technical analyst Wang Tao.
Spot silver fell 0.4% to $25.51 per ounce, platinum rose 0.6% to $912.10 and palladium dropped 0.9% to $1,012.22.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/gold-sprints-record-high-fed-sticks-2024-rate-cut-view-2024-03-21/
This post dedicated to JW@KSC
The copper market has awoken from its year-long slumber
With MMGYS Soundtracks
Column: Raw materials squeeze jolts copper out of its torpor
Reuters | March 15, 2024 | 7:55 am Intelligence Markets China Copper
London Metal Exchange (LME) copper surged by 3.1% on Wednesday, breaking out of its long-standing range. The move extended on Thursday morning to an eleven-month high of $8,976.50 per metric ton.
The trigger for the price break-out is news that China’s copper smelters have agreed to curb output in response to a much tighter-than-expected raw materials market.
Spot treatment charges, which are the fees smelters earn for converting mined concentrates into metal, have collapsed in recent weeks as too many buyers chase too little material.
As the world’s largest buyer of concentrates, China is particularly exposed to the resulting squeeze on smelter margins.
China’s collective reaction has turned the market’s attention from weak global demand to copper’s stressed supply dynamics.
But to what extent it translates into less refined metal supply remains to be seen.
China’s imports of copper concentrates and scrap
Concentrates squeeze
Smelter treatment charges say a lot about what’s happening in the upstream segment of copper’s supply chain and right now they’re flashing red warning lights.
Spot charges in China tumbled to $11.20 per ton last week, a near 76% drop in just two months and the lowest level since 2013, according to price reporting agency Fastmarkets.
The implosion in processing fees speaks to an acute shortfall of concentrates in the spot market.
The unexpected closure of First Quantum’s Cobre Panama mine at the end of last year has blown a 350,000-ton hole in China’s copper supply chain.
Some Chinese producers are insulated by annual supply deals, which were priced at a benchmark treatment charge of $80 per ton for this year’s shipments.
Others, particularly newer operators, are more dependent on spot supply and have evidently been scrambling to buy replacement tonnage, chasing treatment charges down to unprofitable levels.
In January China’s Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA) advised, opens new tab the country’s copper smelters they needed “to bring maintenance ahead of schedule or extend the maintenance time, to cut production and to postpone the commencement of new projects.”
Which is what they agreed to do this week at a well-flagged meeting to discuss the unfolding crisis. The collective commitment to curb output is intended to safeguard the “healthy development of (the) global copper smelting industry”, according to state research company Antaike.
Too many smelters
There are no quotas for production cuts among the 19 Chinese operators at this week’s rare meeting. Rather, each producer will make their own assessment of what needs to be done.
In some cases the action has already likely been taken with maintenance downtime brought forward and unprofitable lines shuttered.
An average 11.5% of global smelting capacity was off-line in the first two months of this year, according to Earth-i, which uses satellite imagery to monitor plant activity rates. This is up from 8.6% last year and 8.0% in January-February 2022.
Tellingly, inactive capacity in top producer China averaged 8.3% this year, up from 4.8% last year, a much sharper jump than in the rest of the world.
Some Chinese producers, it seems, either voluntarily heeded the CNIA’s January call for sector restraint or were forced to by market reality.
Moreover, any promised curbs to output must be seen in the context of China’s rapid build-out of copper smelting capacity.
Treatment charges reflect not just the state of mine supply but also the volume of smelter demand.
China started up 780,000 tons of annual smelter capacity last year with another net 150,000 tons due this year, according to analysts at Macquarie Bank. (“Commodities Comment,” Jan. 16, 2024)
Macquarie estimates another two million tonnes of new or expanded capacity is also due to ramp up outside of China this year, increasing the pressure on concentrates availability.
Freeport McMoRan’s new Indonesian smelter, for example, will at full capacity soak up 1.7 million tons of concentrates, material that until now has been available for export.
The dramatic collapse in processing fees is as much a function of this new call on raw materials as it is of mine supply problems.
Sentiment shifts
China’s production restraint may slow but is unlikely to reverse the country’s recent rapid output growth.
The country’s production of refined copper jumped by an eye-watering 13.5% year-on-year to 12.99 million tons in 2023, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
And while analysts have adjusted their market balance estimates to factor in recent mine losses, most still think the refined market will be in supply surplus this year, albeit to a smaller extent than previously thought.
But market sentiment has palpably shifted.
The weak state of global manufacturing activity, not least in China, has kept copper locked in a sideways trading range for much of the last year.
Macro drivers, particularly interest rate expectations, have dominated the choppy price action.
The concentrates squeeze has refocused attention on copper’s micro dynamics of stretched supply and chronic under-investment in new mines.
Copper’s bull narrative has just been reactivated, even if China’s collective commitment to curb output may promise more than it delivers.
(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, Andy Home, a columnist for Reuters.)
(Editing by Sharon Singleton)
https://www.mining.com/web/column-raw-materials-squeeze-jolts-copper-out-of-its-torpor/
Rick Rule: Gold Stock Bull Market Building; Now Watching Silver, PGMs, Nickel 0:00 - Intro
Investing News
25,710 views Mar 12, 2024 #Gold #Silver #Investing
We recommend clicking "CC" to turn on subtitles for this video.
Veteran resource investor and speculator Rick Rule of @RuleInvestmentMedia shares his latest thoughts on the mining sector, honing in on gold stocks, as well as the opportunity he sees in the silver, platinum, palladium and nickel markets.
"The intelligent application of capital in a bad market is always square one for building a bull market. I feel over a five year timeframe very attracted not to the gold-mining sector, which I think is a disaster ... but to some of the high-quality companies," he said.
This interview was filmed on March 4, 2024.
#Investing #Gold #Silver
0:25 - US economy, upcoming election
5:14 - Investor hostility to gold stocks
10:04 - When will gold stocks move?
13:42 - Rick's goal with silver stocks
16:40 - Platinum, palladium and nickel
18:58 - Battle Bank and Rule Symposium
23:26 - Outro
Invest in Mining Sociopaths if You Want To Win says Analyst Joe Mazumdar 0:00 Introduction
MiningStockEducation.com
Mar 14, 2024 #miningstocks #resourceinvesting #juniormining
Joe Mazumdar of Exploration Insights explains why you must invest in mining sociopaths if you want to win. He also reveals insights from when he managed Newmont’s billion-dollar junior mining portfolio. Joe also shares where he is seeing value in the mining sector and offers one stock pick.
Joe Mazumdar is co-editor and analyst at Exploration Insights. Joe has an extensive, multi-decade background in working for both mining companies and the financial institutions that cover and invest in mining equities. He possesses an excellent understanding of geology, the process of exploration and development, and what it takes to run and finance a mining company.
1:11 PDAC takeaways
7:40 ASX vs TSX miners
11:41 Mining sociopaths will make you rich
18:00 Rupert Resources offers to buy B2Gold’s 70% interest in Finland JV with Aurion Resources
22:29 BHP says nickel facing difficult multi-year run
27:55 Artificial Intelligence in mining
29:40 Junior mining stock 2024 outlook
32:34 Joe managed Newmont’s BILLION-DOLLAR junior mining portfolio
39:21 Stock pick
Keith Neumeyer - Silver Deficits Running Hard Discussed in this interview:
Premiered 2 hours ago
Patrick Vierra from SBTV spoke with First Majestic Corp. CEO Keith Neumeyer. Keith tells us the silver specifics from the point of view coming from the mines. Keith's first hand view and knowledge is full of good info, good info that a silver investor or in general a precious metals investor needs to know. Watch it all here.
01:16 Metals on the move
03:37 Silver attracting a broader market
07:57 Silver prices ad deficits
16:26 Mining info and strategic metal
22:53 The First Mint and $100 Silver
$AG
Gold & Silver supply shortage imminent? Feat. Rob Kientz - LFTV Ep 164 Timestamps:
Mar 15, 2024
In this week’s episode of Live from the Vault, Andrew Maguire is joined once more by Rob Kientz of GoldSilverPros, who reveals the trade secrets he just picked up at a major industry event in Canada.
The precious metals experts discuss how a gold and silver supply shortage may coincide with an economic downturn and how investors can prepare for coming challenges by switching to sound money.
Check out Rob: https://www.youtube.com/c/GoldSilverPros
Ask your questions for Andy here: https://forum.kinesis.money/forums/qu...
00:00 Start
03:30 Rob’s talk at Prospector Developer Association Canada (PDAC)
08:00 Precious & base metals supply crunch coming
22:30 Will true prices emerge?
32:00 The paper game is done
46:30 Sound money movement in the US
$MUX 7 Month High So Hot I Think I'm Going To Burst Into Flames !!!!!
I told myself I wasn't going to play any Robin Williams or Wolfman Jack videos until $MUX broke over $10.00
OK But Just this once.........
Go $MUX.......
.....Go Green...........
Go McEwen Copper...........
Copper price soars to 7-month high on China’s plans to cut output
Staff Writer | March 13, 2024 | 9:29 am Markets China Copper
with MMGYS Soundtrack
China copper smelters raise Q4 treatment charge floor ahead of miner talks
Stock image.
Copper prices soared on Wednesday to their highest in seven months after Chinese smelters, which process half of the world’s mined copper, agreed on a joint production cut.
Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) touched $8,799 a metric ton, the highest since Aug. 1, 2023. It last traded 1.6% up at $8,790 as at 1055 GMT.
Copper for delivery in May rose on the Comex market in New York, touching $4.06 per pound ($8,932 per tonne), up 3.3% compared to Tuesday’s closing.
The rise started on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE), where copper reached a two-year high of 70,460 yuan ($9,796) per ton.
China’s biggest copper smelters met in Beijing on Wednesday, agreeing on a symbolic cut in loss-making production, without specifying volumes and timing.
“It’s a knee-jerk response to rush in. Interest spiked on SHFE right after the announcement of China’s production cut,” a trader said. “Who will admit they are the first to turn unprofitable?”
Shortages have led to intensifying competition for mined copper concentrates, causing a sharp fall in income for smelters to decade-low levels.
“But it’s important to note that there are around 1.7 million tons per year new ex-China smelter projects that are expected to come online in the second half, which will put more pressure on global concentrate supply,” said Brian Peng, a copper analyst of consultancy CRU.
More global copper smelters were not operating in the first two months of the year than in the same period last year, mainly because of Chinese inactivity, data from satellite surveillance of metal processing plants showed.
However, higher copper prices could further dampen demand in top consumer China, as can be seen in inventories.
