Gold holding $2,600 ahead of shortened holiday trading week

Gold will likely hit $3,000 in 2025, but analysts are not expecting another 30% rally

Nearly half of retail traders expect silver to trade above $40/oz in 2025, experts see gains despite economic challenges

Bitcoin’s breaking point? Why a 50% crash could hit harder than ever in 2025 – Clem Chambers

Silver can still outperform gold next year, spot price could reach $40/oz in 2025 – Saxo Bank’s Hansen

2025 gold price preview: Bulls still in the driver’s seat

Spot gold trades at session high $2,620/oz as final UofM Consumer Sentiment confirms 74 reading in December 

Gold futures stage recovery from $2600 support level, aided by dollar weakness

Gold price firmer after slightly cooler U.S. inflation data    

Gold price catching a bid as core PCE rises 0.1% in November

Gold is setting up for another bull run in 2025

Gold and Bitcoin will be key diversifiers in a fragmented and volatile 2025 – BlackRock

Invest in gold and popcorn because 2025 is going to be entertaining - Axel Merk

Bitcoin December 20 daily chart alert - Bulls are fading

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US government shutdown showdown creates another investor worry

US consumer spending solid; inflation showing progress as year ends

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BTC/USD: Bitcoin slumps to two-week low as Powell’s rates scare knocks crypto prices

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GBP/USD: Sterling plummets to 8-month low as Bank of England keeps interest rates flat

Bitcoin weekly price outlook – Bitcoin continues to see volatility

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Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq rebound as inflation data improves

DXY: Dollar index hits two-year high against forex rivals as rate cut outlook settles

Gold demand shows mixed trends: Investment inflows strong, consumer jewelry demand weakens

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DJI: Dow Jones clinches narrow gain to barely snap 10-day losing streak. Big news ahead.

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Gold price sharply down on Fed’s surprisingly hawkish pivot    

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Sticky inflation sparks dollar decline, boosting Bitcoin, altcoins, and gold

Vancouver Mayor proposes the creation of a strategic Bitcoin reserve

Trump reportedly pushing for the CFTC to oversee the crypto industry

Bitcoin analysts target $120k as crypto market gains momentum after correction

Corporate Bitcoin rush: Canada-based Jiva Technologies and Rumble bet big on BTC

Bull cycle is just getting started, Bitcoin could hit $180k in 2025 – VanEck

Charles Schwab plans to offer spot crypto trading to retail clients

Crypto and gold surge: Bitcoin hits $99,880, gold posts strongest week in a year

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Stocks fall, gold rises, Bitcoin steadies as geopolitical tensions mount

Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs to develop blockchain-based financial hub

18 state coalition sues SEC over ‘gross overreach’ in cryptocurrency industry

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Crypto lending set for a revival as institutions eye DeFi opportunities – industry experts

UK pension fund allocates 3% to Bitcoin as institutional adoption grows

North American graphite miners asked the US government on Wednesday to impose a tariff as high as 920% on Chinese suppliers of the battery metal in order to counter what they describe as Beijing’s “malicious trade practices.”The move is the latest attempt by Western critical minerals suppliers to offset China’s widespread control of the world’s extraction and processing of the building blocks for electric vehicles and electronics.Graphite, the largest component by volume in an EV battery, can be synthetically produced or processed from naturally occurring sources. China is the largest producer of both types and earlier this month tightened exports of the metal to the US.The American Active Anode Material Producers, a group of US and Canadian graphite producers, asked the US Department of Commerce and the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to “investigate whether China is exporting natural and synthetic graphite … at unfair prices to the United States” and to impose the tariff rate.Chinese rivals operate at labor and environmental standards that allow them to rapidly boost production, the group said.An existing US tariff of 25% on most Chinese graphite is “far too low” and can be absorbed easily by Chinese rivals, the group wrote to US officials.The Commerce Department and the ITC did not immediately respond to an inquiry seeking comment.President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on Chinese products broadly. Trump’s advisers have also encouraged him to impose tariffs on all foreign critical minerals, including those tied to Beijing.Not all US critical minerals companies support tariffs. Jervois Global, which had to close the only US cobalt mine before it even opened due to Chinese competition, told Reuters last week it would prefer manufacturers be required to buy Western metals instead of blanket tariffs.(By Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Diane Craft)

