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TSX Venture Exchange and Gold

Investors will soon be looking back at May and wondering why they weren’t far more aggressive on the accumulation side…

Did you know that for as little as just over $2 a day, you can be a BMR subscriber and tap into the best analysis and picks for the junior resource sector that you’ll find anywhere?  Last year’s BMR Top 50 List returned a whopping 118% and we are delivering market-trouncing returns again in 2017.  BMR was the first to call the new bull market in the Venture in early 2016, and our coverage of the commodities space gives you valuable daily insights into price movements and critical trends.  BMR is daily information that puts you ahead of the crowd!

We also give first-time subscribers an industry-leading 100% money-back satisfaction guarantee.  If you don’t believe BMR has helped you make money for your first 6-month subscription period, we’ll refund your subscription fee in full – no questions asked!

To read tonight’s report, click here or login as a current subscriber with your username and password.

Gold has traded between $1,247 and $1,257 so far today…as of 11:00 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $7 an ounce at $1,254…Silver has jumped 25 cents to $16.81…Copper has added 5 cents to $2.57…Nickel is 9 cents higher at $4.22…Crude Oil has climbed nearly $1 a barrel to $50.29 while the U.S. Dollar Index has tumbled three-quarters of a point to 97.10…

Saudi Arabia has been increasing its holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds by billions of dollars ahead of tomorrow’s visit by President Trump and economic talks at which Riyadh aims to obtain investment and technology from the United States…Saudi holdings of U.S. government bonds climbed to a 1-year high of $114.4 billion in March from a low of $89.4 billion last September, according to the latest data from the U.S. Treasury Department…Trump’s decision to make Riyadh the first stop in his first foreign trip in office sends a powerful message underlining Saudi Arabia’s clout after 8 years of strained bilateral ties under the Obama administration…we expect that one of the key outcomes from Trump’s visit, which will feature several stops including Saudi Arabia and Israel, will be a major overturning of the Obama policy of appeasement toward Iran…this could have bullish implications for Oil prices…

Canada Unnecessarily Lags U.S. In LNG

Canada embarrassingly continues to badly trail the Americans when it comes to expanding opportunities for Natural Gas exports to Asia (getting critical energy infrastructure built in Canada is now exceedingly slow, difficult and in some cases impossible due to a proliferation of eco-fascists in this country – many of them influenced by radical U.S. NGO’s – and politicians who are simply unable to lead)…the fact is that rapid expansion of LNG infrastructure in the U.S. will eventually make the Americans the 3rd largest exporter of LNG, behind Qatar and Australia, according to analysts at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy…notably absent from that list of important players is Canada despite our vast Natural Gas resources…meanwhile, President Trump has taken further steps to gain U.S. LNG market share in China as Beijing agreed to make it easier for Chinese companies to buy liquid Natural Gas from U.S. suppliers as part of the recent Trump-China trade deal…

Canadians have become so afraid of the Climate Change Boogeyman, so deceived by the false prophets of the new climate change religion, that they’re practically apologizing for this country’s immense resources and how they have supposedly been “destroying the planet”…what this ultimately means, if there isn’t a rapid change in thinking and approach, is that Canadians will simply have to accept a lower standard of living in the years ahead – for themselves and future generations – as the country loses competitiveness vs. the U.S. and other countries…look how much wealth has already been destroyed in Alberta, and that’s not just because Oil prices are less than half what they were a few years ago…it is a horrible shame and proof of poor governance…

Oil Update

Crude Oil is suddenly back above $50 a barrel which shows how the Saudis still have the ability to move markets…they are determined to keep Oil prices healthy for budgetary reasons, hence the deal they struck with the Russians that should lead to OPEC and certain non-OPEC producers to agree next week to extend their production cut into the 1st quarter of next year…

Meanwhile, Oil prices have maintained their gains late this morning after Baker Hughes reported its weekly count of U.S. Oil rigs increased for an 18th straight week…U.S. drillers added 8 rigs last week, pushing the total to 720…

Gold 9-Month Daily Chart

There’s lots going on in this updated 9-month Gold chart from John, but the key takeaway is that this year’s uptrend remains very much intact after Gold successfully tested superb support at $1,215…

Near the end of March, bullion broke out above a downtrend line (new support) going back to last summer and raced to a high of $1,297 (resistance at $1,300) by mid-April…