Copper inventory in warehouses monitored by SHFE rose steeply to 239,245 tonnes as at March 8 from 30,905 tonnes in the beginning of the year.
Clarity on demand prospects could be provided by China’s loan data due this week, including total social financing numbers, a gauge of future metals consumption.
(With files from Reuters)
https://www.mining.com/copper-price-soars-to-7-month-high-on-chinese-plans-to-cut-output/
Copperline - James Taylor
Copperline was released on the 1991 album "New Moon Shine". During the late 1980s, he had began touring regularly, especially on the summer amphitheater circuit. His later concerts featured songs from throughout his career.
Taylor had thoughts of retiring by the time he played the massive Rock in Rio festival in Rio de Janeiro in January 1985. He was encouraged by the nascent democracy in Brazil at the time, buoyed by the positive reception he got from the large crowd and other musicians, and musically energized by the sounds and nature of Brazilian music. Lyrics follow:
Even the old folks never knew
Why they call it like they do
I was wondering since the age of two
Down on copperline
Copper head, copper beech
Copper kettles sitting side by each
Copper coil, cup o'georgia peach
Down on copperline
Half a mile down to morgan creek
Leaning heavy on the end of the week
Hercules and a hog-nosed snake
Down on copperline
We were down on copperline.
One summer night on the copperline
Slip away past supper time
Wood smoke and moonshine
Down on copperline
One time I saw my daddy dance
Watched him moving like a man in a trance
He brought it back from the war in france
Down onto copperline
Branch water and tomato wine
Creosote and turpentine
Sour mash and new moon shine
Down on copperline
Down on copperline.
First kiss ever I took
Like a page from a romance book
The sky opened and the earth shook
Down on copperline
Down on copperline
Took a fall from a windy height
I only knew how to hold on tight
And pray for love enough to last all night
Down on copperline
Day breaks and the boys wakes up
And the dog barks and the birds sings
And the sap rises and the angels sigh, yeah.
I tried to go back, as if I could
All spec house and plywood
Tore up and tore up good
Down on copperline
It doesn't come as a surprise to me
It doesn't touch my memory
Man I'm lifting up and rising free
Down on over copperline
Half a mile down to morgan creek
I'm only living for the end of the week
Hercules and a hog-nosed snake
Down on copperline, yeah
Take me down on copperline
Oh, down on copperline
Take me down on copperline.
Choosing Mining Stocks Through The Eyes Of The Beer-holder
MARKET MOVERS
COMPANY +CHANGE% LAST TRADE
Franco-Nevada 4.13 2.73 $155.22
Contango ORE 1.29 6.62 $20.79
Royal Gold 1.03 0.92 $112.75
Wheaton Precious Metals 0.79 1.33 $60.34
Agnico Eagle Mines 0.48 0.66 $73.56
Osisko Gold Royalties 0.43 2.01 $21.81
First Quantum Minerals 0.35 2.70 $13.30
Triple Flag Precious Metals 0.33 1.83 $18.36
Aris Mining 0.28 6.56 $4.55
AngloGold Ashanti 0.23 1.04 $22.36
U.S. Gold 0.20 5.71 $3.70
enCore Energy 0.18 3.44 $5.41
Taseko Mines 0.16 7.34 $2.34
Equinox Gold 0.15 2.43 $6.33
China Gold Resources 0.14 1.98 $7.20
HIGH VOLUME
COMPANY VOLUME LAST TRADE
Uranium Energy 7,228,127 $6.39
Big Gold 4,391,730 $0.04
B2Gold 3,499,649 $3.56
Newfoundland Discovery 3,489,750 $0.02
NexGen Energy 3,370,881 $9.90
Denison Mines 3,116,052 $2.48
New Gold 2,692,928 $2.03
Kinross Gold 2,663,701 $7.25
Gold Mountain Mining 2,505,484 $0.01
Agnico Eagle Mines 2,403,634 $73.56
First Quantum Minerals 2,269,296 $13.30
Euromax Resources 2,264,763 $0.03
Wesdome Gold Mines 2,130,701 $10.06
Argonaut Gold 1,995,545 $0.28
Comex nears gold and silver defaults, London trader Maguire says
Submitted by admin on Fri, 2024-03-08 13:50 Section: Daily Dispatches
1:51p ET Friday, March 8, 2024
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold (and Silver):
The New York Commodities Exchange is in danger of defaulting on its gold and silver contracts as demand for delivery of metal increasingly is directed there, London metals trader Andrew Maguire tells this week's "Live from the Vault" program from Kinesis Money.
Short futures positions in the metals, Maguire says, are being destroyed by their excessive leverage amid central bank demand for gold and the realization that silver is grossly underpriced compared to gold.
The interview is 49 minutes long and can be viewed at YouTube here:
See Next Post #6428
Physical silver buyers gatecrash COMEX vaults - LFTV Ep 163 Timestamps:
Mar 8, 2024
In this week’s episode of Live from the Vault, Andrew Maguire brings an in-depth analysis of the recent price movements in both gold and silver, before diving deep into the increasingly depolarised silver market to expose its vulnerabilities.
The London whistleblower takes listeners through the current bullish setup backed by a thorough analysis that highlights silver’s undervaluation and pervasive manipulation, before closing with an update on the BRICS currency.
00:00 Start
1:40 Gold breaking out - what to expect moving forward
3:45 Silver vulnerability
18:00 How close we are to a COMEX market default
25:45 Does the bullish silver setup favour the cartel or the central banks?
31:26 New Goldman Sachs structural analysis
40:00 Unwanted guests causing silver short squeezes
44:30 INVESCO’s 11th annual study
45:45 An update on the upcoming BRICS currency
Junior Gold Stock Bottom or More Pain Coming? with Pro Mining Investors Brian Leni and David Erfle 0:00 Introduction
MiningStockEducation.com
36.3K subscribers
Mar 8, 2024 #goldstocks #goldinvesting #miningstocks
Professional junior mining investors Brian Leni and David Erfle discuss whether we have seen a junior gold stock bottom or if there is more pain coming. They also chat about the current junior gold stock sector and the recent BMO and PDAC mining conferences and offer insights into how they are perceiving the market. Bill Powers facilitates the discussion.
0:45 PDAC sentiment
3:20 BMO conference subdued
4:45 What can gold miners do to bring in new flow of funds?
6:58 Street shorting juniors
10:51 Reinstate uptick rule?
13:24 “Nobody’s big enough to manipulate a trend”
14:45 Legal rumors heard at PDAC?
17:22 Chinese buying Osino Resources
20:11 Junior gold stock bottom
Choosing Mining Stocks Through The Eyes Of The Beer-holder
MARKET MOVERS
COMPANY +CHANGE % LAST TRADE
Contango ORE 1.48 8.08 $19.79
Ivanhoe Electric 1.31 12.52 $11.77
Wheaton Precious Metals 1.21 2.08 $59.29
Freeport-McMoRan 1.03 2.77 $38.15
Filo 0.98 4.48 $22.87
Agnico Eagle Mines 0.84 1.17 $72.58
Cameco 0.73 1.31 $56.29
Ero Copper 0.66 2.84 $23.89
Osisko Gold Royalties 0.63 2.99 $21.68
Sigma Lithium 0.62 4.28 $15.11
Lundin Mining 0.58 5.37 $11.38
Seabridge Gold 0.56 3.29 $17.56
Lithium Americas 0.52 7.73 $7.25
Altius Minerals 0.50 2.69 $19.10
Wesdome Gold Mines 0.49 5.04 $10.21
HIGH VOLUME
COMPANY VOLUME LAST TRADE
Argonaut Gold 7,759,492 $0.31
Contact Gold 6,702,788 $0.03
Kinross Gold 5,159,362 $7.22
Uranium Energy 4,954,170 $6.45
ATEX Resources 3,844,351 $1.25
First Quantum Minerals 3,441,735 $13.46
B2Gold 3,044,891 $3.62
Agnico Eagle Mines 2,839,874 $72.58
Fission Uranium 2,757,338 $1.03
Goldshore Resources 2,591,552 $0.13
Mawson Gold 2,505,131 $0.56
Calibre Mining 2,403,288 $1.75
Lundin Mining 2,030,303 $11.38
OceanaGold 1,961,241 $2.63
Granite Creek Copper 1,921,000 $0.05
Powells next move tomorrow
Why Britain is still paying the price for Gordon Brown's gold bullion blunder
Submitted by admin on Tue, 2024-03-05 16:58 Section: Daily Dispatches
with MMGYS Soundtrack
Nothing that seemed as stupid and sure to be as loss-making as the Bank of England's gold sales that began in 1999 would have been undertaken unless it accomplished an important objective that couldn't be admitted without causing financial turmoil and scandal.
That is, the Bank of England's gold sales rescued the big UK and U.S. bullion banks from their uncoverable but central bank-instigated short positions as the gold market bounced off the bottom. Saving the banks was deemed necessary to protecting the world financial system.
Ever since the U.S. broke the longstanding link between the dollar and gold in 1971, the primary purpose of Western central banking has been to control the gold price largely surreptitiously, so as to prevent the return of the once and future world reserve currency and the reduction of government power that would result. It is all documented here --
https://gata.org/node/20925
-- but the matter is so sensitive that it cannot be examined by mainstream financial news organizations, or even discussed in polite company. / cp
* * *
By Tom Knowles
The Telegraph, London
Monday, March 4, 2024
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/investing/gold-hits-all-time-high-gordon-brown-blunder-cost/
It has been considered one of the worst financial blunders the Government ever made. On May 7, 1999, the UK Treasury announced it would be selling over half of the nation's gold reserves.
The move, made by then chancellor Gordon Brown, was done in a bid to diversify and strengthen Britain's reserves by reducing the proportion held in gold.
Yet the sale came at what turned out to be the very bottom of the gold market, ultimately costing the Exchequer billions of pounds in lost profits.
As the 25th anniversary of Mr Brown's now infamous decision approaches, the price of gold on Monday hit a record high. Here, Telegraph Money looks at what went wrong and what it meant for the UK in the long run.
... Build-up
In 1999, gold was increasingly being seen as a "barbarous relic," as the economist John Maynard Keynes had described the metal in 1924. The asset had been experiencing a two-decade bear market, having lost 80% of its real worth from a peak in 1980. The low price meant a number of central banks around the world were looking to offload some of their gold.
The metal is ultimately held by central banks as a safe haven that can be called upon as a last resort in times of emergency, seen as a hedge against inflation, currency devaluation and fiscal turmoil.
