BullMarketRun.com

Check back later today for an additional post and visit the comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information.

1. Gold is trading at a 6-week high, hovering between $1,260 and $1,265 so far today after yesterday’s boost following a Fed statement that was interpreted to be more dovish than expected…the FOMC indicated that it would keep to a slow path of monetary tightening while also starting to wind down its massive holdings of bonds “relatively soon”, timing language that’s not as certain as before…the U.S. Dollar Index, as a result, has fallen to 13-month lows…as of 7:00 am Pacific, Gold is up $3 an ounce at $1,263…Silver has added 12 cents to $16.75…Copper is up another 2 pennies to $2.87…Nickel leads the base metals today with a gain of 8 cents to $4.60… Crude Oil is up another 6 cents to $48.81 while the Dollar Index has rallied one-quarter of a point to 93.72…

2. Oil prices are sitting just below 8-week highs but near stiff technical resistance, buoyed by hopes that a steeper-than-expected decline in U.S. Crude inventories will reduce global oversupply…Crude stocks fell sharply last week as refineries increased output and imports declined, while gasoline stocks decreased and distillate inventories fell, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported yesterday…the 7.2 million barrel decline in Crude inventories in the week ending July 21 was well above the 2.6 million barrel forecast…firmer Oil prices and significant moves in precious and base metals are helping to lift the Venture out of its early summer doldrums…

3. The Venture is starting to gain momentum, now trading above its EMA(8) and EMA(20) exponential moving averages while both EMA’s have also reversed to the upside which is critical in terms of confirming the start of a new uptrend…the Venture is up 2 points at 772 as of 7:00 am Pacific…GT Gold (GTT, TSX-V), which has made a significant new high-grade Gold discovery through drilling in the Saddle zone of its Tatogga Property in the Red Chris area, has arranged a $5 million financing at 85 cents (hard dollars and no warrant) through a syndicate of agents co-led by Haywood Securities, M Partners and PI Financial…GTT is up a penny at 91 cents through the first 30 minutes of trading, looking strong…Colorado Resources (CXO, TSX-V), currently drilling at KSP in the Eskay Heart of Gold Camp, holds prospective ground contiguous to Totogga…Gold-Copper mineralization at CXO’s Castle Property property is open, and potentially strengthening to the east, over a distance of 4.4 km to the property boundary toward the Saddle zone discovery…

4. Constantine Metals (CEM, TSX-V) has drilled 45.4 m grading 2.5% Cu, 7.4% Zinc, 39 g/t Ag and 0.30 g/t Au, including 6.2% Cu and 13.8% Zn over 10.9 m, in resource expansion drilling (South Wall) at its Palmer VMS Project in Alaska…this impressive intercept from drill hole CMR17–82, along with intercepts from 2 other holes that also cut massive sulphides in an area poorly tested by previous drilling, dramatically increases the width and grade of mineralization in the South Wall and also indicates excellent potential for further expansion to the west…the intersections occur in a gap between 2 historic holes which had partial intercepts and passed immediately above and below the zone…additional drilling in this area and to the west is in progress…meanwhile, CEM has also made a high-grade Silver discovery in its first-ever drill hole to test the Nunatek prospect, 3 km from the South Wall resource…that hole returned 9.2 m grading 312 g/t (9.1 opt) Silver and nearly 1 g/t Au hole CMR17–89…approximately 20 to 25 drill holes are expected to be completed at Palmer in a 7,000-m program that started last month…CEM has traded as high as 24 cents and is up 2 pennies at 22 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…

