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Lucara Unearths 2,492 Carat Diamond in Botswana, Second Largest in History

Lucara Diamond (TSX:LUC,OTC Pink:LUCRF) announced the discovery of an ‘epic’ 2,492 carat diamond at its Karowe mine in Botswana on Wednesday (August 21), saying it is one of the largest rough diamonds ever found.

Media reports indicate that it is second only to the 3,106 carat Cullinan diamond found in South Africa in 1905.

The site where the diamond was discovered is no stranger to producing large stones. Previous significant discoveries from Karowe include the 1,758 carat Sewelô and the 1,109 carat Lesedi La Rona diamonds.

The Sewelô diamond, discovered by Lucara in 2019, was eventually sold to luxury brand Louis Vuitton. Its unconventional black appearance made it difficult to determine its gem potential, and the selling price wasn’t disclosed.

At the time Sewelô was considered the world’s second largest diamond.

Prior to that, Lucara sold the Lesedi La Rona diamond to a British jeweler in 2017 for US$53 million. It was eventually cut into several high-quality diamonds, the largest of which weighed over 300 carats.

This latest find is expected to further solidify the Karowe mine’s reputation as one of the world’s most productive sources of large diamonds. While Lucara has not disclosed the value of the 2,492 carat stone, its size alone makes it historically significant and suggests that it could be worth tens of millions of dollars, particularly if it is of high gem quality.

“The ability to recover such a massive, high-quality stone intact demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach to diamond recovery and our commitment to maximizing value for our shareholders and stakeholders,’ said President and CEO William Lamb in the company’s press release, emphasizing the ongoing potential of Karowe.

On Thursday (August 22), Mokgweetsi Masisi, Botswana’s president, was among the first to see the diamond. Botswana is currently the leading diamond producer by value globally, second only to Russia in terms of overall production.

Lucara’s discovery comes at a time when the country is trying to ensure that more profits from diamond mining stay within its borders. Last month, Botswana’s government proposed a law requiring mining companies to sell a 24 percent stake in their operations to local investors unless the government itself decides to take the stake.

Furthermore, the country has been working to increase its influence in the industry, particularly through negotiations with De Beers, the world’s largest diamond producer, through a new 10 year agreement signed last year.

Lucara’s use of cutting-edge X-ray transmission technology has played a crucial role in its discoveries. Implemented in 2017, it allows for the detection of large, valuable stones during the recovery process, minimizing the risk of damage.

In the diamond industry, the value of a diamond is determined not just by size, but also by its color, clarity and the number of polished stones that can be cut from it.

For now, the company is withholding specifics regarding the potential for cutting the diamond into individual gems.

Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

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John Rubino: Gold, Silver, Miners — How to Invest with Global Financial System in Crisis

‘Gold is a big deal and it’s becoming a bigger deal — and that’s because it is real money,’ he said, noting that the yellow metal has been used as a store of value and a currency for thousands of years.

‘With that kind of history, you can say with some degree of certainty that the next time we screw up the financial system, gold will behave the way it’s always behaved — a lot of capital will flow into it, its price in local currency terms will go up and it’ll protect people’s purchasing power,’ Rubino explained during the conversation.

In his view, a recession probably should have happened in the US a few years ago. However, during the pandemic many people built up excess savings as the government issued stimulus checks, and that money has kept a downturn at bay.

Now, said Rubino, that’s changing. People have spent their excess savings, and are borrowing, even using credit cards to pay for necessities like gas and rent. Eventually consumer spending will take a hit, as will the US economy. At the same time, the US government has borrowed huge amounts of money and must now deal with the interest cost on its debt.

‘We should expect a recession and equities bear market. And then a government bailout of basically everybody in sight,’ said Rubino. ‘The question becomes: Is it possible for the world’s governments that are already this deeply indebted to bail out their banking systems and their pension funds, and their insurance companies and their real estate sectors?’

He believes there’s a ‘decent chance’ that it won’t be doable, and he’s looking to gold and silver, as well as energy assets, for protection. More sophisticated investors may also want to consider shorting the stock market.

‘I think there’s a very good chance with all the volatility that’s coming that people who time this right don’t just ride it out, they actually make a lot of money,’ Rubino said. Watch the interview above for his full thoughts.

Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

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Mawson Finland Closes IPO and Announces Listing on TSXV

Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for dissemination in the United States.

Mawson Finland Limited (‘ Mawson ‘ or the ‘ Company ‘) (TSXV: MFL) is pleased to announce the closing of its previously announced initial public offering (the ‘ IPO ‘) of common shares in the capital of the Company (each, an ‘ IPO Share ‘). Pursuant to the IPO, Mawson issued 2,875,000 IPO Shares at a price of $1.00 per IPO Share, including 375,000 IPO Shares following the exercise in full by the agent of its over-allotment option, for aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of $2,875,000.

