1. Gold has traded between $1,273 and $1,280 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is flat at $1,284…Silver has added 13 cents to $16.69…Copper has gained 5 pennies to $2.98 while Nickel is up slightly at $4.79…Zinc is unchanged $1.52…Crude Oil has surged 55 cents on talk of extended OPEC cuts while the U.S. Dollar Index has climbed one-tenth of a point to 93.63…global holdings of Gold by exchange-traded funds increased by 22.4 tonnes in September to 2,357, the World Gold Council reported this morning…year to date, ETFs collectively have added 191.9 tonnes…North American ETFs led inflows in September for the 2nd month in a row, as investors added 36 tonnes, the Gold Council said…however, there were outflows from European ETFs of 12 tonnes while Asia-based ETFs lost 1.7 tonnes…
2. “We’ve truly reached a peak” in Silver production, and “Gold is right around that stage too,” said Randy Smallwood, CEO of Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM, TSX) in an interview with Kitco’s Daniela Cambone at the Mines and Money Conference in Toronto. “I use a phrase called geological inflation – it’s getting tougher to find ore bodies and there’s not as much effort being put into it,” he added…
3. In a paper titled “Earth’s Volatile Contents Established by Melting and Vaporization” and published in the journal Nature, geologists argue that the amount of Gold that could have disappeared during the formation of the Earth might have been enough to cover the planet’s surface in a 20-inch thick layer…the authors refer to metals such as Gold and Silver as “melting volatiles”, arguing that they turn to gas at a certain temperature. “Our experiment shows that melting processes explain the pattern (of volatile depletion) perfectly,” the geologists wrote. “We find that the pattern of volatile element depletion in the silicate Earth is consistent with partial melting and vaporization rather than with simple accretion of a volatile-rich chondrite-like body.”
4. Another classic example of how the left’s anti-Oil, climate change fanaticism is destroying economic opportunity and wealth in Canada: TransCanada Corp. (TRP, TSX) announced this morning that it’s scrapping plans to build the Energy East Pipeline and Eastern Mainline projects, critical Oil and Natural Gas conduits that have faced unnecessary severe regulatory hurdles in this country…the benefits of Energy East for Canada would have been profound…meanwhile, as a result of the decision, TransCanada expects an estimated $1 billion after-tax, non-cash charge to be recorded in Q4…because regulators failed to reach a decision on the project, TransCanada expects “no recoveries of costs from third parties”…more important, though, is how the National Energy Board appears to have rigged the regulatory process…Canadians, especially those in Western Canada, should be asking a lot of questions…in January, the National Energy Board voided previous decisions on the Energy East application, forcing the company to start the hearing process from the beginning…many questions demand answers…Energy East was unpopular in Quebec…has the federal government, concerned about a possible NDP resurgence in Quebec, skillfully killed Energy East through the cover of the National Energy Board?…once again, the West gets screwed…
5. The Dow is up 25 points as of 7:00 am Pacific…the U.S. will remain stuck in growth around 2% until Washington lawmakers come up with a tax plan to boost the economy, Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker said today. “Until we see some other changes on the fiscal side of the house, we’re not going to move that growth rate too much,” Harker told CNBC in an interview on “Squawk Box”…the TSX has gained 44 points while the Venture has added 2 points to 786…Garibaldi Resources (GGI, TSX-V) has closed its $6 million financing, aggressive drilling continues at the Nickel Mountain discovery, and an exploration update is expected shortly…shareholders who wonder why Kootenay Silver (KTN, TSX-V) isn’t performing better got another example why this morning when geologists were allowed to sloppily throw together good overall results from 13 drill holes for KTN’s La Negra deposit, optioned by Pan American Silver (PAAS, TSX), including 48 m grading 281 g/t Ag, into a lengthy and boring news release…junior resource companies are in the communications business but few of them seem to appreciate that…
6. Marathon Gold (MOX, TSX) has intersected 225 m grading 1.88 g/t Au, including 4.87 g/t Au over 25 m, in an infill hole (MA-17–213) at its Marathon deposit in central Newfoundland’s Valentine Gold Camp…other holes drilled across the main mineralized corridor also intercepted numerous high-grade intervals including 7.21 g/t Au over 7 m (MA-17–201), 3.59 g/t Au over 18 m (MA-17–206), 12.65 g/t Au over 3 m (MA-17–207), 2.19 g/t Au over 22 m (MA-17–204), and 4.04 g/t Au over 7 m (MA-17–209)…drilling toward the southwest end of the current resource pit shell also intersected significant mineralization with 8.46 g/t Au over 5 m in MA-17–203, 3.44 g/t Au over 3 m in MA-17–210, and 3.57 g/t Au over 3 m in MA-17–208…Marathon has now released the results of just 38% of its planned 60,000-m drill campaign…over the next month, drilling at the Marathon deposit will have a 3-fold approach with steep, infill drilling focused on the upper open-pit as well as underground regions of the deposit, step-out drilling towards the southwest along strike to further expand the open-pit, and hanging and footwall drilling aimed at reducing strip ratio for the resource pit shell…as much of this drilling as possible will be included in the resource update for the property scheduled for the end of October or early November…the resource will form a base for the PEA planned for completion in the 2nd quarter of 2018…
7. Zunum Aero, a start-up based in suburban Seattle, believes millions of people will be comfortable flying on the hybrid electric planes it plans to deliver starting in 2022…an official price will be set at some point in the next couple of years, but the first Zunum Aero is likely to sell for somewhere in the range of $3 million…while Zunum was started in 2013, it’s just starting to share details about its first plane…the hybrid electric jet will seat up to 12 people, fly up to 700 miles and have operating costs of 8 cents per seat mile, below the operating costs of small turboprops and business jets powered by jet fuel. “Our operating costs are about 60–90% lower than that of comparable turboprops and business jets,” said Ashish Kumar, CEO of Zunum Aero. “On shorter legs the costs are below what a regional jet would be.” Zunum Aero is backed in part by Boeing HorizonX, JetBlue Technology Ventures and the state of Washington Clean Energy Fund…
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