Xinjinlu Group announced in June a planned investment of RMB 496 million to implement integrated mining, dressing, and metallurgical upgrades at its Guangxi Limu Mining subsidiary. The project includes upgrading mining operations to 600,000 tons/year, constructing a 1.5 million tons/year dressing line, building a tantalum-niobium hydrometallurgical workshop, and recovering associated metals like rubidium from tailings. Upon completion, it will form a complete industrial chain for tantalum, niobium, tin, and tungsten, yielding approximately 840 tons of tantalum oxide and 867 tons of niobium oxide annually.

Great Southern Copper has commenced scout drilling at the Artemisa South copper-gold target in Chile. The company believes the area may host a large-scale porphyry copper system and is advancing exploration activities accordingly.

This week, ferrous metals edged higher before extending their pullback, with coking coal posting the largest decline. At the beginning of the week, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and other departments issued a notice on launching a three-year campaign for energy conservation and carbon reduction in key industries, and news that the U.S. and Iran were to sign a memorandum of understanding on the 19th improved market sentiment, lifting all ferrous metals. In the latter half of the week, expectations for an eighth round of coke price hikes materialized in the futures market. However, as steel mill profits narrowed further and spot coke had largely priced in the eighth increase, further upside room was limited. Combined with emerging expectations of peak hot metal output, futures began to correct and cost support weakened. Meanwhile, May macro data came in below expectations, dragging the entire ferrous metals complex lower...

[Silicon metal futures fluctuate narrowly, spot market largely stable]: Downstream and trader procurement sentiment is cautious, with some users digesting previous low-price inventories. Clients outside China have purchase price expectations lower than current prices, and sentiment for new orders in the market is sluggish. Some users expect to purchase via futures point pricing at around 8,400-8,500 yuan/mt. On the supply side, the increase in operating rates of silicon enterprises in Sichuan and Yunnan during the rainy season is already within expectations, with few new variables in the market. As variables on both supply and demand sides are highly deterministic in the short term, market sentiment in the buyer-seller tug-of-war appears rational. The silicon metal price center is expected to remain near the low end of the range in the near term.

[SMM Coking Coal and Coke Daily Review] In news, some steel mills in certain regions have accepted the eighth round of coke price increases, with wet-quenched coke up by 50 yuan/mt and coke dry quenching up by 55 yuan/mt, effective June 22. Supply side, affected by the ongoing stringent safety inspections in Shanxi, coking coal supply remains tight, and the coking coal price increase has consistently outpaced the coke price increase; most coke producers are still incurring losses, and to reduce losses, these producers are voluntarily intensifying production restrictions, leading to a short-term decline in coke supply. Demand side, steel mill operating rates currently remain high, and due to the tight coke supply, their coke inventory replenishment has fallen short of expectations, leaving them with continued restocking demand for coke.

[Supply-Demand Pattern Steady, Grain-Oriented Silicon Steel Prices to Stay Stable Next Week] This week, spot prices for cold-rolled grain-oriented silicon steel remained mostly stable, with market trading unfolding at a steady and orderly pace. Ferrous metals futures retreated after a rapid rise this week, posting limited changes that provided weak sentiment support for the silicon steel spot market, and overall market price fluctuations narrowed. Although earlier steel mill price hike policies were implemented, releasing positive signals, the market was still in a phase of digesting these policies. Spot prices did not post significant changes, mainstream quotations remained steady, the price spread between high- and low-priced resources in the market gradually narrowed, and overall quotations became more aligned.

