Diamond News Archives

Despite mining contributing about 6 per cent of Australia’s GDP, a study by YouthSight revealed that 59 per cent of young people in the country know nothing at all about mining careers.

The results from the study were made public today at the MCA Minerals Education Summit in Melbourne and also through a press release issued by the industry-led, government-funded think tank METS Ignited, the Minerals Council of Australia, and the professional development organization AusIMM.

In the joint statement, the groups explained that the study used a nationally-representative sample of 1061 senior high school students and first-year university students aged between 15 and 20. The overarching finding was that their knowledge of mining careers was extremely low.

The poll also found that only 30 per cent of students had an interest in a career in mining or the mining equipment, technology and services, also known as METS, sector.

“Despite mining and METS providing jobs for 1.1 million Australians – or one in every 10 jobs – and great future prospects for our industry, it’s clear that we must do much more to make young people aware about the opportunities and rewards in mining and METS,” METS Ignited CEO Ric Gros said in the media brief.

Gross added that, within these sectors, areas such as information and communication technologies and professional and technical services saw a 164 per cent job growth between 2005 and 2015. “Australia’s world-class METS sector will need many highly-skilled young people to fill the jobs of tomorrow including drone pilots, environmental and social scientists and engineers. The jobs are there,” he said.

But youth don’t even “consider” a career in mining, the study revealed. Forty-five per cent of respondents said “It’s not an industry I’ve ever...

For over 200 years, one durable gold coin has been accepted across the globe as money.

Through World Wars, depressions, shifting borders and markets, and even top-secret missions, the British Gold Sovereign has protected those who held it.

At its peak, nearly 40 million sovereigns were minted a year. That’s over 20x the amount of Gold Eagles minted annually today.

The fractional, 0.2354 troy oz size of the British Gold Sovereigns make it a divisible and discreet store of wealth. Perfect for keeping close when you need it.

Trusted Behind Enemy Lines

Royal Air Force aircrew and British special forces taped gold sovereigns to the inside of their belts during the Gulf War so they could buy their way out of trouble if they were captured.

During World War II, commandos carried sovereigns for the same reason when they raided secret Nazi bases in Germany as paper currencies at the time were fluctuating too wildly.

And James Bond carried 50 gold sovereigns hidden inside in his briefcase in the movie, From Russia With Love.

Dependable Safety Net on Long Voyages

Ship captains kept sovereigns as a ready store of value when exploring far-off islands and remote territories.

Cut-off from civilization, gold provided them the ultimate backup plan for getting out of sticky situations.

Universally Accepted as Money

As the Industrial Revolution accelerated global trade, millions of sovereigns were circulated around the world. Every port from Bombay to Boston settled payments in gold.

Today, the British Gold Sovereign lives on as an ideal bullion coin for savvy investors who understand the true value of gold. And its smaller gold content makes it perfect for smaller transactions if you don’t...

The most salient point in all of the below: This manipulation can’t last. It will end. And as frustrating as it can be to not know when that will happen, knowing it will is a greater part of the battle.

A 15-page excerpt from James Rickards’ new book The New Case for Gold^[1], which goes into detail about the gold market’s price manipulation, can be found here^[2].

• It can be done by what gold market observers like to call "banging the close" in the Comex futures market, where there is huge leverage in trading and little transparency for buyers and sellers.
• Big banks that are "authorized participants" in the gold exchange-traded fund GLD can use their exclusive access to the fund's metal for market rigging.
• Gold from the U.S. gold reserve and the gold reserves of other countries may be leased, leveraged, or sold.
• Leasing of unallocated gold -- that is, paper gold, gold credits, imaginary gold -- by bullion banks allows them to sell the same gold as much as 10 times over to 10 different buyers.

...

• "A central bank," Rickards writes, "can lease gold to one of the London Bullion Market Association banks, which include large players like Goldman Sachs, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, and HSBC. Gold leasing is often conducted through an unaccountable intermediary called the Bank for International Settlements. The BIS is the most nontransparent institution in the world. ... The BIS is the ideal venue for central banks to manipulate the global financial markets, including gold, with complete nontransparency."
• The United States and China share an interest in suppressing the gold price in the short term. The Federal Reserve,

Thomson Reuters

• Huffington Post Italia leaked a government proposal late Tuesday showing that populist parties had drafted plans to ask the European Central Bank for debt forgiveness of €250 billion ($300 billion).
• Italy's 10-year yield hit its highest level in two months following the report.
• Bond yields in other eurozone countries also spiked, with the Greek 10-year rising 25 basis points. 

Eurozone bond markets turned chaotic Wednesday after leaked documents suggested Italian coalitions paving the way for a new administration were floating plans to ask for €250 billion ($300 billion) in debt forgiveness for the country.

The cost of borrowing in Italy hit its highest level in two months, with the 10-year bond yield jumping 14 basis points, to 2.082%, its biggest daily move in nearly a year. The two-year was up 17 basis points, to 0.11%.

Meanwhile, the spread between German and Italian 10-year bond yields, an indicator of financial stress in the eurozone, was up to 144 basis points from 129.

Huffington Post Italia late Tuesday leaked a proposal^[1] by the antiestablishment Five Star Movement and the far-right League — populist parties that came out on top in an inconclusive March election — outlining a plan to ask the European Central Bank for a writedown.

The 39-page document also pointed to the possibility of establishing a way for countries to leave the euro, a proposal floated by the parties in the past.

Five Star and the League released a statement hours after the draft was published^[2], saying it was "an old version that has been considerably modified" and pushing back on the euro blueprint, adding that they decided "not...