Good afternoon
and here we go again….equity markets moving higher, driven by lower Initial Jobless Claims in the US, as well as strong Durable Goods Orders, and Factory Orders - and despite still rising bond yields. Some positive results - for example from Paypal - also helped.
But the above did not help the gold price…it´s currently down by 47$ to only 1786 US$…( as the A$ is also weaker, not too bad though at 2356 A$/oz, which si still very healthy for the good producers at least! )I hope, that the 1780-level holds it! The strong US$ is not helpful, also not for the base metals, which are treating water only. Iron ore recovred, based on a bad Quarterly from Vale, which produced 2 millt less iron ore than expected.
Centaurus Metals - announced a new resource for their Brazilian project: 58,6 millt at 0,95% Ni inferred, of which 20 millt at 1,12% Ni or 223.000t are indicated. Grades sound low - but this is open pittable stuff, and 80% of the resource is above 200m of depth! At a potenbtially very reasonable stripping ratio, and with so far good metallurgical results, this is very positive. The company has 24 mill A$ in cash and 5 mill to be received from in-the-money options next Quarter, tehy will continue to drill this thing full steam ahead. In a month or two, we will see the scoping study - first time to get a good feel for the economics. But the deposit will grow, and I am continuing to hold this stock. As we all know, EV´s are booming, and with them, the use of nickel from sulphides like this one. Not many new projects around, which look doable like this one, and CTM and PAN are my nickel stories!
Vulcan Energy - the German/Australian company raised 120 mill in an upscaled placement, only to tarde 18% higher!!! Looks like beside of the Australian iron ore baroness Gina Rhinehart, most stock has been taken by ESG finds, which are attracted by the potential carbon-free production of lithium. But these guys understand very little from mining and processing..I think the risks are very high here, and the project will take many years in my opinion to produce - if ever. I would not want to be long here! Liontown continues to be my lithium stock - much saver, mauch cheaper, and much more boring!
Foran - announced the start of a record-30.000m drilling program for their Canadian project. I have no doubt, that this will lead to increased resources, and a higher valuation subsequently….and certainly much newsflow over the next few month.
Saturn Metals- announced some excellent drilling results from their Australian gold project, Apollo Hill: 12m with 5,7g / 2m with 63g / and many 10-20m intersections from 1.2g to 2.1g are much better than recent results, which led to the resource upgrade at the relatively low grade of 0,8g gold/t. But before I turn a buyer, tehy will have to come up with more results like this…
Gascoyne - have understood, what the market wants: A larger project, or at least much longer mine life! Nobody is interested in 80.000oz of production for 4 years or so - no matter how cheap the stock is! The company announced a doubling of their exploration budget for this year, to 6,3 MillT. This is good news and I think tehy will have good chances to increase resources - but in teh current enviroment, I want to see more prove of the idea! A good step in the right direction - pity, that the gold price is little reason for enthusiasm!
Have a nice evening!
WS