Editorial: Mali-ce aforethought
Another year, another coup in Africa. This past week it was Mali’s turn to see rebel troops running through the streets of the capital and taking over the presidential palace.
Commodities Markets
Pullback in gold is buying opportunity, Macquarie says
Since the outbreak in 2007 of the global financial crisis, March has been the worst month for the gold price with average declines of about 1.6%. But David Doyle, a Toronto-based strategist and economist at Macquarie Capital Markets, believes…
UBS updates near-term commodity prices
The acceleration of capital outflow from emerging markets and tighter liquidity as stimulus ends from the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, a “rebalancing” in China where policymakers are not actively stimulating private…
Silver Wheaton rises on record 2011 revenues
Vancouver — Silver Wheaton (SLW-T, SLW-N) is the reigning king of silver-stream financing, and the company continued to experience notable growth in 2011.
Glorious royalties
Financing was a recurring theme at this year’s eightieth Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto. With debt markets in Europe faltering and equity markets globally not performing up to snuff, miners…
Editorial: Enviro report echoes feds’ priorities
Proposed changes to Canada’s Environmental Assessment Act could streamline and simplify the environmental approval process, much in-line with pledges already made by the federal Conservative government.
Metals commentary: Wood Mackenzie says Copper prices to ease, but ‘not massively so’
Wood Mackenzie is forecasting global demand growth for copper this year of 3.6%, a copper deficit of 100,000 tonnes and London Metal Exchange cash prices averaging US$8,700 per tonne, or US$3.95 per lb., down from an average of US$8,800 per…
Sandstorm a rising star in commodity-stream financing
Vancouver — Sandstorm Gold (SSL-T) is not an exploration or operational mining outfit. The company is not interested in spending equity capital on surface exploration, drill programs or environmental-impact studies. Instead, Sandstorm…
McEwen charms investors at PDAC
“Gold is money. If you don’t have gold, you better get some,” says Rob McEwen, chairman and CEO of McEwen Mining (MAQ-T, MUX-N), in a corporate presentation at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s…
Editorial: McEwen bets on innovation, calls $200 silver
Rob McEwen is known for thinking outside the box, so it wasn’t surprising to learn that McEwen Mining — a company he created in January through the combination of U.S. Gold and Minera Andes, in which he owns a 25% stake — is…
China’s commodity super cycle is over: Credit Suisse’s Tao
The golden age of China’s infrastructure investment, housing boom, exports and policy stimulus is behind us, argues Dong Tao, Credit Suisse’s head of non-Japan Asia Economics, in a March 5 report to clients.
Facts ‘n’ figures: Record US$18B spent on exploration in 2011, says Metals Economics Group
The following is an excerpt from the Metals Economics Group’s Worldwide Exploration Trends 2012 report based on the firm’s Corporate Education Strategies series of studies. The exploration budgets in the report include spending for…