US graphite miners ask Washington to impose 920% tariff on Chinese rivals

Australia’s Paladin Energy has received the final green light it needed from Canadian authorities to buy Fission Uranium in a C$1.14 billion ($789.1 million) deal that cements is position as a major global producer, it said on Thursday.Paladin got the clearance under the Investment Canada Act on Wednesday and said the deal under which it would acquire Fission’s advanced PLS project in Saskatchewan was expected to be completed by early January 2025.The clearance comes as prices for the nuclear fuel surge on expectations of a demand spike as the energy transition unfolds. Shares fell 1.8% amid weakness in the mining sector.The Canadian government in October stepped in to review the proposed tie-up on national security grounds, raising concerns it may be derailed by the county that has become increasingly sensitive towards strategic resource firms being taken over by overseas buyers.Paladin has agreed to several conditions Canada has attached to the merger including not to use any China-sourced finance for funding PLS, or to sell PLS’s uranium directly or indirectly to any China customers beyond China General Nuclear Power Group, which has an existing offtake agreement, it said.Canada in July cracked down on big mining takeovers, saying it would only approve foreign buyouts of large Canadian firms involved in critical minerals production “in the most exceptional of circumstances.”($1 = 1.4447 Canadian dollars)(By Rishav Chatterjee, Divya Rajagopal and Melanie Burton; Editing by Alan Barona and Stephen Coates)

Canada clears Paladin’s $789 million Fission Uranium takeover

Australia’s Novonix Ltd said on Thursday it had joined a petition urging US authorities to investigate China’s alleged dumping of battery-grade graphite at unfair prices, potentially harming domestic producers.The battery metals and technology company has joined the American Active Anode Material Producers (AAAMP) in filing the petition.“The filing asserts China is harming the nascent domestic graphite industry by exporting artificially cheap battery-grade graphite into the US, denying North American producers a fair opportunity to enter the market,” Novonix said in a statement.North American graphite miners asked the US government on Wednesday to impose a tariff as high as 920% on Chinese suppliers of the battery metal to counter what they describe as Beijing’s “malicious trade practices.”In a separate statement, Australia’s Syrah Resources said its unit, Syrah Technologies LLC, filed an anti-dumping and countervailing duty petition with the US Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission.Syrah’s petition, submitted in collaboration with the North American Graphite Alliance, seeks an investigation into Chinese exports of natural and synthetic graphite active anode material used in lithium-ion batteries.(By Roshan Thomas and Melanie Burton; Editing by Shreya Biswas)

Australian graphite firms petition US on alleged China dumping

Santiago – Chile’s state-run copper miner, Codelco, will start using explosives with a significantly lower carbon footprint at its Radomiro Tomic mine, the company announced on Thursday.Explosives are used in mines to break up rocks to more easily process them and extract valuable metals.Codelco is the world’s largest copper producer and its decision to use alternative explosives underscores the increasing pressure on mining companies to enhance their environmental standards and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.The pressure is especially high for copper mining which has traditionally been more carbon-intensive.The new explosives are expected to cause a significant reduction in the “Scope 3,” or indirect, emissions, at the Radomiro Tomic mine, which accounts for about 40% of Codelco’s explosive consumption.The company has said it aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.“Using an innovative product in the explosives market will contribute to fulfilling our commitments to sustainable development,” Chairman Maximo Pacheco said in a statement.“Its production involves 40% fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to grey ammonium,” the statement added.The move to implement lower carbon explosives with the help from manufacturer Enaex is part of the miner’s broader strategy to enhance production and achieve its annual targets, amid falling output of the key industrial metal to a 25-year low.Radomiro Tomic would be the first mining operation to use Prillex ECO2, an explosive whose main component is blue ammonium nitrate that is produced using advanced carbon capture and storage technologies, which significantly reduces CO2 emissions during the manufacturing process.(Report by Fabian Andres Cambero, Writing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Sandra Maler)

