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1. Spot Gold has traded between $1,762 and $1,777 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific the yellow metal is off $3 an ounce at $1,770…Gold will post its 3rd straight monthly gain and biggest quarterly rise in over 4 years…on the technical side, BMR charts show that Spot Gold is poised to break out aggressively above the top of a 3-month horizontal channel at $1,775…Silver, also looking very strong, has added 7 cents to $17.91…base metals continue their upward trend…Copper prices are on track for their best quarter in nearly a decade…Copper is up another 2 cents to $2.74, Nickel is steady at $5.77 while Zinc is unchanged at 93 cents…Crude Oil has declined 63 cents to $39.07 while the U.S. Dollar Index is relatively flat at 97.59…U.S. consumer confidence rose more than expected in June as states loosened stay-at-home and quarantine restrictions…the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index, released this morning, rose to 98.1 for the month, well above the consensus estimate of 91 and much better than the May reading of 85.9…Goldman Sachs’ chief economist says a federal face mask mandate would not only cut the daily growth rate of new confirmed cases of COVID-19, but could also save the U.S. economy from taking a 5% GDP hit in lieu of additional lockdowns…Goldman’s Jan Hatzius said his team investigated the link between face masks and COVID-19 health and economic outcomes and found that facial coverings are associated with sizable and statistically significant results…“We find that face masks are associated with significantly better coronavirus outcomes,” Hatzius wrote in a note to clients…“Our baseline estimate is that a national mandate could raise the percentage of people who wear masks by 15 percentage points and cut the daily growth rate of confirmed cases by 1 percentage to 0.6%. These calculations imply that a face mask mandate could potentially substitute for lockdowns that would otherwise subtract nearly 5% from GDP,” the economist added…straight from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!, the official Twitter account of the Democratic National Committee last night accused President Trump of “glorifying white supremacy” after he scheduled a Fourth of July celebration at Mount Rushmore…Trump is set to attend a fireworks display at the iconic landmark that honors George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln…
2. Alberta is immediately cutting corporate taxes by 20% and adding more than $1 billion in infrastructure spending this year…Premier Jason Kenney outlined an economic plan yesterday that focuses on putting people to work immediately building highways, bridges and other projects, while all but eliminating the use of temporary foreign workers to ensure Albertans are first in line for jobs (makes perfect sense but the delusional left, of course, will immediately bring out the “race card” against the conservative Kenney)…the province is expediting planned cuts to corporate taxes, cutting the current rate by 2 percentage points to 8% as of tomorrow…Kenney also provided a broad sketch of how his government plans to diversify an economy that has long been at the mercy of Oil and gas prices…he said the government will release detailed proposals for specific sectors in the coming weeks and months…Kenney said the cut to the corporate income tax, which was initially set to reach 8% by January 2022, has become more urgent as businesses assess the impact of the pandemic on their operations and work force…a new Royal Bank of Canada forecast expects Alberta’s economy to shrink by 8.7% cent this year – the 2nd-worst performing economy in Canada after Newfoundland and Labrador…the Trudeau government’s distaste for the Oil and gas industry has hit both regions particularly hard in recent years…
3. Kirkland Lake Gold (KL, TSX, NYSE) has released results from 17 holes (7,176 m) of drilling at its newly acquired Detour Lake Property…of the 17 holes, 3 holes (2,520 m) were drilled west of the Main Pit in the Saddle Zone area (under-explored high-potential target situated between the Main and West pits), 5 holes (1,860 m) were drilled at the North Pit area, and 9 holes (2,796 m) were drilled at the 58 North area where high-grade mineralization was intersected up to 175 m from the current mineral resource…at the Saddle Zone, results were highlighted by 1.4 g/t over 121 m, including 16.3 g/t over 3.5 m (DLM-20–04); 1.2 g/t over 138 m, including 4.1 g/t over 23.9 m (DLM-20–08); and 1.2 g/t over 65 m and 1.4 g/t over 17 m in DLM-20–06…hole DLM-20–004 is located immediately east of the West Pit location and intersected mineralization between 400 and 600 m below surface and 200 m below the current resource pit shell…the Main Pit, West Pit and North Pit are located along the Detour Mine Trend, immediately north of the Sunday Lake Deformation Zone…the 58 North Zone (58 N) is located 8 km to the south near the Lower Detour Deformation Zone…these holes represent the first to be drilled as part of a 250,000 m exploration program to be completed by the end of 2021, which is designed mainly to collect information for an updated and potentially expanded mineral reserve and mine production plan…Tony Makuch, President and CEO, commented: “Virtually all holes reported today intersected significant mineralization. Today’s drill results highlight the potential for significant growth in open-pit mineral resources at attractive grades in the gap between the 2 pits, and also include intervals of high-grade mineralization at depth that are supportive of a potential underground mining concept. We also succeeded in extending mineralization at the North Pit location, to the northwest of the Main Pit, another important open-pit target. At 58 N, we intersected high-grade mineralization up to 175 m from the current mineral resource. These results are very encouraging as 58 N has the potential to be a standalone underground mining operation that could significantly enhance average grades by adding high-grade mineral reserves to our current open-pit production profile”…