As a result of the closing of the IPO, the Company now has 3,625,000 common shares issued and outstanding. Additionally, 15,424,735 previously-issued and outstanding special warrants of the Company (the ‘ Special Warrants ‘) will be deemed to be exercised (without any further action or additional consideration) at 5:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on the date hereof. Following this exercise, there will be 19,050,235 common shares in the capital of the Company issued and outstanding.

The Company has also received final approval to list its common shares, including the IPO Shares and all shares resulting from exercise of the Special Warrants, on the TSX Venture Exchange (‘ TSXV ‘). The Company’s common shares will commence trading on the TSXV under the symbol ‘MFL’ on Monday, August 19, 2024.

The net proceeds from the IPO will be expended on the remainder of the work program recommended in the revised preliminary economic assessment on the Company’s wholly-owned Rajapalot property, entitled ‘ NI 43-101 Technical Report on a Preliminary Economic Assessment of the Rajapalot Gold-Cobalt Project, Finland ‘, with an effective date of December 19, 2023, which the Company has filed and which is available on SEDAR+ (the ‘ PEA ‘), and on general and administrative expenses, as well as for general working capital purposes, all as more particularly described in the final prospectus of the Company dated July 19, 2024, which the Company has filed and which is available on SEDAR+. The Corporation may reallocate the use of funds from the IPO for sound business reasons.

The Rajapalot property is an exploration and development project that is highly prospective for orogenic-style gold mineralizing systems and that currently comprises an inferred gold-cobalt resource with contained metal of 867 koz of gold and 4,310 t of cobalt (9.78 Mt @ 2.8 g/t Au and 441 ppm Co). The PEA has demonstrated potential for strong development economics, including a US$211 million post-tax NPV5 using metal prices of US$1,700/Oz gold and US$60,000/t cobalt. The PEA shows a 9-year mine life producing an approximate average of 78 koz of gold and 311 tonnes of cobalt per year, for total production of approximately 700 koz of gold and 2,800 t cobalt over the life of mine, with an All-In Sustaining Cost (‘ AISC ‘) of US$824/ounce of gold.

The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that the PEA will be realized.

Eight Capital (‘ Eight ‘) acted as the agent (the ‘ Agent ‘) for the IPO. The Agent received commission equal to 6% of the gross proceeds received by the Corporation from the Offering, excluding proceeds that resulted from subscriptions for 1,700,000 IPO Shares by select persons designated by the Corporation on its President’s List.

The common shares have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the ‘ U.S. Securities Act ‘), or the securities laws of any state of the United States, and may not be offered, sold or delivered, directly or indirectly, in the ‘United States’ (as such term is defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act), except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities, in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

About Mawson Finland Limited

Mawson Finland is an exploration stage mining development company engaged in the acquisition and exploration of precious and base metal properties in Finland. The Company is primarily focused on gold and cobalt. The Corporation currently holds a 100% interest in the Rajapalot Gold-Cobalt Project located in Finland. The Rompas-Rajapalot Property consists of 11 granted exploration permits for 10,204 hectares and 2 exploration permit applications and a reservation notification area for a combined total of 40,496 hectares. In Finland, all operations are carried out through the company’s fully owned subsidiary, Mawson Oy. The Company maintains an active local presence of Finnish staff with close ties to the communities of Rajapalot.

Additional disclosure including the Company’s financial statements, technical reports, news releases and other information can be obtained at mawsonfinland.com or on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca .

Media and Investor Relations Inquiries

Please contact: Neil MacRae Executive Chairman at neil@mawsonfinland.com or +1 (778) 999-4653, or Noora Ahola Chief Executive Officer at nahola@mawson.fi or +358 (505) 213-515.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. No securities regulatory authority has reviewed or approved of the contents of this news release.

Qualified Person and Technical Information

Technical and scientific information contained herein relating to the Rajapalot project located in Finland is derived from the PEA, which was prepared for the Company by Christopher Bray, BEng (Mining), MAusIMM(CP), of SRK Consulting (UK) Limited, Ove Klavér, MSc (Geology), Eur.Geol., FAMMP, of GeoPool Oy, Eemeli Rantala, MSc (Geology), P.Geo., of AFRY Finland Oy, Craig Brown, B.E. (Chem), GradDipGeosci, FAusIMM, of Resources Engineering & Management Pty Ltd, and Mathieu Gosselin, P.Eng., of Gosselin Mining AB. The PEA was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (‘ NI 43-101 ‘).

