April 14, 2026 -  

Looking to the Middle East for an update on how the conflict with Iran is impacting markets: The US blockade of Iranian ports has: oil and gas prices up, shortages of commodities like helium and fertilizer are expected to worsen. And gold and silver futures fell yesterday with investors moving back into energy and away from precious metals. 

Specific to mining, Ivanhoe founder and co-chair Robert Friedland said that a prolonged closure of the Strait would have a “profound” impact on copper producers by driving up sulphur and sulphuric acid prices and causing shortages. One fifth of global copper supply uses sulphuric acid to leach copper from oxide ores.

Finally, one of China’s biggest rare earth producers on Friday hiked prices significantly, making a tight market even tighter.

The big takeaway from all of this: from domestic supplies of energy to domestic inputs to manufacturing and fertilizer production, a strong, domestic mining sector is more important than ever.