Global Bond Yields Increase, Pressuring Precious Metals Markets

[SMM Daily Review: Soaring Global Bond Yields Pressure Silver Prices; Spot Cargo Transactions Dip into Discounts] SMM, August 19 – Global bond yields collectively rose, with US bond yields hitting multi-year highs, putting precious metals under pressure and triggering a pullback. In the spot market, discounts widened, with transactions concentrated at slight discounts, and demand remained on the sidelines.

[SMM Research] This study looks at South Africa's Bushveld Complex, the region behind most of the world's Platinum. It covers where the belt is, what comes out of it, who mines it, why it matters and what the years ahead may hold.

[SMM Flash] The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is becoming an increasingly important arena in the US-China competition for critical minerals, with the country holding significant resources of cobalt, copper, lithium, coltan, tantalum, tin, tungsten and other strategic commodities. China has built a strong position across the DRC's mining, processing and refining value chain, while the US is seeking to diversify supply through infrastructure investment, diplomacy and direct participation in mining assets. A key component of the US strategy is the Lobito Corridor, supported by a $553 million US Development Finance Corporation loan to rehabilitate about 1,300 km of railway linking the DRC to Angola's Atlantic port. The US-backed Orion Critical Mineral Consortium has also proposed acquiring a 40% stake in Glencore's Mutanda and Kamoto assets, with the transaction implying a combined enterprise value of about $9 billion and providing Orion rights to direct its share of production to nominated buyers. These moves could gradually diversify DRC mineral trade routes and customers, although China's established processing capacity and infrastructure footprint mean that a significant shift in the supply chain is unlikely to happen quickly.