The 6.4% pullback from $1,297 to $1,214, which essentially mirrored the Venture’s mini-correction, was a classic healthy retreat in an ongoing bull market…

Note how the Gold price exactly hit a Fib. level and the uptrend line from the beginning of this year…

Where to now?…

At some point between now and June 14 when the Fed is widely expected to raise rates, we should see Gold gain considerable momentum above resistance at $1,260…that sets the stage for a very bullish summer…

Despite what you may read and hear in the mainstream media, nothing could be more bullish for Gold than a Fed rate hike June 14…

U.S. Dollar Index Update

The pattern in the U.S. dollar is not favorable for the balance of 2017, though a near-term rally is increasingly likely given how RSI(14) and SS are being pushed into temporarily oversold territory…

As the year progresses – certainly by August – the Dollar Index is going to come under significant new pressure from a declining 200-day moving average (SMA)…that’s because the last several months of 2016 were exceedingly bullish with the Dollar Index rising to nearly 104…

The declining 50-day SMA, currently at 99.70, will cap any near-term rallies…the greenback is in trouble…the markets don’t fully discern that at the moment which means OPPORTUNITY for savvy investors…

The Venture feeds on a declining U.S. dollar…

In Today’s Morning Musings….

1. An even bigger WGO stamp on the White Gold district…

2. A “quantum” leap in the works for this stock?…

3. Eskay Heart of Gold Camp – the wait ends very soon…

4. Daniel’s Den – “Friday Footnotes” and conversations with America’s top traders…

Did you know that for as little as just over $2 a day, you can be a BMR subscriber and tap into the best analysis and picks for the junior resource sector that you’ll find anywhere?  Last year’s BMR Top 50 List returned a whopping 118% and we are delivering market-trouncing returns again in 2017.  BMR was the first to call the new bull market in the Venture in early 2016, and our coverage of the commodities space gives you valuable daily insights into price movements and critical trends.  BMR is daily information that puts you ahead of the crowd!

We also give first-time subscribers an industry-leading 100% money-back satisfaction guarantee.  If you don’t believe BMR has helped you make money for your first 6-month subscription period, we’ll refund your subscription fee in full – no questions asked!

Did you know that for as little as just over $2 a day, you can be a BMR subscriber and tap into the best analysis and picks for the junior resource sector that you’ll find anywhere?  Last year’s BMR Top 50 List returned a whopping 118% and we are delivering market-trouncing returns again in 2017.  BMR was the first to call the new bull market in the Venture in early 2016, and our coverage of the commodities space gives you valuable daily insights into price movements and critical trends.  BMR is daily information that puts you ahead of the crowd!

We also give first-time subscribers an industry-leading 100% money-back satisfaction guarantee.  If you don’t believe BMR has helped you make money for your first 6-month subscription period, we’ll refund your subscription fee in full – no questions asked!

To read the rest of today’s Morning Musings, sign up NOW or login as a current subscriber with your username and password.

Check back later this morning for today’s BMR Morning Market Musings.

1. Gold, on track for its best weekly performance since April, has traded between $1,247 and $1,257 (200-day SMA) so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $6 an ounce at $1,253 as the greenback comes under renewed pressure…the Dollar Index is off half a point at 97.26…we’ll have an updated Gold chart in today’s Morning Musings – the bulls remain in firm control and it’s just a matter of time before bullion bursts through resistance at $1,260…holdings in SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest Gold-backed ETF, fell slightly to 850.71 tonnes during yesterday’s mini-pullback in Gold…base metals are all trading robustly this morning, led by Zinc, Lead, Nickel and Copper on a percentage gain basis…

2. Oil prices are firm again today and are headed for a 2nd week of gains on growing expectations that big Crude exporters will extend output cuts next week to curb a persistent glut in inventories…WTI is up 83 cents to $50.18 as of 7:00 am Pacific as it crosses the $50 barrier for the first time in 3 weeks…not surprisingly, the Saudis and Russians strategically stepped in immediately after Crude slipped below key support at $48, propping the market back up after a mini flash crash to just above next support at $43…meanwhile, the first decline in U.S. production in 13 weeks has also provided some support to prices this week…

3. Bitcoin broke through the $1,900 mark for the first time today, driven by global political uncertainty and key developments within the cryptocurrency world…the digital currency hit a fresh record high of $1,954 (U.S.) before pulling back slightly to $1,943 as of 7:00 am Pacific, according to Coindesk’s Bitcoin price index…the current level marks a nearly 7% rise from a week ago…Bitcoin’s market capitalization now exceeds $30 billion…a number of factors are responsible for Bitcoin’s rise, from increased trading in Japan (recently passed legislation allowed retailers in Japan to begin accepting Bitcoin as a legal currency) to debates over the future the Bitcoin’s underlying technology…