In this scenario, Mr Brown was not out of step with other nations for wanting to sell some of the UK's 715 tonnes of gold, which was owned by the Treasury and managed by the Bank of England. The plan to convert the proceeds into foreign currencies of 40% US dollars, 40% euros, and 20% yen would also bear interest for the government, unlike gold.
But the timing of the sale, and the way it was announced, would go on to cause ripples still felt today.
... The announcement
The offloading of gold reserves by other central banks up to 1999 had frequently mostly been done quietly on the global markets, only after which details of the sale would be announced. Yet in the UK, the Government publicly announced in May -- via a written question in the House of Commons -- that it would be holding a series of auctions for 125 tonnes of its gold reserves, starting in July that year, with an eventual plan to sell 415 tonnes by 2002.
The Treasury said it wanted to "achieve a better balance in the portfolio" by increasing the proportion of its reserves held in foreign currencies. Gold made up around 50% of the UK's foreign currency net reserves -- $6.5 billion (L5.1 billion) out of $13 billion -- and this exposure to one single asset, whose price was often volatile and earned no interest, was too great, the Treasury argued.
The announcement stunned the markets, however. Adrian Ash, director of research at BullionVault, an online investment gold service, said: "It landed like a bombshell. I don't think the Treasury expected it to make as much noise as it did. It was so cack-handed how they handled it."
Britain's top gold traders had only been told earlier that day about the planned sale at a meeting at the Bank of England and were shocked by the news. They explained to Bank officials that gold prices tend to move in decades-long cycles, with the price probably near its bottom and likely to increase in the coming years.
They also warned that revealing the timings and amounts for sale so far in advance would cause traders to short the asset -- betting on the price of gold falling -- which would drive gold down further.
"The timing of the decision was ludicrous. We told them, 'You are going to push the gold price down before you sell,'" Peter Fava, then head of precious metal dealing at HSBC, told The Sunday Times in 2007. "We thought it was a disastrous decision; we couldn't understand it."
Sure enough, the price of gold, which was $282.40 an ounce on the day of the sale's announcement, had fallen 1%c by the time of the first auction in July. "It was done in a fairly clunky way," Philip Shaw, chief UK economist at Investec, said of the Government's announcement. "It probably didn't do the UK's standing in international markets much good."
The government said a secret sale would have eventually leaked out and provoked rumours that would have pushed the price down further. The announcement of a series of auctions, rather than selling gold through the normal twice-daily price fix, would also increase the number of prospective buyers who could bid "with greater confidence about future supply," the Government argued.
... The sale
Eventually, 395 tonnes of gold were sold by the Bank of England on the Treasury's behalf; the price ranged between $256 and $296 a troy ounce, with an average of $276, and made a total of $3.5bn.
Gold reached a record high of $2,083 a troy ounce on the London gold benchmark on March 4, having enjoyed a tremendous bull run over the past decade. In the spot market, gold reached an all-time high of $2,135 in December last year. The 395 tonnes sold off by the Treasury would now be worth $26.6bn for the UK.
The gold, in other words, was sold at a 20-year-low in the market, and this period has since been nicknamed "Brown's Bottom" by traders.
One key reason that the sale price was so depressed was that the UK was considered symbolically and historically important in the gold market, with the Bank of England holding and helping to manage gold reserves for more than 40 central banks and monetary institutions at the time.
"For the UK to be selling, it was like, 'oh wow, this stuff really is finished.' So sentiment wise, it really did knock a hole in gold," Mr Ash said.
The government's handling of the sale was considered so poor that the backbench Conservative MP Peter Tapsell told the House of Commons in June 1999 that "conspiracy theories are widely circulating in the City" that "famous foreign finance houses" had taken out such dangerously large short positions on gold over the previous years that they needed their friends at the Treasury to kill any prospect of a price rise in the metal.
The Bank of England's then Head of Foreign Exchange, Clifford Smout, denied any conspiracy "with persons known or unknown." Mr Brown was also suspected of attempting to support the newly launched euro. This was also denied by the Bank of England, which described the idea as "conspiracy theory gone to extreme."
... The immediate aftermath
The government's announcement of the sale prompted other Western nations to publicly defend having the asset in their reserves. Jean-Claude Trichet, governor of the Bank of France at the time, said that France, Germany, Italy, and the US would not sell their gold. In the US, Alan Greenspan, the then chairman of the Federal Reserve, responded to the UK's sale by saying: "Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world."
The poor handling of the sale also pushed European central banks to set some rules around gold sales. There was growing concern that uncoordinated sales and lending of gold by central banks were causing issues for the market and driving down prices.
As a result of this, 15 European central banks, including the Bank of England, agreed on 26 September 1999 to limit their sales to 400 tonnes annually over the next five years, and also to announce sales to the market beforehand. Crucially, the central banks also announced that they would not increase their lending above 2,119 tonnes currently out on lease.
The announcement caused a sharp spike in the price -- with a two-week gain of 25% -- as it had made gold trading more transparent and had removed uncertainty around the intentions of central banks' sales.
... Effect on the UK
The sale of the gold was reinvested back in the UK's reserves and so had no palpable effect on the UK consumer or economy as it was not used for public spending or to pay off debt.
Suren Thiru, economics director at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, said: "Although much is made of the squandering of a national asset, the main function of such reserve assets is more for precautionary reasons such as intervening to stop a currency crisis, than managing wealth on behalf of the country."
He added that the need for governments to continue holding large gold reserves is "questionable."
However, critics argue the poor sale damaged the UK's reputation on a global stage. Ross Norman, chief executive of Metals Daily, a precious metals data provider, said: "The problem is, once you've consumed a significant part of our reserves, it's very hard to rebuild. I think that damages the UK."
The sale was also thought to be embarrassing for the Bank of England considering its eminent role in the bullion market, despite it not having control over the decision, which was made by the Treasury. There were press reports that Eddie George, then-governor of the Bank of England, had privately argued against the sale, saying it would erode the Bank's power base in the City.
However, Mr George told a Select Treasury Committee in May 1999: "People get emotionally attached to gold and we have seen quite a lot of emotional reaction to that decision. However, as a portfolio decision, it is perfectly sensible" to sell the gold.
... Would there ever be another sale?
Whereas in the 1990s, central banks were trying to offload some of their gold, the reverse is true today. A number of central banks, especially those not aligned with the West, have been buying physical gold in record quantities over the past two years, as the pandemic, inflation and geopolitical tensions, such as war in Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza conflict, boost its popularity as a safe haven.
Gold, if held in a nation's own vaults, cannot be frozen or accessed by others. Other countries are looking to reduce their dependence on the US dollar, such as China, which bought 225 tonnes of gold in 2023.
However, the likelihood of the UK either buying or selling more gold is virtually nil. Mr Norman added: "Selling any of its gold reserves at this stage would be regarded internationally as the UK being in absolute dire straits and would be most definitely counterproductive."
Attempts to buy more gold would also appear that the UK is worried about the stability of the global financial market. "These guys will never say much or do anything with gold for at least another generation," Mr Ash said. "Western central banks are still so paralysed by the PR disaster of their sales 20 years ago -- it wasn't just the UK by any stretch -- that whatever they do with gold now would look ridiculous."
... Lessons for consumers
Private investors should take Mr Brown's poor sale as evidence that there is a danger of herd thinking in financial markets. Mr Ash said: "It felt like every major nation was selling gold, cutting their bullion holdings as the hype around tech stocks and Western triumphalism in geopolitics ushered in the 21st century. Yet since that gold price low for UK investors in 1999, physical bullion has beaten all UK asset classes hands down."
The rise in gold prices has also shown the value of holding a little gold in a portfolio. Analysis by BullionVault shows that adding 10% to a portfolio otherwise split 60:40 between UK equities and bonds would have raised annualised returns from 5 to 5.6% across the past quarter century, and it would have boosted a private investor's worst five-year returns of the last half-century (ending 2022) from 0.6c to 1.6% per year.
https://www.gata.org/node/23056
MCEWEN MINING | Red Cloud's Pre-PDAC 2024
Mar 5, 2024
Rob McEwen, Chairman & Chief Owner, Michael Meding, VP & GM, McEwen Copper, Stefan Spears, VP, Corporate Development, McEwen Mining joined us at Red Cloud's Pre-PDAC 2024, brought to you by Red Cloud Financial Services.
$MUX
MARKET MOVERS
COMPANY +CHANGE% LAST TRADE
Royal Gold 3.02 2.94 $105.65
Franco-Nevada 3.02 2.13 $145.11
Agnico Eagle Mines 2.19 3.36 $67.28
Cameco 1.91 3.47 $56.91
Sigma Lithium 1.71 12.03 $15.93
Contango ORE 1.32 7.80 $18.25
Endeavour Mining 1.32 5.92 $23.63
McEwen Mining 1.01 12.21 $9.28
Wheaton Precious Metals 1.00 1.79 $56.93
Torex Gold Resources 0.95 6.69 $15.15
Ero Copper 0.95 4.11 $24.07
NexGen Energy 0.91 9.51 $10.48
Piedmont Lithium 0.87 5.98 $15.43
Gold Fields 0.79 6.06 $13.83
Osisko Gold Royalties 0.73 3.68 $20.55
HIGH VOLUME
COMPANY VOLUME LAST TRADE
Uranium Energy 11,011,798 $6.95
B2Gold 5,717,650 $3.48
NexGen Energy 4,782,433 $10.48
Fission Uranium 4,126,731 $1.06
Calibre Mining 3,544,085 $1.63
Kinross Gold 3,275,852 $6.88
OceanaGold 2,978,863 $2.44
First Quantum Minerals 2,710,568 $12.90
Argonaut Gold 2,561,600 $0.24
Sigma Lithium 2,487,056 $15.93
Omai Gold Mines 2,260,256 $0.11
Euro Sun Mining 2,227,843 $0.07
New Gold 2,047,172 $1.82
Pelangio Exploration 2,039,000 $0.02
Guanajuato Silver 1,992,656 $0.16
Whelp I'm bout done on the old hub don't think I'm doing anybody any good anymore
Feeling I'm knocking on heavens door
Have a good one everybody and Thanks
Sound Money Outside of the System Feat. Lynette Zang - LFTV Ep 162 Timestamps
Kinesis Money
Mar 1, 2024
In this week’s episode of Live from the Vault, Andrew Maguire is joined for the first time by renowned US-based banker, stockbroker, and economist Lynette Zang to talk about the growing sound money movement and ways to preserve wealth.
Lynette takes listeners through an American perspective on the failing dollar and recent developments in certain states, before offering a message of hope: people are waking up to the manipulation of the mainstream media.
