Ni

Nickel price jumps as Indonesia’s top mine cuts output

Staff Writer | February 11, 2026 | 

Weda Bay Nickel mine. (Image courtesy of PT Weda Bay Nickel.)

Nickel prices rose for a fourth straight day Wednesday after Indonesia ordered the world’s largest nickel mine to sharply cut output in a move aimed at tightening global supply and lifting prices.

LME nickel climbed 2% to $17,835 a tonne as of 6:45 a.m. London time, after earlier touching $17,910, extending a rally of more than 20% since mid-December amid speculative buying and heightened geopolitical tensions.

Indonesia plans to issue production quotas of 260 million to 270 million tonnes of nickel ore this year, according to Bloomberg, slightly above an earlier estimate of 250 million to 260 million tonnes but far below the 379 million tonnes targeted for 2025. Authorities manage output through annual mining permits, known as RKABs, and can revise volumes mid-year.

PT Weda Bay Nickel will receive a 12 million tonne ore quota this year, down from 42 million tonnes in 2025. The mine, located on Halmahera in North Maluku, is owned by Tsingshan Holding Group Co, France’s Eramet SA and PT Aneka Tambang. Eramet confirmed the reduced quota and said it plans to seek a revision, while the county’s Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said quotas remain under evaluation.

Price control

Indonesia is trying to rein in a persistent global surplus after its production surged to about 65% of world supply, triggering a two-year price slump that forced higher-cost rivals in Australia and New Caledonia to shut down.

The quota cut will weigh heavily on Weda Bay, which had planned to expand output to more than 60 million tonnes of ore to support a nearby industrial park. Instead, it has imported large volumes of ore from the Philippines to offset local shortages.

Nickel, used in stainless steel and electric-vehicle batteries, has seen weaker-than-expected demand from the battery sector as some manufacturers shift to non-nickel chemistries.

In January, Macquarie Group raised its 2026 nickel price forecast by 18% to $17,750 a tonne on the LME, citing a sharp drop in the expected surplus due to tighter Indonesian quotas.

Curbing coal

Indonesia is also curbing thermal coal output, with mining quotas in the world’s largest exporter set to fall by nearly 25% from a year earlier. The Indonesian Coal Mining Association said the cuts could force some operations to close and leave overseas buyers scrambling for alternative supplies.

(With files from Bloomberg)

Nornickel reports 36% rise in net profit

Reuters | February 11, 2026 | 

(Image from Nornickel’s Instagram page)

Russian metal producer Nornickel’s 2025 net profit rose by 36% year-on-year to $2.47 billion, following higher prices for some metals and foreign‑exchange effects, the company said on Wednesday.

The major producer of refined nickel and palladium said 2025 revenue increased by 10% to $13.76 billion while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization rose 9% to $5.67 billion.

Platinum, palladium and copper were among metals that gained last year, but Nornickel said the LME nickel average price fell by 10% year-on-year.

Other headwinds included Western sanctions on Russia, high interest rates and a strong rouble.

Targets delivered despite headwinds

Despite the difficulties, CEO Vladimir Potanin said: “Nornickel’s management has delivered on its annual targets, primarily on production and sales.”

In a statement, he added the company expected the major macroeconomic challenges for its business to persist into 2026.

Nornickel is not subject to direct Western sanctions over Russia’s actions in Ukraine, but the measures have prompted some producers to avoid buying Russian metal. They have also complicated the process of making payments and restricted access to Western equipment.

Nornickel did not disclose its sales volumes or sales destinations. Revenue from metal sales rose 10% to $12.983 billion, mainly because of higher prices.

In response to global restrictions, the producer redirected its sales flows to Asia, which became the company’s largest market.

Nornickel’s CFO Sergei Malyshev said the company last year reduced its inventories that had accumulated because of sanctions.

Capital expenditure amounted to $2.6 billion in 2025, and the company expects a similar level in 2026.

Adjusted free cash flow was $1.5 billion.

Malyshev said Nornickel’s dividend payout will depend on its debt metrics, the economic situation, and the cash flow generated by the Bystrinsky copper and gold mine, which has been operating at capacity since around 2020. Earlier, Potanin said dividends for 2025 were unlikely

The company said it expects the global nickel market surplus to reach 275,000 metric tons in 2026, assuming Indonesia maintains the status quo, and anticipates the palladium market will be balanced in the medium term.