4. Brazil’s President Michel Temer is under investigation in connection with a sprawling corruption scandal, the country’s Supreme Court said yesterday, as opponents called for his impeachment and financial markets plunged in Latin America’s biggest country…the Ibovespa stock index closed 8.8% lower yesterday after declining as much as 10% earlier in the day, prompting the stock market to suspend trading for the first time in almost 9 years…the index has recovered about 2% today…meanwhile, Brazil’s real tumbled 8% yesterday in the currency’s biggest fall in more than a decade…the country’s central bank said it was monitoring markets to ensure proper functioning…

5. Governments that get greedy and raise taxes and royalties to increase their share of mining revenues and profits often scare away investors…Democratic Republic of Congo’s government (the DRC) plans to re-introduce legislation in parliament next week to revise the mining code a year after withdrawing it amid fierce opposition from mining companies, the mines minister told Reuters today…the government of Africa’s largest Copper producer, which also accounts for more than half of the world’s Cobalt supply, suspended consideration of the revised code in March 2016 due to low commodity prices…companies complained that increased royalties and shortened stability clauses would make their projects unprofitable…mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu did not say whether the legislation, aimed at boosting government revenues, would be identical to the earlier proposal…low commodity prices since 2015 have left the government in desperate need of cash and caused the franc currency to lose half its value since last year…the mining and Oil sectors account for about 95% of export revenues for the DRC…Congo’s Copper production jumped more than 20% in the 1st quarter of this year as prices recovered…the Chamber of Mines expects annual production to hit about 1.5 million tonnes in 2018, up from around 1 million in 2016…

6. The Venture will post its second straight weekly advance today with new support also indicative at 800…the Index is off 1 point at 800 as of 7:00 am Pacific…White Gold (WGO, TSX-V) came out with major news this morning, announcing a deal with Kinross Gold (K, TSX) that will increase WGO’s control of the White Gold district to 40% while also adding approximately 1 million ounces of Gold grading between 2.7 and 3.2 g/t on the Golden Saddle area based on historic estimates of Measured and Indicated resources on the White Gold Property…following the completion of the land package acquisition and an Agnico financing also announced this morning, Agnico and Kinross will each own approximately 19.9% of White Gold which will also have about $22 million cash on its balance sheet…WGO is up 14 cents at $2.14 through the first 30 minutes of trading…the TSX has climbed 118 points while the Dow has added 85 points…

7. Castle Silver Resources (CSR, TSX-V) has further bolstered its cash position, closing the first tranche of an previously unannounced hard dollar private placement for gross proceeds of $500,000 (2.5 million units at 20 cents)…the company says it expects to soon close the second and final tranche for up to an additional $250,000…the move comes just a couple of weeks after the company unveiled its unique Re-2OX hydrometallurgical process to create high-purity Cobalt powders for end-users in the battery sector…equipment and personnel have been mobilized to the Castle mine site in preparation for an extensive underground drilling and sampling program…

The most popular recent BMR articles…

Venture Update – The Surprise That’s Just Around The Corner!

Their Last Deal Was Just Shy of a 100-Bagger!

The Best Kept Secret In Canadian Cobalt

Check back later today for potential additional posts and tomorrow morning for BMR Morning Market Musings.

1. This is a special early edition of 7 @ 7:00 due to travel in preparation for some BMR special coverage…Morning Musings returns tomorrow…Gold, after yesterday’s strong surge, traded between $1,253 and $1,263 overnight…as of 3:00 am Pacific, bullion is unchanged at $1,261…the metal is aiming for a 6th straight winning session today…immediate resistance is $1,260 which is also just $3 above the 200-day moving average (SMA)…the U.S. Dollar Index has broken below a short-term downtrend line as it faces continued pressure…the greenback has recovered slightly this morning but the outlook for the balance of the year is growing increasingly negative from at least a technical standpoint, and that’s bullish for both Gold and the Venture…

