The announcement of a rival to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange presents a welcome development in South Africa – but it’s not the first time the JSE has faced competition.
It would be a waste, and environmental hazard, to see them thrown in the bin.
Adrian Clark/Flickr
The Randlords left a big dilemma in their wake: contemporary South Africa is not sure whether to thank them for bringing civilisation, or to curse them for complicating future race relations.
Gold: not the safe haven it was once considered to be.
Neil Hall/Reuters
The FTSE 100 reached 6877.39 points last week. It was the highest since its all-time peak of 6950.60 on December 30 1999 before the start of the deflation of the great dotcom bubble in January 2000. It…
Mining in the pre-algorithmic era. Australia, c1855.
Edwin Stockqueler
The recent crash of popular bitcoin exchange MtGox has given some commentators the opportunity to hint at the collapse of bitcoin itself. There are historical comparisons to be drawn here with the 2001…
Fears over China’s ability to cope with its debt crisis and renewed doubts over recovery in the US have sent investors running back to old faithful: gold. But markets look as if they are favouring tradition…
In a single month this year 240 tonnes of gold were exported from London to Switzerland. That’s almost three times the amount that was exported in the whole of 2012. In total, 797 tonnes left UK vaults…
Prospective US and UK military action in Syria has created jitters in the financial and commodities markets around the world. Stock markets have experienced significant losses, whereas commodities and…
Australian gold mines can yield as little as 1g of gold per tonne of rock – but X-rays can detect minuscule amounts of gold and save billions of dollars.
Ben Cooper
Globally, the minerals industry is operating in an increasingly challenging environment. Lower and more volatile metal prices, declining ore grades, increasing production costs, environmental pressures…
It has been a turbulent time for the gold market. The past two days of trading have been particularly volatile, with gold prices recording the sharpest two-day drop in 30 years . The severity of the fall…
Gold and silver are traditionally considered “safe havens”.
Image sourced from shutterstock.com
Safe haven investments are investments that provide a low level of risk during periods of extreme economic uncertainty. The problem is that a safe haven investment is a safe haven investment until it is…