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Sector Overview - Mainly quiet, but Deltec Diesels come out to play at NRM York

With the exception of palladium, which fell out of bed, precious metals prices were more stable yesterday. The gold price recovered almost US$5 per ounce ($/oz) to just over $1,310/oz, still on Federal Reserve watch, but supported by Mr. Trump’s speech to the United Nations. Silver remains a bit weaker, but recovered ten cents/oz yesterday to just over $17.20/oz. Platinum is another $5/oz easier at just under $955/oz; while palladium lost twice the previous day’s $15/oz gain and now stands at just under $910/oz. Overall, the local gold price is unchanged at £970/oz.

After Monday’s slight fall, base metals prices have mainly recovered, while lead & zinc appear independently strong and aluminium isn’t doing too bad either. Copper recovered the half US cent per pound ($/oz) loss seen on Monday to $2.95/lb.; Nickel did the same and is unchanged at $5.05/lb., having excursed below $5.00/lb.; aluminium is overall one cent/lb. firmer at 95.5 cents/lb. up half a cent/lb. yesterday; having lost half a cent/lb. on Monday; lead is up two cents today at $1.095/lb.; while zinc is overall up two cents/lb. at $1.415/lb., having gained one and a half cents/lb. on Monday.
There is a bit of noise on copper treatment charges which appear set to creep up a little. They remain well below historic norms.

Elsewhere www.mining.com reports that the Michiquilly white elephant copper project in Peru could have attracted a bid of US$2bn from local miner Buenaventura. There are synergies with Newmont Mining’s/Buenaventura’s Conga white elephant project nearby, but as that is stalled owing to problems with the locals, $2bn appears an expensive way of sorting out problems.

Apparently, Peru’s copper production, assuming currently constructed and under construction projects perform, is set to rise to 4.8 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) by 2021 from the 2.3 Mtpa seen last year. These projections don’t include anything from Conga or Michiquilly.
Iron ore is quite weak and has traded below US$70 per tonne, the lowest for four weeks. The usual suspects are holing up reasonably well with shares in Fortescue Metals (FMG-ASX) off a further 2%. Shares in both BHP Billiton (BLT) and Rio Tinto (RIO) have fallen by less than half that amount.