Lynette Zang's Website: https://lynettezang.com/
Ask your questions for Andy here: https://forum.kinesis.money/forums/qu...
00:00 Start
05:00 Lynette’s thoughts on where we are with the failing dollar
08:45 Gold’s history and future as money
18:00 America’s stance on gold
24:00 Wealth preservation
31:00 People are waking up, especially the young
36:30 US states legalising sound money
54:30 The supply shock from Covid shutdowns
58:00 On Bitcoin
Milei's economic reforms stall in Argentina Congress
Argentine President Javier Milei was dealt a major setback in parliament Tuesday (February 6) when his deeply controversial deregulatory reform package was prevented from advancing and sent back for a rewrite, legislators said.
Latest $MUX Stock Update
McEwen drills 121.5 g/t over 0.4 metre at Stock gold mine
Staff Writer | February 28, 2024 | 8:04 am Exploration Canada Gold
The Stock East zone could be an early source of more ore for the Fox complex. Credit: McEwen Mining
McEwen Mining (TSX: MUX; NYSE: MUX) says gold resources are up 31% year-over-year at both the Stock West and Stock Main zones. The past-producing Stock mine is part of the company’s Fox complex near Timmins, Ontario.
The mineralization has been traced at depth. Geological interpretation suggests that there are two principal plunging structures, and drilling along these structures accounts to about half the 31% increases in resources. Both structures remain highly prospective for additional growth, said McEwen.
The Stock East zone is also emerging as a potential new source of near-term production. Here are the true width highlights of the recent assays:
Hole SEZ24-86: 121.5 g/t gold over 0.4 metre
Hole SEZ24-84: 6.5 g/t gold over 10.2 metres
Hole SEZ24-88: 4.5 g/t gold over 10.4 metres
Infill drilling at the Stock East zone has intersected mineable widths and grades. Drilling has also identified two plunge directions at Stock East.
McEwen says the location of the Stock East zone is strategic for several reasons. It lies close to the splay point of the Nighthawk Lake fault, and such splays are known to be good traps for gold mineralization. It is located only 700 metres east of the existing Fox mill, and because it is shallow it could be quickly and relatively inexpensive to develop.
The current drill program aims to upgrade most of the inferred mineralization to the indicated category and target the high-grade sections of the zone.
McEwen Mining produced 128,650 oz. of gold and 2.2 million oz. of silver in 2023, or 154,600 gold-equivalent ounces. The Fox complex was responsible for producing 44,450 gold-equivalent oz. or roughly 29% of the output.
https://www.mining.com/mcewen-drills-121-5-g-t-over-0-4-metre-at-stock-gold-mine/
Javier Milei to take on Argentina’s Economic Crisis
February 7, 2024 MJEInternational Economics
Written by Gabi Breuer
In late October, Argentina held presidential elections, crucial in determining how the country would handle its economic turmoil. Since the nineties, Argentina has struggled with such hardships: having substantial debts, falling into deep recession periods, and facing extraordinary inflation. This most recent election was critical to ensure Argentinians were put on the proper path to fix decades of poor economic decisions.
On November 19th, Argentina’s run-off election day, Javier Milei faced Sergio Massa after neither candidate received the necessary votes to win the first round. Milei won with 56% of the votes primarily due to his radical economic plan, which gave many Argentinians hope (Eliott, 2023). Even with the majority vote, people were anxious about the immediate ramifications their newly elected president would have on the peso. As of October 2023, inflation reached a 143% high, resulting in four in ten people living in poverty and the nation heading towards its sixth recession in a decade (Gillespie, 2023).
The morning after the election, Argentinians were most concerned with the “blue dollar” value. The blue dollar is a parallel rate to the dollar commonly used in backroom financial houses. Although the blue dollar is an unofficial exchange rate, news sites track the exchange in real-time due to its popularity. Starting his presidency with the blue dollar’s value increasing by 13%, Milei’s time in office began on a celebratory note (Biller, Politi, 2023). Compared to the bank-set price of 356 pesos to the dollar, the blue dollar exchange is almost triple that. The rate increase was an immediate positive sign for the newly elected president and possibly a beacon of hope that his economic plan could lead the country out of a recession.
Milei’s campaign was built upon perhaps the boldest plan any candidate has proposed in some time. The “Hail Mary” looks to dismantle the Argentine peso entirely and put into effect the US Dollar as the national currency. By dollarizing the economy, the national bank would set an exchange rate and buy back pesos.
Although the idea may seem far-fetched, it has been successfully implemented in Ecuador and Panama. It is important to highlight that both these countries have significantly smaller economies, whereas Argentina remains the third-largest economy in Latin America despite its economic difficulties (Gura, Martin, 2023). Argentina’s size will play a major part in the outcome of Milei’s plan as it faces the tedious process of buying back pesos from its 45 million citizens.
In addition to the nation’s size, Argentina faces a more significant problem. Likely, they do not have enough dollars to replace the peso, at least without causing an expansive currency shortage. Currently, the country owes the International Monetary Fund $44 billion and has $7.5 billion less than that in its reserves (Gura, Martin, 2023). It is improbable Argentina can find the funds to properly buy back all its pesos.
Even if the government did have the funds, Milei would need to convince over 45 million people to exchange their money in large quantities. This alone is an immense obstacle to face. With this being said, the Argentinian people feel a sense of safety with the US dollar, which could help ease the transition. Seeing that the peso loses value rapidly, Argentinians prefer to save money in American cash because of its reliability. As a result, 10% of all globally circulating US dollars are held in Argentina (Nica et al., 2023). This sense of safety helped Milei’s plan appeal to many and gain him their vote.
If Milei successfully dolarizes the economy, Argentina will lose autonomy over its currency and will depend entirely on the US for monetary policy. The US Federal Reserve would continue to make decisions based on what benefits the American economy, regardless of the impact on Argentina. Argentina would also lose its power to print money, an act done repeatedly over the last few decades in hopes of solving its crisis (Velde, Veracierto, 2023). Ultimately, money would be printed in the US.
Roughly two weeks after his election, Milei took the first step towards a new page in Argentine economics. The president appointed Luis Caputo as his economic minister. Caputo formerly served as the country’s finance minister and is known for his connections with Wall Street. Milei’s decision to appoint Caputo is a relatively calm choice compared to his alternatives. Previously, Milei had mentioned naming Emilio Ocampo, a strong supporter of dollarisation, but Ocampo backed out of the role (Nugent, 2023). Caputo’s appointment has many believing Milei will put aside his dollarization plan and focus on other issues first, like putting an immediate halt on printing excess money.
It is difficult to tell precisely what direction Milei will take in his first months as president, but it is clear that whatever decides, his attack must be aggressive. Javier Milei is set to take office officially on December 10th.
Works Cited
Biller, David, and Daniel Politi. “After the Dollar-Loving Milei Wins the Presidency, Argentines Anxiously Watch the Exchange Rate.” AP News, November 21, 2023. https://apnews.com/article/milei-argentina-dollar-peso-exchange-bb61f9e9a6108ba0ced63f89b2cfd431.
“Dollarization in Argentina.” Federal Reserve Cank of Chicago, 1999. https://www.chicagofed.org/publications/chicago-fed-letter/1999/june-142.
Elliott, Larry. “Would Javier Milei’s Dollar Plan for Argentina Be an Economic Experiment Too Far?” The Guardian, November 20, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/20/javier-milei-dollar-plan-argentina-economy.
Gillespie, Patrick. “Argentina Inflation Hits 143% in Final Release before Presidential Election.” Bloomberg.com, November 13, 2023. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-13/argentina-s-inflation-hits-143-in-final-release-before-election?embedded-checkout=true.
Martin, Michel, and David Gura. “Argentina’s President-Elect Javier Milei Has a Plan to Fight Inflation: Dollarization.” NPR, November 22, 2023. https://www.npr.org/2023/11/22/1214619380/argentinas-president-elect-javier-mile-has-a-plan-to-fight-inflation-dollarizati.
Nicas, Jack, Natalie Alcoba, and Lucía Cholakian Herrera. “In Country Where Houses Are Bought in $100 Bills, Plans for Sweeping Change.” The New York Times, November 24, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/24/world/americas/argentina-economy-peso-dollar-javier-milei.html#:~:text=As%20a%20result%2C%20about%2010,to%20%243%2C100%20for%20every%20American.
Nugent, Ciara. Argentina’s Javier Milei names moderate ex-trader as economy minister, November 29, 2023. https://www.ft.com/content/330bd3fb-b418-458f-9b2b-31718b52f935.
https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mje/2024/02/07/javier-milei-to-take-on-argentinas-economic-crisis/
...............................
with Mining & Metals GraveYard Shift Soundtrack
Tom Waits - Whistlin´ Past The Graveyard
Well I come in on a night train
With an arm full of box cars
On the wings of a magpie
Cross a hooligan night
And I busted up a chifforobe
Way out by the Cocomo
Cooked up a mess a mulligan
And got into a fight
Whistlin past the graveyard
Steppin' on a crack
I'm a mean Mother Hubbard
Papa one eyed jack
You probably seen me sleepin'
Out by the railroad tracks
Go on and ask the prince of darkness
What about all that smoke
Come from the stack
Sometimes I kill myself a jacket
Suck out all the blood
Steal myself a station wagon
Drivin' through the mud
Whistlin past the graveyard
Steppin' on a crack
I'm a mean Mother Hubbard
Papa one eyed jack
I know you seen my headlights
And the honkin' of my horn
I'm callin' out my bloodhounds
Chase the devil through the corn
Last night I chugged the Mississippi
Now that suckers dry as a bone
Born in a taxi cab
I'm never comin' home
Whistlin past the graveyard
Steppin' on a crack
I'm a mean Mother Hubbard
Papa one eyed jack
My eyes have seen the glory
Of the draining of the ditch
I only come to baton rouge
To find myself a witch
I'm-ona snatch me up a
Couple of em every time it rains
You see a locomotive
Probably thinkin' its a train
Whistlin past the graveyard
Steppin' on a crack
I'm a mean Mother Hubbard
Papa one eyed jack
What you think is the sunshine
Is just a twinkle in my eye
That ring around my fingers
Just the fourth of July
When I get a little bit lonesome
And a tear falls from my cheek
There's gonna be an ocean in
The middle of the week
Whistlin past the graveyard
Steppin' on a crack
I'm a mean Mother Hubbard
Papa one eyed jack
I rode into town on a night train
With an arm full of box cars
On the wings of a magpie
Cross a hooligan night
I'm-ona tear me off a rainbow
And wear it for a tie
I never told the truth
So I can never tell a lie
Whistlin past the graveyard
Steppin' on a crack
I'm a mean Mother Hubbard
Papa one eyed jack
,,,,,,,,,
Nickel faces existential moment with half of mines unprofitable
Bloomberg News | February 26, 2024 | 7:01 am Battery Metals Intelligence Top Companies Asia Australia Nickel
with MMGYS Soundtrack
A nickel briquette. Image from Sherritt International
Many of the world’s biggest nickel mines are facing an increasingly bleak future as they wake up to an existential threat: a near limitless supply of low-cost metal from Indonesia.