The technical and scientific information in this news release was reviewed and approved by Dr. Thomas Fromhold, an employee of Fromhold Geoconsult AB, and Member of The Australian Institute of Geosciences (MAIG, Membership No. 8838). Mr. Fromhold is a ‘qualified person’ as defined under NI 43-101.

The PEA is based on technical data, documents, reports and information supplied by Mawson Oy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, including copies of concession application and award documents, historical reports on exploration and drilling, and internal reports by Mawson Oy staff and consultants/contractors. The specific reports which form the basis for the PEA are listed in Section 27 of the PEA. Please see the PEA for discussion of, among other things, data verification and additional exploration information applicable to the technical disclosure herein provided.

Non-IFRS Financial Measures

The Company has included in this news release a reference to All-In Sustaining Cost, which is not a measure recognized under IFRS. AISC does not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. As a result, this measure may not be comparable to similar measures reported by other corporations. The AISC measure is intended to provide additional information to the user and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures prepared in accordance with IFRS.

In this news release, AISC is reflective of all the expenditures that are required to produce an ounce of gold from operations. AISC reported in the PEA includes total cash costs, sustaining capital and closure costs, but excludes corporate general and administrative costs and salvage. AISC per Ounce is calculated as AISC divided by payable gold ounces.

For a discussion of the use of this and other non-IFRS measures in the PEA see Section 22 thereof.

Forward-looking Information

This news release includes certain ‘forward-looking information’ and ‘forward-looking statements’ within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, ‘forward-looking information’) which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, estimates and statements that describe the Company’s future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking information may be identified by such terms as ‘believes’, ‘anticipates’, ‘expects’, ‘estimates’, ‘may’, ‘could’, ‘would’, ‘will’, ‘must’ or ‘plan’. Since forward-looking information is based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on information currently available to the Company, the Company provides no assurance that actual results will meet management’s expectations. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward-looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, listing of the Company’s common shares on the TSXV or any other exchange, the Company’s intended use of proceeds from the IPO, the Company’s objectives, goals or future plans, statements, exploration results, potential mineralization, the estimation of mineral resources, exploration and mine development plans, all values, estimates and expectations drawn from or based upon the PEA, and estimates of market conditions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: the TSXV withdrawing from the Company final approval to list its common shares, any change in industry or wider economic conditions which could cause the Company to use proceeds from the IPO otherwise than as heretofore disclosed, failure to identify mineral resources, failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves, the inability to complete a feasibility study which recommends a production decision, the preliminary and uncertain nature of the PEA, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects, capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, and those risks set out in the Company’s public documents filed on SEDAR+. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.

News Provided by GlobeNewswire via QuoteMedia

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Space Mining Startup AstroForge Sets Sights on Off-Earth Mission in 2025

Asteroid-mining startup AstroForge is making waves with its plan to land on a near-Earth asteroid in 2025.

The company announced the expedition on Tuesday (August 20), also revealing that it has raised US$40 million in a Series A funding round, bringing the total capital it has accumulated to US$55 million.

The mission will use AstroForge’s Vestri probe, a 440 pound spacecraft designed to dock with a metallic asteroid. The launch is scheduled to take place as a ridealong on Intuitive Machines’ (NASDAQ:LUNR) IM-3 Moon mission.

If successful, it will be the first privately funded mission to land on a celestial body beyond the Earth-Moon system.

Founded in January 2022, AstroForge is looking to pioneer off-Earth mining and make off-world resources available for commercial use. While other space ventures are targeting water extraction from asteroids, AstroForge is concentrating on mining metals, with the goal of unlocking cost-effective and sustainable solutions to address resource depletion.

The California-based company hopes that it will be able to develop a new supply chain for critical raw materials.

The upcoming asteroid-landing mission is its third in a series of exploratory space ventures.

The company’s first mission, Brokkr-1, was launched in April 2023 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Although the firm’s primary goal of demonstrating refinery technology in space was not achieved — due to the AstroForge team’s inability to activate the probe’s refinery payload — the mission provided valuable experience.

AstroForge’s second mission, Odin, is set to launch later this year. Odin will serve as a precursor to the 2025 asteroid-landing mission by gathering crucial data about the target asteroid.

The Odin spacecraft will be a secondary payload on Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission to the Moon. It will focus on imaging the asteroid, giving AstroForge critical insights for its subsequent mining efforts. Odin, a 220 pound vehicle built entirely in-house, is replacing an earlier version of the spacecraft that failed vibration testing in March 2023.

