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Daily Dispatches
London Metals Exchange halts trading amid 'technical outage'
Submitted by admin on Tue, 2026-03-17 10:26 Section: Daily DispatchesBy Leslie Hook
Financial Times, London
Monday, March 16, 2026
Trading was halted for nearly three hours on the London Metal Exchange on Monday afternoon due to a technical outage, during a period when the Iran war has triggered unusually high volatility for commodity prices.
All electronic contracts on the exchange -- which include copper, aluminium, nickel, and other metals -- stopped trading at about 2.44 p.m. local time, according to data from LSEG. Dealing resumed at 5.30 p.m.
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Ghana seeks local bids for $1 billion revival of Gold Fields' Damang mine
Submitted by admin on Tue, 2026-03-17 09:53 Section: Daily DispatchesBy Maxwell Akalaare Adombila
Reuters
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Ghana is assessing three bids from local investors to take over Gold Fields' Damang gold mine, which requires up to $1 billion of investment to revive, the mining regulator told Reuters, nearly a year after the government seized control of the asset.
Ghana, which is seeking to boost local ownership in its mining sector, rejected Johannesburg-based Gold Fields' lease‑renewal bid and took control of Damang mine in April, breaking with years of automatic extensions.
U.S. takeover of Venezuela's gold industry advances via Trafigura
Submitted by admin on Mon, 2026-03-16 14:58 Section: Daily DispatchesTrafigura to Help Venezuela's Minerven Develop a Responsible Gold-Sourcing Program
By Polina Devitt
Reuters
Monday, March 16, 2026
LONDON -- Trafigura will work with Venezuela's state gold miner Minerven to develop a responsible sourcing program as part of its pre-payment deal for gold dore, a semi-pure alloy, the Swiss commodity trader said.
Bessent says U.S. hasn't intervened in energy derivatives markets
Submitted by admin on Mon, 2026-03-16 09:33 Section: Daily DispatchesThis is a start for mainstream financial journalism. Maybe someday Bloomberg will ask about intervention in the gold derivatives markets.
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By Alex Longley and Alexander Pearson
Bloomberg News
Monday, March 16, 2026
The United States has not intervened in energy derivatives markets, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, after the Middle East conflict pushed crude futures to the highest in almost four years.
Matthew Piepenburg: Silver's endgame is almost too obvious
Submitted by admin on Sun, 2026-03-15 11:39 Section: Daily Dispatches11:37a ET Sunday, March 15, 2026
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Von Greyerz Gold Switzerland partner Matthew Piepenburg writes today that claims to Comex futures exchange silver now exceed metal actually available for delivery by a ratio of 7 to 1, and the ratio for the silver market as a whole now may be as wide as 350 to 1.
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Currency debasement drives gold far more than war does, Gold Newsletter's Lundin says
Submitted by admin on Sat, 2026-03-14 20:45 Section: Daily Dispatches8:48p ET Saturday, March 14, 2026
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
This week Mike Maharrey of Money Metals Exchange interviewed Gold Newsletter editor Brien Lundin, who said geo-political shocks like the war in the Middle East have only temporary influence on gold prices. The main determinant of the gold price, Lundin said, is the long-running trend of currency debasement -- a trend that isn't likely to end any time soon.
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War distracts from forces that are still pushing gold up, Maguire tells LFTV
Submitted by admin on Sat, 2026-03-14 09:43 Section: Daily Dispatches9:43a ET Saturday, March 14, 2026
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
The war in the Middle East is distracting from the financial market developments that will keep pushing gold up, London metals trader Andrew Maguire says on this week's episode of Kinesis Money's "Live from the Vault" program.
Those factors, Maguire says, include the collapse in "private credit" instruments, which are impugning many insurance company investments, and the stagflation that is being created by the war's sharp rise in oil prices.
Myrmikan Capital's Daniel Oliver: Trump's gamble and gold
Submitted by admin on Fri, 2026-03-13 20:51 Section: Daily Dispatches8:52p ET Friday, March 13, 2026
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
In his commentary today, Myrmikan Capital's Daniel Oliver reflects on the possible impact of the war in the Middle East on gold.
Oliver writes: "We do not like presenting only bullish scenarios -- gold and the gold miners are investments, not a belief system. And we caution that we have little insight or opinion on where gold can trade in the short term as liquidity flows push it around.
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Why a cartful of massive gold bars was spotted inside the White House last week
Submitted by admin on Fri, 2026-03-13 15:42 Section: Daily DispatchesBy Charles Gasparino
New York Post
Friday, March 13, 2026
Last Friday afternoon, while President Trump was busy signing executive orders and powwowing with his cabinet on Iran, gold was spotted outside the Oval Office.
Specifically, a couple of dudes in dark suits were seen in the hallways of the White House wheeling what looked like a cart loaded up with gold bars, well-placed sources briefed on the situation told On The Money.
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Hungary returns Ukrainian bank vehicles but keeps cash and gold
Submitted by admin on Thu, 2026-03-12 22:44 Section: Daily DispatchesBy Anita Komuves and Krisztina Fenyo
Reuters
Thursday, March 12, 2026
BUDAPEST -- Hungary returned two seized armoured bank vehicles to Ukraine today but withheld cash and gold worth approximately $82 million, citing an investigation into alleged money laundering, a move Kyiv has denounced as theft.
Relations between Hungary and Ukraine, already strained by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's close ties to Russia, reached a new low last week when Hungary detained seven Ukrainians transporting cash and gold.
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