With roughly half of all nickel operations unprofitable at recent prices, the bosses of the largest mining companies last week sounded a warning that there was little prospect of a recovery.
The potential collapse of nickel mining from Australia to New Caledonia comes at a time when western governments are scrambling to secure the supply chains needed to decarbonize the global economy. But in an ironic twist, Indonesia’s coal-fired nickel output is pricing out greener metal that’s so far failed to command a market premium.
Wresting control of strategic metals from China has become a focal point of Joe Biden’s administration. Yet while US officials have dashed around the world looking to strike deals for materials such as cobalt and copper, the heaviest reverse has come in Chinese-backed Indonesian nickel, a key component of electric vehicles.
Indonesia now accounts for more than half of world supply, with the potential to reach three-quarters of all production toward the end of the decade.
“There is a serious structural challenge as a result of Indonesian nickel,” said Duncan Wanblad, chief executive officer of Anglo American Plc, after his company took a $500 million writedown on its nickel business last week. “They don’t seem to be letting up anytime soon.”
Traditionally, nickel has been split into two categories: low grade for making stainless steel and high grade for batteries. A huge Indonesian expansion of low-grade production led to a surplus, and, crucially, processing innovations have allowed that glut to be refined into a high-quality product.
Commodity markets have always been susceptible to cyclical volatility, especially when sudden supply and demand imbalances get a push from wider macro upswings or downturns. But what’s happening in nickel right now is different, with the entire industry undergoing a structural shift that has upended forecasts and models.
For BHP Group, the world’s biggest miner, nickel is a rounding error, contributing mostly losses to profits that routinely break $30 billion a year. Yet in recent years the company has championed the metal, seeing it as a key growth market that will help offset its retreat from fossil fuels.
Instead it’s turned into a disaster.
This week CEO Mike Henry conceded that the company will have to make a decision on whether to shutter its flagship nickel business in Australia within the next few months. Having already written down the business’s value by $2.5 billion, Henry said he expects the market to remain in surplus until at least 2030.
That means the pain is likely just starting.
Macquarie Group Ltd. calculates that about 250,000 tons of annual production — equivalent to about 7% of the total — has been taken out of the market by closures, with another 190,000 of planned output delayed.
Combined with economic slowdowns in China and the US and the choppy adoption of EVs, nickel has been pummeled. The price fell 45% last year, and is currently hovering around $17,000 a ton. According to Macquarie, at $18,000 a ton 35% of production is unprofitable, while at $15,000 a ton that jumps to 75%.
Anglo’s CEO Wanblad, who is reviewing nearly all the company’s mines in bid to cut costs, said that he will give the miner’s nickel business time in the face of the Indonesian threat.
“Our nickel business will undergo a fulsome review in terms of holding its head above water and making a viable profit,” he said. “I’m not giving up on the guys to come up with a plan that might help them readjust themselves into a position where they can function effectively.”
Glencore Plc, which has already moved to shutter its nickel operations on the islands of New Caledonia, is one of the world’s biggest producers with sprawling businesses in Canada and Australia. At current prices, that business will make just $500 million this year, with CEO Gary Nagle expecting prices to remain depressed.
“We see continuing strong production growth out of Indonesia,” Nagle said. “We do not expect significant price recovery in the short to medium term.”
With more than half a decade of oversupply ahead, more mines are likely to close before things get better. Should the market finally rebalance, that will leave Indonesia and China with even more market share then they already have.
Still, Indonesia’s rapid expansion has drawn criticism. Much of its production comes from coal-powered energy, giving it higher emissions per ton than rival producers, and its rapid expansion is eroding rainforests.
With little prospect of a near term recovery, western miners are pinning their hopes on state aid in the short term and a push toward customers — such as carmakers — demanding “greener” nickel in the future and being willing to pay more for it.
BHP this week called for the London Metal Exchange to expand its responsible sourcing policy to include environmental due diligence, helping to differentiate production from Indonesian and Chinese supply.
Still, as conceded by Glencore, so far buyers of nickel are unwilling to pay more.
“Right now there is not much of a premium in the market,” Nagle said.
(By Thomas Biesheuvel)
https://www.mining.com/web/nickel-faces-existential-moment-with-half-of-mines-unprofitable/
Waylon Jennings Old Five and Dimers
Elliott Management plans to spend over $1 billion on mining assets
Reuters | February 23, 2024 | 7:55 am Battery Metals Intelligence Markets USA
with MMGYS Soundtrack
US activist investor Elliott Investment Management is setting up a company to hunt for mining assets worth more than $1 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Elliott’s new venture, called Hyperion, would have a mandate to buy across all assets, including base and precious metals and commodities used in electric vehicles, the sources said on condition of anonymity. The new venture will be led by former Newcrest Mining CEO Sandeep Biswas, they added.
The Financial Times first reported the news.
The mining industry is a key focus for policymakers and investors globally because it provides the critical raw materials needed for electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure.
By 2035, demand for lithium, nickel and cobalt is expected to be 23 times higher than in 2021, with copper demand doubling over the same period, a study by US ratings agency S&P showed last August.
Elliott is willing to leverage the $65 billion that it has under management to go after larger deals if the opportunity arises or bring in co-investors, according to the sources.
The investment management firm did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
(By Kanjyik Ghosh and Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Eileen Soreng and Paul Simao)
https://www.mining.com/web/elliott-management-plans-to-spend-over-1-billion-on-mining-assets-ft-reports/
Tribute to Randy Meisner - Take It to the Limit (Live 1977 with lyrics)
40 Million ounces of COMEX gold vaporised! - LFTV Ep 161 Timestamps
Kinesis Money
41.9K subscribers
Feb 23, 2024
In this week’s episode of Live from the Vault, Andrew Maguire tackles a burning question from a US-based bullion dealer: is it possible that the Federal Reserve could try and confiscate your hard-earned gold savings?
The precious metals expert provides an update on the effects of Bitcoin ETFs on the gold price and comments on the strong geopolitically-driven demand for precious metals. Finally, Andrew shares some very good news for Silver Stackers.
Ask your questions for Andy here: https://forum.kinesis.money/forums/qu...
00:00 Start
01:53 Is there a chance the Fed will confiscate your gold?
13:45 Updates from liquidity providers: Bitcoin & gold
20:30 COMEX formed 50 years ago, Fed intervention in gold started…50 years ago
31:11 Rising tensions in the Middle East & China’s holiday season impact
33:33 Big move coming for silver?
*****7 Days 11 Hours Transition Marker*****
Will the government shut down next week end the miners transitory sell off
Might be the pivot
$MUX Bank of New York Mellon Corp Has $109,000 Position in McEwen Mining Inc (NYSE:MUX)
Posted by AM Reporter Staff on Feb 15th, 2024
with MMGYS Soundtrack
McEwen Mining logoBank of New York Mellon Corp reduced its stake in shares of McEwen Mining Inc (NYSE:MUX – Free Report) (TSE:MUX) by 15.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 16,783 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 3,097 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in McEwen Mining were worth $109,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Meitav Investment House Ltd. acquired a new position in McEwen Mining in the second quarter valued at approximately $950,000. UBS Group AG lifted its holdings in McEwen Mining by 58.7% in the first quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 4,827 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 1,785 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its holdings in McEwen Mining by 968.2% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 5,950 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 5,393 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. acquired a new position in McEwen Mining in the second quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in McEwen Mining by 221.4% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 7,544 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 5,197 shares during the period. 19.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
https://reporter.am/2024/02/15/bank-of-new-york-mellon-corp-has-109000-position-in-mcewen-mining-inc-nysemux.html
$MUX Jump Financial LLC Sells 21,877 Shares of McEwen Mining Inc (NYSE:MUX) 0:00 - Intro
Posted by AM Reporter Staff on Feb 17th, 2024
with MMGYS Soundtrack
Jump Financial LLC lessened its holdings in shares of McEwen Mining Inc (NYSE:MUX – Free Report) (TSE:MUX) by 42.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,243 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 21,877 shares during the quarter. Jump Financial LLC owned approximately 0.06% of McEwen Mining worth $190,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MUX. UBS Group AG increased its position in McEwen Mining by 37.3% during the second quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 83,005 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 22,541 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its position in shares of McEwen Mining by 968.2% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 5,950 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 5,393 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. acquired a new position in shares of McEwen Mining in the second quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Jane Street Group LLC grew its position in shares of McEwen Mining by 47.1% in the second quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 121,791 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 38,985 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in shares of McEwen Mining by 221.4% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 7,544 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 5,197 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.63% of the company’s stock.
other news
Feb 15, 2024 #Copper #Gold #Investing
Rob McEwen of McEwen Mining and Michael Meding of McEwen Copper discuss their respective companies and share their thoughts on gold and copper in the year ahead. For McEwen, the price trajectory for both metals is "higher."
He also spoke about the disconnect between the gold price and gold stocks, commenting, "I find this is time to be buying, and I have been buying juniors and adding to positions in companies. You just need to bear in mind it's cyclical, and when it wants to run there are some very attractive gains to be made — and the stocks are cheap right now."
This interview was filmed on February 8, 2024.
#Investing #Gold #Copper
0:32 - Gold's main price drivers in 2024
2:33 - Gold juniors are cheap and set to run
4:07 - Javier Milei and Argentina mining
8:26 - Raising $100 million for Los Azules
11:08 - Will McEwen Copper do an IPO?
13:08 - Copper outlook, 2024 and beyond
16:43 - McEwen Mining meets guidance
20:26 - Now is the time to be contrarian
21:29 - Outro
Latest Ukraine Mining News
with MMGYS Soundtrack
Avdiivka Coke Plant was completely captured by the Russian forces following a Ukrainian withdrawal.