AstroForge’s third mission will play a pivotal role in characterizing the composition of the targeted asteroid. The company’s goal is to assess both the quality and quantity of the valuable elements on the asteroid.

Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

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What is Coltan? 5 Facts to Know About the Conflict Mineral (Updated 2024)

You may not have heard of coltan, but it’s a key raw mineral whose components are found in everyday technologies from smartphones to laptops as well as advanced medical equipment.

However, the supply chain for the black metallic mineral has faced controversy given that the vast majority of coltan comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an African nation that was locked in civil war in the past, with unrest still continuing today.

Coltan is one of the mineral resources that is playing an important role in the technological revolution. As demand for coltan and the metals inside it grows, understanding its value in the global supply chain and our daily lives is important. Here are five coltan facts you should know.

1. What is coltan and where is it mined?

Short for columbite-tantalite, coltan ore itself hosts columbite, also known as niobite, and tantalite, which contain the technology elements niobium and tantalum respectively.

Brazil, Canada and the Democratic Republic of Congo are the leading producers of niobium, with Brazil making up about 90 percent of global production alone. Brazil’s niobium production has ramped up significantly in recent years. The country hosts significant coltan reserves, and is the third largest producer of tantalum.

The Congo is the global leader in tantalum production by quite a large margin, but it is not the only country in Africa where coltan is found. Rwanda, located next door in Central Africa, holds second place for tantalum production and also hosts significant coltan reserves. In the two nations, coltan is generally mined via artisanal operations.

Unfortunately, Rwanda was involved in a bloody civil war that resulted in violence and instability. There has been widespread speculation, including by the United Nations, that some of Rwanda’s mineral production comes from smuggling in resources from other countries.

The aftermath of war has left both the DRC and Rwanda vulnerable to militia and other groups that often fight over control of the valuable mineral resource sector. We discuss coltan’s conflict mineral status in depth in number 5.

2. What is coltan used for?

Coltan and its elements niobium and tantalum, have a wide variety of uses in today’s economy, including in electronics, steel and medical devices. Although they are often found together, each have very different properties and applications.

As the US Geological Survey notes, tantalum is key for the world’s electronics industry. The majority of tantalum is used to manufacture electronic capacitors, a fundamental component of smartphones and other in-demand electronics. Tantalum is extremely ductile and can be drawn into a thin wire, and its high thermal and conductivity properties make tantalum heat resistant powders especially useful in electronics. Because it causes no immune response in the human body, it is used to make surgical appliances, as a replacement for bone, as a connector of torn nerves and as a binding agent for muscles. Meanwhile, niobium is used worldwide mainly in high-strength, low-alloy steels.

3. Why is coltan used in electronics?

Tantalum, after its extraction from coltan, is used in electronics due to its high density, superior conductivity and excellent thermal properties. All of these properties also allow for electrical charges to be easily stored in small capacitors. The metal has contributed exceedingly to the miniaturization of small electronic devices such as cell phones.

Tantalum is also in high demand for use in high-performance technologies where power failure is not an option. Hence, the automobile, satellite, aerospace, military equipment and medical device sectors represent significant end markets for the metal. The battery industry is another key market for tantalum, due to the metal’s ability to enhance energy density.

4. How is coltan mined?

Coltan is found in pegmatite ore bodies, which are mapped and mined by teams of artisanal miners.

They use several methods to process the ore, depending on the equipment available at the mining site, with the most common processing techniques being sluicing and panning. In panning, the rock and sand are panned and filtered until the coltan mineral sinks to the bottom.

Artisanal mining process for coltan.

Nada B / Shutterstock

Much of the labor is manual and conditions are harsh. It is not only adults working as artisanal miners; often, children and teenagers are used as child laborers in the mines.

5. What is conflict coltan?

Conflict coltan refers to what many investors are no doubt aware of: tantalum’s conflict mineral status. There have been reports that neighboring countries in Central Africa, including Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, have smuggled Congolese coltan to fund conflicts in the region, although all countries deny that is the case.

In May 2024, the DRC accused Rwanda of using the rebel group M23 to steal its mineral resources after the group took over a coltan mining town in the Eastern Congo.

‘Rwanda is the preferred route for the illicit trade in these minerals, primarily coltan,’ according to a 2023 investigative journalism article published by the Pulitzer Center. ‘Unlike the Congolese government, it does not tax mineral imports and the country’s legislation allows imported goods to be recognized as Rwandan goods if they undergo further processing in the country with at least 30% added value.’

