After 154 years of digging at Morenci, all the easily recoverable copper has been mined. Left behind are towering piles of waste rock that hold nearly 10 million tons of the metal seen as critical to global electrification. It’s a cache that could prove key to President Donald Trump’s ambition to boost US production of critical minerals.
Freeport-McMoRan Inc., which owns Morenci, is trying to develop technology that can burrow within those gigantic waste piles and extract low-grade copper that miners previously saw as too expensive and difficult to process.
“For a long time, we just didn’t think it was possible to recover any of this stuff,” said Robert Pollock, Morenci’s site manager, gazing up at a waste pile the size of a Manhattan office building. “But now, all this historical copper – we’re going after it.”
Source – Bloomberg
Australia-based Kaiser Reef has entered into a definitive agreement with Catalyst Metals to acquire the Henty gold mine and associated exploration tenements in north-western Tasmania in a deal valued at A$31.6m.
Under the deal, Kaiser will make an upfront payment of A$15m and issue A$16.6m in shares, offering Catalyst a 19.99% stake in the company.
Following the acquisition, Kaiser’s enterprise value will reach A$67m, encompassing three gold mines, including one under care and maintenance and two gold processing plants.
“Kaiser will continue to re-invest into Henty and build on what Catalyst has already achieved. We are very pleased to have Catalyst’s continued involvement and exposure to the upside at Henty, both as Kaiser’s major shareholder and through their board representation.”
Source – Yahoo! Finance
“The uncertainty surrounding Trump’s first measures as U.S. president fuelled demand for gold as a safe haven. This can be seen, among other things, in the strong inflow of more than 10 tons into the world’s largest and most liquid gold ETF on Friday,” Commerzbank Research said.
“The uncertainty as to whether tariffs will be introduced on gold and silver has already left visible traces on the Comex in recent weeks. In addition, the price premium for gold on the Comex has widened significantly compared to the spot price in London.”
Source – Seeking Alpha
Over the last two months, 12.9 million troy ounces (401 metric tons) of gold were delivered to COMEX-approved warehouses, raising stocks there by 73.5% to 30.4 million ounces, the highest since July 2022.
According to the Swiss data, gold deliveries from the country to the U.S. rose to 64.2 tons in December from 3.3 tons in the last month of 2023. In March 2022, when global markets were grappling with immediate consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Switzerland exported 81.5 tons of gold to the U.S.
Source – US News / Reuters
Analysts in a quarterly Reuters poll have forecast an average annual gold price above $3,000 for the first time, with global trade friction and a swing away from the U.S. dollar powering demand.
The poll of 29 analysts and traders returned a median forecast of $3,065 per troy ounce of gold for this year, up from $2,756 predicted in a poll three months ago. The estimated price for 2026 rose to $3,000 from $2,700.
The poll forecast an average 2025 silver price of $33.10 per ounce, unchanged from the previous survey. It has averaged $32 so far this year.
Analysts lifted their 2026 silver price forecast to $34.58 from $33.45, expecting a structural market deficit and the global clean energy transition to provide support.
Source – Reuters
U.S. copper futures rallied nearly 5% on Wednesday, rising more than other global benchmarks, after President Trump said imports of the metal would be subject to a 25% tariff; the front-month May Comex contract (HG1:COM) currently +4.6% at $4.76/lb.
Trump’s comments in last night’s speech to Congress sparked a surge in Comex copper prices in Asian hours, as traders reacted to the possibility that copper tariffs could be larger than expected.
“A 25% tariff was clearly not what the market was expecting before those comments, and now traders are scrambling to price in the correct level, whatever that might end up being,” Saxo Bank’s Ole Hansen said. “Whatever the final tariff is, the disruption to global trade flows is very real.”
Source – Seeking Alpha