2. Crude Oil prices are trying to reestablish support at $48 a barrel…U.S. data yesterday showed that stockpiles of Oil and fuel continued to drop and Oil production slipped for the first time since February…U.S. oil stocks fell by 1.75 million barrels last week, the 6th consecutive weekly decline, as refiners ramped up their purchases of Crude, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration…the decline fell short of the 2.2 million barrel decline forecast by analysts and traders, but was a more bullish figure than the 882,000 barrel increase reported Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute…stockpiles of gasoline and diesel fuel also fell last week, and the relentless rise in U.S. Oil production paused for the first time in 13 weeks (fell by 9,000 bpd) as falling production in Alaska offset increases elsewhere…

3. Canadian Oil output is expected to hit an all-time high this year at around 4.7 million barrels a day – growth of around 200,000 bpd as some long-planned projects come online…just like American shale drillers across the border, Canadian producers have also benefited from improved technologies and increased efficiency as they cut costs…earlier this month, the number of rigs drilling for Oil rose to an annual average of 86, the highest since December 2015, according to data from Oil services provider Baker Hughes…Cenovus Energy (CVE, TSX), one of Canada’s biggest Oil sands producers, says it has cut per-barrel operating costs by 30% between 2014 and 2016…the company expects its production to double this year, helped by expanding capacity and new acquisitions…yesterday, CVE announced that it has closed its previously announced purchase of assets in Western Canada from ConocoPhillips after receiving all necessary regulatory approvals for the transaction…investors have reacted negatively to that deal announced at the end of March as it increased Cenovus debt and pushed it into the largely unknown territory of Natural Gas…

4. The Venture’s 5-session winning streak was snapped yesterday, though the Index lost just a fraction of a point to close at 807.87 after hitting an intra-day new monthly high of 813…the Venture’s EMA(8) and EMA(20) have each reversed to the upside and have converged at 800 which is new Venture support again after the Index closed below that level for 9 straight trading days…May will finish much differently for the Venture than it began…U.S. markets had their worst day of the year yesterday as mainstream media hysteria over Everything Trump injected some fear into the equity markets…the Dow lost 370 points, recording its worst day since September last year…on the data front today, U.S. jobless claims and the Philly Fed Survey will both be released at 5:30 am Pacific…

5. Nighthawk Gold (NHK, TSX-V) hit a new 5-year high of $1.15 yesterday as the company announced that it has received conditional approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange to graduate from the Venture and list its common shares on the TSX where it will continue to use the stock symbol NHK…Nighthawk started a 25,000-m drill program early last month at its 100%-owned Indin Lake Gold Property in the Northwest Territories which includes the Colomac Project and multiple other targets within a highly prospective regional package with obvious multi-million ounce potential…

6.  With Gold trading at more than $1,700 CDN, juniors with significant ounces in the ground and near-term production possibilities have become very attractive takeover targets as demonstrated earlier this week when Eldorado Gold (ELD, TSX) announced it’s acquiring Integra Gold (ICG, TSX-V) in a deal valued at nearly $600 million…we can’t help but think that Granada Gold (GGM, TSX-V) is drawing some attention from certain players after releasing a resource update Tuesday…it was highlighted by a maiden Inferred resource of 10.4 million tonnes grading 4.6 g/t Au (1.5 million ounces) at a cut-off grade of 1.5 g/t Au over 600 m of strike length in a new discovery area at depth immediately north of its previously outlined LONG Bars Zone near-surface deposit at the Granada Gold Property near Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec…only a fraction of the total area of 1.8 km x 2.1 km north of the Measured and Indicated LONG Bars Zone has been drill-tested, and GGM will be targeting additional tonnage and even higher grades in this under-explored part of the property…meanwhile, the company’s updated Block Model reveals 4.98 million in situ ounces at Granada (1.53 million M&I, 3.45 million Inferred) in areas drilled to date, nearly double the amount estimated in the initial 2012 Block Model…DRA Global, one of the world’s leading vertically integrated engineering firms, continues to examine innovative solutions to put the open-pit deposit into production…technically, GGM has confirmed a breakout above 7 cents and a downsloping channel going back 1 year…Secutor Capital’s flow-through share supply is also rapidly dwindling and the near-term removal of that supply from the market will have bullish implications…