So where does all of this coltan end up? Its path is hard to trace, but regulatory authorities are doing their best to ensure that electronics corporations are not funding conflict in the Congo by buying coltan and thus contributing to human rights violations through their exploitation of natural resources. However, not all electronics companies are transparent about their supply chains.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s conflict minerals law, part of the Dodd-Frank Act, requires publicly traded manufacturers to disclose to investors whether any of the tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold (3TG) used in their products may have originated in the DRC. Taking it a step further, the European Parliament voted in May 2015 to move to ban all products containing conflict minerals. The new law came into effect in January 2021.

There has also been a push towards holding mining companies accountable for the integrity and validity of their supply chains. This has led to talks about integrating supply chain due diligence through the blockchain and increasing government intervention to better monitor and control the sourcing of coltan and its by-product metals.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), which uses the metal in its manufacturing, is working to make the Rwandan tantalum mining industry more transparent, as is UK-based technology company Circular which has designed a blockchain tracing system to help determine the origins of tantalum produced in Rwanda.

However, there has been a lot of criticism of the Dodd-Frank Act in recent years, namely that it places most of the onus on private companies to regulate their own supply chains, without providing clear guidelines for how to accomplish such a complicated feat.

Other developments include the US government’s December 2022 memorandum of understanding with the DRC and Zambia that is seeking to ‘facilitate the development of an integrated value chain for the production of electric vehicle batteries in the DRC and Zambia, ranging from raw material extraction, to processing, manufacturing, and assembly.’

While both countries are major mineral producers, their mines are largely controlled by Chinese companies, and their resources are processed outside of Africa. If the agreement with the US goes through, it would open the door to domestic processing and development and serve as a way to counter China’s influence in the supply chain. However, there has been criticism of the US’ move due to the labor concerns in these countries.

The US is also involved in the development of the Lobito Corridor and the Zambia-Lobito Rail Line connecting the DRC and Zambia to Angola’s Port of Lobito. ‘When complete, the project is expected to reduce transportation time, lower costs, and decrease the carbon footprint associated with exporting metals and other products,’ the USGS reported.

Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Pistilli, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

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5 Biggest Gold ETFs in 2024

Gold exchange-traded funds, or gold ETFs, have risen in popularity among investors who want precious metals exposure.

ETFs are similar to mutual funds in that they track assets such as stocks, bonds, currencies or commodities; a key difference is that ETFs can be bought and sold on exchanges, making them widely accessible. They provide considerable flexibility in implementing various investment strategies and in building investment portfolios.

Like other ETFs, gold ETFs are traded in the same manner as individual stocks, meaning that investing in the gold ETF market is similar to trading a stock on an exchange.

There are two main types of gold ETFs: those that track the gold price and those that hold investments in gold companies.

ETFs that follow the gold price give investors access to the yellow metal by holding either physical gold bullion or gold futures contracts. It is important to keep in mind that investing in the majority of gold ETFs does not allow investors to own any physical gold — in general, even a gold ETF that tracks physical gold cannot be redeemed for actual gold, although there are a few exceptions to that. One more thing to keep in mind is that gold ETFs that hold physical gold are taxed as collectibles in the US, giving them a higher maximum capital gains rate, which is worth noting for investors in the highest tax bracket.

The other type of gold ETF invests in gold companies, providing exposure to gold-mining, development and exploration stocks, as well as gold royalty stocks.

Read on to learn about the benefits of adding gold ETFs to your portfolio, the five largest gold ETFs by total assets and popular gold mining ETF options.

What are the benefits of gold ETFs?

Gold ETFs are fairly common today, and are a good choice for investors who want to invest in precious metals without trading gold futures or owning physical gold, such as gold coins or bars.

But gold ETFs are often considered a lower-risk investment, as they have a number of benefits for market participants and can open up a portfolio to diversification.

For example, physical gold is known for being a hedge against economic and political uncertainty, and owning shares of a gold ETF that offers exposure to the gold spot price provides investors with this same security without the hassle of buying and storing the yellow metal.

Since gold tends to rise when the US dollar is weak, purchasing a gold ETF could balance out any investment that has the potential to decline when the greenback does. Conversely, selling gold ETF holdings can be beneficial when the US dollar is making gains.

Gold ETFs that track gold companies give investors exposure to multiple companies in the space rather than having to choose specific stocks. This is an appealing option for those who want exposure to the sector without carrying the risks of investing in an individual stock.

Gold ETFs as a whole also offer security in that they are managed by yellow metal experts, so there is a better chance of making a profit than going it alone. Of course, it is important to keep in mind that, despite their less risky nature, gold ETFs are still affected by the rise and fall of the gold price.

