Gold prices jumped up to 3% to more than US$4,550/oz on Friday, heading for their first weekly gain since the Iran conflict began, after weeks of war-driven volatility and earlier price weakness. During his first Cabinet meeting since the US strike on Iran over three weeks ago, President Donald Trump called himself “a gold person” and backed the metal as “real stuff” that “you can’t imitate”, reinforcing bullion’s safe-haven narrative. A federal arts commission has also approved a 24‑karat commemorative coin design bearing Trump’s face for the US 250th anniversary.

AngloGold Ashanti has completed a pre-feasibility study for its Arthur project in Nevada’s Beatty district, confirming 4.9 million oz of gold reserves across the Silicon and Merlin deposits and outlining an initial nine-year mine life with average output of 500,000 oz/y. More than 95% of mineralisation is oxide, suited to bulk mining and conventional processing, with all-in sustaining costs estimated at $954/oz and initial capex at $3.6 billion. Using a $1,950/oz base case, AngloGold reports after-tax NPV (5%) rising from $1.7 billion at $2,715/oz to $3.4 billion at $3,500/oz, with feasibility work starting June alongside environmental and hydrological baseline studies.

Atlantic Nickel and Appian Capital Advisory have fired the inaugural blast for the first underground access portal at the Santa Rita nickel mine in Bahia, Brazil, marking the physical start of the open-pit to underground transition. Portal and associated preliminary works are progressing in parallel with completion of the underground Definitive Feasibility Study, allowing mine design, scheduling and ground support assumptions to be validated against actual rock conditions. For geotechnical and planning teams, this sequencing reduces schedule risk and enables earlier refinement of underground development and ventilation layouts.