(By Anastasia Lyrchikova; Editing by Vladimir Soldatkin and Barbara Lewis)

AU

Lupaka Gold may seize Peru state assets over unpaid $67M arbitration award

Staff Writer | January 19, 2026 | 

Credit: Lupaka Gold via LinkedIn

Lupaka Gold (TSXV: LPK) may look to seize certain Peruvian state-owned assets unless the South American nation pays the company its arbitration award, its chairman told Bloomberg.

Last year, the Canadian miner won an arbitration case against Peru for the government’s failure to curb community protests in 2018 that ultimately forced the closure of the company’s flagship gold project. The arbitration was launched in late 2019, with Lupaka alleging that the state had supported the protests that blockaded access to its Invicta project, located 120 kilometres north of the capital city Lima.

Before the situation escalated, Lupaka had completed 3,000 metres of underground workings, agreements from the community of Lacsanga and a 29-kilometre access road sufficient to handle 40-tonne ore trucks. The project was forecast to produce 185,000 oz. of gold equivalent over a six-year life.

$67 million unpaid

In June 2025, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ruled that the Peruvian state must pay Lupaka $65 million. However, the arbitration award, now amounting to $67 million due to accumulation of interest, has yet to be paid, according to the company.

Without this payment, Lupaka said it has taken steps to identify overseas assets held by Peru as potential targets for seizure. Last November, it hired investigators to aid this process.

In a recent Bloomberg interview, Lupaka’s chairman Gordon Ellis said it has identified Peru’s national petroleum company Petroperu, which has “massive debts and pays large amounts of money on that on a regular basis,” as a potential target.

Other assets named by Ellis include ships and real estate as well as debt payments on Peru’s sovereign bonds.

Shares of Lupaka Gold have risen by over three-fold since its arbitration award win. At about C$0.25 apiece, the company has a market capitalization of C$5.7 million ($4.1 million).

Lupaka’s threats highlight the damaged relationship the Peruvian state has had with certain foreign investors. Last month, the Latin American nation was found in default in US federal court over another arbitration award totaling $91 million involving an airport contractor.

According to the Fraser Institute, Peru ranks behind some of its mineral-rich peers in the region such as San Juan, Argentina and Chile for investment attractiveness.

Caledonia secures $150M for Zimbabwe gold mine in rare international capital raise

Reuters | January 21, 2026 | 

Bilboes gold project in Zimbabwe. (Image courtesy of Caledonia Mining.)

Caledonia Mining Corporation on Wednesday said it raised $150 million via a seven-year convertible bond offering to fund its Bilboes project which, once operational, will be Zimbabwe’s largest gold mine.

Zimbabwe-focused Caledonia’s debt issuance is the biggest international capital raising in over a decade for the country, which had been shunned by global investors due to economic and policy volatility.

Spot gold prices surged to more than $4,800 per ounce on Wednesday, driven by investors seeking havens who are backing miners like Caledonia to lift output.

In a statement, Caledonia – which operates the 80,000-ounce-per-year Blanket mine in Zimbabwe – said demand for the offering from US institutional investors exceeded $600 million.

“Receiving more than $600 million of demand from high-quality North American investors is a tremendous endorsement of our strategy, the quality of our assets, our operational track record and the long-term prospects of the company,” Caledonia CEO Mark Learmonth said.

Caledonia said the bond issue is part of a broader strategy it is pursuing to fund Bilboes, which is expected to start production in late 2028. The mine is expected to reach annual output of 200,000 ounces from 2029 for an initial period of 10 years.

The company is also arranging a $150 million funding facility with a consortium of Zimbabwean and South African banks and will also engage regional and global lenders for Bilboes financing.

The Bilboes project has an expected total cost of $584 million and peak funding requirements of $484 million.

Zimbabwe’s gold output plunged to 3 metric tons during the height of its economic and political crisis in 2008. It has more than doubled production over the past decade to an all-time high of 47 metric tons in 2025.

(By Chris Takudzwa Muronzi; Editing by Nelson Banya and Thomas Derpinghaus)

Russia gains $216 billion in gold rally, replacing lost assets

Bloomberg News | January 20, 2026 

Stock image.

