Metals trade down, and Vale and Pilbara Minerals step on the gas

Gold prices are ending the week at another record high. On Saturday mining audiences manager Michael McCrae recorded Kitco Roundtable. The Federal Reserve's decision to embark on its first interest rate cut since 2020 has sent ripples through the financial markets. In a bold move, the central bank slashed rates by 50 basis points, bringing the Fed funds rate to a range of 4.75% to 5%. This aggressive cut marks the beginning of what the Fed calls "interest rate normalization," with the ultimate goal of achieving a benchmark rate between 3% and 3.5% by 2025.In mining news, Reuters reported that Australia’s Titan Minerals on Wednesday announced plans to sell up to 80% stake in its Linderos copper project in Ecuador to a unit of billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting for up to $120 million.Gina Rinehart has been ranked as one of Australia's richest individuals. She is executive chair of Hancock Prospecting. Her wealth reached around A$29 billion in 2012_________________________________________________________________Kitco Roundtable is brought to you by Revival Gold. Revival Gold is one of the largest, pure gold, mine developers in the United States. The Company is advancing engineering and economic studies on the Mercur Gold Project in Utah and mine permitting preparations and ongoing exploration at the Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project located in Idaho.Revival Gold is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol “RVG” and trades on the OTCQX Market under the ticker symbol “RVLGF”. The Company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with its exploration and development office located in Salmon, Idaho.

In an historic week for the precious metals market, gold futures have shattered records, breaching the $2600 per troy ounce threshold for the first time. On Saturday mining audiences manager Michael McCrae recorded Kitco Roundtable. Market are pivoting their attention to next week's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. This gathering is poised to be one of the year's most consequential, with widespread anticipation of the first interest rate cut since 2020. The consensus among analysts, economists, and market observers is that a rate reduction is all but certain. markets are currently pricing in a 73% chance of a 25 bps cut and a 27% chance of a 50 bps cut, according to CME FedWatch.Early this week AngloGold Ashanti announced it is acquiring Egypt-focused Centamin for $2.5 billion in cash and stock. Anglogold dropped on the news, but recovered by the end of the week. __________________________________________________________________Digging Deep is brought to you by Revival Gold. Revival Gold is one of the largest, pure gold, mine developers in the United States. The Company is advancing engineering and economic studies on the Mercur Gold Project in Utah and mine permitting preparations and ongoing exploration at the Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project located in Idaho.Revival Gold is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol “RVG” and trades on the OTCQX Market under the ticker symbol “RVLGF”. The Company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with its exploration and development office located in Salmon, Idaho.

Soft labor report supports case for rate cut, but how big will be the cut? And First Majestic Silver announces plans to acquire Gatos Silver for $970 million in an all-share deal. On Friday mining audiences manager Michael McCrae recorded Kitco Roundtable. Gold mostly traded sideways this week ending at the 2497 level. Silver ended the week at 27.80. On Friday, U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by 142,000 last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This figure fell short of the consensus estimate of 164,000.First Majestic Silver (NYSE:AG) announced this week that it entered into a definitive merger agreement with Gatos Silver whereby First Majestic will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Gatos. The all share deal is valued at $970 million. First Majestic said the combined companies will consolidate three world-class, producing silver mining districts in Mexico. The combined annual production of the new entity will be 30-32 million ounces of silver-equivalent, including 15-16 million ounces of silver at all-in sustaining costs of $18.00-$20.00 per silver-equivalent ounce. Markets are not loving the deal. First Majestic closed down 16% for the week. __________________________________________________________________Kitco Roundtable is brought to you by Revival Gold. Revival Gold is one of the largest, pure gold, mine developers in the United States. The Company is advancing engineering and economic studies on the Mercur Gold Project in Utah and mine permitting preparations and ongoing exploration at the Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project located in Idaho.Revival Gold is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol “RVG” and trades on the OTCQX Market under the ticker symbol “RVLGF”. The Company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with its exploration and development office located in Salmon, Idaho.