Codelco to deploy lower carbon explosives in copper mine

South African miner Sibanye Stillwater has struck a $500 million streaming agreement with Franco-Nevada Corp, Sibanye said on Thursday, as it seeks to boost its finances after a slump in platinum group metal (PGM) prices.Sibanye has said it will pursue metals streaming and prepayment arrangements, which involve selling future metals production in return for an upfront cash payment, to bolster its balance sheet. This is after its earnings plunged due to the slide in PGM prices.“The group’s financial position has been reinforced at a competitive cost of capital,” Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman said in a statement.Prices of PGMs, which are used to curb emissions in vehicles, fell sharply in 2023 amid high inventory levels and concerns that the growth of battery-powered electric vehicles, which do not use PGMs, would reduce future demand.Sibanye will receive the cash in exchange for gold and platinum from its South African operations, the diversified miner said.In August, Sibanye concluded a 1.8 billion rand ($98.7 million) gold prepayment deal to raise cash to help repay loans, taking advantage of a price rally for that precious metal, which reached record highs this year.Sibanye plunged to a $2 billion loss in the 2023 financial year on the back of the PGM price rout. It reported a further $394 million loss in the first half of 2024 as weak PGM prices persisted.($1 = 18.2361 rand)(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru and Nelson Banya in Harare. Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Mark Potter)

Sibanye raises $500m via metals streaming deal with Franco-Nevada

London-listed Savannah Resources will accelerate its lithium mine project in northern Portugal to ensure first commercial output in 2027, it said on Thursday, despite uncertainties about price and demand it said were temporary.Some mines around the globe that produce lithium, used in electric vehicle batteries, have curtailed operations or delayed expansions. Prices have dropped by nearly 90% over the last two years as supplies have increased and demand has fallen short of expectations.However, Savannah Chairman Rick Anton said in a statement he looked forward to 2025 “with great confidence”, and the company had “all the key elements in place to significantly advance the project”.Savannah, which wants to build four open pit mines in the northern Barroso region to extract enough lithium each year for about half a million batteries for EVs, hopes to start production in 2027.Anton said that, despite the “short-term uncertainty” surrounding lithium prices and the energy transition, Savannah, as a pre-production company, “is largely insulated from these issues and can focus firmly on the tasks it has to execute”.“The first of these (tasks) is to progress our project as quickly as we can towards production,” he said, adding he hoped “to take advantage of the more favourable conditions and higher prices, which will return to the market in the future”.He said the recovery should be sustained by the carbon emissions reduction legislation in all major global markets and the status of lithium-ion batteries as the preferred technology for multiple applications.The company has said Barroso’s deposit of spodumene is the biggest in Europe and has estimated reserves of 28 million metric tons of high-grade lithium.But the project has put the European Union’s ambition to reduce dependence on countries such as China for strategic raw materials to the test as it faces opposition from local residents and environmentalists.(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; editing by Andrei Khalip and Barbara Lewis)

Savannah to speed up Portugal lithium project, dismisses doubts over price and demand

Australia’s Vulcan Energy said on Wednesday it has secured a 879 million euros ($921.90 million) conditional debt commitment from Export Finance Australia and commercial banks to fund its Phase One Lionheart project in Germany.($1 = 0.9535 euros)(By Roshan Thomas; Editing by Alan Barona)&nbsp;

Vulcan Energy secures near $922m debt commitment for Lionheart project financing

Moscow – Russian diamond producer Alrosa’s output fell by 4.6% to 33 million carats this year, according to a statement by the government of the Yakutia region in Russia’s Far East, where most of Alrosa’s production is based.Alrosa, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds by volume, announced plans last month to suspend some production in 2025 and cut staff as it grapples with low global prices. Last year it cut production by 2.8% to 34.6 million carats.For Alrosa, the global industry crisis is exacerbated by a ban on Russian diamond sales to G7 and EU countries. The regional government said that, despite the crisis, Alrosa would pay more taxes to the regional budget in 2025.“Despite the ongoing price crisis in the global diamond market and the continued sanctions pressure, the company’s financial plan for 2025 anticipates an increase in contributions to the republic’s budget,” the statement said.(Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova. Writing by Gleb Bryanski. Editing by Mark Potter)