Russia has reaped a windfall from a surge in gold prices since the start of its war in Ukraine, generating gains on a scale comparable to the sovereign reserves frozen in Europe over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

The value of the Bank of Russia’s gold holdings has increased by more than $216 billion since February 2022, according to Bloomberg calculations. At the same time, the central bank has largely refrained from both major purchases of the metal and using its gold reserves during that period, despite the loss of access to foreign securities and currencies blocked under sanctions.

In December, European Union countries approved extending a freeze on around €210 billion ($244 billion) of Russian sovereign assets held in the bloc.

The increase in the value of bullion restores most of Russia’s lost financial capacity, even if it doesn’t return the blocked reserves. While securities and cash immobilized in Europe cannot be sold or pledged, gold can still be monetized if needed.

Russia, the world’s second-largest gold producer, mines more than 300 tons of the metal a year. Since 2022, however, Russian bullion has been shut out of Western markets and is no longer accepted by the London Bullion Market Association, effectively barring it from the world’s biggest over-the-counter gold-trading hub. That complicates any potential large-scale sales by the central bank to Asian buyers, where it would also face competition from newly mined gold produced by sanctioned Russian producers that cannot currently be sold elsewhere.

Gold prices have rallied sharply over the past four years, supported by strong demand from central banks, persistent inflation concerns, heightened geopolitical risks and investors seeking safe havens from uncertainty caused by trade wars.

In 2025, gold gained around 65%, its strongest annual performance since 1979. This has significantly lifted the valuation of official holdings worldwide even without additional purchases.

Russia’s international reserves reached $755 billion at the end of last year, including $326.5 billion held in gold, according to central bank data published on Friday. Gold prices have risen by more than 8% since then, surpassing $4,700 per ounce.

The Finance Ministry expects gold prices to keep climbing over the long term to $5,000 an ounce and higher. The current rally reflects a loss of confidence in global reserve currencies, while attempts to expropriate Russian assets are only increasing demand, Deputy Finance Minister Aleksey Moiseev said in an interview with RBC in late December.

The Bank of Russia only began drawing on its bullion toward the end of last year, with holdings falling by 0.2 million troy ounces to 74.8 million troy ounces. The decline reflected operations linked to the Finance Ministry’s sales of National Wellbeing Fund assets to finance the budget deficit.

From February 2022 through December 2025, the value of the country’s gold reserves more than doubled, while reserves held in foreign assets and currencies declined by about 14%, Bank of Russia data show. Gold accounted for 43% of total reserves compared with only 21% before the war.

Russia has stopped disclosing detailed information on its foreign currency reserves since the start of the war. As of Jan. 1, foreign currency and other non-gold assets totaled $399 billion, according to the data.

Russia’s Finance Ministry said in 2022 that roughly $300 billion of its overseas sovereign assets had been immobilized abroad.

The fate of those funds is poised to remain a subject of negotiation as talks over a potential peace settlement of the war in Ukraine continue under US leadership. EU countries have debated ways to use frozen Russian assets to provide a loan to Ukraine, but efforts to reach an agreement ultimately failed.

The Bank of Russia in response filed a lawsuit in Moscow seeking 18.2 trillion rubles ($227 billion) from Euroclear. Governor Elvira Nabiullina said the central bank doesn’t intend to drop its claim and is considering legal action in international courts.

Gold price extends record run, with $4,900 in sight

Staff Writer | January 21, 2026 

Stock image.

Gold extended its record rally to almost $4,900 per ounce on Wednesday, as geopolitical tensions surrounding Greenland and a meltdown in Japanese government debt kept safe-haven demand elevated.

Spot gold spiked as much as 2% to a record $4,887.19 per ounce before paring some gains. This marks the first time ever that gold has crossed the $4,800 threshold, and it comes a day after prices first broke past the $4,700-an-ounce level.

Gold is coming off its best annual performance since 1979, as mounting geopolitical risks and a global shift away from fiat currencies lifted the metal’s appeal, driving prices to record highs on more than 50 occasions through 2025 and into the new year.

This record-breaking rally in gold, which has risen by 75% over the past 12 months, reignited in recent days amid growing tensions between the US and its NATO allies. On Saturday, US President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on eight European nations that opposed his plan to take over Greenland, raising the specter of a damaging trade war.

Meanwhile, a meltdown in Japanese sovereign debt spilt over into bond markets worldwide earlier this week, with long-dated Treasuries and the dollar both tumbling. As well as sparking fears of the repatriation of capital to the East Asian nation as yields rise, the ructions highlighted worries about the fiscal situations of major economies that fueled the so-called “debasement trade”, where investors avoid currencies and government bonds.

