Gold has traded between $1,392 and $1,412 so far today…as of 6:45 am Pacific, bullion is down $12 an ounce at $1,395…we’ll see if $1,400 will hold as technical support on a closing basis…Gold, which hit a 3.5-month high this week and is about to post its 2nd straight monthly gain, also has a strong support band between $1,382 and $1,394 according to John’s charts…historically, September is bullion’s best month of the year…another strong move to the upside next month, after gains in both July and August, may convince traders/investors that the correction that started in September 2011 finally ended in late June this year when bullion tumbled as low as $1,180 – a nearly 40% drop from the all-time high 2 years ago…bullion will have plenty to deal with in September including an important Federal Reserve meeting, a fresh U.S. jobs report next Friday, a reconvened U.S. Congress that will have to grapple with the debt ceiling issue, the nomination by President Obama of a new Fed chairman (or chairwoman, the market is hoping for continuity with Yellen), plus of course geopolitical concerns with Syria at the top of the list at the moment (what’s perhaps even more of a concern regarding Syria is that Obama has backed himself into a corner and is appearing weak on the international stage)…an imminent but slow scaling back of the Fed’s bond-buying program – by no means a certainty starting in September – has likely already been baked into the Gold price, so Gold may go up no matter what the Fed decides to do at its meeting Sept. 17-18…
As of 6:45 am Pacific, Silver is off 40 cents at $23.42…Copper is down 2 pennies at $3.21…Crude Oil is 81 cents lower at $107.99 while the U.S. Dollar Index is up slightly at 82.08…
John Embry, Sprott Asset Management’s chief investment strategist, has made a very upbeat prediction regarding Gold on Mineweb’s Gold Weekly Podcast…“At this point I am probably as bullish as I’ve been in living memory, actually,” Embry stated, adding, “I thought this summer might be a little slow because it’s a quiet market and you can play around in the paper market, but I think that’s going to change quite significantly in the fall and I would not be surprised if, by early next year, we weren’t challenging all-time highs.”
One of the main pillars of increased prices for the yellow metal is rooted in China, a source of very strong demand in recent months in particular with a powerful shift in buying from West to East…Embry believes China is ultimately intent on backing its currency with Gold…“I think they’re [China] accumulating a lot more than is being admitted, and at some point they may spring that on the world,” he told Mineweb…
Today’s Markets
Asian markets were mostly higher overnight…China’s Shanghai Composite added 1 point to close the week at 2098…for the month, the Shanghai was up an impressive 5.2%…Japan fell 71 points to close August at 13389…it finished a volatile month down 2%…European markets are off moderately in late trading overseas…
The Dow is down 15 points through the first 15 minutes of trading…on the economic front, U.S. consumer spending ticked up 0.1% in July, according to the Commerce Department this morning…economists polled by Reuters had expected a gain of 0.3%…the TSX is flat while the Venture is down 2 points at 939 as of 6:45 am Pacific…keep in mind the Venture, aided now by a rising 50-day SMA, is underpinned by very strong technical support between 918 and the 930’s…
Zenyatta Ventures (ZEN, TSX-V) Update
Strong day for Zenyatta Ventures (ZEN, TSX-V) yesterday as it shot up 52 cents on news that it has commenced drilling with a 2nd rig on the Albany East pipe with a larger drill (HQ size) in order to obtain 5 tonnes of graphite mineralization to proceed with a 2nd phase processing of a mini bulk sample…this processing, according to Zenyatta, will allow additional optimization of the flow sheet for the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) and provide material for further testing by ZEN and interested parties that have requested material…
Zenyatta President and CEO Aubrey Eveleigh stated, “Both pipes continue to demonstrate the exceptional continuity and size potential of the graphite deposit, and the outline of each pipe correlates well with the shape of the conductivity anomalies defined by the ground electromagnetic survey. The current drill campaign is designed to allow for a National Instrument 43-101-compliant resource estimate by RPA (formerly Roscoe Postle & Associates Inc.) for both the East and West pipes. Drilling is on schedule for an NI 43-101 statement in early fourth quarter of 2013.”
