Archives for Commodities
Many believe John Maynard Keynes considered gold to be “a barbarous relic”. In actual fact he was referring to the fixed exchange rate between the British pound and gold. During WWI the combatants abandoned the gold standard to allow inflation to pay for the war. Once the war was over…
Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine said in early January that a bear market would commence when the long term trendline for US 30-year Treasuries is broken, and the yield rose above 2.99%. The rate was 3.08% last Friday, the day the DOW fell 2.5%. But Gundlach, in a webcast titled “Commodities:…
Increasing the share of electricity produced by wind and solar, and the trend to electric cars, will put considerable pressure on the mining industry. Already, according to the International Energy Agency, mining alone accounts for around 10% of the world’s energy consumption. This does not include energy consumed in processing…
For hundreds of years the gold silver ratio was around 15, that is, 15oz of silver buys 1oz of gold. This stability was important because both metals were used as currency (read the history of silver as a currency here and here). In fact, during the 19th century the ratio…
On Friday, Novo Resources Corp (TSXV: NVO) released a rather disappointing report on recent results from work on their Pilbara conglomerate gold project. The stock closed down 18% on the day and is now about 38% off its high. Read more about the Pilbara gold rush here and here. In…
Zircon Zircon (zirconium silicate – ZrSiO4) almost always has Zr replaced by rare earth elements. Hafnium is most common, often present in significant quantities, up to 5%. Uranium, thorium and yttrium also occur in the zircon lattice. When uranium and thorium are included in the lattice at the time of…