Mexico’s proposed higher mining royalties could block nearly $7bn in investments
The Mexican government proposed raising mining royalties under the argument that metal prices have risen in recent years.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission may probe the dramatic fall in the price of gold on Monday when the precious metal lost more than 10% of its value or as much as $200 an ounce intra-day.
Democratic CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton told Bloomberg TV Wednesday that the drop in gold and silver which suffered an even more precipitous decline does raise “concerns” at the regulator, but it does not necessarily mean “anything nefarious” happened.
“When you see such sharp move that is obviously something that raises our concern and we look at the trades and see what is going on,” he said.
However, market movements of this nature and magnitude have to be looked at by the regulator says Chilton. Preliminary investigation shows that volumes in both gold and silver were at their second highest levels in 30 years. He also raised concerns about what impact of large speculators, who have moved into commodities markets in a big way since 2005, are having on end-users like farmers or gold miners.
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