Wiki
Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant (Ukrainian: ??????????? ????????????? ?????, romanized: Avdiivskyi koksokhimichnyi zavod, AKHZ) in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, was the largest coke producer in Ukraine and is owned by the company Metinvest,[1] which is in turn owned by Rinat Akhmetov, a Ukrainian oligarch. AKHZ also produced a variety of chemicals including benzine, coal tar, coal oil ammonium sulphate and coke gas.[2] The plant consisted of 13 main and 30 auxiliary workshops as well as service structural divisions.
In late 2023, the plant saw intense fighting during a Russian offensive on Avdiivka and was largely destroyed. According to Metinvest CEO Yuriy Ryzhenkov, it cannot be restored.[3]
According to Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, Commander of the Tavriia Operational Strategic Group, heavy fighting continues in Avdiivka as of 21:00 on 16 February; the fire on the Avdiivka Coke Plant caused by Russian strikes is yet to be extinguished [4]
On 17 February 2024, the Avdiivka Coke Plant was completely captured by the Russian forces following a Ukrainian withdrawal.[5]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Side notes
How did the Russian Ukraine war affect metals?
Indeed, gold increased by 4.93%, and silver increased by 7.53% after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. In contrast, platinum prices were relatively stable, increased 11.09% from December to February and peaked, then gradually declined 17.17% over the following five months.Oct 8, 2023
Avdiivka
Avdiivka sits in the industrial Donbas region, 15 km (9 miles) north of the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk. Before the war, the Soviet-era coke plant was one of Europe's biggest. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.19 hours ago
Does Ukraine have nickel?
Ukraine also has significant reserves of nickel, which are mainly concentrated in the eastern regions of the country. However, the extraction of these metals requires significant investments in infrastructure and technology.Apr 11, 2023
How much metal does the US get from Russia?
United States Imports from Russia of Iron and steel was US$1.3 Billion during 2022, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. United States Imports from Russia of Iron and steel - data, historical chart and statistics - was last updated on February of 2024.
Is Ukraine rich in titanium?
Ukraine also has important deposits of titanium ore, bauxite, nepheline (a source of soda), alunite (a source of potash), and mercury (cinnabar, or mercuric sulfide) ores. A large deposit of ozokerite (a natural paraffin wax) occurs near the city of Boryslav.
Rough Seas Ahead, Mateys
with MMGYS Soundtrack
"I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that."
Captain Edward John Smith, RMS Titanic
"It is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery. These may, perhaps, succeed at first, and limp along on hope for awhile with a flourishing appearance. But time betrays their weakness, and they eventually fall into ruin of their own designs."
Demosthenes
"Monetary and regulatory policy encourage asset bubbles to proliferate. Hot money seeks out the conscious mispricing of risk. Capital, in the form of both money and personal talent, increasingly flows into malinvestment and the gaming of markets. The productive economy languishes, left wanting for the lack of creative resources and attention. The bubble rises to unsustainable valuations— and fails, and a nation's capital is consumed."
Jesse 5 August 2019, The Men Who Sold the World
“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you may be certain that her desolation is near. Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are within the city must escape from its boundaries, and those who are in country areas must not return. For those will be days of retribution when all that is written will come to pass."
Luke 21:21-22
"Everyone knows that plagues have a way of recurring throughout history, yet somehow we find it hard to believe in the ones that crash down on us out of the sky. There have always been plagues and wars, yet they always take us by surprise. When war breaks out people say it's stupid and won't last long. Stupidity has a knack of getting in the way, which we would see if not wrapped up in ourselves. In this our townsfolk were like everybody else— they did not believe in plagues."
Albert Camus, The Plague
Stocks went out near the lows.
The Dollar was flat.
VIX is on a coffee break.
Gold and silver rallied. Silver is feisty.
PPI came in hot today but stocks failed to rally with the good 'bad news.'
Markets closed on Monday for President's Day.
Why so serious?
Have a pleasant weekend.
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/
Quality Projects Are Being Financed and Starting to Bifurcate” says Pro Mining Investor David Erfle
*****5 Week Miners Transient Marker*******
Welcome to the M+M board
This is the 5th week straight of record stock markets highs
with lethargic mining lows.
The transient nature seems catering for the big money players and mining CEOs seem hog tied to their banks.
Hopefully this miners cold spell will be over soon.
In the mean time feel free to enjoy the board and say Hi ☺️
Here"s today market movers
MARKET MOVERS
COMPANY +CHANGE% LAST TRADE
Royal Gold +0.94 0.88% $107.30
Sigma Lithium 0.76 5.46 $14.69
Piedmont Lithium 0.47 3.57 $13.64
Filo 0.36 1.83 $20.00
Minas Buenaventura 0.32 2.13 $15.33
Torex Gold Resources 0.32 2.47 $13.28
Centerra Gold 0.31 5.05 $6.45
Lithium Americas 0.28 4.96 $5.92
Lundin Gold 0.28 1.94 $14.74
Patriot Battery Metals 0.25 3.83 $6.78
NGEx Minerals 0.25 3.36 $7.70
Contango ORE 0.24 1.60 $15.25
Metalore Resources 0.24 8.89 $2.94
MAG Silver 0.21 1.86 $11.51
Atlas Lithium 0.21 1.12 $19.00
HIGH VOLUME
COMPANY VOLUME LAST TRADE
Uranium Energy 3,940,487 $7.69
Rusoro Mining 3,875,769 $1.13
SSR Mining 2,886,138 $5.89
Purepoint Uranium 2,033,862 $0.05
Argonaut Gold 1,973,296 $0.36
Stallion Uranium 1,844,204 $0.17
New Gold 1,784,193 $1.57
B2Gold 1,432,435 $3.33
Brigadier Gold 1,393,700 $0.01
NiCAN 1,249,000 $0.11
Gold’n Futures 1,245,000 $0.02
Calibre Mining 1,211,428 $1.39
Hudbay Minerals 1,019,888 $7.03
First Quantum Minerals 994,728 $11.59
$CNLMF Collective Mining Reports a New Porphyry Discovery Named Olympus Deeps by Drilling 202.35 Metres @ 2.16 g/t AuEq; Also Expands Apollo with 548.9m @ 1.91 g/t AuEq.
Jan 30, 2024
Website
https://www.collectivemining.com/
Alcoa $AA CEO On 4Q Earnings & Alumina Shipments
Jan 18, 2024 #alcoa #markets #global
Alcoa (AA) is the world’s eighth-largest producer of aluminum. President and CEO Bill Oplinger joins Oliver Renick to give an overview of the company. He talks about Alcoa’s 4Q earnings. Its adjusted EPS came in at -$0.56 versus an estimated -$0.99 and revenue came in at $2.60B versus an estimated $2.61B. He goes over the outlook for the company as its alumina shipments came in at 12.7M -12.9M metric tons. Tune in to find out more about the stock market today.
Choosing Mining Stocks Through The Eyes Of The Beerholder
MARKET MOVERS
COMPANY CHANGE LAST TRADE
MP Materials +1.03 6.37% $17.19
McEwen Mining 0.62 6.65 $9.95
Gatos Silver 0.31 3.52 $9.12
Wesdome Gold Mines 0.28 3.29 $8.78
U.S. GoldMining 0.19 3.15 $6.23
Standard Lithium 0.15 8.67 $1.88
Orla Mining 0.13 2.77 $4.82
Element79 Gold 0.12 52.17 $0.35
Premium Nickel Resources 0.12 8.70 $1.50
Gold Reserve 0.10 2.36 $4.33
Marimaca Copper 0.08 2.44 $3.36
West Vault Mining 0.08 9.76 $0.90
NOA Lithium Brines 0.08 26.32 $0.36
Gabriel Resources 0.06 11.76 $0.57
Lumina Gold 0.06 12.77 $0.53
HIGH VOLUME
COMPANY VOLUME LAST TRADE
Uranium Energy 6,820,019 $8.15
NiCAN 5,453,385 $0.15
Capstone Copper 5,400,802 $6.51
B2Gold 5,025,667 $3.71
Libero Copper & Gold 4,718,260 $0.04
Sigma Lithium 4,208,041 $16.85
Fission Uranium 3,310,214 $1.30
Kinross Gold 2,325,193 $7.40
First Quantum Minerals 2,203,855 $12.40
Lundin Mining 2,035,408 $11.10
Sulliden Mining 2,006,600 $0.03
Calibre Mining 1,941,171 $1.41
Anfield Energy 1,685,915 $0.10
NexGen Energy 1,651,802 $10.91
Denison Mines 1,648,423 $2.84
BRICS nations to drag US back into the gold standard? Feat. Ron Branstetter - LFTV Ep 158 Timestamps:
Kinesis Money
Feb 2, 2024
In this week’s episode of Live from the Vault, Andrew Maguire is joined - a popular request - by Ron Branstetter of Ron’s Basement to discuss the accelerating pace of change that silver stackers should experience in the months to come.
The precious metals experts take listeners through the implications of recent manoeuvres of the Global South, questioning whether international conflict can be avoided through leveraging a global gold and silver reevaluation.
00:00 Start
03:00 Ron’s thoughts on the price of silver right now
06:30 Momentum traders willing to pay over the odds
12:45 China going directly to miners to buy gold and silver - bypassing the COMEX & LBMA
17:40 Under-investment in the silver mining industry
19:30 Dedollarisation process coming to a head and triggering the gold reevaluation
29:45 EU central bank gold ownership relative to GDP; are they preparing for something?
38:00 The opportunity for US citizens to reclaim the right to sound money
41:30 Could BRICS nations drag the US back into the gold standard?
Copper Crunch Ended in 2022 when Musk announced by raising the voltage from 12 volt to 48 volts will eliminate copper supply crunch.
All the auto manufactures will follow the savings
Copper gained only 2% last year, following a 14% decline in 2022. So far this year, the base metal’s price is little changed, with a metric ton of copper costing around $8,600, according to prices on the London Metal Exchange.
For more than seven decades, the 12-volt automobile power system has been the dominant force in the industry. However, 48-volt alternatives have started to break through this stronghold. The versions with a larger power output have a number of benefits, one of which is the capability to provide significantly higher levels of power across wiring harnesses that are thinner, lighter, and more affordable. Due to the fact that these systems do not have to satisfy the more strict safety and performance standards that govern so-called high-voltage systems that are rated for more than 62 V, the implementation of such systems is also relatively inexpensively done.
now back to the bullshirt
Hedge funds ramp up copper bets as supply shocks reverberate
https://www.mining.com/web/hedge-funds-ramp-up-copper-bets-as-supply-shocks-reverberate/
Argentina lawmakers debate Milei’s ‘omnibus’ economic reform bill
Opposition has pledged to block the president’s mega-bill to reform the economy, politics and even some aspects of private life.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/31/argentina-lawmakers-debate-mileis-omnibus-economic-reform-bill
$MUX Rob McEwen seeks $100 million for Argentina copper mine as Milei boosts prospects
Bloomberg News | January 30, 2024 | 10:19 am Top Companies Latin America Copper
McEwen lines up copper partner as surging prices spur interest
McEwen Mining founder Robert McEwen. Image from archives.
