Gold and silver were star commodities in August, thanks to Donald Trump and his ham-fisted trade war with China and Boris Johnson’s equally ham-fisted approach to Brexit, which in turn helped undermine other commodities such as oil and copper and especially iron ore. While gold was up around 6% in August and silver did even better with an 11% leap, iron ore prices ended the month down 28% – despite a 4% rise on the final trading day on Friday. The Metal Bulletin Fastmarkets iron ore index for 62% Fe fines, delivered to northern China jumped $US3.19 or 4% to end August at $US84.66 per tonne. That was well down on the ... (full story)