Goldman Sachs raised its forecast for commodities returns
Goldman Sachs Commodity Research said on March 2 that commodities remain the best hedge against inflation, raising its forecast for commodity returns over the next 12 months to 15.5%.
Over the next 12 months, Goldman forecasts returns of 19.3 per cent for energy, 19.1 per cent for industrial metals and 15 per cent for precious metals.
NEO Performance and Energy Fuels launch a rare earth production programme
Neo Performance Materials Inc., a Canadian advanced Materials producer.
And Energy Fuels, a Colorado-based US company, have launched a production programme across the European and North American supply chain that will use monazite sand to produce rare earths.
Energy Fuels will begin processing monazite sand in Georgia into a blend of rare earth carbonates this month or in April, according to a joint release.
Some of the product will then be shipped to Neo Performance Materials' Silmet separation plant in Estonia, where the mixed rare earth carbonate will be processed into separate rare earth Materials.
ASM plans to build key metals plant in South Korea
Strategic Materials Australia (ASM) conducted a scoping study on a 5,200-ton-a-year metal plant in South Korea to demonstrate the feasibility of the project.
The company hopes to be able to produce key metals independently, focusing on rare earth, titanium and zirconium metals, alloys and powders.
The plant is scheduled to start construction in the third quarter of 2021 and start production in the third quarter of 2022.
Naif is providing a $108 million loan for the Lake Wells potash project
The Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund (NAIF) has approved a A $140 million (US $108.58 million) loan to finance the development of Australian Potash Corp's potassium sulphate project at Lake Wells in Western Australia.
The project, located approximately 500km northeast of the Kalgoorlie gold deposit in Eastern Western Australia, holds an estimated 3.6m tonnes of identified and estimated potassium sulphate reserves and an estimated 18.1m tonnes of determined and indicated potassium sulphate reserves.
Fresnillo has doubled its dividend for 2020
Mexico focused precious metals miner Fresnillo reported Tuesday that its total gold production in 2020 fell 12.1 percent to 769,600 ounces as a result of efforts to control the epidemic.
Total silver production fell 2.7% to 53.1 million ounces from 54.6 million ounces in 2019.
The company will return investors with a dividend of 23.5 cents a share, nearly double its 2019 dividend of 11.9 cents, thanks to stronger gold and silver prices and an increase in full-year pretax profit.
Alrosa's 2020 profit is down 49%
Alrosa, the Russian state diamond producer, on Tuesday reported a 22 per cent drop in production to 30m carats as it suspended operations at less profitable mines during the outbreak.
Combined with lower sales and a weaker ruble, the company's revenue in 2020 fell by 7% to 221.5 billion rubles;
Net profit fell 49 per cent to 32.2 billion rubles ($432 million).
The Cerro Blanco gold project in Guatemala tripled its net present value
The latest preliminary economic assessment of Bluestone Resources' Cerro Blanco project in Guatemala shows that the mine's gold Resources and production profile have doubled, tripling the project's net present value to $907 million.
The preliminary economic assessment predicts a peak production of 334,000 ounces of gold over the mine's life, with an average annual production of 231,000 ounces.
Total mine production is expected to be 2.4 million ounces of gold and 10.3 million ounces of silver over the initial 11-year life of the mine.
Simon Thompson will step down as Rio's chairman in 2022
Simon Thompson will step down as chairman of Rio Tinto next year after deciding not to seek re-election as a non-executive director at the group's annual general meeting in 2022, the company said yesterday.
Thompson has been a director of Rio Tinto since 2014 and officially became chairman of Rio Tinto on March 5, 2018.
Chile's copper production fell 0.7 per cent in January
Chile produced 457,100 tonnes of copper in January, down 0.7 per cent from a year earlier, according to statistics from the country's National Copper Council (Cochilco).
Codelco produced 142,000 tons, up 19.4% year on year.
Escondida copper production was 84,700 tonnes, down 16.1 per cent year on year;
Collahuasi copper production was 57,000 tonnes, up 6.5 per cent year on year.
Colombia will focus on illegal mining
On the sidelines of a Latin American mining conference organized by Colombia's National Bureau of Mines, Colombia's Minister of Mines and Energy said the country is working to diversify its mining sector and boost its economy.
This year authorities will focus on two specific issues in the mining industry - the regularization of small-scale miners and the cessation of illegal gold mining.
By the end of 2021, Colombia's National Bureau of Mines plans to formalize 21,000 small-scale miners.