Canadian entrepreneur Rob McEwen is in talks to raise about $100 million for a copper project in Argentina, at a time when miners are betting that deregulation by the new government of Javier Milei will boost prospects for the industry.
His closely-held firm, McEwen Copper Inc., is speaking with existing holders — which include automaker Stellantis NV and a Rio Tinto Group venture — as well as prospective new investors, he said in an interview. The idea is to secure fresh funds within six months for feasibility and engineering work. Longer-term options include partnering with a major mining company.
SIGN UP FOR THE COPPER DIGEST
“We’re socializing the concept,” McEwen said Monday. “Just getting in front of a lot of people who finance large projects, not only for our immediate needs but for the longer term.”
The industry veteran who founded Goldcorp Inc. is hoping President Milei’s efforts to free up Argentina’s tightly controlled economy will help unlock vast copper deposits in San Juan province. That’s where McEwen wants to build the $2.5 billion Los Azules mine that would start up toward the end of the decade, when demand for the wiring metal is expected to accelerate in the shift away from fossil fuels.
Milei, a libertarian who took office on Dec. 10, wants to cut red tape as well as do away with customs and capital restrictions. If he can win over congressional opposition, such changes would reduce risks for investors, who remain optimistic yet cautious, McEwen said. The challenge for Milei is to move swiftly because metal markets are cyclical and financing windows can shut quickly, he said.
Los Azules isn’t waiting around for change. It already has 21 drill rigs on site, and it’s working on a renewable-energy supply deal from YPF Luz and a leaching method that would help it to be carbon neutral. It hopes to obtain an environmental permit this year, have a feasibility study ready in early 2025 and do pre-construction work from 2026, Michael Meding, who heads McEwen Copper, said in the same interview.
McEwen’s copper unit had planned to go public, but it’s now focusing on raising money privately since market conditions aren’t ripe for an IPO, McEwen said. He and Meding recognized that the investment climate for mining generally is tough, but said that tax incentives proposed for large Argentine infrastructure projects in Milei’s signature legislation could help lure partners.
“We think that we would classify as a large-scale infrastructure project and that would generate additional taxation stability,” Meding said. “And that would be very helpful in future financing discussions with the international community.”
(By James Attwood and Jonathan Gilbert)
https://www.mining.com/web/rob-mcewen-seeks-100-million-for-argentina-copper-mine-as-milei-boosts-prospects/
Mines and Money Miami in conversation with Rick Rule Key takeaways include:
Mines and Money Jan 22, 2024
Visit https://minesandmoney.com/miami
Mines and Money Miami takes place at the James L. Knight Center, and in the run-up to the event, the Head of Investor Content, Jonathan Leader, spoke to the Advisory Board Chair, Rick Rule, Chief Executive Officer of Rule Investment Media about how he identifies winners in the junior mining space.
• hone in on the projects most likely to succeed
• identify the highest-performing mining corporate senior management teams, and the commonalities that set them apart from the crowd
• steer clear of the red flags when building your junior mining portfolio - pro tip: don't focus too hard on commodity!
Aluminum price jumps after report EU may sanction Russian metal
Bloomberg News | January 23, 2024 | 3:14 pm Intelligence Markets Europe Russia and Central Asia Aluminum
Aluminium
Prices rose as much as 3.6% on the London Metal Exchange as the report raised fresh concerns about the flow of Russian metal into western markets, and US and European aluminum stocks jumped.
However, while some EU member states are pushing for aluminum sanctions as the bloc shapes plans for a 13th package, the idea remains controversial in several capitals, people familiar with the discussions told Bloomberg. Any sanctions would require unanimous support of the EU’s 27 members.
Russian metals had escaped broad sanctions until December, when the UK moved to block British individuals and entities from trading physical Russian metals, including aluminum, copper and nickel. At the time, the UK hinted at the possibility of coordinated action with international partners in a statement announcing the sanctions.
Politico reported on Tuesday that EU countries will soon start discussing measures that could lead to a full ban on Russian aluminum, citing EU diplomats.
The LME said after the UK measures that its members and clients had been granted a license allowing the continued trade of Russian metals on the exchange, and it expected that the sanctions wouldn’t impact trading access to the LME. Still, the rules potentially may prevent UK persons from withdrawing Russian metal they buy on the exchange.
The LME said earlier this month it was “actively monitoring for market orderliness” after a flood of Russian aluminum onto the exchange in the wake of UK sanctions.
Aluminum rose 3.2% on Tuesday, the biggest daily increase in a month. Alcoa Corp., the largest US aluminum producer, jumped as much as 10% before paring gains. Other metals were also higher, with zinc climbing 2.6% and copper up 0.7%.
(By Mark Burton)
https://www.mining.com/web/aluminum-price-jumps-after-report-eu-may-sanction-russian-metal/
Foil "Weird Al "
Choosing Mining Stocks Through The Eyes Of A Beer-Holder
MARKET MOVERS
COMPANY CHANGE LAST TRADE
Royal Gold 0.58 0.50 $116.34
Freeport-McMoRan 0.56 1.47 $38.77
Minas Buenaventura 0.46 3.19 $14.89
NGEx Minerals 0.41 5.43 $7.96
Lundin Mining 0.28 2.82 $10.20
Aya Gold & Silver 0.18 1.78 $10.27
Ero Copper 0.18 0.89 $20.48
Li-FT Power 0.18 2.99 $6.21
Gold Fields 0.17 1.36 $12.66
Graphite One 0.15 17.05 $1.03
Ivanhoe Mines 0.14 1.06 $13.29
Callinex Mines 0.12 7.84 $1.65
Filo 0.11 0.52 $21.38
Perpetua Resources 0.10 2.49 $4.11
Victoria Gold 0.10 1.57 $6.48
HIGH VOLUME
COMPANY VOLUME LAST TRADE
Uranium Energy 8,091,601 $7.74
Libero Copper & Gold 6,847,460 $0.02
Kinross Gold 4,595,207 $7.26
Origen Resources 3,723,900 $0.03
F3 Uranium 3,578,579 $0.45
Blackwolf Copper and Gold 3,423,875 $0.14
First Quantum Minerals 3,224,579 $12.55
Lithium Ionic 3,163,151 $1.08
Sienna Resources 2,716,888 $0.05
B2Gold 2,114,554 $3.90
Lundin Mining 1,968,708 $10.20
GoviEx Uranium 1,949,651 $0.20
Rusoro Mining 1,921,454 $0.89
NexGen Energy 1,807,748 $10.21
Volatility isn’t in gold or oil, it’s in the dollar!" Feat. Alasdair Macleod - LFTV Ep 156 Timestamps:
Kinesis Money
Jan 19, 2024
In this week’s episode of Live from the Vault, Andrew Maguire is joined by Alasdair Macleod, stockbroker and Head of Research for Goldmoney, to exchange views on the US dollar hegemony and its impact on the price of gold.
Giving an update on the de-dollarisation process and the geopolitical impact of tensions in the Middle East affecting the global economy, the precious metals experts take us through the debt trap the US has fallen into.
Follow Alasdair here: https://alasdairmacleod.substack.com/
Ask your questions for Andy here: https://forum.kinesis.money/threads/q...
00:00 Start
03:45 Is gold money and everything else credit?
07:30 Is the US government in a debt trap?
17:00 Why the US has to pivot on interest rates
28:30 Updates on the de-dollarisation process
42:20 Credit is losing its purchasing power, and everything is credit
47:40 Alasdair’s Substack has free and paid versions
50:00 Alasdair’s thoughts on Silver
$X United Steelworkers union files grievances against U.S. Steel over proposed Nippon sale
with MMGYS Soundtrack Continuing Coverage
90.5 WESA | By Cindi Lash
Published January 13, 2024 at 11:24 AM EST
U.S. Steel's Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock, Pa., on Dec. 18, 2023, the day the storied American company announced plans to be acquired by Japan-based Nippon Steel.
The United Steelworkers union has filed grievances against U.S. Steel, alleging the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker violated its contracts with the union when it entered an agreement in December to be acquired by Nippon Steel Corporation.
The international union and union locals in Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota filed the grievances, alleging U.S. Steel violated the successorship clause in its basic labor agreements with the USW when it entered the $14.9 billion deal on Dec. 18 with a Houston-based North American holding company of the Japanese steel conglomerate.
U.S. Steel violated the contracts "in a number of ways," the USW said in a statement to its members issued late Friday.
Also in its statement, the USW questioned whether Nippon Steel North America has the resources to adhere to and fulfill the terms of the union's four-year contract with U.S. Steel, which would remain in effect after a sale.
"These rights are enforceable guarantees that a company seeking to buy our facilities cannot shirk its responsibilities to workers and retirees," the USW said.
The USW said in its statement U.S. Steel entered the sale agreement without reaching out to the union, and the company did not share information about Nippon's finances or ability to fulfill U.S. Steel's existing labor, pension, retiree and other agreements with the USW.
"... We did not agree to this arrangement, nor do we have any information about the financial wherewithal of this holding company to actually stand behind all of the obligations of our existing agreements," the USW said in its statement.
"Commitments like pensions, profit-sharing, capital expenditures, retiree health care and more are all part of the compensation we negotiated in bargaining our contract. Anyone who wants to acquire our facilities must have both the intent and the financial capacity to honor them."
In a statement Saturday, U.S. Steel said it "complied with its obligations under the Basic Labor Agreements, and [it] expect[s] to work through and favorably resolve any grievances filed by the USW as quickly as possible.
"Our USW-represented employees are an integral part of our operations, and we will continue to work collaboratively with the USW and support our employees," the company said in its statement.
When U.S. Steel announced the sale agreement on Dec. 18, it said "all of [its] commitments with its employees," including existing collective bargaining agreements with unions, would be honored and Nippon Steel was "committed to maintaining these relationships uninterrupted." The company also said it would "retain its iconic name and headquarters in Pittsburgh."
Under the sale agreement, Nippon Steel will pay $55 per share for U.S. Steel. Nippon Steel said the deal will bolster its manufacturing and technology capabilities, expand its U.S. production and add to its positions in Japan, India and Southeast Asia.
The agreement came after U.S. Steel in August rejected a $7.3 billion buyout offer from Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. and said it was reviewing “strategic alternatives” after receiving several unsolicited offers.
