The wrong people - rebels, outsiders, nerds and techies - got on the cryptocurrency boat while their insider/rentier “betters” blew it and are now raging bitterly onshore, watching the crypto boat sail away.The psychology of money, wealth and speculative manias is endlessly fascinating. Most of what’s written on these subjects focus on the process of building wealth as if it were...Read More
A group of Colorado School of Mines students traveled to Nepal over winter break to help build foot trails in the Mt. Everest region, and their service trip was featured in The Himalayan Times, an English-language newspaper in Nepal. The volunteers with Hike for Help Nepal also delivered about 400 pairs of shoes to low-income families in the area.Read More
I'm calling 2018 "The Year of Living Dangerously."That description might seem odd to lot of observers. Major U.S. stock indexes keep hitting new all-time highs. 2017 went down as the first calendar year in which the Dow Jones industrial average was up for all 12 months.Even in strong bull market years there are usually one or two down months as stocks take a breather on the way higher. Not last ye...Read More
A Los Angeles Times article about the Trump administration's plans to open coastal California waters to expanded drilling featured an interview with Peter Maniloff, assistant professor of economics and business at Colorado School of Mines.From the story:Oil is trading at about $60 a barrel - roughly the price that would make an offshore project profitable, said Peter Maniloff, an economist at Colo...Read More
Dear Reader,My regular readers are familiar with my use of the "snowflake and avalanche" metaphor.Avalanches emerge from unstable snowpacks on mountain slopes. The snowpacks resemble complex dynamic systems because each snowflake exists in a densely connected network with all of the others.When new snow comes, a single snowflake can land in such a way as to disturb some others, create a slide that...Read More
The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Tuesday January 9.Aluminium was the only metal to end lower at the end of trading on the London Metal Exchange on Monday January 8. Read more in our live futures report.Here are how prices looked at the end of the day on Monday.NFEx Markets' chief operating officer and its most senior director, Mark Bradley, has resigned from the...Read More
EDF has completed cold functional tests at the EPR reactor under construction at its Flamanville site in northern France. Flamanville unit 3 is scheduled to begin operating by the end of this year.The Flamanville EPR (Image: Alexis Morin and Antoine-Soubigou/EDF)Cold functional tests are carried out to confirm whether components and systems important to safety are properly installed and ready to o...Read More
INTL FCStone has merged its London Metal Exchange and precious metals departments, with the new unit headed by Barry Canham, the company said. In an email to the company's global metals team and seen by Metal Bulletin, INTL chief executive officer (CEO) for EMEA and Asia Philip Smith said that the move was made following the decision by Malcolm Leonard to retire after 46 years working in LME metal...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mostly lower at the close on Tuesday January 9, with only nickel trading in positive territory. The three-month nickel price climbed $160 per tonne higher while the cash/January-2018 nearby spread moved into a $3 per tonne backwardation. "The LME nickel market has tightened slightly since the start of the year, judging by the contraction in the...Read More
Stewart Thomsonemail: stewart@gracelandupdates.comemail: stewart@gracelandjuniors.comemail:stewart@gutrader.comJan 9, 2018I told subscribers to expect $1320 to function as a headwind for gold on this rally, and that’s happening right on schedule. To understand the nature of this headwind, pleaseclick here now. Double-click to enlarge this important weekly gold chart.Note that the two biggest...Read More
High zinc prices could eventually lead to an irreversible dent in consumption of the metal, specifically in the form of zinc alloys in electric vehicles, market participants told Metal Bulletin.Substitution out of zinc is likeliest in the alloys sector, a zinc producer told Metal Bulletin, estimating that up to 3-5% of usage of metal at current levels could be at risk - albeit over a matter of yea...Read More
Chinese ferro-silicon prices continued to soften over the past week amid operational restarts in the country's Ningxia province, while the European market reached new highs on tightened supply. Chinese domestic prices edge lower amid production restarts Chinese exporters drop offers amid lack of buying interest European market realizes new highs on thin supplyUS spot market falls dormant, prices o...Read More
Vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) and ferro-vanadium prices had a strong start to 2018 last week, with supply concerns in focus as the markets came back from the Christmas break. Chinese V2O5 prices soar with upstream constraints in focusFerro-vanadium leads the way in Europe US ferro-vanadium prices higher but spot activity 'just getting started'Vanadium prices in China jumped last week amid limited sup...Read More
Benchmark alumina prices fell on Tuesday January 9, with limited buying interest seen for spot cargoes in the Pacific market, despite a recovery in smelter margins.Metal Bulletin's daily fob Australia alumina index was calculated at $390.43 per tonne on Tuesday, down from $393.36 per tonne the previous day.Market participants foresaw a price floor for the raw material last week, citing stronger al...Read More
Rise Gold (CSE:RISE) has released the assay results of the first drill hole completed at the Idaho-Maryland project in California. This hole was completed in 2017 and as we explained in our recently-released report, we were anxiously awaiting to see if Rise found more gold.As you might remember, this first hole was supposed to be a pilot hole, making it easier for Rise Gold to drill several holes...Read More
Chinese ferro-silicon prices continued to soften over the past week amid operational restarts in the country's Ningxia province, while the European market reached new highs on tightened supply. Chinese domestic prices edge lower amid production restarts Chinese exporters drop offers amid lack of buying interest European market realizes new highs on thin supplyUS spot market falls dormant, prices o...Read More
Vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) and ferro-vanadium prices had a strong start to 2018 last week, with supply concerns in focus as the markets came back from the Christmas break. Chinese V2O5 prices soar with upstream constraints in focusFerro-vanadium leads the way in Europe US ferro-vanadium prices higher but spot activity 'just getting started'Vanadium prices in China jumped last week amid limited sup...Read More
Chinese ferro-silicon prices continued to soften over the past week amid operational restarts in the country's Ningxia province, while the European market reached new highs on tightened supply. Chinese domestic prices edge lower amid production restarts Chinese exporters drop offers amid lack of buying interest European market realizes new highs on thin supplyUS spot market falls dormant, prices o...Read More
Shares of Invictus MD Strategies Corp. (TSXV:IMH) climbed on Monday after announcing a LOI to increase its ownership interest in AB LaboratoriesSmallCapPower | January 9, 2018: Invictus MD Strategies Corp. (TSXV:IMH), a platform for licensed cannabis producers in Canada, announced Monday that it has inked a Letter of Intent (LOI) to increase its ownership interest in AB Laboratories Inc., an Ontar...Read More
Auger drilling at the Bondoukou project northeast C??te d'Ivoire, West Africa. Photo courtesy Awale Resources Ltd.Shares of West Africa-focused Awale Resources Ltd. [ARIC-TSXV) began trading on the TSX Venture Exchange January 8, 2018.Built on assets that were spun out when Mariana Resources was acquired by Sandstorm Gold Ltd. [SSL-TSX, SAND-NYSE] in July 2017, Awale is actively exploring for gold...Read More