Three pieces of economic news came out this week: housing, GDP and jobless claims. On Thursday, mining audiences manager Michael McCrae hosted Kitco Roundtable. Starting the strong news, The U.S. economy continues to defy the odds, as the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) experienced solid growth in the second quarter. However, despite this positive economic data, gold prices remain largely unaffected, with the market continuing to consolidate near record levels.On Thursday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the preliminary reading of second-quarter GDP showed the economy grew by 3.0% between April and June, up from the initial estimate of 2.8%. This represents an increase from the 1.4% growth reported in the first quarter.Housing data was less strong. The U.S. housing sector can’t find any consistent momentum as few Americans are looking to enter the housing market even as the Federal Reserve prepares to lower interest rates.The U.S. pending home sales index dropped 5.5% in July, the NAR announced Thursday, more than unwinding June’s 4.8% increase. With a reading of 70.2, the index has dropped to its lowest level since the NAR first produced it back in 2001.And lastly, Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week was lower than forecasted.Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 231,000 for the week ending August 24, the Labor Department announced on Thursday. The number was lower than expectations. Ganfeng Lithium reported a H1 2024 loss of ~$107M and said it would be delaying spending on projects. ________________________________________________________________Kitco Roundtable is brought to you by Revival Gold. Revival Gold is one of the largest, pure gold, mine developers in the United States. The Company is advancing engineering and economic studies on the Mercur Gold Project in Utah and mine permitting preparations and ongoing exploration at the Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project located in Idaho.Revival Gold is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol “RVG” and trades on the OTCQX Market under the ticker symbol “RVLGF”. The Company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with its exploration and development office located in Salmon, Idaho. 

Gold finished the week well above $2,500 level. On Friday mining audiences manager Michael McCrae recorded Kitco Roundtable sponsored by Revival Gold. The precious metals were up as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signals that the central bank is ready to start easing interest rates.In his much-anticipated speech at the Jackson Hole Central Bank Symposium, Powell said that the upside risk to inflation has diminished and risks to the labor market have grown.Lucara Diamond recovered 'one of the largest rough diamonds ever unearthed'. News of the find made headlines in major news publications such as New York Times and Bloomberg. Lucara traded up 50% for the week. ________________________________________________________________Kitco Roundtable is brought to you by Revival Gold. Revival Gold is one of the largest, pure gold, mine developers in the United States. The Company is advancing engineering and economic studies on the Mercur Gold Project in Utah and mine permitting preparations and ongoing exploration at the Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project located in Idaho.Revival Gold is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol “RVG” and trades on the OTCQX Market under the ticker symbol “RVLGF”. The Company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with its exploration and development office located in Salmon, Idaho.

Gold enjoyed one of its best five-day stretches of the year this week, and ended with a bang, rocketing to fresh all-time highs in both the spot and futures markets. On Friday mining audiences manager recorded Kitco Roundtable sponsored by Revival GoldGold broke definitively through $2,500 to end the week at $2,508. Silver was up, too, ending the week at $29 ounce. The week started off with M&A. Osisko Mining (TSX:OSK) will be acquired by Gold Fields for $1.57 billion (C$2.16 billion) in an all-cash transaction. Early this week Barrick Gold filed its Q2. Analysts had been following the second quarter results of all the gold miners to see how strongly the companies might perform off record high prices for the metal. Net earnings at Barrick were up 25% and the attributable EBITDA margin was up 17% quarter on quarter to 48%. Barrick traded up on the news.

