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HEADLINES
SolGold rejects approach from Jiangxi Copper
Gold price to reach new highs in 2026: Goldman poll
Mercuria metals boss says ‘this is the big one’ for copper bulls
Montage Gold to acquire African Gold in $170m deal
Aya posts strongest intercept yet at Boumadine in Morocco
India approves $816M rare earth magnets manufacturing program
SolGold rejects approach from Jiangxi Copper
Ecuador-focused SolGold on Friday revealed that it had rejected a fresh non-binding takeover proposal from Jiangxi Copper Company (JCC), after the Chinese group approached the company with a preliminary and conditional cash offer of 26p a share.
The proposal, received on November 28, follows an earlier non-binding approach from JCC that SolGold’s board unanimously rejected on November 23.
SolGold's Cascabel asset in Ecuador
SolGold said its board, after consulting advisers, had again unanimously decided to reject the latest proposal and continued to “remain confident in SolGold’s standalone prospects”.
The company advised shareholders to take no action. JCC now has until 17:00 London time on December 26 to either announce a firm intention to make an offer under UK takeover rules or confirm it does not intend to proceed.
Gold price to reach new highs in 2026: Goldman poll
Almost 70% of global institutional investors expect gold prices to post additional gains next year, Goldman Sachs said, citing the conclusions of a new poll.
The biggest proportion of respondents — 36% — think gold will top $5,000 per oz. by the end of 2026, New York-based Goldman said Friday. Another third of participants said they expect the precious metal to trade between $4,500 and $5,000 over the same timeframe, while just over 5% of those polled see prices dropping to between $3,500 and $4,000.
The investment bank surveyed more than 900 clients on its Marquee platform from Nov. 12 to 14.
Rate cuts
Buoyed in part by sustained central buying and expectations of interest-rate cuts, prices for the yellow metal have set multiple records this year, outperforming virtually every major asset class. With a year-to-date gain of about 61% to $4,223.36 as of Friday afternoon, gold is on course for its third-straight year of double-digits gains. It broke through the $4,000 mark for the first time last month.
Central bank buying of gold – picked by 38% of respondents – was seen as the main driver of gold’s increase in 2026, Goldman said. Fiscal concerns, with 27% support, ranked as the second-biggest factor.
The structural forces driving gold are far from exhausted, Sprott Asset Management argued in its November 2025 Precious Metals Report. It described how investors are exiting assets like bonds denominated in dollars and stocks vulnerable to currency devaluations towards precious metals and cryptocurrencies.
Mercuria metals boss says ‘this is the big one’ for copper bulls
Kostas Bintas, the high-profile head of metals at Mercuria Energy Group Ltd., has renewed his bullish prediction for copper prices as he warned that a rush to ship metal to the US risks draining the rest of the world’s inventories.
Traders have been ramping up shipments to the US in recent weeks to once again capitalize on a big premium for metal on New York’s Comex exchange, fueled by ongoing uncertainty about the potential for future tariffs.
The latest trades extend a tumultuous year for copper: US prices soared early in the year after President Donald Trump first threatened tariffs, kicking off a massive flow of metal from the rest of the world. Trump ultimately exempted refined copper from levies, but said he’d revisit the decision in the second half of 2026. Since then, global prices have surged to record levels as a series of mine disruptions tightened supply.
Bintas says copper will soon start ratcheting higher still, as the revival of the lucrative US arbitrage trade fuels shortages elsewhere.
“This is the big one,” he said in an interview at the end of a key industry conference in Shanghai. “If the world keeps going like this we will be left without copper cathodes in the rest of the world.”
Montage Gold to acquire African Gold in $170m deal
TSX-listed Montage Gold on Friday announced a binding scheme implementation deed to acquire all shares in ASX-listed African Gold that it did not already own, in a transaction that strengthened the company’s project pipeline in Côte d’Ivoire with the addition of the advanced-stage Didievi gold project to its portfolio.
Montage, which already holds a 17.3% stake in African Gold and operates the Didievi project, will acquire the remaining shares through an Australian court-approved scheme of arrangement. The deal implies a fully diluted equity value of about $170-million for the African Gold shares being purchased.
Under the agreement, African Gold shareholders will receive 0.0628 of a Montage common share for each African Gold share held, which is equivalent to an implied offer price of A$0.50 a share. The offer represents a 54% premium to African Gold’s 10-day volume-weighted average price on the ASX to November 27.
The Didievi project hosts an inferred resource of 12.4-million tonnes at 2.5 g/t gold for 989 000 oz, nearly doubling from 452 000 oz following recent drilling and metallurgical testwork undertaken during Montage’s operatorship. Montage said the project has clear potential to evolve into a standalone gold operation.
“With the build of our Koné project tracking on budget and well on schedule, we are pleased to further enhance our portfolio through the addition of the high-quality Didievi project, thereby strengthening our presence in Côte d’Ivoire," said Montage CEO Martino De Ciccio.
Aya posts strongest intercept yet at Boumadine in Morocco
Aya Gold & Silver (TSX: AYA) said new drilling at its Boumadine polymetallic project in Morocco yielded the strongest mineralized intercept so far while identifying a new high-grade parallel structure. Shares rose.
The Boumadine project in eastern Morocco
Hole BOU-MP25-087 cut 15 metres grading 3.31 grams gold per tonne, 1,900 grams silver, 4.8% zinc, 1.8% lead and 0.03% copper from 138 metres depth, Aya said Wednesday in a statement. That included 8.7 metres at 5.37 grams gold, 3,208 grams silver, 6.3% zinc, 2.8% lead and 0.05% copper.
“Both infill and step-out drilling at Boumadine completed to date support the potential for resource growth at the asset,” Scotia Capital mining analyst Ovais Habib said Wednesday in a note.
News of the drill results comes about three weeks after Aya said a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for Boumadine showed barely a year would be needed for the company to recoup its investment if gold prices remain elevated. Hole BOU-MP25-087 was drilled on the southern portion of the Boumadine main trend, outside the PEA pit shells, Aya said Wednesday.
India approves $816M rare earth magnets manufacturing program
India has approved a 72.8 billion rupees ($815.74 million) rare earth permanent magnets manufacturing program, the information minister said on Wednesday, in an effort to cut reliance on imports for the elements critical to sectors ranging from electric vehicles and aerospace to defence and renewable energy.
India’s consumption of rare earth permanent magnets – one of the strongest types of permanent magnets – is expected to double by 2030, but it currently meets its demand primarily through imports, according to the government.
The South Asian nation imported 53,748 metric tons of rare earth magnets in the fiscal year ending March 2025.
“Right now, all permanent magnets used in the country are imported from somewhere … with the completion of this program and the establishment of new plants, our import dependence will practically reduce to zero,” Information Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
The new program will increase self-reliance by supporting the establishment of manufacturing facilities with a total capacity of 6,000 metric tons per annum, India’s heavy industries ministry said in a statement.
The capacity will be allocated to five beneficiaries through a global competitive bidding process, each of whom will be allotted up to 1,200 metric tons per annum, it added.
