(Bloomberg) — De Beers has cut diamond prices by more than 10% across the board as the world’s biggest producer abandons attempts to put a floor under the slumping market.
The diamond industry has been struck by one of its deepest and most prolonged slumps in decades. What started as a post-pandemic slowdown has spiraled as inflation hit customer purchases, before a collapse in China’s luxury market further eroded demand. Man-made diamonds have also continued to undermine prices.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Germany recently began updating its inventory of Second World War bunkers, and adding other underground sites to the list, as the threat of a foreign military attack moves from the realm of the improbable into that of the increasingly conceivable.
Sweden, which this year ended decades of neutrality to join NATO, is distributing a 32-page booklet to all households with updated, if sobering, instructions on what to do in the case of war. “Military threat levels are increasing,” the document warns. “We must be prepared for the worst-case scenario – an armed attack on Sweden.”
(Kitco News) – With 100 tons in gold purchases in 2024, the central bank of Poland has become the number one sovereign buyer of the yellow metal. But the country is not alone, as the Russia-Ukraine war has forced the Czechs, Serbs, and Hungarians to also bolster their reserves.
While the focus for much of the year was on China’s massive central bank gold purchases – and then on their move to the sidelines as prices hit record highs – the nations of Eastern Europe have quietly emerged as the biggest buyers of the precious metal, and the biggest back stoppers of the gold rally.
https://www.northernminer.com/
Lithium Argentina is seeking to redomicile to Switzerland and change its name to Lithium Argentina AG following a corporate review and a new agreement with investor Ganfeng Lithium, the company said Friday.
The company decided Switzerland was the best jurisdiction on strategic, commercial and legal grounds, would provide expanded financing flexibility, and support its long-term growth plans. It also aims to move the Lithium Argentina group of companies’ operational headquarters to Buenos Aires.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
An Ontario court has dismissed a pair of civil suits against Barrick Gold Corp. that alleged it was responsible for human-rights abuses at a Tanzanian mine, with the judge ruling that any such court action should be tried in Tanzania.
The plaintiffs are a group of Indigenous Kurya from villages around the mine who were injured in 2021 and 2022 when the Tanzanian police force allegedly shot at them, as well as family members of victims who were killed during this period allegedly by the police.
BHP is free to relaunch a bid to acquire Anglo American (LON: AAL) starting Friday, as the six-month standstill mandated by London’s takeover rules following the withdrawal of a previous offer has expired.
Last month, BHP chair Ken MacKenzie stated at the company’s AGM that BHP had “moved on” from its bid for Anglo. However, BHP later clarified that MacKenzie’s comments were not intended as an official statement under UK takeover rules.
Canada’s uranium miners, confident that only they can meet US demand for the element after Russian supply curbs, have accelerated output and forward contracts to supply US energy companies, but they are now worried about possible tariffs from US President-elect Donald Trump.
Shares of uranium companies rallied in Toronto and New York over the last two weeks on news that Russia was planning to restrict the sale of enriched uranium to the US. This week, Trump threatened to slap a 25% tariff on all goods from Canada and Mexico. This could inflate prices of the radioactive material unless uranium receives exemptions.
This will be my last editorial for The Northern Miner after 19 years here, and with its sister publications. In December, I’m off to start another adventure outside of mining. It’s unusual these days to spend nearly 20 years with one entity, so you might ask: what kept me here so long?
Well, there have been some perks. Travel, for one. My work has taken me to a remote exploration camp in the Argentinean Andes; to Canada’s Arctic, and flying by helicopter over craggy fjords on Baffin Island to reach a remote diamond project. I saw a project in Asia, where beer-loving German investors met their match when offered shot after shot of the Chinese spirit baijiu.
Panama has agreed to pay $26 million to settle a dispute with Dominion Mineral Corp. after losing an arbitration award in 2020 over the US mining company’s copper-gold exploration licences, according to La Estrella de Panamá.
The claim arose after the Panama refused to extend a mining exploration concession for the Cerro Chorcha project, held by Dominion’s local subsidiary Cuprum under a 2006 contract with Panama. The contract had an initial period of four years with the possibility of renewal for two additional 2-year terms.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/
More than 70% of voters were in favour of Grassy Mountain mine
Crowsnest Pass residents voted decisively Monday in favour of bringing coal back, with more than 70 per cent of voters saying they’d support a nearby coal project. Though the vote is non-binding, Crowsnest Pass councillors say the vote in support will guide them in the months ahead as they lobby decision-makers to advance the proposed coking coal mine at Grassy Mountain.
“The Crowsnest Pass has made a decisive decision and as mayor and council we will take your position forward to the upper levels of government and through the regulatory process,” Crowsnest Pass Mayor Blair Painter told The Canadian Press late Monday.
The Liberals have throttled the energy industry, leaving us vulnerable to protectionism
Donald Trump has threatened to slap punishing 25 per cent tariffs on “all” Canadian goods imported into the United States. This is expected to happen soon after the U.S.-president elect moves back into the White House in the new year. No Canadian, even pro-Trump conservatives, should fool themselves about the damage that these tariffs could impose on Canada.
Despite dealing with two protectionist administrations in Washington over the past nine years, the decisions made by Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government have not put Canada in a strong position to deal with what could be an existential threat to many Canadian industries.
A mayor in southwestern Alberta is hoping for an immediate meeting with Premier Danielle Smith to discuss a coal project his community has voted in favour of being built. “The sooner the better,” said Crowsnest Pass Mayor Blair Painter. “Let’s do this.”
Residents of the municipality, which saw its last coal mine close four decades ago, voted 72 per cent “yes” to a simple referendum question: “Do you support the development and operations of the metallurgical coal mine at Grassy Mountain?”
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Barrick Gold Corp. says four of its local employees have been “unjustly imprisoned” in Mali in a second wave of arrests of its staff in the West African country where one of its biggest gold mines is located.
Mali’s military regime, which took power in a 2021 coup, has been putting pressure on foreign mining companies to give the government a bigger share of their revenue. It has been seeking US$417-million from Barrick, alleging that the company failed to pay all its required taxes – a charge the company rejects.
MINING.COM’s ranking of world’s 50 most valuable miners enjoyed a combined market capitalization of $1.51 trillion at the end of Q3, up by single digits since the start of the year compared to rip-roaring broader US and world markets.
Much of the drag on the index comes from the top – the mining industry’s traditional Big 5 – BHP, Rio Tinto, Glencore, Vale and Anglo American. With the exception of Anglo, which received a fillip from BHP’s approach, the stocks are deep in the red for 2024.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. chief executive Lourenco Goncalves says he is still interested in buying United States Steel Corp. to create an American champion, as regulators continue to deliberate over whether to allow Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp. to buy the company.
Cleveland-based Cliffs, which recently acquired Canadian steelmaker Stelco Holdings Inc., attempted to buy its Pittsburgh-based competitor U.S. Steel in the summer of 2023. But Nippon Steel swooped in with a higher bid late last year that U.S. Steel’s board backed.