Today, SMM’s battery-grade lithium carbonate spot price fluctuated downward compared to the previous trading day. In the futures market, the lithium carbonate 2609 contract opened higher at 172,000 yuan/mt, quickly surged to 172,500 yuan/mt after opening, and then fluctuated downward, falling below the 165,700 yuan/mt average price line in early trading. Around midday, it accelerated its decline to an intraday low of 160,100 yuan/mt (a drop of over 6.5%). In the afternoon, it hovered at lows, struggling to rebound, weakened again near the close, and ultimately settled down 6.58% at 160,500 yuan/mt, with open interest decreasing by 4,883 lots. In the spot market, as lithium carbonate prices fluctuated downward, downstream material plants showed strong dip-buying interest, leading to active market inquiries and actual transactions. Upstream lithium chemical plants still held their offer prices relatively firm, with some enterprises shipping via post-pricing models. Lithium carbonate production increased slightly this week, mainly due to the gradual production resumptions of spodumene-side maintenance lines, while the recycling side and salt lake side maintained stable production. Lepidolite-side output saw minor fluctuations due to raw material supply issues. Looking at actual transactions and inventory situations, as prices continued to fluctuate downward, upstream lithium chemical plants were reluctant to sell spot orders. Only some enterprises that had previously hedged at high prices managed to secure small spot transactions with downstream firms or traders; most lithium chemical plants primarily held prices firm and held back from selling. However, with the concentrated delivery of early-month long-term contracts, along with some resumed production lines not yet reaching full capacity, lithium chemical plant inventories saw modest destocking this week. Downstream material plants, with early-month long-term contracts and customer supplies gradually arriving, combined with dip-buying of spot orders, led to an inventory buildup state this week. Traders, purchasing as needed along with downstream demand, showed a destocking pattern.

Published: Jun 16, 2026 - 11:32 PM (Kitco News) – Gold’s 26% decline during the Iran conflict came from a boost to the dollar, yields and equities which overwhelmed the yellow metal's safe-haven appeal, but persistent inflation, policy uncertainty and central bank demand remain intact, and gold prices will still reach nearly $4,800 in 2026 and $4,900 in 2027, according to Barclays. In a research note published Monday, the UK banking giant’s cross-asset research team led by Lefteris Farmakis and Themistoklis Fiotakis said gold’s three-month selloff was driven by the stronger U.S. dollar, white-hot equity markets absorbing all the available risk capital, and the unwinding of leveraged gold positions, with Russian and Turkish central bank gold sales also contributing to the weakness. The analysts said gold’s slide from its January peak to its June trough reflected a normalization of real interest rates, markets pricing out Fed rate cuts this year, and the short-term appeal of rising stocks detracting from gold’s investment appeal. The Barclays team calculated that the rise in the dollar index and the 10% S&P 500 rally accounted for 10% of the gold price decline, with the remainder coming from position unwinding in the metals markets. The analysts said these factors are temporary, however, and that gold’s structural drivers — persistent inflation, policy uncertainty and continued reserve diversification — are still intact, and they will reassert themselves as the geopolitical stress related to the Hormuz crisis dissipates. They characterized these drivers as “slow-moving variables whose influence accumulates over time,” which is why they were ill-suited to support gold prices during the short-term shock of the Iranian crisis. Barclays calculated that every percentage-point increase in inflation gives gold a 5% uplift, and they believe the inflationary impulse of the Iran energy shock will be supportive. The bank estimates gold’s fair value price currently sits at $4,150 per ounce, and they expect a rebound now that the Iran conflict appears to be winding down. The Barclays team said they now anticipate a reassertion of the dollar’s downward trend, a return to consistent central bank buying and sustained upward pressure on inflation from higher energy prices. Barclays said they are maintaining their 2026 and 2027 gold price forecasts at $4,791 and $4,900 per ounce, but warned that there may still be some short-term mark-to-market downside. The analysts also recommended exposure to gold mining stocks, including Endeavour, Hochschild, Fresnillo, Newmont and Agnico Eagle. “Recent price gyrations notwithstanding, if there is a period when gold ought to be trading at a premium, it is now,” they said. Source: https://www.kitco.com/news/article/2026-06-16/barclays-sees-gold-hitting-4791-2026-4900-2027-iran-correction-fades

According to SMM statistics, as of June 12, in-factory inventory days for aluminum rod in China stood at 2.66 days, a sharp decline of 1.25 days WoW from 3.91 days on June 5, with the inventory ratio plunging from 37.45% to 9.28%, a drop of 28.17 percentage points. During the same period, the weekly operating rate of the aluminum wire and cable industry recorded 82.10%, up 1.76 percentage points WoW

Since 2017, Vietnam’s solar market has grown rapidly under strong policy support, especially feed-in tariff incentives. This drove fast capacity expansion but also exposed grid constraints as development outpaced transmission infrastructure. As subsidies gradually phased out, market logic shifted from policy-driven growth to energy security and system stability.