Speculators in gold, silver and copper futures and options sharply cut their net long positions in the week ended May 10. Metal prices sold off during a commodities rout during the period, according to the latest report by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

In a move meant to curtail fake diamond exports and the round tripping of funds and diamonds indulged in by some nefarious diamond merchants, India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, has reduced the term of letters of credit for the import of diamonds into the country. An immediate consequence of reducing the term, to 90 days instead of one year, will ensure that diamond importers cannot earn interest arbitrage on their packages.

ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA), a subsidiary of ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steelmaker, this week announced an agreement which may see the acquisition of an iron ore "resource" in the Northern Cape. At the same time, parent company ArcelorMittal announced its first quarter earnings, where, for the first time, it reported its mining interests as a separate segment.

The Chinese mining sector is currently producing 340 tonnes of gold a year and rising. No doubt there is every encouragement from the State for this figure to rise. We believe that no matter how high it rises, little if any of that supply will reach the world's ‘open' market in London. Even global gold production is not likely to rise significantly from the current level of around 2,500 tonnes. Therein lies a development that, in itself, will change global gold market dynamics.

Franco Nevada reported an adjusted net income of US$21.4 million or 18-cents per share for the first quarter, a 157% increase over the adjusted net income of US$8.3 million or 7-cents per share for the first-quarter 2010. Net income for the first quarter of 2011 was $21.2 million or 18-cents per share, which included a $5.6 million gain, $6.5 million in forex losses and $1.7 million in losses recorded from the equity accounting of Franco's investment in Gold Wheaton prior to the acquisition, which closed on March 14, 201

Silver's drop could be only temporary after prices retreated from a 31-year high reached in late April as traders watched crude oil values decline. Prior to that, silver was a sizzling hot commodity favored by small investors and money managers, and Dillon Gage experts say not to write it off now. Terry Hanlon, president of Dillon Gage Metals, the Dallas-based, precious-metals trading firm, said, "This year, silver had its biggest run in the shortest period of time in recent memory. Profit-taking corrections are to be expected when markets rally."

The relentless slide in silver prices has been termed a temporary aberration by silver producers in India, who insist that since silver […]

Europe's No.2 copper producer KGHM (KGHM.WA) nearly tripled its net profit in the first quarter, beating expectations thanks to a rally in metal prices. Poland's state-controlled miner said on Friday its bottom line reached 1.96 billion zlotys ($710 million), compared to 1.84 billion seen in a Reuters poll.

The wholesale-market gold price continued to fall on Thursday morning in London - hitting a 1-week low of $1480 per ounce - as world stock and commodity markets took another tumble. Silver fell to $32.50 per ounce at the London Fix, nearly $7 down from Wednesday and 33% below the 31-year high of $48.70 set on April 28.

Robert Quartermain's refrain in a Pretium Resources (TSX: PVG) presentation at the Hard Assets conference in New York, May 9-10, was: "This is why I came out of retirement." Quartermain, Pretium president and CEO, was referring to the high-grades of gold at the Brucejack project in BC, Canada, where drillholes have numerous times hit gold measured by kilograms per tonne, not by the usual grams or fractions of ounces per tonne.

Toronto- and Johannesburg-listed Uranium One, which boasts the lowest production costs in its industry, has reported record quarterly revenue, of USD 101.9m, for first-quarter 2011, based on sales of 1.7m pounds of uranium at average sales prices of USD 61/lb, and total cash costs of just USD 14/lb.

Intergeo, the Russian copper and nickel company owned by billionaires Mikhail Prokhorov and Maxim Finskiy, hopes to raise from C$100 million ($104.2 million) to C$500 million in a initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange by the end of the year. Finskiy, the company's chairman and 20 percent stakeholder, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday the company would float about 10 percent of its shares in the offering.