Zenyatta said it expected to release additional drill results for the West and East pipes “soon”…the recent consolidation in the ZEN share price has unwound the overbought conditions from earlier this summer on the 6-month daily chart as you can see below…note John’s new Fib. level ($6.70 – not a price target, just a theoretical level based on Fib. analysis)…as always, perform your own due diligence…ZEN is up 6 cents at $4.01 as of 6:45 am Pacific…
Pretium Resources Inc. (PVG, TSX) Updated Chart
The outlook for Gold has to be considered encouraging when 1 examines a range of individual Gold mining stocks (producers and some juniors) that are looking very bullish technically…just 1 example is Pretium Resources (PVG, TSX) which of course is developing the high-grade and large scale Brucejack Project in northwest British Columbia (about 200 km southeast of the Sheslay River Valley and the Sheslay and Grizzly properties we’ve been focusing on)…Brucejack is being advanced as an underground Gold mine with commercial production targeted for 2016…Wednesday, PVG announced a $10 million financing at $9.35 per share with a subsidiary of Boston-based Liberty Mutual Insurance…PVG has been volatile but is climbing nicely within an upsloping channel…the RSI(14) uptrend is bullish, and buy pressure has replaced sell pressure which has been dominant since late last year…PVG closed yesterday at $8.90 and is relatively unchanged in early trading today…
Exclusive Interview, Part 2: BMR Puts Greencastle CEO On The Hot Seat
Earlier this week, BMR conducted a fascinating interview with Greencastle Resources‘ (VGN, TSX-V) President and CEO Tony Roodenburg who finds his company under attack from CNSX-listed Zara Resources Inc. (ZRI, CNSX)…ZRI has launched a simultaneous all-share takeover bid for 100% of the outstanding shares of Greencastle and 2 other companies (Visible Gold Mines, VGD, TSX-V) and Altai Resources (ATI, TSX-V)…in a news release Monday, ZRI’s Danny Wettreich referred to VGN, VGD and ATI as “undervalued, underutilized and mismanaged assets”…
So far, the market doesn’t appear to be taking Wettreich’s bravado very seriously as share prices for VGN, VGD and ATI simply have not responded to his attempt at pulling off a “triple play” that would supposedly add value to all 3 (plus Zara)…it also doesn’t help when you criticize the falling share prices of other companies over a 3-year period and your own stock tumbles 60% in a single day as ZRI did Tuesday on the CNSX…nonetheless, Wettreich has brought up some valid points on the minds of many investors at the moment in terms of such things as valuations, management compensation, and the need for companies to be more responsive to their shareholders…too many individuals running these public companies, or involved with them, fail to understand they serve at the pleasure of the shareholders…too many of these companies are failing to execute both on the ground and in the market…
At BMR, we decided to ask Greencastle’s Roodenburg for an interview, and he accepted even though we warned him we would be asking some tough questions…below is the 2nd interesting excerpt from that interview (more to come next week) as Jon peppers Tony about “lifestyle” companies…
Click on the forward arrow below to listen to the 6-minute excerpt of the discussion between BMR and Roodenburg…
[audio:https://bullmarketrun.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/VGNinterviewclip2.mp3|titles=VGNinterviewclip2]
Ginguro Exploration Inc. (GEG, TSX-V)
While investors face many risks in the junior resource market, it’s also an industry that offers incredible leverage – even during its most challenging periods…an excellent case in point is Ginguro Exploration (GEG, TSX-V) which rocketed from a low of 3 cents this month to a high of 27.5 cents yesterday…it closed at 24.5 cents and is up 1.5 cents at 26 cents as of 6:45 am Pacific…
Ginguro says it’s targeting “the first large-scale Precambrian paleo-placer Gold deposit in North America”, offering “potential for mineralization on a scale never seen before in Canada“…no, it’s not Frank Callaghan running GEG, it’s a gentleman by the name of Richard Murphy…yesterday, GEG reported some interesting results from contiguous channel sampling of its recently discovered 007 zone at the Pardo Property, approximately 65 kilometres north of Sudbury, which they’ve been working on for a while…“The 007 zone,” Murphy reported, “was found as a result of surface prospecting using Ginguro’s unique exploration methodology developed over four years as pioneers in North American paleo-placer exploration.”
Average Gold content over the 22.5-metre length of channel sampling was an impressive 40.1 g/t Au…we’ll see how this develops…GEG has arranged financings at 10 cents and 15 cents totaling $2.3 million as they try to ramp up exploration at Pardo…it’s not the easiest property for most investors to understand from a geological perspective, so not only are future results important but so too will be the way the company communicates this story…
From a technical standpoint, GEG certainly has momentum on its side at the moment but it is in overbought territory (doesn’t mean it can’t become more even more overbought, temporarily)…resistance is at 30 cents while Fib. support is between 14 and 20 cents as John shows on this 2.5-year weekly chart…at some point in the near future the stock of course will need to cleanse its overbought condition and consolidate for a period of time before possibly moving to even higher levels…
Zodiac Exploration Inc. (ZEX, TSX-V)
A junior that has a strong working capital position, liquidity in its stock and a favorable chart is always worth putting on the radar screen…ZEX is an oil and gas play, and we’re pointing it out this morning simply because of its recent trading behavior and the fact it reported about $15 million in working capital at the end of June (lots of shares outstanding – 360 million)…Zodiac has engaged Meagher Energy Advisors and Western Energy Production to assist the company in its previously stated objective of maximizing opportunities on its extensive San Joaquin basin land base through potential joint ventures, farm-outs and dispositions…ZEX is up half a penny at 11.5 cents as of 6:45 am Pacific…
ZEX 3-Year Weekly Chart
Fraser River Gold Panning Championships
We’ll be catching up again very soon with Yukon Dan, but from all reports last weekend’s Fraser River Gold Panning Championships were once again a major success…below is a picture from the event with Yukon Dan (far right) and just a few of the winners…BMR was one of the numerous proud sponsors of this year’s edition of the Gold Panning Championships…congratulations to all the participants and winners…BMR sponsored the Children’s Competition, the Teens Competition and the Open Competition…Bryan Anca was the winner in the Children’s event, while Vanya Plotnikoff claimed top honors in both the Teen and Open events…
Have a great long weekend, everyone…we’ll be posting the Week In Review And A Look Ahead on Sunday…no postings on Labor Day Monday…1st edition of Morning Musings to begin the new trading week will be at approximately 5:00 am Tuesday with an updated version at approximately 9:00 am…
Note: John, Terry and Jon do not hold share positions in ZEN, PVG, GEG or ZEX.