Defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) is in early talks with undersea mining companies to open access to two dormant seabed exploration licenses it has held since the 1980s The move signals a renewed US push to tap the ocean floor for critical minerals. The licenses, which cover swaths of the eastern Pacific seabed in international waters, were awarded to Lockheed by US regulators decades ago during a previous wave of interest in deep-sea mining. Though the projects never progressed to extraction, they are now gaining fresh attention as nations and corporations seek alternative sources of key minerals used in electric vehicles, defense technologies, and clean energy systems. “We are in early stages of conversations with several companies about giving them access to our licences and allowing them to process those materials,” Frank St. John, Lockheed’s chief operating officer, told the Financial Times. While St. John declined to quantify the potential…

The resource investing community descended on Boca Raton, Florida, during the first full week of July for another edition of the Rule Symposium, hosted by veteran investor and speculator Rick Rule. The five day event featured an illustrious array of speakers, panelists and companies sharing a wealth of investor knowledge. As in years past, gold remained a top focus, with many presenters stressing the value it offers investors. Opening the conference, Rule provided a sobering overview of the current economic trajectory. He urged investors to set aside political narratives and instead focus on the raw arithmetic of America’s financial condition. “It’s not about politics, it’s about math,” said Rule. He pointed to three figures that define the US financial landscape: US$141 trillion in aggregate private net worth, a US$27.71 trillion GDP and a personal savings rate of just 4 percent. That’s set against mounting obligations — US$36.6 trillion in federal…

After soaring to all-time highs during the first quarter of 2025, how could gold follow up during Q2? By setting new price records, of course. Tariff threats, financial uncertainty and geopolitical tensions all fueled the yellow metal’s price rise during the second quarter of the year, which saw gold reach the US$3,500 per ounce mark for the first time. While central banks continued to make gold purchases during the period, so too did retail investors, who shied away from US treasuries in favor of a more tangible safe-haven asset class. What happened to the gold price in Q2? Gold had an impressive run during the first quarter of the year, steadily rising from US$2,658.04 on January 2 to US$3,138.24 on April 2, leaving investors to wonder how much more gas was available for Q2. Gold price, April 1 to July 10, 2025. Chart via Trading Economics. The price of gold…

Q2 confirmed that the artificial intelligence (AI) boom is entering a new phase in the physical world. As the industry evolves, attention is being directed to strengthening underlying infrastructure while advancing areas like embodied AI, a subsector that MarketsandMarkets projects will grow at a CAGR of 39 percent globally by 2030. Also during Q2, a geopolitical tech rivalry exacerbated shifting macroeconomic conditions. While the race for compute, energy, hardware and supply chain dominance intensified, talk of tariff policies reigniting inflation or contributing to stagflation created brief periods of contraction. Concerns also grew around AI-driven job displacement, amplified by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s ominous warning that AI could eliminate up to half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within the next five years. On a more positive note, the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) and Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) both ended Q2 up by 0.5 percent, closing the first half of 2025 at all-time highs…

  (TheNewswire)                   TORONTO, ON TheNewswire – July 14 2025 –Silver Crown Royalties Inc. (‘Silver Crown’, ‘SCRi’, the ‘Corporation’, or the ‘Company’) (Cboe:SCRI,OTC:SLCRF; OTCQX:SLCRF; FRA:QS0) is pleased to announce that the Company has successfully closed the final tranche (‘Final Tranche’) of its non-brokered offering of units (‘Units’) that was previously announced on May 20, 2025 (the ‘Offering’) and issued 132,693 Units at a price of C$6.50 per Unit, for gross proceeds of approximately C$862,505.50.     Each Unit consists of one common share (‘Common Share’) and one Common Share purchase warrant (‘Warrant’), with each Warrant exercisable to acquire one additional Common Share at an exercise price of C$13.00 for a period of three years from the closing date. A total of 235,531Units were issued in accordance with the Offering for cumulative gross proceeds of C$1,530,951.50.       The proceeds from the Final Tranche will…

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) became the first publicly traded company to hit a US$4 trillion market cap this week. Meanwhile, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) made headlines with a major leadership change as rumors of a lineup of upcoming product releases circulated, and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) deepened ties with one of its hardware partners. In the chip market, Huawei is trying to capitalize on the gap left by NVIDIA’s chips in China, while a startup is stepping up its efforts to help meet its ambitious plans to expand artificial intelligence (AI) chip delivery to Saudi Arabia. 1. Apple announces leadership shift On Tuesday (July 8), Apple announced that Jeff Williams, its longtime chief operating officer, will retire at the end of 2025, ending a tenure that spanned decades and included overseeing hardware, software and operations. “Jeff and I have worked alongside each other for as long as I can remember, and Apple wouldn’t be what…