7. EnGold Mines (EGM, TSX-V) released assay results last night from 2 more drill holes at its Lac La Hache Property, but nothing spectacular…best result came from G17–07 which targeted mineralization 50 m south of G17–03…G17–07 intercepted 6.05 m from 351.25 to 357.3 m downhole grading 1.01% Cu, 0.18 g/t Au and 8.02 g/t Ag…assays are pending from holes G17–09 and G17–10, which targeted intercepts 50 m west and east of holes G17–04 and G17–03, respectively, and encountered mineralization over significantly narrower widths than holes G16–01, G17–03 and G17–04…an intercept of approximately 11 m from hole G17–11, located 50 m north of discovery hole G16–01, is now being prepared for assay…holes G17–12 and G17–13 are still in progress…mineralization appears to be narrowing to the south, east and west, as suggested by the local magnetic and gravity geophysical anomalies in the discovery area…the anomalies define a trend extending to the north of the discovery hole where EnGold will continue to test potential extension of the zone…EGM still commands a market cap in excess of $80 million after yesterday’s 45-cent close…

The most popular recent BMR articles…

Venture Update – The Surprise That’s Just Around The Corner!

Their Last Deal Was Just Shy of a 100-Bagger!

The Best Kept Secret In Canadian Cobalt

We regularly keep an eye on how Gold is performing in Canadian dollars, a vital issue for current and near-term Gold producers with operations in Canada.

The low value of the loonie is a boon for Canadian producers who are fetching more than $1,700 an ounce for the metal at the moment, less than 20% below its September 2011 all-time high.

This 2.5-year weekly chart from John shows a high probability of a move to Fib. Measured resistance around $1,900.  The precise timeline for that is uncertain but the current trend is unequivocally bullish with RSI(14) and the ADX indicator both well positioned to climb higher.  Intense sell pressure (CMF) late last year has been replaced with the strongest buy pressure since the first half of 2015, better than anything seen during 2016.

Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar continues to deteriorate from a technical standpoint and is at risk of experiencing a more pronounced dip during the 2nd half of the year.

It all adds up to 1,000 or better for the Venture in the coming months – and Canadian-based Canadian Gold producers and near-producers who will thrive.

Check back later today for an evening edition of Daniel’s Den (BMR Morning Musings returns Friday as Jon is travelling on special assignment).

1. This is a special early edition of 7 @ 7:00 due to travel in preparation for some BMR special coverage…Gold, at a 2-week high with growing evidence of significant further upside potential through the balance of this quarter, has traded between $1,241 and $1,247 so far today as it continues to benefit from political distractions in Washington, concerns over North Korea and a U.S. dollar that continues to suffer technical deterioration…the Dollar Index has fallen to its lowest level since early November; increasingly, the trend in the greenback for the balance of the year is looking unfavorable and that’s bullish for commodities and the Venture…as of 3:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $9 an ounce at $1,246…the Fed is still expected to raise interest rates next month, though futures traders have cut the odds from 100% to about 75%…what will the Fed be able to do after June 14 is the question many traders are starting to ask and that’s one reason why the greenback has come under pressure…

2. The world’s two biggest Oil producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia, sent Crude prices higher yesterday with a rare joint statement that output cuts should be extended into March 2018…the Russia-Saudi message is the strongest signal yet that OPEC and a coalition of producers outside the cartel will continue their efforts to influence Oil prices by cutting supply, despite production increases in North America and elsewhere…OPEC’s 13 members and 11 non-OPEC producers agreed last year to cut almost 1.8 million barrels a day through June in hopes of bringing supply and demand back into balance…those efforts have been more challenging than expected but are yielding some results…WTI, trying to reclaim support above $48, is off slightly at $48.53 as of 3:00 am Pacific…

3. The Venture posted its 5th straight advance yesterday, closing at 808 and just 1 point below its monthly high which came on May 1…one notable mover yesterday was Barkerville Gold (BGM, TSX-V) which closed at a new 4+ year high of $1.26…markets will take the path of least resistance and the Venture’s superb support in the high 700’s appears more powerful than resistance around 850 as the bull market prepares for its next phase…futures are pointing toward a lower open on Wall Street this morning…

4. Nighthawk Gold (NHK, TSX-V) climbed 8 cents yesterday to close at a new 5-year high of $1.06, confirming a breakout above 97 cents Fib. resistance on a long-term monthly chart…Nighthawk started a 25,000-m drill program early last month at its 100%-owned Indin Lake Gold Property in the Northwest Territories which includes the Colomac Project and multiple other targets within a highly prospective regional package with obvious multi-million ounce potential…

