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An apparent coup is underway in Guinea, with heavy military presence and gunfire reported in the country’s capital of Conakry. Guinean President Alpha Conde has seemingly been detained by the military.The fate of Guinea's President Alpha Condé is unclear after an unverified video showed him surrounded by soldiers, who said they had seized power. They appeared on national TV claiming to have dissolved the government. However, the defence ministry said the attempted takeover had been thwarted by the presidential guard. This follows hours of heavy gunfire near the presidential palace in the capital, Conakry. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres and the...

The London Metal Exchange took action to calm turmoil in the copper market late on Tuesday by introducing temporary limits on some prices, after a plunge in stocks of the metal in its warehouses disrupted trading. The LME said it would adjust its rules requiring large holders of the metal to lend it back to the exchange. It also said it would bring in a limit on backwardation — a scenario whereby spot contracts trade at a premium to futures contracts, indicating that the market is undersupplied. Robust demand and rising copper prices pushed inventories of copper on the LME...

The chaotic moves in various energy markets around the world have spread to the metals markets with copper inventories available on the LME plunging to the lowest on record (since 1974), in a dramatic escalation of a squeeze on global supplies that sent spreads spiking and helped drive prices back above $10,000 a ton. Copper tracked by LME warehouses that’s not already earmarked for withdrawal has plunged 89% this month after a surge in orders for metal from warehouses in Europe.As Bloomberg reports, the last time that type of dynamic developed was during a historic squeeze in 2006, when a...

When Doc Copper speaks, investors should listen. And it may be that time again. The price of copper broke above the $4 mark early this year… but it’s struggled to maintain its momentum and is in a multi-month pullback. Today’s chart is a “weekly” chart of Copper. And as you can see, Doc Copper double topped just above $4 back in 2008 (leading to a 40% decline). And stocks followed the lead lower. Copper then rose to new highs in 2011 but struggled to hold above the $4 mark. Is this happening again today? Early this year copper tested those...

Afghanistan’s newly ensconced Taliban regime has been looking to China for major economic support, but the Taliban’s lithium-mining invitation to South Korea has displeased the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). To keep Beijing happy, the Taliban offered it copper mining rights.Enduring 20 years of war, Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. According to the World Bank, Afghanistan’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020 was $19.8 billion (compared to the United State’s $20.93 trillion), and its GDP per capita was only $508.8 (compared to United State’s $63,543.6). Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani revealed last year that 90 percent...

The union representing workers at Chile’s La Escondida copper mine said its members voted to reject the most recent contract offer from the mine’s owner and go on strike, potentially risking disruptions to the supply of a key metal as the world’s economy continues to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. BHP Group Ltd. -controlled Minera Escondida, located in Chile’s northern Atacama Desert, is the world’s largest copper mine, producing almost 5% of the world’s supply of the metal, which is used to make electrical wiring and motors and in construction, among many other applications. By law, the...

The Iron Age coins—known as potins due to the copper, tin and lead alloy used to make them—each measure about 1.2 inches in diameter. They show stylized images representing the Greek god Apollo on one side and a charging bull on the other. In England, potins have mostly been found around Kent, Essex and Hertfordshire. People in Britain may have begun making the coins around 150 B.C. The earliest versions were bulky disks known as Kentish Primary, or Thurrock, types. Comparatively, the newly discovered potins—now dubbed the Hillingdon Hoard—are of the “flat linear” type, which uses simplified and abstracted images....

…time to ignore Dr.Copper once again!? Copper prices plunged on Tuesday to their lowest levels in seven weeks over concerns about Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening and a pull-back in Chinese demand. From aluminum to copper to lead to nickel to tin to zinc, the entire base metal complex is down anywhere from 2-4%.Focusing on copper, future prices on the London Metal Exchange are down 4% to their lowest levels in seven weeks. Three-month LME copper futures were trading around $6,563 per ton, down 11% in 25 trading sessions since topping at $10,747 in early May. Copper prices soared to a...

Plaque with iron (l) and copper (r, in pink) (Everett, et al., Science Advances, 2021) ================================================================================ Set aside every scrap of iron inside a human body and you might have enough to fashion a nail or two. As for copper, you'd be lucky to extract just enough to make a small earring. Scarce as they are, these two metals are necessary for our survival, playing essential roles in human growth and metabolism. But one place we wouldn't expect to find either is clumped inside our brain cells. However, for people with the neurodegenerative disorder Alzheimer's disease, something seems to be...

the current environment of monetary stimulus, and fiscal stimulus in the form of trillions in government spending designed to boost borrowing and spending, combined with supply chain disruptions, has created the perfect conditions for inflation. The average person may not see it yet, but it’s coming. The numbers don’t lie. Over the past year the entire commodities complex, everything from copper and steel to crude oil, cotton and soybeans, has climbed steadily; the Thomson Reuters/ Core Commodity (CRB) Index is up 70% since last May. As the largest economies rebound from the pandemic amid massive government stimulus spending, manufacturing and...