5. Emboldened by an important new surface discovery at its Smith Property near the town of Cobalt, and potentially strong results from 9 recently drilled holes, Cobalt Power Group (CPO, TSX-V) announced this morning that it has signed a non-binding LOI to acquire 74 sq. km of very prospective claims south of Smith in the Silver Center area of the Greater Cobalt Camp…this would quadruple the size of CPO’s total land package…the transaction involves the acquisition of all the issued and outstanding shares of privately held Canadian Cobalt Projects Inc. in exchange for 35 million shares of CPO…Canadian Cobalt Projects would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Cobalt Power Group…CPO will now initiate a 30-day due diligence period.  “Expanding our contiguous parcels into the core of the historic Silver Center bodes well for continued exploration, increases our opportunity for discovery and turns us into one of the dominant players in the region,” stated Dr. Andreas Rompel, President and CEO of Cobalt Power…meanwhile, as BMR sees it, shareholders of Canadian Cobalt Projects get strategically positioned in a low market cap junior with exciting prospects based on recent developments at the Smith Property which adjoins the past producing Deer Horn mine…CPO was halted prior to market open and has not resumed trading yet…

6. Jaxon Minerals (JAX, TSX-V), trading at new multi-year highs, has finished channel sampling of massive sulphide lenses, veins and breccias at 3 separate elevation zones – mainly the 742, 685 and 550 elevations on the Max target hillside – at its Hazelton VMS Property near Smithers…a total of 213 1-m channel samples and 94 grab samples have been collected and submitted for lab analysis…the first batch of assays are expected shortly…Jaxon has identified 7 other areas of interest from 2017 field observations, historical soil samples and the recent interpretation of the VTEM (versatile time domain electromagnetic) geophysics at Hazelton project which has been expanded to 338 sq. km…the company now has 4 prospecting teams investigating and sampling these areas (outside of the Max target) for outcrop and mineralization…

7. Kirkland Lake Gold (KL, TSX) announced this morning a big jump in mineral reserves and resources as of June 30, 2017, at its Fosterville Gold mine in Australia, including a 110% increase in underground Proven and Probable reserves to 1.03 million ounces of Gold as of June 30, 2017…the main factor contributing to the significant growth in ounces is an 83% increase in the underground reserve grade to 17.9 g/t Au (1.79 million tonnes) from 9.8 g/t Au (1.56 million tonnes) as per the previous estimate at the end of last year…this is due to down-plunge extensions of the high-grade, visible Gold-bearing Lower Phoenix system…the high-grade Phoenix and Lower Phoenix Gold systems, where Kirkland is currently mining, has been traced by development and drilling for over 2 km along trend and remains open for further expansion…Fosterville is truly emerging as one of the world’s premier underground Gold mines.  Kirkland Lake President and CEO Tony Makuch stated, “Within our company, we have district-scale exploration targets in prolific mining camps throughout our portfolio, through which there is considerable potential for continued growth and expansion. We remain focused on delivering superior shareholder value by targeting organic growth opportunities, supported by our aggressive 2017 exploration program, with estimated expenditures of $45 million (U.S.) to $55 million (U.S.). Ongoing drilling continues to enhance the geological understanding of our assets, providing confidence in the ability to delineate and expand our current mineral resource and reserve base.”

The most popular recent BMR articles/videos…

Northern Ontario Cobalt Junior Attracts Interest From Metal Trading Companies

How To Bring A Junior Resource Market To Life!

The Dramatic New Chase For A Nickel-Copper-Rich Massive Sulphide Deposit In The Heart Of A Famous Gold Camp

The Most Important Venture Development Since The New Bull Market Began

CSR Builds Momentum At Castle Mine

Check back later today for additional posts including Daniel’s Den, and visit the comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information.