Mutual funds are often compared to ETFs, but due to the fact that mutual funds can only be bought or sold at the close of the trading day, gold ETFs become more beneficial as they can be traded whenever the stock market is open, meaning movement is more liquid and not tied down by end-of-day trades.

5 biggest gold ETFs in 2024

So which gold ETFs are the best? And which ones will provide long-term capital gains? It depends on the investor and their investment objective, but the five gold ETFs below may be worth considering when it comes to getting exposure to the yellow metal. According to ETFdb.com, they were the largest gold ETFs by total assets as of August 17, 2024. The five largest gold ETFs all track the gold price, but investors also interested in gold mining ETFs can also learn about the most popular options after this list.

1. SPDR Gold Shares (ARCA:GLD)

Company Profile

Total assets: US$68,640.4 million

The SPDR Gold Shares tracks the spot price of gold bullion and is determined by market forces in the 24 hour, over-the-counter market for gold. This market accounts for most global gold trade, and any quoted prices available to ETF investors reflect the latest available information.

Physical bullion comprises 100 percent of the ETF’s holdings, and its expense ratio is 0.4 percent. It offers investors a way to invest in gold that is much less costly than purchasing, storing and insuring bars or coins.

2. iShares Gold Trust (ARCA:IAU)

Company Profile

Total assets: US$29,076.8 million

Like the SPDR Gold Trust, the iShares Gold Trust aims to track the spot price of gold bullion. Its expense ratio is 0.25 percent, and its holdings are allocated entirely to physical gold bullion. The aim is for the trust’s value to reflect the performance of the price of gold.

The physical gold the trust holds is in vaults in New York, Toronto, London and other locations. Investors can purchase and sell shares through a traditional brokerage account throughout the trading day.

3. SPDR Gold MiniShares Trust (ARCA:GLDM)

Company Profile

Total assets: US$8,269.97 million

The SPDR Gold MiniShares Trust offers investors one of the lowest available expense ratios for a US-listed ETF backed by physical gold at 0.1 percent. This ETF represents fractional, undivided beneficial ownership interests in the trust, which holds only physical gold bullion and, from time to time, cash.

4. Abrdn Physical Gold Shares ETF (ARCA:SGOL)

Company Profile

Total assets: US$3,459.79 million

The Abrdn Physical Gold Shares ETF is issued by the abrdn Standard Gold Trust and has an expense ratio of 0.17 percent. The trust aims for shares to reflect the performance of the gold bullion price, minus the trust’s operating expenses, by holding 100 percent physical gold bars.

The gold that the abrdn Standard Gold Trust owns is held in Zurich, Switzerland, and it conforms to the London Bullion Market Association’s rules for good delivery.

5. iShares Gold Trust Micro (ARCA:IAUM)

Company Profile

Total assets: US$1,340.55 million

iShares Gold Trust Micro ETF is the lowest-cost physically backed gold ETF on the market, as its expense ratio is just 0.09 percent. The fund is designed to provide exposure to the day-to-day movement of the price of gold bullion. The underlying gold bars are held in vaults.

Gold mining stock ETFs

There are several options for ETFs that hold gold mining companies instead of physical gold. For investors looking to gain exposure to gold companies without the risk of holding individual stocks, these are two popular options:

Securities Disclosure: I, Lauren Kelly, currently hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

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Potash, Oil and Metal Shipments Halted as Canadian Rail Workers Locked Out

Editor’s note — The Teamsters Union said on Thursday (August 22) night that Canadian National Railway Company workers will return to work on Friday (August 23). The work stoppage at Canadian Pacific Kansas City remains in place pending an order from the Canada Industrial Relations Board.

Canadian rail workers are off the job on Thursday as representatives from the Teamsters Union and Canada’s two largest rail companies, Canadian National Railway Company (TSX:CNR,NYSE:CNI) and Canadian Pacific Kansas CIty (TSX:CP,NYSE:CP), were unable to reach a new contract agreement.

The two sides have been involved in contract negotiations since the start of the year, but talks broke down as workers were looking for commitments to improve safety measures and continuing labor shortages.

Union employees originally voted in favor of strike action in early May, but because the rail industry in Canada is federally regulated the vote was only valid for 60 days. In late June, rail workers reaffirmed their desire to strike, with 98.6 percent of workers voting to reauthorize a strike and an 89.5 percent turnout.

Negotiations between the union and CPKC stalled as they have failed to reach commitments over safety-critical fatigue provisions that would mean longer hours for rail workers. The union said the move would increase the risk of derailment and other accidents.

At issue with CN are rule changes that would see rail workers forced to relocate across the country for months at a time to cover labor shortages in remote communities.

