Jervois Mining [ASX:JRV] has shocked investors by putting a temporary hold on final construction at Idaho Cobalt Operations (ICO). The group has said this is necessary action it must take in response to continuing low cobalt prices and the impacts of inflation on construction costs in the US. The miner expects cobalt prices to recover in the medium term, especially with the ongoing push to renewable energy, however, shareholders were nonetheless quite affected. Shares for JRV crashed as much as 42% by the early afternoon, trading for as little as 6 cents. So far in the year the miner’s stock h ..read more

Critical metals and clean energy front runner IGO [ASX:IGO] has released its latest news on the pegmatite diamond drilling at its joint-owned lithium project at Mt Alexander. IGO listed the highlights for testing at the Manta seismic reflector, with a total of 225 metres of pegmatites intersecting within the MAD213 hole. The miners have been drilling 121 metres of continuous pegmatite interval drilling at the reflector and have found a continuous collection of coarsely crystalline pegmatites. These pegmatite samples have been sent for assaying, and more drilling is due to commence in April. IG ..read more

Lithium stocks are showing signs of life. Yesterday, shares for Core Lithium [ASX:CXO] closed 15% higher, Pilbara Minerals [ASX:PLS] was up 12%, and Allkem [ASX:AKE] increased close to 14%. The star of the day though — and the reason for the wake-up call — was Liontown Resources [ASX:LTR], who shot up a whopping 70%. Shares moved after Liontown’s board rejected a $5.5 billion takeover cash bid from lithium giant Albemarle. Albemarle offered to pay $2.50 a share for the company, or an around 64% premium over Monday’s close price. Liontown’s board response was thanks, but no thanks. Not only did ..read more

Vancouver-based gold, silver, zinc, and tin producer SSR Mining [ASX:SSR] — and owner of the largest silver mine in Argentina — has been inching up in the share market today after releasing news of its Puna project in the Jujuy Province of northern Argentina.   SSR revealed that 27 of 48 holes reported targeted extension of the Chinchillas mineralisation to the east, northeast and at depth while also intersecting mineralisation at the Melina zone and Socavon Del Diablo.   The miner’s stock was moving up just over 2% by the early afternoon on Tuesday, with its share price tr ..read more

‘The Dow fell 530 points on Wednesday as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s comments that her department hadn’t discussed blanket protections for bank deposits appeared to overshadow a Fed interest rate hike and press conference, as well as the release of the central bank’s latest batch of economic projections. ‘…investors reassessed the market’s negative reaction to events late in the previous session.’ The bad news was now good news. Down was up. Left was right. The Fed raised rates by 25 basis points (0.25%). In the morning, investors thought they saw Janet Yellen at work. But by the after ..read more

Governments are ‘problem creators’, not ‘solution providers’. Overpromise, under-delivery, and massive cost blowouts are par for the course with almost every headline grabbing political thought bubble. Personally, when it comes to elections, my vote goes to the person who promises the least. They’ll have told less lies and will break less promises. But I accept this is the minority view. Society, in the main, wants, wants, wants. Appalling track records on the delivery of promises and an inability to exercise budget restraint appear to be irrelevant considerations. Experience overwhelmingly sh ..read more

The Bank of Queensland [ASX:BOQ] has found its new Chief Executive in existing Executive Chairman Patrick Allaway. Allaway will shift from Chairman to the bank’s new CEO on an interim basis from today until December 2024 to ensure ‘stability and continuity’ while the bank continues its search for a long-term CEO. BOQ was rising more than 1% after the announcement, trading at around $6.47 a share mere hours afterwards. The group has had its challenges while it works to shift through optimisation strategies in the absence of a CEO, and has dropped more than 6% in value so far in 2023: www.Tradi ..read more

Established and dynamic lithium carbonate and boron suppliers, Allkem [ASX:AKE], revealed a resource increase of 27% to 20.7 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) for its project in the Olaroz-Cauchari basin. This ups the total resources in the basin to 27 million tonnes of LCE in all resource categories. Yet in spite of the news, AKE shares were mostly flat, dipping a half a percent to keep the share price around the value of $10.10 each a share. AKE is now a far cry from its November highs of $16–16.20 a share, with the market largely falling out of favour with lithium as pric ..read more

Janet Yellen, 20 June 2017 According to a recent study, the US banking system — heavily regulated by Janet Yellen, her forerunners, and successors — faces huge losses. We’re not experts in banking, but we think we understand the basic model. Banks take in cash from depositors and ‘lend’ it out or ‘invest’ it. The depositors can ask for their money back at any time. But the loans and investments only come back when they are ready. Between the two time periods, long and short, the banks can get squeezed…if depositors suddenly want their money back. Central banks were set up to prevent it. In a c ..read more

The corner that central bankers have painted themselves into is getting mighty small now. And the potential consequences for investors are getting ever more extreme. Today, we explore the trade-off which central bankers face. The impossible choice they have to make about your financial future. On the one side is inflation. Rising prices wreak havoc on the economy in a long list of ways. With wages lagging behind price increases, I don’t need to elaborate on that too much. The solution to inflation is, of course, tighter monetary policy. Which is patently absurd if you think about it. I mean, i ..read more