Basic themes are Quantitative easing is coming. This will likely mean commodities rise in price as printed money is devalued. The Chinese are starting to stimulate, the US fed is muttering and the Euro zone is getting ready
Copper supply is drying up and new large projects are facing substantial delays as the world moves further into the information age (they need copper for all those electronics) ; for example,
MANILA Aug 23 (Reuters) - A unit of global miner Xstrata Plc warned on Thursday it may delay the start of production at its $5.9-billion Tampakan copper-gold project in the southern Philippines as a result of regulatory and security concerns.
Until now, Sagittarius Mines has said it was confident it would be able to start production in 2016, despite being denied permission to start building the mine, which is believed to contain one of the world's biggest copper-gold deposits.
The firm had wanted to obtain environmental clearance early this year but the government refused, meaning mine construction -- expected to take 2-3 years -- is unlikely to start in 2013 as planned.
"Our project has experienced a number of challenges, particularly in the past twelve months," Sagittarius spokesman John Arnaldo said in an e-mailed statement.
"Until we have addressed these challenges, and obtained the necessary approvals from the government and community, it is difficult to nominate a definitive production date," he said.
The mine is estimated to contain 15 million tonnes of copper and 17.6 million ounces of gold. It is the biggest of several mining projects expected to bring in up to $12 billion in new investments to the Philippines in the next five years.
BHP slowed down Olympic dam expansion to a "future date"
Vale is getting ready...." Brazil's state development bank, BNDES, will lend 3.9 billion reais ($1.93 billion) to the company to boost logistics capacity at its biggest mine, the bank said on Thursday." Brazil also stated $60 billion US in infrastructure spending to prep for 2016 Olympics.
and perhaps most informative for our little company as it gets ready to move to production: Copper is going up for a number of reasons.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange climbed 0.9 percent in official trading to $7,675 per tonne, off an intraday peak of $7,705, the highest since July 20. The dollar sank to a two-month low versus a broad basket of currencies , making it cheaper for holders of other currencies to buy commodities priced in dollars. Copper has shed 12 percent since touching a peak of $8,765 in February. It has broken out of a range of $7,300-$7,600 that trapped it for several weeks, but must challenge $7,800 to spark further momentum, Bielski said. In China, the most-traded December copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange advanced 1.17 percent to close at 55,980 yuan ($8,800) per tonne.
AVB Price at posting:
8.2¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held