The situation in Japan is spurring “fear of market-led debasement in the rest of the world,” Daniel Ghali, a senior commodity strategist at TD Securities, wrote in a note. “Gold’s rally is about trust. For now, trust has bent, but hasn’t broken. If it breaks, momentum will persist for longer.”

Gold is poised for more support from the world’s biggest reported buyer, the National Bank of Poland. The central bank approved plans to purchase another 150 tons, while Bolivia’s central bank has resumed purchases for its foreign reserves under new regulations enacted in December 2025.

“Gold remains our highest conviction,” Daan Struyven, co-head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs Group, said at a media briefing on Wednesday, citing continued purchases by central banks. He reiterated the bank’s base case scenario is for gold to climb to $4,900 an ounce, with risks to the upside.

Silver down

Meanwhile, silver retreated by over 1% after notching its all-time best $95.89 per ounce during the Tuesday session. The metal has benefitted from the gold trade and performed even better during 2025, recording a gain of 140% for the year.

As with gold, analysts remain bullish on the white metal in 2026. “Silver’s rise to a three-digit number is looking quite possible given the price momentum we are seeing, but it will not be a one-way move. There could be some correction in prices and volatility can be higher,” ANZ commodity strategist Soni Kumari said on Wednesday.

(With files from Bloomberg and Reuters)

Gold, silver premiums in India surge on import duty hike bets

India is the world’s second-largest consumer of gold and the largest consumer of silver. 

Reuters | January 21, 2026 

Stock image.

Gold premiums in India surged past $100 an ounce on Wednesday for the first time in more than a decade, with silver premiums at a record high, as traders priced in possible curbs on precious metals imports to shore up the rupee.

Bullion dealers charged a premium of up to $112 per ounce over official domestic gold prices – inclusive of 6% import and 3% sales levies – the highest since May 2014. Last week, dealers offered a discount of up to $12.

Silver premiums surged to $8 per ounce, surpassing the previous peak of $5 scaled in October.

India is the world’s second-largest consumer of gold and the largest consumer of silver. The rupee slipped to a record low of 91.7425 against the US dollar on Wednesday.

“People are speculating that the government may raise import duties on gold and silver to curb imports in the budget,” said Chanda Venkatesh, managing director of Hyderabad-based bullion merchant CapsGold.

“Anticipating the hike, traders are charging premiums over record prices.”

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present the Union Budget for 2026/27 on February 1. She had slashed import duties on gold and silver to 6% from 15% in July 2024 to curb smuggling.

India meets most of its gold and silver demand through imports, which have surged in recent months, widening the trade deficit and putting pressure on the rupee.

Local gold prices soared to an all-time high of 158,339 rupees per 10 grams, while silver surged to a record 335,521 rupees per kilogram.

“Traders with short positions were squeezed as prices rose, forcing them to buy to close their positions,” said Prithviraj Kothari, president, India Bullion and Jewellers Association (IBJA).

While jewellery demand is down, investment in coins, bars, and exchange-traded funds has surged, Kothari said.

“Supply hasn’t kept up. This shortage is causing sellers to charge higher premiums,” said Chirag Thakkar, chief executive of Amrapali Group Gujarat, a leading importer.

The industry is concerned that the government may take steps to restrict bank funding currently used by jewellers for gold and silver imports, a move that is also lifting premiums on both metals, said Surendra Mehta, secretary, IBJA.

India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(By Rajendra Jadhav and Aftab Ahmed; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)

 

Caledonia plans to spend $132 million on Zimbabwe’s biggest gold mine this year

Reuters | January 14, 2026 | 

Caledonia Mining is weighing its options on how best to press the Bilboes gold mine in Zimbabwe back into service. Credit: Caledonia Mining

Caledonia Mining Corporation plans to spend $132 million this year to launch development of what, once operational, will be Zimbabwe’s largest gold mine, the company announced on Wednesday.

Miners are riding a wave of record bullion prices to expand output. Spot gold prices hit another record high of $4,639.48 an ounce early on Wednesday, fueled by escalating tensions in Iran, concern over the Federal Reserve’s autonomy and softer inflation readings that boosted rate cut bets.