5.  Granada Gold (GGM, TSX-V) has revealed a maiden high-grade Inferred resource of 10.4 million tonnes grading 4.6 g/t Au (1.5 million ounces) at a cut-off grade of 1.5 g/t Au over 600 m of strike length in a new discovery area at depth immediately north of its previously outlined LONG Bars Zone near-surface deposit at the Granada Gold Property near Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec…only a fraction of the total area of 1.8 km x 2.1 km north of the Measured and Indicated LONG Bars Zone has been drill-tested, and GGM will be targeting additional tonnage and even higher grades in this under-explored part of the property…meanwhile, the company’s updated Block Model reveals 4.98 million ounces at Granada (1.53 million M&I, 3.45 million Inferred) in areas drilled to date, nearly double the amount estimated in the initial 2012 Block Model, a figure that along with the new high-grade underground resource will draw the attention of several companies that could be looking at Granada…DRA Global, one of the world’s leading vertically integrated engineering firms, continues to examine innovative solutions to put the open-pit deposit into production…technically, GGM has confirmed a breakout above 7 cents and a downsloping channel going back 1 year…Secutor Capital’s flow-through share supply is also rapidly dwindling and the near-term removal of that supply from the market will have bullish implications…

6.  RJK Explorations (RJX.A, TSX-V) is getting a $1 million boost to its treasury, a major development for a company with just 17 million shares outstanding…RJK has entered into a purchase agreement with New Gold (NGD, TSX) to sell to the producer all of its interest in its claims in the Blackwater district of British Columbia for total cash consideration of $1 million as NGD continues to consolidate the Camp…the sale is expected to close by the end of next month immediately following anticipated approval from RJK shareholders at a special meeting June 26…RJK is current in the midst of a drill program at its very prospective high-grade Maude Lake Gold Property north of Kirkland…

7. Marathon Gold (MOZ, TSX) has released its updated financials, showing the company had $5 million cash on hand at the end of March…it’s also in the process of completing a $16 million bought deal this month through a syndicate of underwriters led by RBC Capital Markets…the proceeds from the financing will fund an aggressive program of infill and extension drilling at the Marathon and Leprechaun deposits; exploration drilling focused on showings between the Victory Northeast area and the Leprechaun deposit and extensions of the Spite deposit with favorable geophysical characteristics; a summer field exploration program including mapping, geochemical soil sampling and prospecting focused on the northeastern part of the Valentine Lake Property where there are indications of Gold mineralization but limited historical exploration activity; advanced environmental studies which will be used in economic studies on the project and for permitting; and a preliminary economic assessment following a resource update to incorporate the results of Marathon’s aggressive 2017 drilling program…MOZ closed at $1.15 yesterday and is viewed as one of our top Gold stocks for 2017…

The most popular recent BMR articles…

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The Best Kept Secret In Canadian

Visit our comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information, and check BMR later today for today possible separate post(s).

1. This is a special early edition of 7 @ 7:00 due to travel…Gold is up slightly as of 5:00 am Pacific, trading in a narrow range overnight between $1,232 and $1,236…bullion has demonstrated its very strong technical support in the low $1,200’s in recent sessions and respected TD Securities‘ commodity analysts Bart Malek and Ryan McKay see no reasons, not even a Fed rate hike, for Gold to fall below the $1,200 floor.  “The FOMC will continue to be very gentle in how it removes monetary accommodation,” they wrote in a report.   “A more robust hawkish attitude would only occur if they thought the economy will grow fast enough to place them behind the curve. Still, the risk that they do fall behind the inflation curve, as seen through the eyes of the Gold market, and equity market correction risk suggest investors don’t abandon Gold.”

2. Global Oil markets are on course to reach a supply-demand balance in 2017, the International Energy Agency (EIA) stated today in its closely-watched monthly report issued just 9 days before OPEC’s much anticipated ministerial meeting.  “In the first quarter of 2017, we might not have seen a resounding return to deficits but this report confirms our recent message that re-balancing is essentially here and, in the short term at least, is accelerating,” the IEA said…meanwhile, OPEC appears poised to extend Oil production cuts at its upcoming meeting, perhaps through the 1st quarter of 2018, with most investors expecting the 13-member cartel to continue with its attempts to eliminate a global supply overhang which has depressed prices to less than half their 2014 high…the EIA’s overall outlook for non-OPEC countries, 11 of which are voluntarily cutting production to support OPEC, shows growth of nearly 600,000 barrels a day in 2017, up from last month’s forecast of 490,000 barrels a day…

