Precious Metals

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Gold up Silver down

The price of 24-carat gold surged by Rs 10 in early trade on Thursday, with ten grams of the precious metal trading at Rs 78,830 according to the GoodReturns website. The price of silver fell by Rs 100, with one kilogram of the precious metal selling at Rs 92,400.

The price of ten grams of 24-carat gold in Mumbai is in line with prices in Kolkata, Chennai, and Hyderabad at Rs 78,830.

Source – Business Standard

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Copper edges higher, tariff worries investors

“The market is really trying to understand how aggressive these potential tariffs could be and I think the problem is no one really knows the answer,” said Nitesh Shah, commodity strategist at WisdomTree.

Alastair Munro, senior base metals analyst at Marex, said copper found some support from contrarian buying from some Commodity Trade Advisor (CTA) investment funds, which are largely driven by computer programs.

Source – Reuters / Live Mint

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Ivanhoe Mines Targets Increased Copper, Zinc Production This Year

The Canadian mining company on Wednesday set a 2025 production target of between 520,000 and 580,000 metric tons of copper at its Kamoa-Kakula operation. 

Ivanhoe expects to produce between 180,000 and 240,000 tons of zinc at its Kipushi zinc-copper-germanium-silver mine.

Ivanhoe said that during the last day of the year, a record 750 tons of zinc were produced over a 24-hour period, exceeding the operation’s nameplate capacity.

Source – Market Watch

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Gold ETF AUMs Surged 26% In 2024, Says World Gold Council

Total assets under management (AUMs) in gold-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) hit record highs of $271 billion in 2024, according to the World Gold Council (WGC).

This represented a 26% year-on-year increase and was driven by a soaring bullion price.

The yellow metal hit new all-time highs on 40 occasions last year, the WGC noted. Over the whole year, gold appreciated 26% in value to around $2,629 per ounce.

Source – Forbes

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Gold rose but weaker than expected: December report

Spot gold rose 0.5% to $2,663.79 per ounce, as of 9:55 a.m. ET (1455 GMT) and hit its highest since Dec. 13. U.S. gold futures gained 0.5% to $2,679.70.

Weaker private payrolls “is contributing to gold’s move, because ultimately, weaker employment numbers imply that the economy has been weaker than many had expected,” said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategies at TD Securities.

“The bigger factor will be U.S. nonfarm payrolls on Friday, the market is expecting a change of 163 (thousand); anything significantly above that will be negative for gold,” Melek said.

Source – Reuters

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Idaho gold mine wins federal approval despite objection

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

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Marine Corps minted coins honoring 250th anniversary

The coins are available in gold, silver and clad metals and can be purchased individually or as a set. The $5 gold coin depicts the Marine Corps Color Guard; the $1 silver coin shows the flag raising at Iwo Jima; and the half-dollar clad coin features two Marines, one wearing the continental uniform of 1775 with a musket, and the other in modern-day camouflage uniform holding an M4 service rifle.

Source – Stars and Stripes