Alrosa 2024 diamond output falls by 4.6%

London – Abaxx Technologies Inc, which owns a Singapore-based commodities exchange, will launch nickel sulphate futures on Jan. 10 next year, the first of its battery metal products, the company said in a release.Nickel sulphate is used in the cathode component of the lithium-ion batteries used for electric vehicles, a key plank of the energy transition, which also includes renewable energy.Canada-listed Abaxx delayed the launch of the nickel sulphate contract after BHP’s, which had backed the initiative, announced the suspension of its Kwinana nickel sulphate refinery and other facilities in Western Australia.“Participants in the global nickel market are seeking better pricing solutions that can encompass refined metal and new streams of nickel products flowing into the fast-growing electric vehicle battery sector,” Abaxx said in a statement.“A physically-settled nickel sulphate contract, rather than a contract for Class 1 refined nickel, can better capture the fastest-growing segment of the global market.”The nickel sulphate contract will be priced in dollars and physically deliverable in Singapore.(Reporting by Pratima Desai; Editing by Louise Heavens)

Abaxx to launch nickel sulphate contract on January 10

Advisers to incoming US President Donald Trump are recommending he waive environmental reviews for federally funded critical minerals projects to boost domestic production of materials used in electric vehicles, electronics and weapons, according to a document seen by Reuters.Implementation would reflect a major shift in how Washington reviews proposed mines on federal lands and aims to ensure that projects receiving loans, grants or other government support are able to help the US cut dependence on China, the world’s largest miner and processor of lithium, cobalt and other critical minerals.The advisers, tasked by Trump’s transition team to develop policy ideas around electric vehicle supply chains, urged Trump to waive requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to expedite permitting and construction reviews for production of critical minerals, batteries and magnets, the document showed. NEPA applies to projects on federal lands.Trump is set to take office on Jan. 20.Jason Miller, a senior adviser for the transition, said Trump has not indicated his stance on the issue and noted the recommendations come from “outsiders who have no role in charting administration policy.”Trump often pledged on the campaign trail to cut what he considers bureaucratic overreach. Last week, he said he would expedite permits for any company investing more than $1 billion in the US. Most proposed mines in the country cost more than that.First enacted in 1970, NEPA is the bedrock US environmental law, requiring reviews for major projects that receive federal permits or funding. The law can involve review from numerous federal agencies and is not overseen by any one office or official, adding to its complexity.NEPA reviews are frequently challenged, and litigation can delay construction on projects for years, to the consternation of mining companies and Republican officials. A president cannot unilaterally limit lawsuits against mining projects although he could work with Congress to do so.Proposed US critical minerals projects from Antofagasta, Rio Tinto, BHP, Perpetua Resources and others have been in regulatory review for more than a decade.During his first term, Trump and then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt limited NEPA reviews to no more than 300 pages and said they should be done faster, describing the process as “needlessly complex.” Those changes were reversed under President Joe Biden.If Trump adopts the recommendations, it could expedite billions of dollars in federally-backed projects, including lithium mines and processing facilities. This could help even the playing field with rival China, which has dominated global markets with supplies of cheap metals and blocked exports of some materials to the US.Conservation and environmental groups contend that NEPA helps ensure all voices are heard when access to federal lands is granted, and that climate change and environmental justice considerations are part of the review process.Additionally, some conservation groups have complained that Washington is de facto approving mines when federal grants or loans are issued and essentially leap-frogging the NEPA review process.Mining companies do not pay royalties to Washington when they extract metals from federal land, a quirk of federal law stemming from the General Mining Law of 1872. Oil companies, by contrast, pay royalties when they operate on federal land.Trump was broadly supportive of mining during his first term and approved mines from Lithium Americas and others, but he did take steps to block a major Alaska mining project from Northern Dynasty Minerals.The incoming president has hinted at other actions that could help US miners, including imposing tariffs on all battery materials globally, with exemptions negotiated for allies.Multiple US miners have said they would prefer to have the permitting process reformed rather than tariffs issued broadly, a step one executive told Reuters would reflect a “sledgehammer” approach to trade issues.(By Jarrett Renshaw and Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Veronica Brown and David Gregorio)

Trump advisers urge ending environmental reviews for mines receiving US funds

BHP paused operations at two iron ore mines in Western Australia on Saturday after heavy rains in the country’s Pilbara region, a spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday, adding operations have since resumed.“We evacuated personnel from our MAC and South Flank mines to our accommodation villages on Saturday after heavy rains and flash flooding in the Pilbara,” the spokesperson said. “Operations were temporarily paused until it was safe to return to site.”BHP’s Mining Area C (MAC) and South Flank mines make up its Central Pilbara hub, part of the miner’s Western Australian iron ore operations that together delivered 65 million metric tons of iron ore in the first quarter of the company’s 2025 financial year.(By Amy Lv and Melanie Burton; Editing by Chris Reese and Jamie Freed)

