Metals from gold to copper sank in a broad selloff in financial markets amid investor concerns that a war-driven surge in inflation may force global central banks to raise borrowing costs and drag down economic growth. Bullion fell as much as 3% to under $4,520 an ounce, on pace for a roughly 3.3% weekly decline. Bond yields rose across the globe as doubts mounted over how quickly Middle East oil supplies can return to normal, while the dollar headed for its longest run of gains since March. That’s putting pressure on commodities as they’re priced in the greenback. Higher borrowing…
Author: TJ Markle
Platinum group metal prices rose substantially last year, driven by persistent supply deficits and favorable market dynamics, and Metals Focus expects the bull market to continue this year, with significant price upside remaining. Platinum joined gold and silver for the wild ride up in 2025, gaining 119 percent, and then continuing to surge through the first three weeks of 2026. Platinum hit an all-time high of $2,923 an ounce in late January before selling off along with gold and silver. Palladium took a similar trajectory, rising 78.7 percent in 2025 from $914.10 before peaking just below $1,100 in January. According to Metals Focus, several…
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft completed its close approach of Mars on May 15, coming within 2,864 miles (4,609 kilometers) of the planet’s surface. This flyby used a gravity assist from Mars to provide a critical boost in speed and to adjust the spacecraft’s orbital plane without using any onboard propellant, sending it on its way toward the metal-rich asteroid Psyche. The spacecraft is now headed directly toward the asteroid, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. After the Mars flyby, the flight team analyzed radio signals between the spacecraft and NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), the agency’s global…
Aiming to move more critical minerals processing and materials production into the United States, the U.S. Department of Energy has selected 19 projects to share $45.7 million in federal funding for pilot-scale and next-generation technologies meant to strengthen domestic supply chains. While the United States hosts substantial mineral resources and a growing pipeline of projects tied to energy, defense, semiconductors, and advanced manufacturing, it remains dependent on foreign sources for many of the processing and production steps needed to turn raw or secondary feedstocks into usable critical materials. That gap has kept federal attention focused not only on mining, but on the…
After a strong start to the year, Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) have been stuck in a range for the last few months, but according to one research firm, prices across the entire sector are still expected to end the year with solid gains, led by Platinum. PGM prices are expected to be driven by further fundamental deficits through 2026, with tightening supply, rising investor demand and growing geopolitical fragmentation driving prices sharply higher across the complex, according to British research firm Metals Focus. In its newly released Platinum Group Metals Focus 2026 report, the analysts forecast platinum prices to average…
Rare earth metals are on the minds of all investors these days, and for good reason. Recent trade tensions have put China’s rare-earth monopoly into stark relief. And the rise of physical AI applications, such as robots, promises to accelerate demand for the materials used in everything from iPhones to fighter jets. That setup has investors pouring billions into non-Chinese rare earth projects. Sifting through JORC or 43-101 reports, which detail mine specs, isn’t easy for a mining engineer, let alone investors sitting atop the New York City skyline. Understanding what any upstarts are up against can help, though. There are just four mines that…
Defence companies are pushing Washington to delay a deadline, years in the making and now just months away, banning them from sourcing rare earth magnets from China for the US military. Some defense groups want more time to comply with the prohibition on using Chinese samarium cobalt magnets and neodymium iron boron magnets for defense department contracts from January 1, according to four people familiar with the matter. The magnets go into everything from electric vehicles and phones to fighter jets and weapons systems, but their production is dominated by China, which has tightened its grip by limiting access to…
PolarX Ltd. May 18 reported that strong geophysics and copper-gold samples collected along a trend that extends for more than two miles north of the Zackley deposit indicate the potential for a large intrusion-related mineral system at the Stellar end of its Alaska Range project. Lying just north of the Denali Highway, and approximately 160 miles northeast of Anchorage, PolarX’s 22-mile-long Alaska Range land package comprises three primary groups of claims – Caribou Dome, Senator, and Stellar. Much of the Australian explorer’s work over the past couple of years has focused on Caribou Dome, a deposit toward the southwest end…
Accelerating mine remediation work in Northern Canada, RCT – Powered by Epiroc reported that its AutoNav Lite semi-automation system has been rapidly deployed on two Caterpillar D10 dozers to support stabilization work in controlled areas of a remediation project at a gold mine in northern Canada. Founded in Stockholm in 1873, Sweden-based Epiroc is a mining equipment and technology company that has expanded from supplying machinery for mining and infrastructure into digital systems for rock excavation, mine automation, electrification, and machine control that can move operators away from hazardous work areas. Expanding that automation business in 2022, Epiroc acquired Australia-based…
In a major step toward developing the Ambler Mining District, the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council has accepted the Arctic project in Northwest Alaska into FAST-41, a federal program designed to coordinate and streamline permitting for large infrastructure projects considered critical to the United States economy. “Acceptance into the FAST-41 program is one of the most significant milestones in the Arctic Project’s history,” said Trilogy President and CEO Tony Giardini. “The United States currently imports a substantial share of its copper supply from foreign nations – a strategic vulnerability that FAST-41, by providing a clear and coordinated federal permitting framework…