1. Gold has traded between $1,243 and $1,249 so far today ahead of a Fed statement at 11:00 am Pacific to conclude its 2-day meeting…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is down $2 an ounce at $1,247…Silver is relatively unchanged at $16.43…Copper, strong again today, is leading the base metal group with a gain of 5 cents to $2.86 while Nickel is off slightly around $4.50…Crude Oil is higher for the 3rd straight session, up 32 cents a barrel to $48.21, while the U.S. Dollar Index is flat at 94.09…

2. Oil prices advanced again today after an industry group predicted that official data later in the day will show that U.S. inventories fell sharply last week…the American Petroleum Institute yesterday estimated that U.S. supplies dropped by 10.2 million barrels in the week ended July 21 – quadruple the drop projected in a Wall Street Journal survey for the official data from the Energy Information Administration that will be released within the hour (API’s forecasts often vary significantly from the official data)…

3. Copper prices rose to their highest level in more than 2 years (since May 15) this morning on optimism that accelerating growth in Asia and Europe will stoke demand for the industrial metal…a catalyst may have been the International Monetary Fund’s revised 2017 outlook for China, the world’s largest Copper consumer, while the IMF is also projecting better than expected growth for Europe and Japan…meanwhile, Germany’s Ifo business survey yesterday showed confidence soaring to record highs in July, while U.S. consumer confidence levels have jumped to almost 16 year-highs…many investors look to Copper as a barometer for the global economy’s health as the metal is a key component in manufacturing and construction…later this week we’ll take a look at the correlation between Copper and the Venture…

4. The broader markets are robust again this morning on strong corporate earnings reports…the Dow has soared 111 points as of 7:00 am Pacific while the TSX has climbed 83 points…the Venture is still trying to gain steam but is flashing some positive signals…the Index is up 3 points at 767 through the first 30 minutes of trading…GT Gold (GTT, TSX-V), yesterday’s big mover, pushed as high as high as $1.09 (7 cents shy of nearest Fib. resistance) before some profit taking set in and the stock pulled back to 84 cents, 9 cents above new technical support…Colorado Resources (CXO, TSX-V), currently drilling at KSP in the Eskay Heart of Gold Camp, holds prospective ground contiguous to GT Gold’s Tatogga Property…Gold-Copper mineralization at CXO’s Castle Property property is open, and potentially strengthening to the east, over a distance of 4.4 km to the property boundary toward the Saddle zone discovery…

5. Next up on the discovery front in northwest B.C. is Garibaldi Resources (GGI, TSX-V) where drilling begins shortly at Nickel Mountain, 11 miles southwest of Eskay Creek, which is the Golden Triangle’s only Nickel-Copper-rich magmatic massive sulphide system – open in all directions for expansion…Critical Elements (CRE, TSX-V) is trading at a new all-time high of $1.28…Constantine Metals (CEM, TSX-V) hit a new 52-week high of 19.5 cents yesterday on increased volume…drilling at the company’s flagship Palmer VMS Project in Alaska began over a month ago…Enforcer Gold (VEIN, TSX-V), in the midst of a drill program at its Montalembert Gold Project in northern Quebec, reported a high-grade channel sampling result this morning of 3,310 g/t Au over 1 m…a second channel was collected about 20 m to the north and returned 1.93 g/t Au over 1 m…the results come from the No. 2 shear zone to the north of the historical exposure limit…high-grade pockets of mineralization have been confirmed along the 189 m length of the vein that is currently exposed…diamond drilling will soon test this structure…

6. Aben Resources (ABN, TSX-V) announced this morning that it’s commencing a 2,100-m drill program in early August at its Forrest Kerr Project in the Eskay Heart of Gold Camp…crews have completed soil geochemical sampling, ground-truthed historic data and evaluated mineralization potential on a property-wide basis…focus for drill targets was placed on those areas containing historic high-grade precious- and base-metal occurrences…Aben currently owns certain mineral tenures outright and has agreements in place with various third parties whereby it has the exclusive right to a 100% interest in the 230 sq. km area…