BHP resumes South Flank iron ore operations after short pause

Canada plans to impose tariffs on a slew of Chinese products from as early as next year, the government’s fiscal update showed, as part of its wider investigation into imports from the country.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has already slapped a 100% tariff on all Chinese electric vehicles and a 25% tariff on imports of Chinese steel and aluminum products, with the finance ministry previously saying it was also exploring options to widen the duties.The mid-year fiscal update presented on Monday showed that Ottawa has decided to apply tariffs to imports of certain solar products and critical minerals from China early in the new year, with levies on semiconductors, permanent magnets, and natural graphite following in 2026.“These measures will prevent Chinese non-market trade practices from causing unfair and harmful market distortions in Canada and throughout the North American continent,” the update said.Trudeau’s government has frequently criticized the Chinese government-funded policy of oversupply and over-capacity. He says Canada needs to protect local jobs from cheap Chinese products finding their way into the country.The government has often used its stand against China as a lever to show US President-elect Donald Trump that Canada is aligned with its biggest trading partner in its stand against Beijing.Trump has vowed to impose 25% tariffs on goods from Canada on his first day in office on Jan. 20 if it fails to stop the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants across its border with the US.The fiscal update, also called the Fall Economic Statement, did not detail the extent of the duties to be imposed, nor on which specific products, but said further details on the measures would be announced soon.(By Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

Canada to impose more tariffs on Chinese imports in new year

Kazakhstan’s nuclear resources company Kazatomprom said on Tuesday that Russia’s Rosatom was selling its stakes in some uranium deposits which the two groups had been developing together to Chinese-owned companies.Kazatomprom, listed in London and Kazakhstan, is the world’s largest producer of uranium and has the largest reserve base. It accounted for 20% of global primary uranium production in 2023, but lacks its own uranium processing capacity.Rosatom used to have stakes in 6 of 14 Kazatomprom’s deposits, receiving a share of the output in a deal that complicated the Kazakh firm’s sales to the West.Kazatomprom, which has flagged sanctions risks associated with Rosatom to its investors, said that Rosatom unit, Uranium One Group, had sold its 49.979% stake in the Zarechnoye mine to SNURDC Astana Mining Company Limited, whose ultimate beneficiary is China’s State Nuclear Uranium Resources Development Company.Uranium One Group is also expected to give up 30% in the Khorasan-U joint venture to China Uranium Development Company Limited, the ultimate beneficiary of which is China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN, China), Kazatomprom said.Kazatomprom’s said its stakes will remain unchanged, while Rosatom had no immediate comment.China is the biggest buyer of Kazakhstan’s uranium. After the Khorasan-U stake sale Rosatom will still have stakes in Kazatomprom deposits, with combined reserves of 255,000 tons.This includes the Budennovskoye deposit, one of the world’s largest, that Rosatom acquired under a deal disclosed in 2023.Zarechnoye’s uranium reserves amounted to approximately 3,500 tons at the beginning of 2024, Kazatomprom said.Sanctions risks Khorasan-U operates at the Kharasan-1 block of Severny Kharasan deposit in the Zhanakorgan district of the Kyzylorda region. Uranium reserves of the deposit amounted to about 33,000 tons at the beginning of 2024, with an expected maturity in 2038, Kazatomprom said.Uranium One produced 4,831 tonnes of uranium in Kazakhstan in 2023. Russia is the world’s sixth largest uranium producer and controls about 44% of global uranium enrichment capacity.Rosatom says that when its production in Kazakhstan is included the company ranked third in the world by production volume in 2023.Kazatomprom’s chief executive Meirzhan Yussupov told the FT in September that sanctions imposed on Russia because of the Ukraine conflict made it difficult to sell uranium to Western buyers.Kazatomprom sells 29% of its output to Europe, according to the company’s documents.The company outlined the risks in its latest annual report, stressing that although Rosatom was not directly targeted, some of its companies as well as senior Russian nuclear power industry executives were under Western sanctions.“There are also risks associated with Russian partners in the group’s subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures, including reputational and corporate governance risks,” it said.Rosatom has also expressed interest in building Kazakhstan’s first nuclear power plant, aimed at phasing out polluting coal.(By Guy Faulconbridge, Anastasia Lyrchikova and Gleb Bryanski; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Alexander Smith)