3.  Commodity prices historically perform the best when the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates, a study from Goldman Sachs shows…annual returns for the S&P GSCI Commodity Index average 19% when the Fed is raising rates in response to a strengthening economy…the Fed has forecast 2 more rate increases this year with the next one likely June 14…that hike could prove to be the trigger for a major summer advance in commodities and the Venture…

4. The Venture posted its 4th straight advance yesterday with its best session in 2 months, an 11-point climb on strong volume as the Index finished at a monthly closing high of 805…markets will take the path of least resistance and the Venture’s superb support in the high 700’s appears more powerful than resistance around 850 as the bull market prepares for its next phase…in New York, the S&P 500 and NASDAQ closed at record highs yesterday on strength in Oil and tech stocks…

5.  Quebec Gold stocks grabbed investors’ attention yesterday as Eldorado Gold (ELD, TSX) announced it’s acquiring Integra Gold (ICG, TSX-V) in a deal valued at approximately $600 million…Integra’s principal asset is the Lamaque Project near Val-d’Or which hosts an NI-43–101 Indicated resource of 5.1 million tonnes at a grade of 9.13 g/t Au and an Inferred resource of 3.5 million tonnes at a grade of 7.94 g/t Au, at a cut-off of 5 g/t…just down the Golden Highway from Lamaque is Granada Gold’s (GGM, TSX-V) Granada deposit, and this morning GGM released an updated NI-43–101 resource estimate and Global Classified Block Model for Granada with the big surprise being a 10 million tonne maiden Inferred resource grading 4.6 g/t Au (1.5 million ounces) immediately north of the previously known near-surface deposit which is already permitted for production based on the Company’s 2014 Pre-Feasibility Study…GGM stated, “The ‘heat engine’ for Granada mineralization is believed to exist in the northwest part of the property, a high priority untested area now referred to as the ‘Genesis Target’ that includes a large granite intrusion and intense shearing immediately south of the Cadillac fault.  An initial Inferred underground resource of 10,386,500 tonnes grading 4.56 g/t Au at a cut-off grade of 1.5 g/t Au (1.5 million oz. Au) has been outlined along 600 m of strike east of Genesis based on drilling by Granada Gold in late 2016 and early this year.  This is a major development in the evolution of the Granada Property and even higher grades are being targeted in the discovery area and to the west-northwest at Genesis which has never been previously drilled. Significantly, only a fraction of the total area (1.8 km north-south x 2.1 km east-west) north of the LONG Bars Zone Measured and Indicated near-surface resource has been drill-tested, further solidifying Granada as one of the premier exploration and development opportunities along the prolific Cadillac Trend.”  Meanwhile, GGM’s updated Block Model reveals 4.98 million ounces at Granada (1.53 million M&I, 3.45 million Inferred) in areas drilled to date, nearly double the amount estimated in the initial 2012 Block Model…GGM closed yesterday at 7.5 cents for a market cap of just $29 million…

6.  In British Columbia, New Gold (NGD, TSX) has decided to pay Parlane Resource (PPP, TSX-V) $2.5 million for its Big Bear Property immediately northwest of New Gold’s Blackwater deposit…while that’s less value than what Parlane was hoping for from Big Bear, it’s nonetheless $2.5 million cash to give the company close to $3 million in the bank…Parlane has only 15 million shares outstanding, so that’s 20 cents per share in cash and the stock closed yesterday at 14.5 cents…the Big Bear sale is subject to a Parlane shareholder vote next month…deal is expected to close by the end of June…

7. Marathon Gold (MOZ, TSX) released updated financials last night, showing the company had $5 million cash on hand at the end of March…it’s also in the process of completing a $16 million bought deal this month through a syndicate of underwriters led by RBC Capital Markets…the proceeds from the financing will fund an aggressive program of infill and extension drilling at the Marathon and Leprechaun deposits; exploration drilling focused on showings between the Victory Northeast area and the Leprechaun deposit and extensions of the Spite deposit with favorable geophysical characteristics; a summer field exploration program including mapping, geochemical soil sampling and prospecting focused on the northeastern part of the Valentine Lake Property where there are indications of Gold mineralization but limited historical exploration activity; advanced environmental studies which will be used in economic studies on the project and for permitting; and a preliminary economic assessment following a resource update to incorporate the results of Marathon’s aggressive 2017 drilling program…MOZ closed at $1.15 yesterday and is viewed as one of our top Gold stocks for 2017…

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