It isn’t solid gold — but it’s never been worth more. Athletes stepping onto the Winter Olympic podium in Italy this month are being draped in the most valuable medals in the Games’ modern history thanks to near record-high precious metal prices. Since the Paris Summer Olympics started on July 26, 2024, spot gold prices have jumped roughly 110% to about $5,000 per ounce, while spot silver has surged about 180% hovering near $78 an ounce, according to FactSet data. At current prices, the intrinsic or “melt value” of an Olympic gold medal — value based solely on the metals it contains — is roughly $2,300 to $2,500. Silver…
Author: TJ Markle
A complex legal dispute unfolding in a US federal court as well as in Swiss jurisdiction over the global titanium trade is beginning to intersect with broader regional dynamics – including Israel’s growing economic alignment with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The case centers on allegations filed under 28 U.S.C. §1782 in the United States, where litigants have sought evidence for use in foreign proceedings involving Russia’s titanium industry. Public filings describe what Russian prosecutors characterize as a multi-year scheme involving intermediary trading firms that allegedly purchased titanium from VSMPO-AVISMA – the world’s largest producer of aerospace-grade titanium – at below-market prices and…
Labor chose a day when attention was focused on the opposition to slip out a handful of announcements On Friday, as Angus Taylor ascended to the leadership of a riven and defeated political party, the Albanese government slipped out a handful of announcements on contentious climate and environment issues. Here is what you may have missed. Stopping pollution leaking overseas After sitting on it for a year, the government released the final report of a review into carbon leakage. The review considered the potential risks of companies moving industrial activity overseas due to Australia’s climate policies. If this happened, emissions might…
A forum is scheduled to discuss solutions. Kazakhstan has accumulated an estimated 200 million tons of radioactive waste, a staggering environmental legacy tied mainly to decades of uranium mining and military activity, according to reporting from The Times of Central Asia. What’s happening? According to the 2024 National Report on the State of the Environment and Natural Resource Use and more recent analysis, experts from the Central Asia Climate Foundation found that the waste includes contaminated soil, tailings, and other byproducts that can release harmful radiation and toxic chemicals into ecosystems and nearby communities. Kazakhstan is one of the world’s largest uranium producers,…
A series of new guidelines aim to standardize and mainstream ESG reporting by Chinese mining companies, but gaps remain. On 1 December 2025, the Chinese Mining Association released two documents to guide mining companies on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. Though voluntary, they are the first attempt by a Chinese industry body to standardise ESG practices in the Chinese mining sector. The sector includes some of the world’s largest mining companies, which are widely involved in extracting critical minerals. The environmental and social impacts of these minerals are currently poorly governed. A number of them are central to the…
TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has expressed interest in cooperating with the U.S. on developing rare-earth minerals off the coast of Japan, an issue that might make the agenda at her mid-March bilateral summit as the allies try to build a supply chain not overly dependent on China. “I would like to speed up this project with the full participation of the U.S.,” Takaichi said Feb. 8 of a Cabinet Office-led project that successfully test-drilled deep-sea mud believed to contain rare earths, speaking on a Nippon Broadcasting System program. The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology’s Chikyu research vessel…
Technologies for synthesising substitutes or alloys could cut time required to secure critical materials to just a few years. The route to challenging China’s supremacy in rare earth minerals lies in using artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing to create synthetic substitutes or alloys, according to a prominent American expert in AI. Jack Hidary, CEO of SandboxAQ, an AI and quantum technology Alphabet spin-off, said these technologies could cut the time required to secure critical materials to just a few years. This could bypass the traditional 10 to 20 years needed to bring a new mine online while also mitigating the geopolitical risks associated with concentrated…
For more than a decade, it was the deal mining billionaire Ivan Glasenberg had sought more than any other: putting Glencore Plc — the sprawling commodity trader-cum-miner he built — together with industry titan Rio Tinto Group. For much of the past month, it looked like Glasenberg was finally going to get his way. The two companies were locked in merger talks for at least the fourth time, and nearly everyone involved agreed that they had never been more serious. And then suddenly, with a deadline for Rio to make a firm bid looming, it all fell apart in less than 24…
Zambia’s mining regulator said on Monday that underground operations at Mopani Copper Mines’ Mufulira mine could resume immediately, after new safety measures were implemented. The Minerals Regulation Commission had said last week it had suspended operations at the mine after it failed to comply with safety regulations, specifically the requirement to maintain an accurate system to account for all its underground workers. Mopani Copper Mines is one of the biggest copper miners in Zambia, Africa’s second-largest producer of the metal vital for clean energy technologies. Safe working environment In its statement on Monday, the regulator said enhanced safety measures implemented by the…
First concentrate shipment from Ssangjon expected by June 2026, neighbouring a multi-billion-dollar producer, as the Company advances toward a planned public listing HAMILTON, BM / ACCESS Newswire / February 16, 2026 / Pure Tungsten Inc. (“Pure Tungsten” or the “Company”) announces plans to restart the Ssangjon mine in South Korea, a past-producing operation, with first production targeted for June 2026. The restart is expected to position the Company to supply tungsten into Western markets amid tightening global supply and increasing demand from defense and industrial sectors. Pure Tungsten CEO, Tiger Kim, commented:”We are very excited to bring the Ssangjon mine…