Russia sells stakes in some Kazakh uranium deposits to China

Saudi Arabia has successfully extracted lithium from brine samples from national giant Aramco’s oilfields and plans to launch a commercial pilot program for direct extraction soon, the Saudi vice minister of mining affairs said on Tuesday.Lithium Infinity, also known as Lihytech, a start-up launched out of King Abdullah University for Science and Technology, will lead the extraction project with cooperation from Saudi mining company Ma’aden and Aramco, Khalid al-Mudaifer told Reuters.“They are extracting lithium through their new technology they have developed in King Abdullah University for Science and Technology and they are in accelerated development in this regard,” he said.“They’re building a commercial pilot at the oil fields. So the brines that come out of the field will feed into this commercial pilot on a continuous basis,” added Al-Mudaifer.Lithium is a key component in the batteries of electric cars, laptops, and smartphones. Reuters previously revealed that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates’ national oil companies planned to extract the mineral from oil runoffs.Other oil companies, including Exxon Mobil and Occidental Petroleum, plan to take advantage of emerging technologies to filter lithium from brine, as the world seeks to move away from fossil fuels.The vice minister said that while the cost of extracting lithium from the brine runoffs from oil fields remained higher than the traditional method of extraction from salt flats, but added he expected that if lithium prices grew the project would soon be commercially viable.Aramco, KAUST, and Ma’aden did not immediately reply to Reuters requests for comments. Ma’aden is majority owned by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund.Saudi Arabia, whose economy for decades has relied on oil, has spent billions on trying to turn itself into a hub for EVs as part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s attempts to find alternative sources of wealth.(By Pesha Magid; Editing by Jan Harvey)