On the heels of record highs in Iron Ore and Steel earlier this week, as commodity demand soars on the back of economies emerging from COVID lockdowns (demand) and various supply chain/operational issues (supply); copper prices surged to an all-time high this morning as Chinese investors unleashed fresh demand following a five-day holiday.Source: Bloomberg Bloomberg Intelligence strategist Mike McGlone said that “the reaction of copper to $10,000-a-ton resistance may set the inflation vs. deflation tone for years” As Mining.com reports, the reopening of major industrial economies is sparking a surge across commodities markets from corn to lumber, with tin climbing...

Copper for delivery in July was up 1.71% by 1:42 pm (EDT), with futures at $4.6015 per pound ($10,123 a tonne) on the Comex market in New York, over the $4.58 per pound high reached in February 2011. The reopening of major industrial economies is sparking a surge across commodities markets from corn to lumber, with tin climbing above $30,000 a tonne for the first time since 2011 also on Thursday. Copper has gained 28.1% since the end of last year and is up 114.9% from its 2020 low, hit in March of that year amid the global economic fallout...

Copper futures hit their highest levels in ten years on Monday as several factors, including supply concerns, a weaker dollar, the Biden administration's plan to improve infrastructure, growth in renewable energy, and China's increasing demand, continue to fuel expectations of higher demand for the industrial metal. The dollar continues to edge lower Monday amid speculation Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will not announce tapering at this week's meeting, fueling higher copper prices. Meanwhile, traders are concerned about supply due to a strike in Chile.  "We are in for a good run higher as we are having supply issues. Chilean...

About 8500 years ago, hunter-gatherers living beside Eagle Lake in Wisconsin hammered out a conical, 10-centimeter-long projectile point made of pure copper. The finely crafted point, used to hunt big game, highlights a New World technological triumph—and a puzzle. A new study of that artifact and other traces of prehistoric mining concludes that what is known as the Old Copper Culture emerged, then mysteriously faded, far earlier than once thought. The dates show that early Native Americans were among the first people in the world to mine metal and fashion it into tools. They also suggest a regional climate shift...

Denver Newsroom, Mar 19, 2021 / 03:01 am MT (CNA).- Israeli archaeologists announced this week the discovery of several new sets of Dead Sea Scrolls— ancient fragments of biblical text that have, for the past 70 years, contributed to scholars’ knowledge about the Old Testament. The new scroll fragments, which the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced March 16, include the books of Zechariah and Nahum, both minor prophets. Dr. John Bergsma, professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville who has written and spoken extensively on the Dead Sea Scrolls, told CNA that an interesting feature of the scrolls recently found...

Copper futures topped $4 a pound on Friday for the first time since 2011, with expectations for a global economic recovery and a rise in renewable energy sources lifting the industrial metal’s demand outlook.Copper demand and prices “should continue to benefit from a recovering global economy and [a] transition to “green” energy sources,” said Brent Cook, an economic geologist and senior adviser for the newsletter Exploration Insights.

LIMA (Reuters) - Peru’s Congress voted to oust President Martin Vizcarra on Monday in an impeachment trial over corruption allegations, the second such effort to remove him in a matter of months. The opposition-dominated Congress achieved the 87-vote threshold out of 130 needed to oust the centrist leader over accusations that he accepted bribes as a governor from companies that won public works contracts.

One of the world’s oldest workshops for smelting copper – going back some 6,500 years – has been uncovered in Beersheba by archaeologists at Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). The remnants go back to the Chalcolithic period – the word “chalcolithic” is made up of the Greek words for “copper” and “stone” – is so named because although metalworking was already in evidence, the tools used were still made of stone. An analysis of the isotopes of ore remnants in the furnace shards show that the raw ore was brought to Neveh Noy neighborhood from Wadi...

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released its final environmental impact statement on Friday which found gold and copper mining in Alaska “would not be expected to have a measurable effect on fish numbers.” That clears the final hurdle for the Corps to issue a permit this year to Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., the Canadian company that has proposed the mining operation in the state. Environmentalists oppose the project and the Obama administration did what it could to keep the Alaskan wilderness off limits to energy production. “In a scientific review conducted under the Obama administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection...

The first recorded use of copper as an infection-killing agent comes from Smith's Papyrus, the oldest-known medical document in history. The information therein has been ascribed to an Egyptian doctor circa 1700 B.C. but is based on information that dates back as far as 3200 B.C. Egyptians designated the ankh symbol, representing eternal life, to denote copper in hieroglyphs. As far back as 1,600 B.C., the Chinese used copper coins as medication to treat heart and stomach pain as well as bladder diseases. The sea-faring Phoenicians inserted shavings from their bronze swords into battle wounds to prevent infection. For thousands...