“I’m basing this whole forecast on the fact that the Fed is going to be wrong,” Hemke stated, emphasizing his belief that the current economic strength is overstated.
Craig Hemke is a precious metals analyst.
Source – The Jerusalem Post
They bought over 1,000 tonnes of the precious metal last year, double the average amount purchased in the previous decade, according to a European Central Bank report published on Wednesday.
The authors wrote that global holdings of gold by reserve banks increased to 36,000 metric tons in 2024, close to the record of 38,000 metric tons reached around 60 years ago.
Now, central bank reserves are composed of, on average, the dollar, at 46%, gold, at 20%, other currencies at 18%, and the euro at 16%.
Source – Business Insider
“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
Gold prices edged lower on Thursday, weighed down by easing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and continued uncertainty over the Federal Reserve’s interest rate trajectory.
Spot gold fell 0.5% to $3,316.47 per ounce, as of 0933 a.m. EDT (1333 GMT). U.S. gold futures slipped 0.4% to $3,329.20.
Palladium lost 2.5% to $1,084.41. Platinum climbed to its highest level since September 2014, adding 1.7% to $1,377.62.
Spot silver was up 0.2% to $36.39.
Source – Reuters
A contested mine in Central Idaho that will produce gold and antimony earned the U.S. Forest Service’s final approval following a lengthy environmental review and objections from the Nez Perce Tribe, which will lose access for decades to federal lands guaranteed by a U.S. treaty.
“This approval elevates the Stibnite Gold Project to an elite class of projects in America that have cleared NEPA,” Jon Cherry, Pepetua’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
“The tribe’s treaties with the United States are the supreme law of the land and remain binding,”
Source – Idaho Statesman
Source – KITCO
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
