Welcome back to our weekly update. I'm Charlotte Mloud with investingnews.com and we're going to run through a few of this week's biggest stories in the mining industry. If you enjoy this video, don't forget to hit the like button, subscribe to our channel, and of course, leave us a comment below. Let's get into it. [Music] Precious metals are wrapping up a record- setting week once again. Silver was in the spotlight, pushing past 45 per ounce, a price not seen since 2011. At that level, it's up just over 50%


year-to- date, a better performance even than gold. Still, gold's price activity is nothing to sneeze at. It had another record- setting week, this time getting close to 3,800 per ounce. The yellow metal continues to see support from a variety of underlying factors, but turning heads this week was the news that China is looking to boost its position in the global gold market by becoming a custodian of foreign sovereign gold reserves. People familiar with the matter said that in recent months, the Asian nation has been


approaching central banks in friendly countries with the aim of encouraging them to buy gold and store it in China. Experts see the move as yet another part of the ddollarization trend. If China is successful, foreign gold reserves would be held in custodian warehouses linked to the International Board of the Shanghai Gold Exchange. The board was set up by the People's Bank of China in 2014, and it's where foreign entities trade gold with their Chinese counterparts. Also relevant for gold


this week were comments from US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. During a Providence, Rhode Island speech, he indicated that the central bank will take a cautious approach to interest rates after last week's 25 basis point cut. The Fed has faced ongoing calls from US President Donald Trump to make bigger cuts more quickly. And while Powell continues to resist pressure, CME Group's Fed Watch tool still shows that a reduction is highly likely at the Fed's October meeting. While the


relationship isn't exact, gold tends to fare better when rates are low. With gold trading at or near all-time highs, a key question for investors is whether the price has more room to run. I've been speaking with experts about that topic, and I encourage you to go check out the interviews on our channel to hear their full thoughts. For now, I'll sum up the viewpoints I've been hearing most often. First and foremost, the message I've been getting is that gold's run is not over. 4,000, which once


sounded like a fairly distant number, is only $200 to $300 away, and many market watchers see it getting there by the end of the year, if not sooner. Prices beyond 4,000 are also being talked about as attainable. There is of course a caveat and that is that nothing can go straight up including gold especially now after its rapid upward momentum. The broad consensus is that a correction is all but guaranteed perhaps soon. Here's how Steve Barton of in it to win it explained it. >> I do got to say I think I would be


pretty shocked if we got up to 4,000 and didn't have some type of of corrective move. Uh I suppose anything's possible. We blew through the 3750. I didn't expect that. Uh so maybe it'll go on up. But um yeah, we're getting pretty stretched here. I think, you know, for most people that are, you know, um watching and they've got a lot of gold stocks, I think that we we you really need to think about trimming. You know, maybe treat it like a money manager. And if you've got 20%


of your account in gold and gold stocks and you know with this last run, you know, maybe you've gotten up to 22, 23, 24%. Maybe knock it back down to 20. You know, take you got to pay yourself at some point. >> I'll leave a link to the full interview with Steve in the video description. Next week, I'll have more great guests for you, including Adam Rosenwake and Ivon Blik. Drop a comment below with your questions if you have them. Copper prices were also on the rise this week after Freeport Magmaran declared


force majour at its Indonesia based Grasberg copper gold mine. Grasber has been offline since September 8th when around 800,000 metric tons of mud flowed into underground levels at the operation. Seven employees went missing during the incident with two now confirmed to have died. Search efforts continue for the other five. Freeport has cut its copper and gold sales guidance for Q3 and expects to defer significant production in Q4 as well as 2026. Preliminary assessments suggest that Grasberg may not return to pre-inccident


operating rates until 2027. The company's share price unsurprisingly took a dive on the back of the news. Putting the impact into context, Bloomberg notes that prior to the disruption, Grasberg accounted for about 3.2% 2% of copper mine supply this year, as well as 30% of Freeport's copper output and 70% of its gold production. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Lithium America saw its share price spike over 100% this week after Reuters reported that the Trump administration may be gearing up to take a 10% equity


stake in the company. Lithium America's finalized a $2.26 26 billion loan from the US Department of Energy last year, but the government has been looking to renegotiate terms due to low lithium prices. Lithium America's reportedly proposed a change in the loan's amortization schedule with the request for an equity stake in the company coming during those discussions. Reuters states that to secure its funding, Lithium America's offered the government no cost warrants that would equate to 5


to 10% of its common shares. The loan is tied to its Nevada based therap lithium project which is set to open in 2028. Thank you for watching. If you like this video, make sure you hit the like button and subscribe to our channel. We'd also love to hear your thoughts, so leave us a comment below. [Music]