US markets fall, June 22-26

A surge in coronavirus cases in parts of the United States undermined market sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3.31% to 25,015.55 and the S&P 500 dropped 2.86% to 3,009.05. Spot gold jumped US$27.70 per oz., or 1.59%, to US$1,771.50 per ounce.

Shares of Newmont climbed US$2.42 to US$59.34. The company announced it was ranked 13th overall in 3BL Media’s (formerly Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s) 100 Best Corporate Citizens list for 2020, moving up from 20th spot on last year’s list. Newmont was the sole mining company in the top 20 and one of only two miners to make the 21st annual list. 3BL Media’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens methodology ranks the 1,000 largest, publicly traded U.S. companies on environmental, social and governance (ESG) transparency and performance.

Rio Tinto’s shares rose US78¢ to US$55.80. Rio Tinto has launched a board-level review of its heritage management processes within its iron ore division after blowing up a 46,000-year-old sacred indigenous site while carrying out work to expand its iron ore operation in Australia’s Pilbara region. The company destroyed two ancient caves in Juukan Gorge, about 1,075 km north of Perth. The review will appraise Rio Tinto’s internal heritage standards, procedures, reporting and governance, and will examine the company’s relationship and communications with the Puutu Kurrama and Pinkura people. In other news, Rio Tinto announced that it has started exploration at Forum Energy Metals’ Janice Lake sedimentary copper-silver project in northern Saskatchewan. The major is earning up to an 80% interest in the project from Forum, which has optioned the property from Transition Metals. The project is about 55 km southeast of Key Lake.

Shares of Harmony Gold increased 9.8% to US$3.60. The company announced it had raised US$200 million from a planned shares placement to partly fund its acquisition of AngloGold Ashanti’s assets in South Africa. The gold producer issued more than 60 million new ordinary shares at a price of 57.70 rand on June 24. Harmony said it represented about 11% of its issued ordinary share capital before the placement. The company agreed earlier this year to buy AngloGold’s Mponeng mine, as well as its Mine Waste Solutions assets for US$300 million.

Vale was among the most heavily traded stocks of the week, falling US12¢ to US$10.19. The company announced plans to resume operations at its Voisey’s Bay mine in Labrador in early July, and said it expects the mine to reach full capacity by early August. Vale said it is partnering with a private testing lab in Newfoundland and Labrador to provide extensive testing of all employees entering the site in order to identify and stop the spread of any potential Covid-19 cases.