Saudi Arabia has extracted lithium from oilfield runoffs, vice minister says

The Democratic Republic of Congo has filed criminal complaints against Apple subsidiaries in France and Belgium, accusing the tech firm of using conflict minerals in its supply chain, lawyers for the Congolese government told Reuters.Congo is a major source of tin, tantalum and tungsten, so-called 3T minerals used in computers and mobile phones. But some artisanal mines are run by armed groups involved in massacres of civilians, mass rapes, looting and other crimes, according to UN experts and human rights groups.Apple does not directly source primary minerals and says it audits suppliers, publishes findings and funds bodies that seek to improve mineral traceability.Its 2023 filing on conflict minerals to the US Securities and Exchange Commission said none of the smelters or refiners of 3T minerals or gold in its supply chain had financed or benefited armed groups in Congo or neighbouring countries.But international lawyers representing Congo argue that Apple uses minerals pillaged from Congo and laundered through international supply chains, which they say renders the firm complicit in crimes taking place in Congo.In parallel complaints filed to the Paris prosecutor’s office and to a Belgian investigating magistrate’s office on Monday, Congo accuses local subsidiaries Apple France, Apple Retail France and Apple Retail Belgium of a range of offences.These include covering up war crimes and the laundering of tainted minerals, handling stolen goods, and carrying out deceptive commercial practices to assure consumers supply chains are clean.“It is clear that the Apple group, Apple France and Apple Retail France know very well that their minerals supply chain relies on systemic wrongdoing,” says the French complaint, after citing UN and rights reports on conflict in east Congo.Belgium had a particular moral duty to act because looting of Congo’s resources began during the 19th century colonial rule of its King Leopold II, Congo’s Belgian lawyer Christophe Marchand said.“It is incumbent on Belgium to help Congo in its effort to use judicial means to end the pillaging,” he said.The complaints, prepared by the lawyers on behalf of Congo’s justice minister, make allegations not just against the local subsidiaries but against the Apple group as a whole.France and Belgium were chosen because of their perceived strong emphasis on corporate accountability. Judicial authorities in both nations will decide whether to investigate the complaints further and bring criminal charges.In an unrelated case in March this year, a US federal court rejected an attempt by private plaintiffs to hold Apple, Google, Tesla, Dell and Microsoft accountable for what the plaintiffs described as their dependence on child labour in Congolese cobalt mines.Minerals fuel violence Since the 1990s, Congo’s mining heartlands in the east have been devastated by waves of fighting between armed groups, some backed by neighbouring Rwanda, and the Congolese military.Millions of civilians have died and been displaced.Competition for minerals is one of the main drivers of conflict as armed groups sustain themselves and buy weapons with the proceeds of exports, often smuggled via Rwanda, according to UN experts and human rights organizations.Rwanda denies benefiting from the trade.Among the appendices to Congo’s legal complaint in France was a statement issued by the US State Department in July, expressing concerns about the role of the illicit trade in minerals from Congo, including tantalum, in financing conflict.The statement was a response to requests from the private sector for the US government to clarify potential risks associated with manufacturing products using minerals extracted, transported or exported from eastern Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.Congo’s complaints focus on ITSCI, a metals industry-funded monitoring and certification scheme designed to help companies perform due diligence on suppliers of 3T minerals exported from Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.Congo’s lawyers argue that ITSCI has been discredited, including by the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) of which Apple is a member, and that Apple nevertheless uses ITSCI as a fig leaf to falsely present its supply chain as clean.The RMI, whose members include more than 500 companies, announced in 2022 it was removing ITSCI from its list of approved traceability schemes.In July this year, it said it was prolonging the suspension until at least 2026, saying ITSCI had not provided field observations from high-risk sites or explained how it was responding to an escalation of violence in North Kivu province, which borders Rwanda and is a key 3T mining area.ITSCI criticized the RMI’s own processes and defended its work in Congo as reliable. It has also rejected allegations in a 2022 report by campaigning group Global Witness entitled “The ITSCI Laundromat”, cited in Congo’s legal complaint in France, that it was complicit in the false labelling of minerals from conflict zones as coming from mines located in peaceful areas.Apple mentioned ITSCI five times in its 2023 filing on conflict minerals. The filing also made multiple mentions of the RMI, in which Apple said it had continued active participation and leadership, but did not mention the RMI’s ditching of ITSCI.In its July statement, the US State Department said flaws in traceability schemes have not garnered sufficient engagement and attention to lead to changes needed.Robert Amsterdam, a US-based lawyer for Congo, said the French and Belgian complaints were the first criminal complaints by the Congolese state against a major tech company, describing them as a “first salvo” only.(By Sonia Rolley and Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

Congo files criminal complaints against Apple in Europe over conflict minerals

US business equipment borrowings up more than 8% y/y in November, ELFA says

Gold climbs after soft US inflation data; still set for weekly loss

US stocks surge, dollar eases after cool inflation report

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Fed's Goolsbee says policy uncertainty led to his shift on rate-cut path

Wall Street turns higher as cooling inflation eases rate-cut fears

Trump aims at Biden's Inflation Reduction Act: EVs, clean energy and manufacturing

Canada budget deficit over first seven months of 2024/25 falls to C$14.5 bln

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Canada October retail sales up 0.6%, likely flat in November

S&P 500, Nasdaq dip as rate cut fears linger despite easing inflation

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Coin	Price	1h%	24h%	7d%	Volume (24h)	Market Cap
Bitcoin BTC	$96,814.58	-0.45	-0.55	-5.03	30.41B	1.92T
Ethereum ETH	$3,342.07	-0.67	-3.64	-13.97	19.89B	402.58B
Tether USDT	$1.00	0.02	-0.01	-0.02	729.41M	145.13B
XRP XRP	$2.23	-1.11	-2.54	-7.67	11.31B	222.65B
Binance Coin BNB	$663.40	-0.58	-3.32	-7.41	948.06M	95.51B
USD Coin USDC	$1.00	0.01	0.01	0.00	1.81B	42.95B
Solana SOL	$181.39	-0.76	-7.36	-17.95	4.25B	107.16B
Cardano ADA	$0.89	-1.69	-5.69	-16.49	1.14B	40.13B
Dogecoin DOGE	$0.32	-2.17	-3.19	-21.06	4.92B	46.54B
Tron TRX	$0.25	-0.28	-1.61	-13.14	752.24M	21.14B