Editorial: Sinking in a sea of red
The economic fallout from COVID-19 is mounting sharply. Last week, unemployment claims in the United States hit a record 6.6 million, up from 3.3 million the previous week, and the…
Asia
Freeport ramps up security after attack kills employee near Grasberg mine
Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) confirmed that one employee was killed and another employee and contractor were seriously injured in a shooting in Papua, Indonesia, near the company’s administrative offices in Kuala…
Steppe Gold fires up ATO mine in Mongolia
Steppe Gold (TSX: STGO) is on track to produce 60,000 oz. gold this year at cash costs of US$500 per oz. from its heap leach mine in Mongolia, after starting…
Moody’s slashes growth forecasts
In November, Moody’s Investors Service forecast G-20 economies in 2020 would grow by 2.6%, but now estimates real GDP will contract by 0.5%, followed by a pick-up to 3.2% in…
Editorial: Asia shows the way
When I landed at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on March 20 aboard an Air Canada ‘repatriation’ flight from Mexico, none of us were checked to see if we had a…
US markets tank, March 16-20: Sandstorm, Alamos Gold, Rio Tinto
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 17.30% (4,011.64 points) to 19,173.98 and the S&P 500 dropped 14.98%(4,061.1 points) to 2,304.92 during the Mar. 16-20 trading week. Spot gold fell US$31.10…
SQM reports lower profits on weak lithium price
Sociedad Quimica y Minera or SQM (NYSE: SQM), the world’s second-largest lithium producer, continues to suffer from sustained weak prices for the metal used in batteries that power electric vehicles…
Coronavirus impacts base metals market
The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak continues to spread, with figures from the World Health Organization putting the number of infected people in China at 77,262 and the number of deaths in…
Tesla announcement surprises cobalt, nickel bulls
Cobalt bulls were dealt another blow this week after reports that the world’s largest electric carmaker is shifting some production of its most popular model away from batteries that contain…
Editorial: China must ban wildlife trade to prevent new viruses
When the coronavirus that caused Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) became a worldwide health emergency between November 2002 and July 2003, I was the bureau chief for The Far Eastern…
Coronavirus to hit demand for commodities, economists say
Uncertainty over the coronavirus outbreak — which has sickened 43,103 people in 25 countries and left 1,018 people dead (all but two of them in mainland China) — has economists…
Malaysia reverses production ban on bauxite
Malaysia is set to begin issuing bauxite mining licenses in early 2020, four years after it imposed a ban in response to environmental concerns. The Southeast Asian nation produced very…