7. Dolly Varden Silver (DV, TSX-V) is holding steady after releasing results this morning from the first 4 holes of a 5,000-m drill program at its Dolly Varden Project near Stewart…the best result was 15 m (12.72 m true thickness) in the Lower zone grading 172.4 g/t Ag, 0.69% Pb and 0.81% Zn for a Silver equivalent of 244.4 g/t…DV will need more eye-popping numbers to create a stir in the market, but that’s certainly possible with this property…two-thirds of the drilling is allocated to resource validation and expansion while one-third is allocated to reconnaissance drilling on targets beyond the current NI-43–101 resource areas…there are over 50 exploration targets on the property…geological mapping plus geophysical and geochemical surveys are also underway for both the main Dolly Varden Ag-Pb-Zn Project, as well as the adjacent Big Bulk Cu-Au Project…

The most popular recent BMR articles/videos…

Northern Ontario Cobalt Junior Attracts Interest From Metal Trading Companies

How To Bring A Junior Resource Market To Life!

The Dramatic New Chase For A Nickel-Copper-Rich Massive Sulphide Deposit In The Heart Of A Famous Gold Camp

The Most Important Venture Development Since The New Bull Market Began

CSR Builds Momentum At Castle Mine

Check the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information.

1. Gold has traded between $1,249 and $1,258 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is down $1 an ounce at $1,254…Silver is 13 cents higher at $13.69…base metals are very stronger, led by Copper, Nickel and Zinc…Copper has jumped 9 cents to $2.81…Crude Oil has surged $1 a barrel to $47.33 while the U.S. Dollar Index has dipped one-tenth of a point to 93.95…the fact that base metals are looking stronger on increasing volume suggests a change in sentiment, especially as this is happening during the normally slower summer months…

2. TD Securities on Silver: “If we assume that the upcoming FOMC meeting on Wednesday will not yield new hawkish commitments, the continued market angst surrounding political dysfunction in the U.S., which includes the health-care legislation and debt ceiling extension, lackluster economic data and equity market risks, money manager interest in precious metals should grow.  This suggests that as Gold increases in price, Silver may well outperform by a wide margin as shorts cover. Specs are still very much positioned on the short end of Silver exposure, with shorts aggressively overbought and longs still on the slide.  Silver still has lots of room to rise technically, not yet reaching the 100-and 200-day moving averages, which Gold has broken.  As such, we would not be surprised to see Silver reach $17/oz or even 17.46/oz in the not-too-distant future. “

3. Northwest British Columbia has a new early-stage high-grade Gold discovery approximately 20 km northwest of Red Chris…GT Gold (GTT, TSX-V), which found unusual high-grade Gold-in-soils across a broad part of its never previously drilled Tatogga Property, has intercepted a Gold-bearing system in multiple reverse circulation holes (20) along a 200-m strike length to 213 m from surface…the system is open along strike and to depth…initial drill results released this morning from the discovery at the Saddle zone (Saddle South) included 13 g/t Au over 10.7 m; 8.7 g/t Au over 8.5 m; 17.4 g/t Au over 9.1 m; 15.3 g/t Au over 8.8 m and 10.7 g/t Au over 9.1 m…diamond drilling is in progress and a second rig may be added to the program…GTT is up 15 cents at 54 cents through the first 30 minutes of trading…the stock came into the drilling discovery with a market cap of approximately $30 million and the company is well financed for much more drilling…

4. Castle Silver Resources (CSR, TSX-V) has produced a 14.8% Cobalt concentrate from a homogeneous sample of material from the first level of the Castle mine that assayed 1.5% Cobalt, 46 g/t Ag and a surprising 5.7 g/t Au…the Cobalt concentrate now goes through the Re-2OX process to create high purity Cobalt powders, specifically Cobalt hydroxide according to the specs CSR has received from 4 large Japanese metal trading companies as revealed this morning in a news release…aggressive exploration continues at Castle including diamond drilling from surface and additional underground sampling…preparations are also being completed for underground drilling…CSR is the junior in the district with critical underground access…the stock is up a penny-and-a-half to 24 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…

