Gold has big year in 2020 and outlook for this year robust. Learn about monetary expansion and gold future prices.Read More

The gold futures price reached US$1,767/ounce this week before retreating, which was the second time it has surpassed US$1,760 in the past two months, marking some of gold's highest levels in several years.Read More

Gold prices notched a modest gain on Thursday as a leading dollar index steadied and benchmark U.S. stock indexes saw a pullback a day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average scored its best performance in eight months. Gold for February deliveryGCG9, -0.21% which is the most-active contract, added 60 cents, or 0.05%, to settle at $1,230.40 an ounce. It settled 0.8% higher on Wednesday, then climbe...Read More

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange closed higher on Friday November 30, with zinc, lead and nickel the best performers of the day.Zinc was the strongest performer on Friday, with its three-month price rising 2.9% from Thursday to close at $2,542 per tonne. After consistently dipping since January, LME zinc stocks settled at a fresh 2018-low of 117,550 tonnes on Friday.W...Read More

Comex copper prices experienced further weakness ahead of world leaders converging in Argentina for the Group of Twenty (G20) meeting this weekend.The copper price for March settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 1.80 cents to $2.7735 per lb.Price movement is expected to be muted today with investors focusing on the weekend's G20 summit, where finance ministers.....Read More

Seaborne iron ore prices weakened on Friday November 30 with market participants remaining cautious in their trading activity.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $65.95 per tonne cfr Qingdao, down by $0.56 per tonne.MB 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines Index: $65.22 per tonne cfr Qingdao, down by $0.56 per tonne.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index-Low Alumina: $68.76 per tonne cfr Qingdao, down by $0.54 per tonne.MB 58% Fe P...Read More

Although base metals are under pressure in the short term, we have a bullish bias to our 2018 price forecasts given the supportive background of solid global economic growth and the fact that all six base metal markets look set to be in fundamental deficit this year. But each has a slightly different supply-side story and this aspect should be the main differentiator. For example, zinc's narrative...Read More

Despite Chinese winter smelter production cuts generally falling short of expectations and domestic stocks continuing to climb - both of which suggest the market remains far more comfortably supplied at this point than aluminium bulls had been anticipating - prices still rallied into the year-end to reach $2,290/tonne for the first time since March 2012.And after a New Year pull-back the strength...Read More

Copper prices were working lower during most of December and in the absence of any bullish triggers we had been expecting that trend to continue. But in late December, fund buying picked up aggressively, driving prices to a fresh multi-year high of $7,203/tonne. There was little fundamental justification for this and we should consider it a warning that speculators and investors feeling optimistic...Read More

Excelsior Mining (TSX: MIN) (OTCQX: EXMGF) has closed a $75 million project financing package with Triple Flag Mining Finance Bermuda for $65 million copper metal stream and $10 million private placement of common shares of Excelsior.With the financing, Excelsior will start construction activities at the Arizona Gunnison copper project before the end of the year, the company announced in a press r...Read More

Despite its best efforts, the "most likely scenario" is that mining operations will cease in Flin Flon, Manitoba in 2021, an internal memo to employees at Hudbay Minerals (TSX: HBM; NYSE: HBM) reads.While the company has been successful over the last few years in extending the life of its 777 mine from 2019 to 2021, the memo noted, its efforts to find new sources of ore from 777, "did not turn out...Read More

Spot prices for lithium could be pushed down in the early 2020s despite increasing demand from electric vehicle (EV) batteries makers, a new report from Moody's Investor Services warns.The analysts came to this conclusion after carrying out a mine-by-mine analysis projecting lithium supply build-up to 2025 based on company statements, including potential risks.Effects of spot price weakness result...Read More

Lead prices remain on their steady uptrend since the summer lows last year and in January have been eroding resistance around October's 6-year high above $2,600/tonne. We expect the underlying strengthening fundamentals, especially on the supply side, to maintain the uptrend this year. Primary producers may well struggle to respond to higher lead prices and we doubt there is much hoarded scrap aro...Read More

The Indian government's plans of hitting 300 million tonnes of steel capacity by 2030 sounds overambitious in the current scenario given that output only managed to reach the 101 million tonne mark in 2017 - indicating three-fold (Read More

After suffering for some seven years through to 2015, the world's steelmakers have had cause for cheer over the past couple of years. After some heavy losses and write-downs, they finally appear to have emerged from the wreckage of the global financial crisis. An economic upswing has taken root in most regions of the world, Chinese steel output and export growth has slowed noticeably, and steel pr...Read More

For a number of years problems at Ilva, the largest steelworks in Europe, have been casting shadow over the performance of the whole Italian steel industry. Will an acquisition of Ilva by a consortium led by ArcelorMittal, now in its final stage, be a game changer for the market?Following multiple reports of environmental and health problems caused by the Taranto plant, in 2013 Ilva was placed und...Read More

China ended steel production in all of the country's illegal induction furnaces by the end of June last year, it ha claimed.Most operators in China are primarily small private mills that use low-quality scrap to produce substandard rebar. This is mixed with grade III (HRB400) rebar and sold at a discount to construction contractors.For a long period, the government had neither a record of nor cont...Read More

China's month-on-month new electric vehicles (NEV) sales rebounded in August after month-on-month declines in June and July. The drop in sales between May and June was the first drop since September 2016, but Fastmarkets MB had expected Chinese NEV sales to dip temporarily after the June subsidy changes came into effect because consumers and NEV manufacturers would have to adjust to the new subsid...Read More

MUMBAI, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) allowed exchanges to start commodity trading an hour earlier to increase participation of different stakeholders, the market regulator said in a statement on Friday.The commodity markets can open at 9 a.m. local time (0330 GMT), instead of 10 a.m. now, the market regulator said.The closing time for agriculture commodities...Read More

Iron ore prices fell sharply in the second half of November after climbing through October, with prices for higher-grade material pioneering the decline.Fastmarkets MB daily benchmark for 65% Fe fines dropped by 22% by Monday November 26 after peaking on October 29. The 62% Fe iron ore index declined by 16% over the period, as some Chinese steelmakers started to seek larger volumes of cheaper ores...Read More

The steel scrap sector in the United States still depends on exports to Turkey, a member of the Fastmarkets research team said during the ferrous session at the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) conference in London.This dependence persists despite the changes in the international markets created by the US' imposition of its Section 232 tariffs on imports of steel products, metals analyst Le...Read More

NEW DELHI, Nov 30 (Reuters) - India's economy grew a lower-than-expected 7.1 percent in the July-September quarter from a more than two-year high of 8.2 percent in the previous quarter, government data showed on Friday.The latest quarter's annual pace of growth was lower than a Reuters poll forecast of 7.4 percent.India's $2.6 trillion economy, Asia's third largest, grew 6.3 percent in the July-Se...Read More