Kitco News - Markets had a gut-wrenching Monday when the Nikkei plunged 12% which set off a global stock rout, noted mining audiences manager Michael McCrae. On Friday McCrae recorded Kitco Roundtable sponsored by Revival Gold. The Nikkei news fed the narrative that the Fed may not be able to engineer a soft landing, and a recession could be in the cards. The soft labor market report at the start of the month added to the narrative.Copper had a tough go of it, reflecting general concerns about the economy. The metal dropped through $4 a pound this week and ended at $3.98.Lithium woes continue. Reuters reported this week that spot prices for spodumene in top consumer China are hovering around $940 a metric ton, the lowest in almost three years, and Goldman Sachs expects spodumene prices to average $800 over the next year. Reuters reported that Arcadium is reassessing its Mount Cattlin operations in Western Australia given high costs and falling prices of raw material spodumene. Sprott, which filed a report on lithium this week, sees the current low price of lithium as unsustainable, as it has led to project curtailments and driven some miners to reduce capital expenditures and investment in future supply. Sprott believes that lithium prices have bottomed and that higher prices for the metal may be necessary to incentivize the required future production to meet demand forecasts.__________________________________________________________________Digging Deep is brought to you by Revival Gold. Revival Gold is one of the largest, pure gold, mine developers in the United States. The Company is advancing engineering and economic studies on the Mercur Gold Project in Utah and mine permitting preparations and ongoing exploration at the Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project located in Idaho.Revival Gold is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol “RVG” and trades on the OTCQX Market under the ticker symbol “RVLGF”. The Company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with its exploration and development office located in Salmon, Idaho. 

Markets and metals were walloped by a late week sell-off, noted mining audiences manager Michael McCrae. On Saturday McCrae recorded Kitco Roundtable. Earlier in the week Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a press conference that a case could be made for a cut "as soon as the next meeting.”  The central bank’s dovish stance helped to propel gold prices to a new all-time high of $2,500 an ounce mid week. But the market was spooked about concerns that the Fed had been keeping interest rates to high for too long. Concerns were punctuated by the jobs report on Friday.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. economy created only 114,000 jobs last month. The data missed expectations, as economists were looking for job gains of around 176,000. The S&P 500 dropped nearly 4%, with most of the selling coming on Thursday and Friday. In mining news there was a major mining deal announced at the start of the week. Filo (TSX: FIL) announced today that it agreed to be acquired by BHP and Lundin Mining for $3.2 billion. BHP and Lundin Mining will form a Canadian joint venture into which the Filo del Sol copper-gold-silver project and the Josemaria copper-gold project.

Copper futures dropped 3% during the week ending the week at $4.11. On Sunday mining audiences manager recorded Kitco Roundtable. Bloomberg noted that the metal was at its lowest level since April, adding that pessimism about China's prospects, and a heavy selloff in global technology stocks hurt the metal. A big AI buildout, which would require lots of copper for the data centers, became less certain. On Friday Seabridge Gold (TSX: SEA)  announced that it had received its "substantially started" designation from the BC Government for its 100% owned KSM Project. Seabridge says that the KSM project is the world's largest undeveloped gold project as measured by reserves and resources. An updated preliminary feasibility study estimates proven and probable reserves total 47.3 million ounces of gold and 7.3 billion pounds of copperSeabridge was up 13% for the week to $22 a share. Kitco Roundtable is sponsored by Revival Gold. Revival Gold is one of the largest, pure gold, mine developers in the United States. The Company is advancing engineering and economic studies on the Mercur Gold Project in Utah and mine permitting preparations and ongoing exploration at the Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project located in Idaho.Revival Gold is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol “RVG” and trades on the OTCQX Market under the ticker symbol “RVLGF”. The Company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with its exploration and development office located in Salmon, Idaho.

Copper futures slid 7% to $4.20, the metals worst drop since 2022, noted mining audiences manager Michael McCrae. On Saturday McCrae recorded Kitco Roundtable. Worries about China's economy hurt copper. However, gold hit an all-time mid-week on Federal Reserve's pivot, as well as U.S. political developments.  In mining news, Panama’s government says it will engage with First Quantum Minerals Ltd. in the coming months to discuss the environmental impact of its shuttered copper mine, according to a report by Reuters. The mine was closed by the government last year. Cobre Panama is a top ten copper mine.Serbia, the European Union and Germany inked on Friday a series of deals granting EU members and some of the continent’s most important carmakers exclusive access to Serbian lithium, also according to a report by Reuters. Jadar is one of the largest lithium deposits in the world.