Germany Chancellor plans lithium deal with Serbia after Rio ruling
Olaf Scholz plans to visit Serbia this week to secure supplies of lithium that are critical for the nation’s energy transition and auto industry.
Gold futures ended lower in lacklustre trade on Monday, failing to recover from last weeks 3.7% sell off.
Gold for April delivery declined around $5 on the day, trading at $1,705 an ounce after hours on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The precious metal briefly sunk below the psychologically important $1,700/oz level in morning and afternoon trade.
Gold’s losses dragged down the stock of the major producers with world number one Barrick Gold falling almost 2%. Gold Fields dropped 2.6% while GoldCorp shed 2.8% and Newmont Mining gave up 1.8%.
Kinross declined 2.6% while Anglogold Ashanti came away relatively unscathed falling less than a percent in New York. After losing 2.9% on Monday Iamgold’s losses now top 18% since its update on capital projects released last week.
Last week gold registered its worst weekly performance for 2012 after a sustained rally in January and most of February.
Contract gold retreated $70/oz last week including a brutal trading day on Wednesday when the yellow metal lost almost $80/oz in an hour after a single sale order of 1 million ounces or 31 tonnes.
Some analysts argue that this week would be a crucial test for the yellow metal – a significant break below the $1,700 level could trigger a major sell-off.