Caledonia said in a production update that the planned spending, part of a $162.5 million total capital expenditure program for 2026, was subject to board approval and availability of funding.

Caledonia bets big on Bilboes as Zimbabwe’s next major gold mine

Caledonia, which already operates the 80,000-ounce-per-year Blanket mine in Zimbabwe, plans to develop the Bilboes mine at a projected total capital cost of $584 million.

Production from the new mine is expected to begin in late 2028, with steady-state annual output of 200,000 ounces anticipated from 2029 for an initial period of 10 years.

The company has said it plans to fund the Bilboes project through a mix of non-recourse senior debt, contributions from existing operations as well as specialized financing methods such as streaming, where investors provide cash in return for future metal supply.

Caledonia’s expansion plans received a boost last month when Zimbabwe’s government reversed plans to double the gold royalty rate and change the tax treatment for capital expenditure.

(By Chris Takudzwa Muronzi; Editing by Nelson Banya and Joe Bavier)

Pigs settled Pacific islands alongside early human voyagers

Summary author: Walter Beckwith

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

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Pigs across the Pacific can trace their ancestry to Southeast Asian domestic pigs that accompanied early Austronesian-speaking groups as they island-hopped across the region, according to a new genomic study. For thousands of years, humans have moved animals far beyond their natural ranges – sometimes accidentally and sometimes deliberately, but often with profound ecological consequences, especially on islands. Pigs are a striking example; although their home ranges lie mostly west of the Wallace Line, multiple species are now widespread across the islands of Southeast Asia and throughout Oceania. Archaeological and genetic evidence suggest that pigs were brought eastward more than 4,000 years ago, predating major Austronesian migrations, with later human expansions bringing them farther across the Pacific. However, studies show that endemic pigs in these regions carry a distinctive “Pacific Clade” genetic signature, which is shared by wild and free-living pigs elsewhere across mainland Southeast Asia. This pattern raises questions about the precise nature of the origin and dispersal of pig populations across the Pacific, and humans’ role in it.

 

To trace the origins of pigs across Wallacea, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, David Stanton and colleagues sequenced 117 modern, historical, and ancient pig genomes spanning the last 2,900 years, and analyzed tooth shape data from 401 modern and 313 archaeological specimens. Stanton et al. found that pigs from the Philippines to Hawaii largely descended from domestic pigs brought by Austronesian-speaking groups from Southeast China and Taiwan about 4,000 years ago. Moreover, pigs in Oceania show no genetic mixing with the wild pig species native to islands along the migration route, indicating that the earliest introduced animals remained genetically isolated from local populations. Only later did isolated feral populations interbreed with endemic wild species. According to the authors, this pattern mirrors early, successive human migrations across the region, which likewise involved limited admixture with local groups, suggesting that these pigs possessed domestic traits well suited for transport and husbandry. Repeated island-to-island movement then shaped their evolution through genetic bottlenecks, selective pressures, and later gene flow, helping explain their success in spreading across Island Southeast Asia and the western Pacific.

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Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adv4963 

Article Title

Genomic and morphometric evidence for Austronesian-mediated pig translocation in the Pacific

Article Publication Date

1-Jan-2026

How people moved pigs across the Pacific

Genomic study reveals the routes taken by people as they island hopped across Indonesia

Queen Mary University of London

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image: 

Prehistoric cave painting of two Sulawesi warty pigs, Leang Tedongnge Cave, Sulawesi, Indonesia. At least 45,000 years old, this is among the world’s oldest known cave art and illustrates the long-standing relationship between pigs and people in the region

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Credit: Adam Brumm (Griffith University) and Adhi Agus Oktaviana (BRIN, Indonesia).

How people moved pigs across the Pacific

Genomic study reveals the routes taken by people as they island hopped across Indonesia

A new study, published today in the journal Science, reveals how millennia of human migration across Pacific islands led to the introduction of invasive pig species all over the Asia-Pacific region.

The study was led by Laurent Frantz, Professor of Palaeogenomics at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), and the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), David Stanton, from Cardiff University, and Greger Larson, from the University of Oxford.

Plants and animals have not always spread naturally across the islands of Indonesia. The evolutionary biologist Alfred Russell Wallace identified a major biogeographic boundary, the “Wallace Line”, noting that wildlife on either side rarely crossed. Leopards and monkeys, for example, are found on the Asian side, while marsupials and cassowaries are largely limited to the Australasian side.

