Although gold’s had a good run, rising from a monthly average of $760.86/oz in November 2008 to $943.16/oz in February 2009, when will it take off? That’s still going to happen, right?
April 8th, 2009 | Jeff Clark | 0 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "mining industry"
The Road to Weimar
Over at the Wall Street Journal’s European edition (paid subscribers only), Frenchman Jacques Attali reckons we are all on the road to Weimar now. That is, he believes the entire planet may be headed for a depression and massive inflation. We are slouching towards Weimar Germany, where inflation was rampant…
February 16th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 7 comments | Continued
The Mining Finance Black Hole
Could this have worked out any better for China? We’re talking about the position Rio Tinto put itself in by taking on US$38 billion in debt to acquire Alcan—and stave off the unwanted advance of an amorous BHP. Now, in a world where refinancing that debt is near impossible for one of the world’s largest miners, it must sue for peace with a strategic partner…
February 13th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 4 comments | Continued
The Money Multiplier Goes to Work
Giving people who don’t pay a lot in taxes even more money is even more popular. So in that sense, the arrival of thousands of dollars in government cash to various Aussie households will ‘work’ in the sense that it distracts people from the ongoing disaster that is the world financial crisis. “Look honey! Free bread. Let’s go to the circus!” Please note that shuffling a bit of cash around will not lessen a national debt-to-GDP ratio of around 140%. Nor does it do much to create long-term jobs…
February 4th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 18 comments | Continued
Organic Contraction at BHP
BHP announced yesterday it was cutting six thousand jobs globally. It will shut down the nickel operation at the Ravensthorpe mine indefinitely and reducing production at the Mt. Keith Nickel mine. What’s more, it will reduce coking coal production by 15% in Queensland and lay off 1,000 workers. BHP is the world’s largest producer of coking coal, so this tell you how much the global demand for steel has fallen off…
January 22nd, 2009 | Dan Denning | 1 comment | Continued
The Coming Oil Back Draft
During the big run up to $150, national oil companies were cash cows. But it now appears that little of the oil bounty was reinvested in new production or even maintenance of existing production. So what do we have now? We have a situation here. A situation where the falling oil price is leading a big reduction in oil production. This will match, for a while reduced demand for oil. But we also think it’s baiting the trap for a huge blowback in oil prices. And the spark for that could be geopolitical…
January 19th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 1 comment | Continued