The acquisition has been approved by the boards of both companies and is targeted to close in the second or third quarter of 2024. It still needs approval from U.S. Steel shareholders.
The deal has attracted scrutiny and opposition from regional and national government leaders and lawmakers, including Pennsylvania U.S. Sens. John Fetterman and Bob Casey, both of whom said the company should remain under U.S. ownership. Environmental advocates, who have long targeted U.S. Steel's plants in Western Pennsylvania as a source of particulate matter pollution, also have expressed both concern and optimism about the potential effect of the sale on efforts to mitigate emissions and the environmental impact of the plants.
In December, officials from President Joe Biden's administration said he “believes the purchase of this iconic American-owned company by a foreign entity — even one from a close ally — appears to deserve serious scrutiny in terms of its potential impact on national security and supply chain reliability.”
Lael Brainard, the director of the National Economic Council, indicated then the deal would be reviewed by the secretive Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, in which she participates. It includes economic and national security agency representatives to investigate national security risks from foreign investments in American firms.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
https://www.wesa.fm/economy-business/2024-01-13/united-steelworkers-union-grievances-u-s-steel-nippon-sale
Nuclear Energy Stocks Are Surging While the Market Is Floundering
with MMGYS Soundtrack
Clearly, the Nuclear Energy Renaissance has arrived
8h ago · By Luke Lango, InvestorPlace Senior Investment Analyst
While the S&P 500 has dropped in January, the Global X Uranium ETF (URA) is up more than 10%. The Sprott Uranium Miners ETF (URNM) is up more than 15%. And U.S.-based uranium miner Uranium Energy (UEC) is already up 25% year-to-date.
Engineering and efficiency improvements to nuclear reactors have all but made safety concerns obsolete. Reactors have become increasingly good at containing radioactive waste. And now nuclear energy is basically the safest form of energy production in the world.
For the past several months, we’ve been studying the nuclear energy industry. And we’ve identified two very promising investment opportunities therein: domestic uranium miners and nuclear fusion developers.
The stock market is off to a rough start to 2024. But someone forgot to give that memo to the red-hot nuclear energy sector.
While the S&P 500 has dropped in January, the Global X Uranium ETF (URA) is up more than 10%. The Sprott Uranium Miners ETF (URNM) is up more than 15%. And U.S.-based uranium miner Uranium Energy (UEC) is already up 25% year-to-date.
n other words, the bull market in stocks has stalled in January. But the bull market in uranium stocks has not wavered – and it won’t anytime soon.
That’s because uranium is the core ingredient in nuclear reactors. And nuclear energy is undergoing a renaissance right now.
Of course, nuclear energy has had its setbacks over the past 50 years. But it has become increasingly clear that it is the ‘Pareto-optimal’ solution to the world’s energy crisis.
Obviously, the world needs more energy. But fossil fuels aren’t cutting it amid the global shift toward clean energy. And renewables like solar and wind are exceptionally expensive and unreliable, especially now, when the world is trying to avoid higher costs and power outages.
But nuclear energy solves all those shortcomings.
Unlike fossil fuels, nuclear reactors do not produce any direct carbon dioxide emissions or air pollution. And unlike renewables, nuclear energy is abundant and cheap. Plus, it can be produced at all times of day and in all weather conditions.
Nuclear Energy: The Ultimate Power Source?
For a long time, folks were fearful of nuclear reactors’ potential threats to safety. Considering the disasters of Chernobyl and Fukushima, that’s entirely understandable. But those concerns have proven antiquated in recent years. In fact, these days, you’d be hard-pressed to find any serious scientist questioning the safety of nuclear energy.
Specifically, engineering and efficiency improvements to nuclear reactors have all but made safety concerns obsolete. Reactors have become increasingly good at containing radioactive waste. And now nuclear energy is basically the safest form of energy production in the world.
For example, for every terawatt-hour of coal electricity produced, about 26 people die from accidents and air pollution. For oil, that figure stands at 18 deaths per terawatt-hour of electricity produced.
But for nuclear power plants, just 0.03 people die from related accidents and air pollution.
What’s not to like about nuclear these days?
Not much – which is why governments across the world are starting to take notice. They are ditching antiquated beliefs about nuclear reactors and embracing them instead, centering nuclear power in their future energy plans.
Right now, the U.S. is spearheading a multinational effort to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050. The United Kingdom just announced its biggest expansion plans for nuclear power in 70 years, vowing to quadruple production. France recently introduced a new energy bill that prioritizes additional nuclear energy development. And Canada is building the world’s largest nuclear power plant in Ontario.
Clearly, the Nuclear Renaissance has arrived.
The Final Word
For the past several months, we’ve been studying the nuclear energy industry. And we’ve identified two very promising investment opportunities therein: domestic uranium miners and nuclear fusion developers.
In short, most of the world’s uranium supply comes from Kazakhstan, Russia’s neighbor. And as Western nations increasingly develop nuclear reactors, they will also increasingly want to power those reactors with domestically sourced uranium – not uranium from Kazakhstan. Therefore, it seems that domestic uranium miners would make great investments.
Additionally, we believe that recent rapid developments in AI will allow us to soon solve the world’s nuclear fusion problem, allowing us to create sustainable, safe, and powerful nuclear fusion reactors. And that will be an absolute game-changer for folks around the globe.
That’s why, considering the Nuclear Energy Renaissance’s current trajectory, we’re looking for domestic uranium miners and nuclear fusion developers.
And in fact, we just bought a few of our top picks in this space.
https://investorplace.com/hypergrowthinvesting/2024/01/nuclear-energy-stocks-are-surging-while-the-market-is-floundering/
Lindsey Stirling & Pentatonix - Radioactive (Imagine Dragons Cover)
Uranium Prices at 16-Year Highs, Breaking $100 Per Pound
By
Jennifer L
Spot uranium prices recently reached a peak not witnessed since 2007, standing strong at $101 per pound, per Numerico data.
This upswing signifies a constrained nuclear fuel market, growing expectations for future demand, and the imperative for additional mine restarts and new constructions, according to experts in the uranium industry.
Uranium is Powering Up the Future
The surge in uranium prices aligns with an increased focus on nuclear energy in global climate change mitigation efforts. Furthermore, rising uranium prices have spurred the revival of uranium mining operations previously scaled back following the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Analysts and industry players anticipate more mine restarts in 2024. Plus, new builds are getting more attractive due to rising prices and anticipated supply deficits over the coming years.
The spot price of uranium surging $100/pound was more than a 100% increase from the 2023 low. It is also a whopping >300% rise from the 2020 low.
Uranium Spot Price USD Per Pound
$101/pound
uranium spot price Jan 12 Numerico
Source: Numerico.com
The 16-year high uranium price, cracking at $101/pound since 2007, is driven by several factors.
For one, shortage in uranium supplies since the Fukushima incident drove prices upward.
Moreover, a U.S. bill seeking to ban nuclear fuel imports from Russia further contributes to the prices’ upward trajectory. The bill was called “NO RUSSIA” – National Opportunity to Restore Uranium Supply Services In America Act of 2022. Put simply, Russia will be out of the U.S. uranium market.
What Causes the Unprecedented Rise of Uranium?
But what are the market experts saying about this price breakthrough?
According to a uranium market analyst, Marin Katusa, the 16-year high uranium price reflects the “real” cost of bringing on previously built and permitted facilities to replace uranium exported from Russia and Niger.
Marin also noted that with the US banning Russian imports, the logical investment is exposure to permitted, built out production in the US. The banned imports include Kazakh production owing to Russian enrichment.
Uranium prices have to increase more, Marin further noted, to incentivize new projects like the case with the Athabasca Basin. Building a new mine in North America would need even higher prices than $100.
Highlighting the growing demands for clean energy from data centers, which require more power for new technologies, SMR technologies offer a promising solution.
Small modular reactor development, with under 300 MWe capacity, is taking place in Western countries with increasing private investment. North America, in particular, would be the epicenter of this rapidly growing nuclear resurgence.
Marin also highlighted Japan’s decision to bring on the world’s largest nuclear power plant and its pro-nuclear stance since Fukushima. This and the positive outlook for nuclear technology globally coming out of the recent COP28 climate summit will create new demand for long term supply of uranium in politically stable jurisdictions. After all, Marin said that:
“…no nation wants to experience what France is experiencing in Niger with their uranium supply being completely cut off.”
For Miss America 2023, Grace Stanke, who happens to be a student of nuclear engineering, nuclear energy already plays a big role in the lives of many Americans. As a nuclear champion, Grace particularly noted that:
“From curing my dad’s cancer twice, to powering 20% of America, to helping with agriculture which is so important in my home state of Wisconsin… it really does feel like nuclear does it all.”
Beyond the Price: Uranium’s Ascent and Nuclear Energy Resurgence
As the world strives to reduce carbon emissions, zero-carbon nuclear energy is crucial. This is expected to make the demand for uranium explode much more.
In effect, escalating spot uranium prices may also exert upward pressure on contract prices as sellers seek higher returns. While higher prices may not dissuade utilities for short-term needs, climbing contract prices, covering larger quantities of uranium, could have a more substantial impact.
Some utilities are already experiencing “sticker shock”, as seen below in the S&P Global presentation. Experts also anticipate a widespread increase in nuclear fuel costs in the coming years due to rising market prices.
uranium companies stock performance
Notably, higher uranium prices would also drive further restarts in the near term, with industry giants like NAZ Kazatomprom JSC and Cameco restarting idle capacity. Canada-based Cameco will add capacity as needed under long-term contract pricing.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan-based Kazatomprom, the largest uranium producer, plans to return to full production capacity by 2025. However, given the challenges that the company faces related to the availability of sulphuric acid (a critical operating material), they expect adjustments to their 2024 production plans. They also anticipate delays in finishing construction works at their newly developed deposits. These may affect Kazatomprom’s 2025 production plan, subject to considerable supply chain risks.
The surge in uranium prices signifies a resurgence in the nuclear energy sector. Driven by geopolitical shifts, legislative actions, and a growing demand for clean energy, the uranium market is poised for unprecedented growth.
https://carboncredits.com/uranium-spot-prices-at-16-year-high-breaking-100-per-pound/
Swing Kids (1993) - The Benny Goodman Orchestra - Sing, Sing, Sing
$UROY HOY $3.66 ~
Uranium Fever $URG $EU HOYs
Check out a uranium stock near you !
Volume | |
Day Range: | |
Bid Price | |
Ask Price | |
Last Trade Time: |