Barrick Gold Corp. stock
Source – MSN
News
Africa’s copper market continues to grow
Africa’s copper industry is poised for growth in 2025, with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia – the continent’s largest producers – leading market expansion. Both countries are investing in new production mines, mineral exploration campaigns and the modernization of existing facilities to increase output.
Source – Sweet Crude Reports
Gold trades high, spot gold gains
Spot gold gained 0.5% to $2,946.68 an ounce, as of 1131 GMT
“Gold continues to be supported by the prospect of a tariff-driven economic slowdown, potentially bringing forward U.S. Fed rate cut expectations,” Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said.
“I maintain my bullish stance on gold, expecting an economic slowdown or even stagflation to drive demand and price of gold higher.”
Spot silver was flat at $33.21 an ounce, platinum lost about 1% to $974.45, while palladium dropped 0.2% to $947.17.
Source – Reuters
Gold prices rise in India
The price for Gold stood at 8,241.26 Indian Rupees (INR) per gram, up compared with the INR 8,211.09 it cost on Wednesday.
The price for Gold increased to INR 96,124.48 per tola from INR 95,772.53 per tola a day earlier.
Source – FX STREET
Silver rising with gold in the spotlight
Silver has enjoyed a “stealth bull market”, according to Adrian Ash, director of research at metals marketplace BullionVault, as supply of the metal has lagged demand for seven years running.
Silver’s highs have come “under the radar for two reasons,” said Ash. “First, that silver has set fresh records outside the US dollar, leaving headline writers to miss its new highs in terms of other currencies including the pound.
“Second, and rather than shooting the lights out like gold has over the past 12 months, the price of silver has risen to new annual and month-average records without hitting fresh daily highs.”
Source – Proactive Investors
Silver Prices Strengthen [SMM REVIEW]
According to SMM, the cash spot prices for national standard silver ingots in Shanghai today were quoted at a discount of 4 yuan/kg to 1 yuan/kg, while the premiums and discounts for large-scale silver ingots were quoted at a range of a discount of 2 yuan/kg to parity.
Source – SMM
Copper futures up, copper market awaits investigation
Copper, yet to be included in Donald Trump’s widening list of tariff-hit products, continues to rally on the assumption that it is just a matter of time, Saxo Bank said in a note, as it sees a sooner-than-expected tightening of the global market.
Copper futures (HG1:COM) are up 2.8% so far this week, and 6.3% for the month.
The copper market is still awaiting the result of an investigation carried out under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act.
“As such an investigation normally takes months to be completed, it has left the door wide open for a massive profitable arbitrage between international prices and those in the U.S. being reflected through the High Grade futures contract in New York.”
Source – Seeking Alpha
Chinese users turn to off-exchange to ease supply tightness
China will import even more off-exchange refined copper this year, according to analysts and traders, as output from the Congo booms and users look to alleviate shortages and head off a potential disruption to supplies of U.S. scrap.
“The supply of refined copper, including scrap, concentrate, anode and blister, is still tight. We therefore expect higher imports of plentiful refined copper, including EQ copper to partly compensate for this tightness in other raw materials,” Jonathan Barnes, principal analyst at metals research company Project Blue said.
Source – Reuters
Goldman Sachs forecast on copper
Goldman Sachs says U.S. net copper imports could rise by 50%-100% in the coming months due to higher U.S. prices before the Trump administration’s planned tariffs, which the bank believes will be imposed at 25% and lead to the surge in imports and a 200K-300K-ton increase in U.S. copper inventories by the end of Q3.
“We maintain our forecast that the LME month-month price will average $10,200/ton in 2024 Q3, and see the impact of inventory dislocation predominantly in timespreads,” the bank writes.
Source – Seeking Alpha
President Trump will add copper to trade protection
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said nothing would stop President Donald Trump’s expanded 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum until U.S. domestic production is strengthened, and that Trump will add copper to his trade protections.
“We can’t be in a war and rely on steel and aluminum from some other country. I mean, it’s just not reasonable,” Lutnick said. “So the president wants steel and aluminum in America, and let me be clear, nothing is going to stop that until we’ve got a big, strong domestic steel and aluminum capability. And by the way, he’s going to add copper to that mix too.”
Source – Reuters