Engineering & Mining Journal

SEP 2017

Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr

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96 E&MJ; • SEPTEMBER 2017 www.e-mj.com MARKETS Metals prices were up across the board in August. Accord- ing to the E&MJ; Price Index, the spot price for gold in- creased $51.80/ounce (oz) or 4.1% during the month. Silver climbed $0.85/oz or 5.1%. Platinum group metals were all up 4% or more. Even the price of iron ore registered a positive movement of $3.05/ mt or 4.2%. The biggest prices swings were among the base metals. Nickel posted a $1,465/mt price improvement or 14.4%, followed by zinc, which post- ed a $370/mt gain or 13.4%. Aluminum prices increased $226.50/mt or 12%, and cop- per posted a $491.50/mt in- crease or a 7.8% improvement. Copper has been getting a lot of attention lately. It crossed the psycho- logically important $3/lb threshold during August. It fi nished the month at $3.09/lb. Copper prices have not reached this level since October 2014, when it was selling for $3.05/lb. The red metal has climbed $0.60 so far this year and it's up about 50% from the same time last year. The reason for the copper price climb is not clear. Many believe it's a direct re- sult of the missing production from Gras- berg in Indonesia and Escondida in Chile. That production loss has been offset somewhat from new production streams from Peru and Mexico. Others point to macroeconomics and believe copper is benefi ting from a weak- er dollar. The industry has seen better than expected consumption fi gures from China, and the economy does seem to be improving in general worldwide. Con- trarians point to speculative players in the market. Some analysts are saying copper is now seriously overbought and they are looking for a correction. While they wait for the other shoe to drop, they seem to be more cautious than bearish. Where the market goes from here, no one knows, but summer ended on a good note for miners in the Northern Hemisphere. Metal Miners Enjoy an August Rally By Steve Fiscor, Editor-in-Chief Gold and silver prices provided by KITCO Bullion dealers (www.kitco.com). Platinum group metals prices provided by Johnson Matthey (www.platinum.matthey.com). Non-ferrous base and minor metal prices provided by London Metal Exchange (www.lme.co.uk). Iron ore prices provided by Platts Iron Ore Index. Currency exchange rates were provided by www.xe.com. (August 31, 2017) Precious Metals ($/oz) Base Metals ($/mt) Minor Metals ($/mt) Exchange Rates (U.S.$ Equivalent) Gold $1,320.00 Aluminum $2,113.50 Molybdenum $16,000 Euro (€) 1.188 Silver $17.54 Copper $6,792.00 Cobalt $61,000 U.K. (£) 1.297 Platinum $990.00 Lead $2,373.00 Canada ($) 0.808 Palladium $940.00 Nickel $11,620.00 Iron Ore ($/dmt) Australia ($) 0.798 Rhodium $1,155.00 Tin $20,880.00 Fe CFR China $75.11 South Africa (Rand) 0.065 Ruthenium $65.00 Zinc $3,139.50 China (¥) 0.128 Copper prices in dollars per metric ton from January 2016 to present. (Source: London Metal Exchange)

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