About three years ago, the typical catalyzer metals Palladium and Rhodium reached their all time highs in the aftermath of the pandemic. Automobile producers had resumed production, but some mines had been idle because of a drop in demand during the pandemic. Inventories for Pd and Rh were at a historical time low. Ever since the narrative has been changing. Electric cars are still a lot more expensive than corresponding combustion engine powered cars. But especially the fleet of leasing and rental cars is rapidly making the switch. Changing legislation makes combustion engine cars less ..read more

The main Mining event in March is the yearly conference of the  Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, organized in Toronto. Michelle Makori, Lead Anchor and Editor-in-Chief at Kitco News, hosts Kitco Insights Interactive Mining Titans’ Power Panel with Frank Giustra, CEO of Fiore Group, and Pierre Lassonde, Chairman Emeritus at Franco-Nevada. Giustra and Lassonde warn that Canada is jeopardizing its place on the world stage as it fails its resource sector, economy, and citizens. They also discuss gold hitting new record highs, share their forecasts, and explain the divergence ..read more

Today the Global Investment Returns Yearbook for 2024 has been published by UBS Global Wealth Mgt, in collaboration with the Credit Suisse team who have been publishing previous versions. The press release summarizes the key elements of this publication. "Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2024 – leveraging deep history to navigate the future" The Global Investment Returns Yearbook now in its 25th year is the authoritative guide to historical long-run returns.  London, February 28, 2024 – Launched today by UBS Investment Bank and UBS Global Wealth Management’s Chief Investment Offic ..read more

Poor long term performance of most precious metal miners causes the HUI index of unhedged miners and the Philadelphia Gold and Silver miners index (XAU) to lag both precious metals and the general stock market. This has been amply demonstrated on the detailed Gold Miner Pulse page and in the articles referenced therein. The Miners Performance page provides a ranking of individual miners since 19 Nov 2010 or the introduction on the Toronto or US stock market. Presently I went beyond this approach: For all individual miners and the precious metal mining ETF's, their performance over 2023 i ..read more

Another good watch from a decade ago, which could well have been published today. Public debt has only been growing, doubling about every 8 years in the US. With interest rates rising, the revenues needed to service that ballooning debt simply are not there anymore. If additional credit is needed to pay for the interest on the principal, the pace of debt increase is likely to spiral out of control. Let's focus on the documentary now: End Of The Road: How Money Became Worthless - Wall Street is being occupied. Europe is collapsing in on itself. Around the world, people are consumed by fear and ..read more

This film presents serious research and verifiable evidence on our economic and financial system. Storyline: 97% owned present serious research and verifiable evidence on our economic and financial system. This is the first documentary to tackle this issue from a UK-perspective and explains the inner workings of Central Banks and the Money creation process. When money drives almost all activity on the planet, it's essential that we understand it. Yet simple questions often get overlooked, questions like; where does money come from? Who creates it? Who decides how it gets used? And what does t ..read more

Last month, on 6 Oct , Jim Sinclair passed away at the age of 82. Jim Sinclair was the 'first gold bug'.  By the end of 1974, after gold hat hit $190/$, the ban on holding physical gold by American private citizens was lifted. The price of gold retreated soon afterwards to less than $150/Oz and would bottom out by late 1976. Jim Sinclair was very vocal pointing out that the retreat was not going to last. On the contrary, the price of gold was going to surpass the previous $190 high at least fourfold.  By the turn of the century, Jim Sinclair again predicted that the ongoing weakness ..read more

An unusual short topic for this blog. I'm wondering about a lot of early days colleagues and predecessors. As time went by, the blogging scene on precious metals and mining has become more or less a wasteland. As I started this blog in autumn 2009, I was one of the many. Some illustrious bloggers had gathered dozens of followers and were totaling page views by the hundreds of thousands if not millions. Many of them have been included on the blog list in the right hand column (not visible on mobile devices). Yet the unraveling of the precious metals boom of 2011 made investors wary and scared ..read more

A nascent regression between gold miners (using the HUI index of unhedged gold miners) and the yellow metal may finally interrupt the unabated miner slide relative to gold. Previous regression relationship between the HUI and gold held for about three years only. It survived the Corona plunge, the price surge of gold the summer of 2020 and the ongoing financial largesse in 2021. Clouds started gathering in the summer of 2021. Recalibrating the regression parameters added one more match in the spring of 2022, as both gold and miners surged after the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. This proved ..read more

Demand for gold for jewelry tends to ease during summer. Jewelry producers and  mints allow for their staff to take a summer break. Unless there is any other pent up demand, gold prices are usually weaker during summer. The Corona year 2020 was the big exception, with a precipitous price drop in March at the outbreak and a subsequent summer rally after massive government support for businesses and employees on both sides of the Atlantic. So far $2000/Oz gold never held very long. The Ukraine war and supply chain disruptions caused higher energy and transportation costs and higher food pr ..read more