U.S. markets fall during June 13-17 trading week

The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 1,504.01 points or 5.03% to 29,888.78 and the S&P 500 fell 226.02 points or 6.1% over the week to 3,674.84 as U.S. stocks felt the pressure amid growing concerns of an economic recession, high inflation and rising interest rates. Most miners saw their share value decrease during the week despite providing seemingly positive updates.  

Shares of Nouveau Monde Graphite fell 16.7% to US$5 even as the company revealed its new coating line in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, Que., which has a nameplate capacity of 2,000 tonnes per year. Completing the company’s integrated anode material production, from ore to battery material, the coating module was built in the first half of 2022. Coating helps create a stable electrolyte interface layer in the battery system and increase initial coulombic efficiency and discharge capacity, thus extending the battery performance over time. “With this addition, NMG now operates the only fully integrated North American natural graphite production,” said the company in a press release. Nouveau Monde is targeting first production at its Matawinie graphite mine in Saint-Michel-des-Saints in 2023. Its vertically integrated business model involves mining at Matawinie and producing value-added forms of graphite at its purification facility in Bécancour to serve the lithium-ion battery and fuel cell markets. 

Shares of Consol Energy fell US$6.76 to US$46.15. The coal producer’s fifth corporate sustainability report called “ESG-i: Innovating for Tomorrow,” released during the trading week failed to counter the market’s overall downtrend. According to the report, the company’s Pennsylvania Mining Complex saw a total recordable incident rate of 2.25, 53% below Mine Safety and Health Administration industry averages for the underground bituminous coal mining industry. It also achieved record water reuse volumes, with 721 million gallons of water recycled for use in operations. The company also maintained an environmental compliance record exceeding 99.9% for the ninth consecutive year, as measured by the rate of compliance with permit effluent limits.  

Shares of Gold Fields, which recently announced a takeover of Yamana Gold, continued to fall, declining 2.6% over the period to US$9.93 per share. Yamana shares also fell US47¢ to US$5.18. The US$6.7-billion takeover, which will make Gold Fields the fourth-largest gold producer in the world, received some criticism over the last few weeks. On June 10, a top-10 investor of the company urged the miner to cancel its planned takeover and said that the transaction did not guarantee growth and profitability. “Redwheel has been a significant investor in Gold Fields for several years and we believe that the company should withdraw the offer and concentrate on the excellent organic growth options which it already owns,” it said in an open letter to Gold Fields’ board, published on its website. While the market reaction to the deal has been mostly negative, some analysts believe Gold Fields could benefit from expanding its size and geographical diversification ahead of the next gold price rally.