Welcome back to Yield for another year. And we hope it’s been a happy one so far.

Admittedly, we’re almost into month three, but that doesn’t mean we’ve been sitting on a beach or sleeping off an extended Christmas-pudding-induced coma here in the editorial department.

The Yield team was straight back on the job as soon as the last cracker had cracked, keeping our eyes and ears on the markets and even bringing in the crack design team to give us a fresh new look for the new year.

One of the things that grabbed our attention early was gold. It is remarkably good at grabbing people’s attention, of course. In fact, it was when one member of the editorial team came back with a sparkly gold band on her finger, affectionately but not very romantically referred to as “my precious”, that we shot the lights out with a couple of bubbly corks and declared we’d go and have a closer look at the latest on the glittery stuff.

We called on a couple of people who know more than most, AuTECO Minerals CEO Darren Cooke and Black Dragon Gold MD Gabriel Chiappini, to find out their takes on whether things would sparkle for gold and their projects in 2023. They talked to our cameras and we bring their views to you.

WATCH AUTECO WATCH BLACK DRAGON

While gold might always be a trusted, long-term bet, support for Australian manufacturing has declined to the point that it’s almost terminal. It’s prompted the experts to call strongly for some urgent action from the Federal Government to get behind what could be a gold-class industry. ANCA CEO Martin Ripple shares his views. READ MORE

A lot of people wonder how we can afford to fill our Yield newsroom with the gun team we have in place if we don’t accept advertising. It’s not that we don’t accept it: it’s just that we never actively pursued advertising. By all means, you’re welcome to drop us a line if you’re keen to plaster our newsletter with your branding. But that’s not the point.

The reason we are a well-funded, well-oiled machine is not because we’re helping ourselves to the mounting collection of gold nuggets in the AuTECO or Black Dragon company safes, but due to the fact we have a very generous benefactor in parent company Spoke. Our sugar daddy is all too happy to shower us in the resources and budgets required to keep our roving team out in the world with their fingers on the pulse and our inhouse team fully equipped. They even supplied the bottles of bubbly and replacement globes for the lights we shot out on celebrating our colleague’s glittering engagement ring.

Being the philanthropist it is, Spoke also jumped behind TEDxPerth, providing support to help put the upcoming 1st April event in the spotlight. And because of that mutual association, we’ve managed to get a sneak peek at the presenter list. It’s certainly a golden opportunity for anyone interested in attending to hear from some of the best minds and most interesting storytellers. READ MORE

Please read on, enjoy and be sure to pass this issue of Yield around to your networks!

Happy reading and viewing,

Ed