One notable exception is pigs. Pig populations occur on both sides of the Wallace Line and extend across Southeast Asia to New Caledonia, Vanuatu and remote Polynesia. Pigs are highly effective ecological invaders, and they are also culturally important across the region, raising a key question: what role did people play in their spread?

The new paper looked at the genome of over 700 pigs, including from living and archaeological specimens. This allowed the reconstruction of their movement across southeast Asia and identify when they arrived on certain islands and how they might have interbred with various native pig species.

The researchers found that people of different cultures have moved pig species in the region for millennia. The earliest evidence points to people living in Sulawesi perhaps as early as 50,000 years ago, known to be the earliest cave painters, who both depicted and transported warty pig species as far away as Timor, possibly to establish future hunting stock.

The introduction of pigs in Island Southeast Asia dramatically accelerated, around 4,000 years ago, when early agricultural communities transported domestic pigs in the region. Their journey began from Taiwan, extending across the Philippines, northern Indonesia (Maluku), into Papua New Guinea, and on to the outlying islands as far as Vanuatu, and remote Polynesia. The authors also found evidence for the introduction of pigs from Europe during the colonial period.

Many of these domestic pigs escaped, and became feral, in some cases, like on the Komodo islands, hybridising with the warty pigs brought by people from Sulawesi thousands of years earlier. These hybrid pigs are now a major source of food for the endangered Komodo dragons.

The findings of this study highlight the dramatic and enduring impact of human activity on local ecosystems in the Pacific, raising conservation conundrums. Pigs in the region today have dramatically different statuses and impacts across islands: some are considered spiritual beings, others pests, while some are now so ingrained in local ecosystems that they could almost be considered native. Efficient conservation policy will need to navigate these complexities, going beyond the traditional paradigm of conserving only native fauna.

The study included collaborators from around the world, with more than 50 authors being involved, including scientists from Cardiff University, the University of Oxford, the National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia, National Museum of the Philippines, and the Vanuatu Cultural Centre.

  Prof. Laurent Frantz, senior author of the study: “It is very exciting that we can use ancient DNA from pigs to peel back layers of human activity across this megabiodiverse region. The big question now is, at what point do we consider something native? What if people introduced species tens of thousands of years age, are these worth conservation efforts?”

Dr. David Stanton of the University of Cardiff and Queen Mary University of London, the lead author of the study said “This research reveals what happens when people transport animals enormous distances, across one of the world’s most fundamental natural boundaries. These movements led to pigs with a melting pot of ancestries. These patterns were technically very difficult to disentangle, but have ultimately helped us understand how and why animals came to be distributed across the Pacific islands.”

Prof. Greger Larson, of the University of Oxford said: “Wild boar dispersed across all of Eurasia and North Africa and certainly don’t need people to help them disperse into new areas. When people have landed a hand, pigs were all too willing to spread out on newly colonised islands in South East Asia and into the Pacific. By sequencing the genomes of ancient and more recent populations we’ve been able to link those human-assisted dispersals to specific human populations in both space and time.”

Prehistoric cave painting of two Sulawesi warty pigs, Leang Tedongnge Cave, Sulawesi, Indonesia. At least 45,000 years old, this is among the world’s oldest known cave art and illustrates the long-standing relationship between pigs and people in the region

Credit

Adam Brumm (Griffith University) and Adhi Agus Oktaviana (BRIN, Indonesia).

Prehistoric cave painting of two Sulawesi warty pigs, Leang Tedongnge Cave, Sulawesi, Indonesia. At least 45,000 years old, this is among the world’s oldest known cave art and illustrates the long-standing relationship between pigs and people in the region

Credit

Adam Brumm (Griffith University) and Adhi Agus Oktaviana (BRIN, Indonesia).

Prehistoric cave painting of two Sulawesi warty pigs, Leang Tedongnge Cave, Sulawesi, Indonesia. At least 45,000 years old, this is among the world’s oldest known cave art and illustrates the long-standing relationship between pigs and people in the region

Credit

Prehistoric cave painting of two Sulawesi warty pigs, Leang Tedongnge Cave, Sulawesi, Indonesia

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Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adv4963 

Article Title

Genomic and morphometric evidence for Austronesian-mediated pig translocation in the Pacific

Article Publication Date

1-Jan-2026