Both parties have accused the other of not taking the bargaining process seriously, and the breakdown saw approximately 9,300 workers locked out early Thursday.

More than C$1 billion in goods are being shipped every day across Canada and will have an outsized effect on the agriculture sector. Canada is the world’s top supplier of potash with more than 12 million metric tons shipped since the start of 2024, the majority being transported by rail.

In an email, Josh Linville, vice president of fertilizers with StoneX, noted that the impact on the agricultural sector will come down to how long the strike lasts.

“A lot of the fallout still comes down to how long this lasts. A couple of days or a week shouldn’t have a huge impact on the fertilizer markets. However, much more than that and we likely start seeing inland values rise on tougher logistics/market trying to establish new logistical routes,” he said.

The stoppage will also have a considerable impact on the Canadian oil sector which saw an average of 89,204 barrels per day of oil shipped in June. More broadly, the resource sector will see challenges in getting goods to market with approximately 50 million kilograms of copper, 15,000 kilograms of gold and 20,000 kilograms of silver being shipped each month.

Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

This post appeared first on investingnews.com

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Target CEO addresses price gouging accusations in retail

There’s no room for price gouging in a ultra-competitive business like retail, Target CEO Brian Cornell said on Wednesday.

In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the retail chief disputed campaign talking points accusing grocers of inflating prices. He said retailers have to be responsive to customers or risk losing business.

He was asked by CNBC’s Joe Kernen, who referred to comments by Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and asked if Target or its competitors ever benefit from price gouging. Harris last week proposed the first-ever federal ban on “corporate price-gouging in the food and grocery industries,” saying some companies are charging excessively and fueling household inflation.

“We’re in a penny business,” Cornell responded, noting the small profit margins in the retail industry. He described the many places that customers can turn to check for lower prices or to find merchandise elsewhere, from going to stores to browsing on their phones to compare the prices of a gallon of milk at different retailers.

Target’s retail chief made the comments after the discounter beat Wall Street’s expectations for earnings and revenue on Wednesday, but struck a cautious note with its full-year guidance. It said it expects comparable sales, which take out the impact of store openings and closures, to be on the lower side of its range of flat to up 2%. Yet it raised its profit guidance, saying it expects adjusted earnings per share to range from $9 to $9.70, up from the previous outlook of $8.60 and $9.60.Inflation and consumers’ outrage about high prices has continued to loom large for companies like Target. A wide range of retailers, including Home Depot, Walmart and Macy’s, have reported over the past two weeks that cautious consumers are being picky about where they’re spending.

Cornell said on “Squawk Box” that the retailer is trying to appeal to “a consumer who is managing their budget carefully” and said “value is in our DNA.”

Target is one of the consumer brands that has responded to shoppers’ concerns by lowering prices. It cut prices on about 5,000 everyday items, such as diapers and peanut butter, to try to drive higher traffic and sales. Others, such as McDonald’s, have debuted value meals.

So far, those discounts have shown signs of resonating at Target: In the quarter, customer traffic across Target’s stores and website rose 3% — even as shoppers put a little less in their shopping carts than they did a year ago.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said last week that prices have come down in many merchandise categories, but said that inflation “has been more stubborn” in the aisles that carry dry groceries and processed foods.

On an earnings call with investors, he said some brands “are still talking about cost increases, and we’re fighting back on that aggressively because we think prices need to come down.”

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Ford delays new EV plant and cancels electric three-row SUV as it shifts strategy

DETROIT — Ford Motor is delaying production of a next-generation all-electric pickup truck at a new plant in Tennessee and canceling plans for a three-row electric SUV, the company said Wednesday.

Instead, Ford said it will prioritize the development of hybrid models, as well as electric commercial vehicles such as a new electric commercial van in 2026, followed by two EV pickup trucks in 2027.

The pickups are expected to be a full-size truck, which will be produced at the Tennessee plant that’s currently under construction in 2027, and a new midsize truck being developed by a specialized “skunkworks” team in California.

“As we’ve learned in the marketplace, and we’ve seen where people have gravitated, we’re going to focus in where we have competitive advantage, and that’s on commercial land trucks and SUVs,” Ford CFO John Lawler said Wednesday.

The actions are meant to better deliver a capital-efficient, profitable electric vehicle business, said Lawler, who also serves as vice chair of the automaker. But, in the short-term, they will cost the company.

Ford said it will incur a special non-cash charge of about $400 million for the write-down of certain product-specific manufacturing assets, including the cancellation of the three-row SUV.

