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Korea Zinc is struggling

ByVictoria
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Korea Zinc’s ambitious 10-year growth plan has stalled in its first year, derailed by an eight-month control battle with private equity firm MBK Partners, raising concerns about the company’s financial health and strategic direction.

The world’s top non-ferrous metal smelter laid out its long-term vision in December 2023 during its first-ever investor day in Seoul, pledging to invest 11.9 trillion won ($8.8 billion) over the next decade in battery materials and other new businesses, with a target of 10% annual growth.

The dispute has overshadowed hopes that Korea Zinc could benefit from U.S. President Donald Trump’s renewed tariff push and global supply chain realignment. “They’ve already wasted eight months,” said an industry source. “If this continues, the company may miss its window of opportunity.”

Source – The Chosunilbo

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Copper may have peaked for Cochilco

ByVictoria
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Chile’s state copper commission Cochilco on Monday said that prices for the red metal have likely already peaked this year amid an escalating trade war, as U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to further increase tariffs on China.

“Base metals, including copper, are likely to have peaked in 2025 as they will be negatively impacted by the trade dynamics between the U.S. and China,” Cochilco said in a statement.

Cochilco said that if current economic and geopolitical conditions continue, its forecast would weaken.

Source – Reuters

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Gold prices with latest tariff concerns

ByVictoria
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Gold prices experienced a modest uptick on Monday, rising 0.1 percent to $3,040.57 per ounce. Spot gold rose 0.1 percent to $3,040.57 an ounce as of 7:39 a.m. ET, rebounding after dipping to a session low of $2,971.09 earlier, when some investors sold off bullion to offset losses elsewhere, Reutersreported.

The imposition of the tariffs has intensified fears of a global recession. Investors are increasingly seeking safe-haven assets like gold to hedge against potential economic downturns. However, the recent sell-off in gold suggests that investors may be liquidating positions to cover losses in other markets, reflecting concerns over the widespread impact of a trade war.

“Once the dust settles, the rising recession risks, a weaker dollar, lower real yields and bigger rate cut expectations will all play their part in supporting a rebound….

“Gold’s correction remains a relatively shallow one with key support levels holding.” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank

Source – Reuters

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January 6th bronze medals

ByVictoria
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Despite the U.S. Mint’s removal from its website of bronze duplicate versions of the congressional gold medal recognizing law enforcement that protected the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, assault, orders for the two sizes of bronze medals may still be placed from the nation’s coin producer.

Source – Coin World

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Investors fear, copper down

ByVictoria
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Looking for another sign of how nervous investors are about tariffs? Copper prices plummeted 7% Friday to about $4.50 a pound in New York. Copper has plunged nearly 15% since hitting a 2025 peak price of about $5.25 in late March. But copper is still up about 13% this year. That may not last much longer.

Source – Barrons

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Copper and Aluminum drop

ByVictoria
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Base metal prices plunged early Friday, with three-month benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange recently -3.7% at $8,985.50/metric ton and three-month aluminum  -1.4% at $2,422.50/ton, as President Trump’s worse than expected tariffs trigger global growth slowdown fears, sparking a selloff in industrial metals and mining equities.

Copper and aluminum have dropped 8.7% and 7.7%, respectively, so far this week, as the tariffs drag down demand forecasts

Trump hit China with a 34% “reciprocal” tariff on top of existing duties, and China announced Friday that it will likewise impose 34% tariffs on all U.S. goods starting April 10.

“While we remain structurally bullish copper in the long run, weaker global GDP and copper demand growth risk delaying the deficit we expect to see in the market this year,” Goldman Sachs wrote.

Source – Seeking Alpha

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KY gold and silver tax bill gets governor sued

ByVictoria
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In a complaint filed in Boone Circuit Court on March 27, the same day the legislation was delivered to the secretary of state’s office, an online bullion exchange and three Northern Kentucky residents said they and others are owed refunds on taxes improperly collected for their precious metals in the past eight months, naming Gov. Andy Beshear and several state offices as defendants.

The state representative, a frequent foil to Beshear who told colleagues in the House he sponsored the bill to ensure Kentuckians do not “pay taxes that were never lawful in the first place.”

HB 2 ensures the sale, use, storage or other consumption of “bullion currency” — gold, silver, platinum and other precious metals — cannot be taxed, overriding a line-item veto by Beshear that was included in a separate bill passed in 2024.

HB 2, which was filed in January and approved on party-line votes in the House and Senate, allows anyone who paid taxes on gold and silver after that Aug. 1 deadline to seek a refund in court.

Source – Courier Journal

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Central banks will keep gold shining

ByVictoria
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“While traditionally inflation and real yields have been the main drivers of gold prices, recently central bank buying has emerged as the primary catalyst behind the current gold price increase,” according to a recent research note by Bank of America’s Global Commodity Research’s Franciso Blanch and Irina Shaorshadze.

George Milling-Stanley, chief gold strategist at State Street Global Advisors, also believes central-bank buying will keep gold humming this year, but he also sees two additional drivers. 

Source – Fox Business

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Gold and silver fall

ByVictoria
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Spot gold was down 0.4% at $3,101.01 an ounce, as of 0710 GMT. Still, bullion was on track for a fifth consecutive weekly gain, buoyed by its safe-haven appeal that aided gold to reach three record highs this week.

“Gold tends to rally amid difficult-to-price uncertainty – like the start of a war – but tends to lose that support once markets learn how to price the risks involved,” said Ilya Spivak, head of global macro at Tastylive.

“The Trump administration seems to have picked a road, and while sentiment clearly doesn’t like it, at least the path of least resistance is more visible and easier to price. That is trimming some of gold’s “market confusion” premium.”

Spot silver declined 1.5% to $31.4 an ounce, platinum lost 0.8% to $944.80, and palladium was steady at $928.33.

Source – Reuters

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Copper safe from tariffs

ByVictoria
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The red metal, along with pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber, earns an exemption from “reciprocal” tariffs on most goods entering the U.S.

Referred to in a White House fact sheet as “responsive tariffs,” President Trump spells out the rationale for and specific examples of other nations’ tariffs in that April 2 fact sheet, fully titled “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Declares National Emergency to Increase our Competitive Edge, Protect our Sovereignty, and Strengthen our National and Economic Security.”

“Some goods will not be subject to the Reciprocal Tariff”

“Copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber articles”

Source – Recycling Today