Indonesia has restricted raw material exports to pressure companies to refine minerals locally and add value to its exports. Freeport has local refining capacity, but is seeking to keep exporting concentrate due to a fire last October at its Manyar smelterin East Java.
Should exports resume, it will relieve, although not reverse, a shortage of copper concentrate that has hit the profits of smelters.
Source – Reuters
“Silver’s been a laggard, and some would refer to it as the Cinderella metal, because it always misses the ball. Having said that, silver has finally woken up and broken above some key technical resistance,” independent analyst Ross Norman said. If current momentum continued, silver could challenge the $35 level, he added.
“Silver has a long history of higher volatility than gold, and that when gold makes a decisive move, silver’s amplitude is usually 2.0-2.5 times that of gold,” StoneX analyst Rhona O’Connell said in a recent note.
Source – Reuters
“We’re going to go into Fort Knox to make sure the gold is there… do you know about that?” Trump said to a reporter aboard Air Force One, according to a video posted to X by Musk.
“We hope everything is fine with Fort Knox, but we’re going to go into Fort Knox, the fabled Fort Knox, to make sure the gold is there.”
“If the gold isn’t there, we’re going to be very upset,” Trump said.
Then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., visited the vaults in 2017. They reported that, despite various conspiracy theories, the gold was present.
Source – FOX News
“The white metal may get squeezed, as recovering Asian demand absorbs recent inventory builds in the aftermath of the Chinese slowdown and the base metal concentrate processing capacity increases,”
“We project the metal to average $36/oz in the final months of next year, making it a commodity outperformer as the XAU/XAG ratio challenges yearly lows.”
“With its low correlation to traditional assets such as equities and bonds, silver offers powerful diversification benefits,” Silver Institute said. “Historically, silver has proven its value during times of economic and geopolitical crises, serving as a reliable hedge against inflation, currency devaluation, and systemic financial instability. In the context of the modern global landscape, this role has become even more pronounced.”
Gold is on a tear, hitting a record high in New York on Monday at almost $3,150 an ounce to bring the rise this year to 19%.
Analysts at Bank of America think gold could hit $3,500 an ounce if demand increases by 10%.
“Uncertainty around Trump Administration trade policies could continue to push the dollar lower, further supporting gold prices near-term. In our view, a broad rebalancing of America’s twin deficits could be bullish gold too.”
Source – Markets Insider
Bitcoin has gained just over 3% year-to-date, trailing gold’s 9% jump, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The precious metal reached a record high of $2,882 an ounce after President Trump on Feb. 4 said the US could take over Gaza — a comment his aides sought to tone down. Bitcoin is currently about 10% below its peak.
Source – Bloomberg
Mali’s industrial gold production plunged 23% to 51 metric tons last year from 66.5 tons in 2023, the West African country’s mines ministry said.
With an estimated 6 tons produced in artisanal mines, Mali’s total gold production in 2024 is expected to reach 58.7 tons, the mines ministry said.
Source – Reuters
“I think that once you punch a hole in the stock market… you’re going to have a lot of that money moving,” he predicted, suggesting that a 5-10% drop could trigger a significant shift in investor sentiment, driving capital towards safer havens like gold and silver.
“Silver didn’t move with commodities in moved with gold,” he asserted, countering arguments that silver has lost its monetary significance.
Source – The Jerusalem Post / Opinion
Supply is expected to grow by 3 percent, but it won’t be nearly enough to feed growing demand. This will lead to a 149 million-ounce market deficit. While the gap between supply and demand will shrink by about 19 percent from last year’s level, it will remain “sizeable historically.”
Source – Money Metals / Written by Mike Maharrey