5. The broader markets are pushing higher this morning thanks to earnings reports from the likes of Caterpillar and McDonald’s that topped estimates…this is the busiest week of the earnings season, with approximately 180 S&P 500 components scheduled to report…traders and investors are also focused on tomorrow’s statement from the Fed when it wraps up its 2-day meeting…the Dow is up 84 points in early trading…the TSX has climbed 101 points while the Venture is 3 points higher at 763…the 3 most active stocks at or within 10% of new 52-week highs are GT Gold (GTT, TSX-V), Nouveau Monde Graphite (NOU, TSX-V) and RHC Capital (RHC, TSX-V)…

6. Oil prices are near 7-week highs after Saudi Arabia pledged to curb exports next month and OPEC called on several members to boost compliance with output cuts to help rein in oversupply and tackle flagging prices…at a meeting in the Russian city of St. Petersburg yesterday, OPEC and non-OPEC producers discussed extending their deal to cut output by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) beyond March 2018 if necessary…the Saudis are doing what it takes to keep Crude price pressure to the upside…

7. Aurora Cannabis (ACB, TSX) rang the bell to open the TSX yesterday after delisting from the Venture (same symbol)…the stock jumped 14 cents on huge volume yesterday to close at $2.73.  “Aurora’s graduation to TSX reflects the remarkable commercial and operational progress we have made since listing on TSX Venture Exchange late last year,” stated CEO Terry Booth.  “We are achieving record yields at our Mountain View county production facility, progressing rapidly with the construction of our 100,000 plus kilograms per annum Aurora Sky facility at Edmonton International Airport, and are executing consistently on our national and international expansion strategy.”

The most popular recent BMR articles/videos…

How To Bring A Junior Resource Market To Life!

The Dramatic New Chase For A Nickel-Copper-Rich Massive Sulphide Deposit In The Heart Of A Famous Gold Camp

The Most Important Venture Development Since The New Bull Market Began

CSR Builds Momentum At Castle Mine

BullMarketRun.com

It may not (yet) boast the highest market cap in the burgeoning northern Ontario Cobalt Camp (that honor among Venture-listed companies still belongs to First Cobalt at $45 million prior to its official takeovers of Cobalt One and CobalTech), but upstart Castle Silver Resources (CSR, TSX-V) is nonetheless leading the district in other ways as reinforced again in a news release this morning:

• CSR, fresh off a visit to Asia, has confirmed it’s in the process of filling requests from 4 Japanese metal trading companies for certain specifications of Cobalt hydroxide test products sourced from the Castle mine near Gowganda;
• The Cobalt hydroxide will be a value added product created through CSR’s proprietary and 100%-owned Re-2OX process that was originally developed in conjunction with Canada’s National Research Council;
• CSR announced this morning that SGS Lakefield has produced a 14.8% Cobalt concentrate from the recent mini underground bulk sample that was crushed to –10 mesh and blended for a homogenous sample that assayed 1.5% Cobalt, 46 g/t Silver and a stunning 5.7 g/t Gold (more on that below) – the 14.8% Cobalt concentrate now goes through the Re-2OX process;
• CSR is the only junior in the area with critical underground access, a testament to the company’s history in the region and the investment of several million dollars into the Castle Property since 2011;
• CSR is the only Cobalt focused junior in the district currently drilling with a recently expanded Phase 1 program from surface;
• Preparations continue, as confirmed this morning, for the next phase of drilling which will be from underground;
• CSR also owns the Beaver and Violet past producers near the town of Cobalt – the Beaver, which was one of the last operating mines when the region shut down around 1990 due to low Silver prices, was famous for its incredibly high-grade Silver (>100 ounces per tonne) from the deepest shaft in the region in the early 1900’s.  A BMR site visit has confirmed there is considerable untapped Cobalt potential at Beaver where a work program is now in progress.

