Gulf States' Attraction to Metals Continues

Gulf states are getting further involved in the metals & energy supply chain, setting up trading units for their own production and needs, and setting up funds to take stakes in mining companies and projects.

Abu Dhabi-based International Resources Holding, the mining company part of the conglomerate chaired by powerful Emirati royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, and owner of 51% of Zambia's Mopani Copper mine, has built out a 60-person trading unit to handle energy and metals. 

Minerals Development Oman, the state-owned mining company, is also in the process of hiring a top executive to lead a 25-person trading team, according to MDO's chief executive, Mattar Al Badi.

Saudi Arabia's State-owned miner

$550BN will shift from #Commodities importers to exporters in 2021, nearly 2X the $280BN reverse transfer in 2020 as prices collapsed.

Winners & Losers From Surge in Commodity Prices 

Gains for commodity exporters will easily outweigh their losses last year as the pandemic spread and crushed demand for raw materials: 

Bloomberg Economics estimates that $550 billion will shift from importers to exporters in 2021, nearly double the $280 billion reverse transfer last year when prices collapsed.

In absolute terms, Russia will benefit the most. China's net exports will drop by around $218 billion — far higher than the figures of around $55 billion for the next-worst off countries, India and Japan. 

See the whole article on Bloomberg here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-30/here-s-who-wins-and-who-loses-from-the-surge-in-commodity-prices

bit.ly/MasterMetals

#Zinc @LME hits 18-month high of $2,793/t Friday-outperforming high-flying Dr. #Copper-on supply squeeze, even as stealth stocks build

Shanghai zinc trades like a steel derivative -

Zinc soars on supply squeeze even as stealth stocks build

Andy Home

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) - Zinc has emerged as the unlikely star performer in the London Metal Exchange (LME) base metals suite.

LME three-month zinc CMZN3 hit a fresh 18-month high of $2,793 per tonne on Friday and is even outperforming high-flying copper.

The trigger for the latest leap higher was news that the Gamsberg mine in South Africa is shuttered until further notice while a search continues for two miners missing after an accident.

This is another unexpected hit to a raw materials supply chain already wrecked by COVID-19 mine lockdowns.

Demand, meanwhile, is running strong in China, where zinc has been sucked into steel's bull orbit.

Junior #MiningStocks Investor Checklist How to Avoid Common Mistakes -Part 1: Team

Junior mining stocks - small publicly-traded companies looking to hit the jackpot with a big discovery - are well-known for offering both extremely High Returns, with the correspondingly High Risk.

In  order to help the investor separate the wheat from the chaff among the universe of thousands of available companies out there, Visual Capitalist, in partnership with Eclipse Gold Mining, is putting together a five-part series on the mistakes investors commonly make when evaluating mining exploration stocks. 

The first instalment covers the Management Team, focusing on what to look for, including the characters you’ll want to avoid! 

The second part covers the Business Plan, or lack thereof!  The upcoming parts in the series will cover jurisdiction, project quality, and more.

From Visual Capitalist:

Management Team Checklist

If you’ve ever researched mining exploration stocks before, it doesn’t take long to realize that every company will talk about how “great” their team is.

Here’s a few steps to ensure that the team is actually great — and not filled with pretenders.

Step 1: Avoid the Bad Characters

The mining stock universe can be filled with interesting and amusing characters, but many of them are not there to generate you a return. Here are the personas you should aim to avoid:

1. 

   The Pump n’ Dumper

   Accumulates stock at insanely low prices, raises money, and then uses gray-area promotional strategies. Sells stock as soon as price is high enough to make a profit.

#EV's: Electric-Car Dreams Could Fall a #Nickel Short

 

There is a risk a long-term surge fueled by electric vehicles could again drive innovation and bring nickel down to earth. Still, many miners and analysts are skeptical on the options for swapping out
nickel, at least for the next decade or so.

Global producers of electric cars have big ambitions and a bigger problem: Supplies of a key material, nickel, are lacking.





Electric-Car Dreams Could Fall a Nickel Short