The company said the changes may also result in additional expenses and cash expenditures of up to $1.5 billion. Ford will reflect those in the quarter in which they are incurred, as a special item.

Lawler said the company’s future capital expenditure plans will shift from spending about 40% on all-electric vehicles to spending 30%. He did not give a timeline for the change.

Vehicle production at the new $5.6 billion Tennessee site was initially expected to begin next year. The company said it still expects to begin battery cell production at the site in 2025.

The changes are the latest for Ford and come amid slower-than-expected adoption of EVs as well as automakers not being able to profitably produce the vehicles.

The new plans come roughly five months after Ford said it would delay production of the three-row SUV and next-generation pickup, codenamed “T3.”

“This is really about us being nimble and listening to responses from our customers,” Lawler said during a call Wednesday morning. “We’ve been out in the [EV] market here for over two years, and we’ve learned a lot, and what we’re understanding is that customers want more electrification choices.”

The rollout of Ford’s next generation of EVs will begin with a commercial van that will be assembled at Ford’s Ohio Assembly Plant starting in 2026, according to the company.

The automaker previously said it would not launch a vehicle if there wasn’t a clear path to profitability within the first year. It was a change from selling EVs at a loss to grow share and assist in meeting fuel and emissions standards.

Ford said it will continue to produce and update its current all-electric vehicles such as the Ford Mustang Mach-E crossover and F-150 Lightning pickup truck.

The company said it plans to provide investors an “update on electrification, technology, profitability and capital requirements” in the first half of 2025.

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Fed minutes point to ‘likely’ rate cut coming in September

Federal Reserve officials at their July meeting moved closer to a long-awaited interest rate reduction, but stopped short while indicating that a September cut had grown increasingly probable, minutes released Wednesday showed.

“The vast majority” of participants at the July 30-31 meeting “observed that, if the data continued to come in about as expected, it would likely be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting,” the summary said.

Markets are fully pricing in a September cut, which would be the first since the emergency easing in the early days of the Covid crisis.

While all voters on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee voted to hold benchmark rates steady, there was an inclination among an unspecified number of officials to start easing at the July meeting rather than waiting until September.

The document stated that “several [meeting participants] observed that the recent progress on inflation and increases in the unemployment rate had provided a plausible case for reducing the target range 25 basis points at this meeting or that they could have supported such a decision.”

One basis point is 0.01 percentage point, so a 25 basis point reduction would be equivalent to a quarter percentage point.

In the parlance the Fed uses in its minutes, which do not mention names nor specify how many policymakers felt a certain way, “several” is a relatively small number.

However, the summary made clear that officials were confident about the direction of inflation and are ready to start easing policy if the data continues to cooperate.

The sentiment was twofold: Inflation markers had shown price pressures easing considerably, while some members noted concerns over the labor market as well as the struggles that households, particularly those at the lower end of the income spectrum, were having in the current environment.

“With regard to the outlook for inflation, participants judged that recent data had increased their confidence that inflation was moving sustainably toward 2 percent,” the minutes stated. “Almost all participants observed that the factors that had contributed to recent disinflation would likely continue to put downward pressure on inflation in coming months.”

On the labor market, “many” officials noted that “reported payroll gains might be overstated.”

Earlier Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, in a preliminary revision of the nonfarm payroll numbers from April 2023 through March 2024, that gains may have been overstated by more than 800,000.

“A majority of participants remarked that the risks to the employment goal had increased, and many participants noted that the risks to the inflation goal had decreased,” the minutes said. “Some participants noted the risk that a further gradual easing in labor market conditions could transition to a more serious deterioration.”

In its post-meeting statement, the committee noted that job gains had moderated and that inflation also had “eased.” However, it chose to hold the line on its benchmark funds rate, which is currently targeted in a 5.25%-5.50% range, its highest in 23 years.

Markets rose the day of the Fed meeting but cratered in following sessions on worries that the central bank was moving too slowly in easing monetary policy.

The day after the meeting, the Labor Department reported an unexpected spike in unemployment claims, while a separate indicator showed the manufacturing sector contracted more than expected. Things got worse when the nonfarm payrolls report for July showed job creation of just 114,000 and another tick up in the unemployment rate to 4.3%.

Calls grew for the Fed to cut quickly, with some even suggesting that the central bank do an intermeeting move to head off worries that the economy was sinking fast.

However, the panic was short-lived. Subsequent data releases showed jobless claims drifting back down to normal historical levels while inflation indicators showed price pressures easing. Retail sales data also was better than expected, assuaging worries of consumer pressure.

More recent indicators, though, have pointed to stresses in the labor market, and traders largely expect the Fed to begin cutting rates in September.

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