Mounting tension in the Middle East, with bombings and reprisals in the Lebanon and Israel spilling over into sabotage attacks on a northern Iraqi pipeline, is providing strength for oil prices
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Bobby Godsell, chief executive of Anglo Gold Ashanti, the world’s third largest gold producer, has brought cheer to gold bulls, anxious to see where the yellow metal’s recent volatility will lead.
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Prices of copper, aluminium and zinc, buoyant for so long, caused some concern in the markets with an abrupt sell-off towards the end of February.
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Industrial demand, particularly from China, has kept metal prices buoyant.
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Gold bulls were speculating about whether and when the yellow metal would reach and breach the $500-an-ounce level, as gold climbed into the upper $480s, ready to test 18-year highs, and platinum touched a near 26-year peak of $921 an ounce.
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Oil traders have drawn comfort from an authoritative report by the International Energy Agency forecasting a rebound in global oil demand.
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The release of emergency US oil reserves in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and a stepping-up of the search for new sources by members of OPEC may have clipped the rise in crude oil prices for the short term.
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Demand for steel from China and India continues to fuel strong increases in iron ore production. Rio Tinto increased output at its Hamersley iron operation in Western Australia’s Pilbara region 24 per cent year-on-year to a record 22.8 million tonnes in the second quarter of the year and production increases at Robe River, also in Australia, and in Canada, took the group’s total to 32 million tonnes.
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The key role played in the mining industry’s calculations by China’s modernisation drive came to the fore again with an estimate from the CEO of BHP Billiton that 2005 would show a more than fivefold increase in its sales to the People’s Republic since 2001.
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Mining companies are enticing punters with their glowing deposits of uranium.
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