The significance of the breakthrough in Asia, the first step toward building a potential customer base for value added Cobalt products in that region, was highlighted by CSR President and CEO Frank Basa in this morning’s news release:

“I’m excited about how we’re advancing our Cobalt strategy for the battery sector, moving closer to filling a request for client specific test samples of Cobalt hydroxide sourced from the Castle mine and created through our 100%-owned Re-2OX process,” stated Basa.

“While in Asia, besides our dealings in China and with some large metal trading companies in Japan, we met with officials from a Japanese car manufacturer that produces electric vehicles.  Cobalt’s critical role in electric vehicle batteries is going to drive even greater demand for Cobalt product.  As an innovative leader in the northern Ontario Cobalt-Silver Camp, CSR is aggressively implementing its action plan to seize exciting opportunities in the growing Cobalt sector,” Basa concluded.

CSR clearly has first-mover advantage in terms of Cobalt recovery in the district given its underground access combined with its unique Re-2OX process that solves metallurgical issues in the region going back more than a century.  In addition, the company is exploring opportunities using Re-2OX in the recycling of metals from Lithium-ion batteries – more innovation from a company that has raised $2.6 million in hard dollar financings the last 4 months and whose market cap is still a modest $10 million.   The stock is up more than 200% for the year.  They’re doing something right!

There’s GOLD In Them Thar Cobalt Hills!

So what’s with the 5.7 g/t Gold assay CSR reported last week from that mini bulk sample taken from a vein on the first level of the Castle mine within the upper part of the Nipissing diabase?  Additional material from underground is being analyzed, so we should hear more in the near future.  Keep in mind, despite this district’s prolific history of mining, much has yet to be learned and there are sure to be many pleasant surprises.  Historically, Castle was never assayed for any metals other than Silver.

Last week, another company we like a lot, Cobalt Power (CPO, TSX-V), found Gold in a fascinating new surface discovery that was hiding under several feet of overburden at its Smith Property contiguous to the past producing Deer Horn mine near the town of Cobalt.  Channel sampling of a vein in Archean volcanics returned 12.5% Cobalt, 5 g/t Gold, 82 g/t Silver and 0.53% Nickel.  BMR visited this discovery area last week, featuring impressive structure and a swarm of veins approximately 800 m southeast of the Smith shaft, and the market has underestimated the significance of this in our view. Approximately 4,000 sq. m surrounding the zone have been cleared and work is continuing so that detailed mapping and systematic channel sampling can be carried out in advance of drilling.  Assay results for 9 holes completed elsewhere at the Smith are pending.  Vein structures and interflow sediments follow onto the property from the Deer Horn.

The town of Cobalt, early 1900’s.

Exceptionally high-grade Silver became the main focus of miners after the first big Silver discovery in Cobalt in 1903, though a primary Cobalt deposit (Agaunico) with Silver, Nickel and Copper by-product was mined for several decades (4.4 million pounds of Cobalt) beginning in 1904.  Over 100 Silver mines quickly emerged as the Cobalt area became the birthplace of Canadian hard rock mining and one of the world’s largest Silver producing regions with officially more than half a billion ounces hauled out of the ground (at least 750,000 ounces unofficially, according to sources).

Great wealth was created, but there was “tunnel vision” (understandably) regarding Silver at the expense of other metals. Gold was not obvious at surface like it was elsewhere in northern Ontario, so those hunting for the yellow metal pursued their dreams in places like Kirkland Lake and Timmins, while Cobalt was plentiful but miners weren’t too interested in it back then.  Cobalt, of course, now has huge new importance in today’s technology driven world, and it has the potential to turn a large part of northern Ontario into a spectacular new area play with juniors chasing after not only Cobalt but Silver, Gold and base metals underlying a richly textured geological landscape.

Investors who identify the best juniors in this district now could be in for some explosive returns given the history of wealth creation in this region and the powerful new dynamic of Cobalt that companies like CSR, First Cobalt and Cobalt Power are harnessing.

Note:  John, Jon and Daniel hold share positions in CSR.  Jon also holds a share position in CPO.