4. Canada Silver Cobalt (CCW, TSX-V) has appointed Matt Halliday, current VP-Exploration, as President and Chief Operating Officer as part of an ambitious plan to take its exceptionally high-grade Castle East Silver discovery (75 km southwest of Kirkland Lake) to the next level…a 2nd drill rig is being added to Castle East over the next 2 weeks as part of a new 50,000-m drill plan for the balance of 2020…it’s not surprising Halliday is thinking “big” – very big – given the grades of a maiden Inferred resource that was announced at the end of May…the former Kirkland Lake resource geologist also spent 8 years with SGS Geostat, a global leader in orebody modelling and reserve evaluation…he also helped the SGS team win the $1 million Integra Gold Challenge in 2016…Halliday will direct and supervise all project operations for CCW in his new role as President and COO, while also recruiting what he promises will be a “Dream Team” as he immediately further builds out the geological, engineering and environmental expertise to complete permitting and construction of a ramp to access the rich Robinson Zone in 2021 (8,582 g/t Ag or 250 oz/ton for 7.6 million Inferred ounces in just 2 areas, 1A and 1B, at a cut-off grade of 258 g/t AgEq)…historical data from the broader Silver-Cobalt district (Gowganda to Cobalt to Silver Centre in the south) shows that Castle East is the most significant new grassroots high-grade Silver discovery in this region (more than half a billion ounces of Silver produced) in at least half a century…”We not only have the grade at Castle East but the opportunity for tremendous scale given the extent of untested ground in a camp where it appears the oldtimers, despite mining around 70 million ounces of Silver, took only the low-hanging ‘fruit’,” stated Halliday…”We’ll have a second drill rig turning by about July 15 as we begin to greatly accelerate this program based on multiple positive indicators”…Halliday is replacing Frank Basa as President while also assuming the new position of Chief Operating Officer…CCW is unchanged at 52 cents through the first 30 minutes of trading…a consistent series of higher lows over the past few months points to a pending major breakout above short-term chart resistance in the mid-50’s…
5. The Dow has eased off 52 points as of 7:00 am Pacific after a big session yesterday…the S&P 500 has enjoyed its strongest quarterly performance since the 4th quarter of 1998 – during the dot-com boom, driven mostly by sharp gains in April and May while June has mostly been flat…globally, MSCI’s world equity index has rallied to within 10% of its February record highs…in Toronto, the TSX has slipped 40 points while the Venture has jumped another 5 points to a new 52-week high of 613…Azimut Exploration (AZM, TSX-V) and Amex Exploration (AMX, TSX-V) have hit new highs in early trading, $2.94 and $2.85, respectively, while Vizsla Resources (VZLA, TSX-V) continues its march, touching 94 cents as interest builds in that company’s Gold-Silver discovery in Mexico announced last week…Auramex Resource (AUX, TSX-V) has been rolled back 1-for-5, leaving just 11.6 million shares outstanding as the company completes a $6 million financing (hard dollars and flow-through)…lots of bids but very little on the offer side…Benchmark Metals (BNCH, TSX-V) announced this morning that it has commenced resource expansion and definition drilling at its Lawyers Gold-Silver Project in north-central British Columbia…the company has already completed about 300 m of drilling with 2 drill rigs positioned and turning at the Cliff Creek Zone…an additional 2 rigs will be added this week for a total of 4…Score Media and Gaming (SCR, TSX-V) has entered into a multi-year agreement to become an authorized gaming operator of Major League Baseball (MLB), providing the company with immediate access to official MLB data, league marks and logos for its mobile sports betting app, theScore Bet…“We’re thrilled to work with MLB, helping bring our fans an even deeper experience as we begin our multi-state expansion of theScore Bet,” said John Levy, Founder and CEO of theScore…“We know our fans are eager to watch and bet on America’s pastime, and we’ll be ready to bring them a best-in-class integrated media and betting offering when play resumes and for seasons to come”…Kenny Gersh, MLB Executive Vice President, Gaming & New Business Ventures, stated: “Working with theScore is another important step in offering baseball fans a variety of unique gaming options to continually engage with our sport. theScore is an innovative company that shares our vision for developing fandom with new, creative gaming opportunities on a variety of platforms”…
6. The Food and Drug Administration plans to release guidance today outlining its conditions for approving a COVID-19 vaccine, including a requirement that any vaccine be at least 50% more effective than a placebo in preventing the disease, according to a report in this morning’s Wall Street Journal…the WSJ says it has reviewed a summary of the guidance…no vaccine will be be approved by the FDA unless a company “clearly demonstrates” proof of a vaccine’s safety and effectiveness through a clinical study…a vaccine also wouldn’t be approved simply if it leads to antibodies in the bloodstream of patients, on grounds that it is not known what level of antibodies will confer protection to patients…the FDA will also require a vaccine maker to conduct further monitoring of safety after any approval and recommended that people getting the vaccine be followed for a year after treatment…the summary document said that such “post-market studies” may be necessary to “further assess known or potential serious risks”…
7. The CEO of Canada’s largest air carrier says it’s time for the federal government to either relax pandemic-related restrictions on travel or provide more aid to a beleaguered airline industry that has been left “basically…in shutdown mode” due to measures put in place to limit the spread of COVID-19…“This is catastrophic territory,” Air Canada CEO Calin Rovinescu told the Financial Post in an exclusive interview yesterday…“This is hundreds of times worse than 9/11, SARS, or the global financial crisis – quite frankly combined…We never got to the level when we were only operating at 5% in any of those circumstances, you know, other than the three days of shut-down post 9/11″…Rovinescu says “broad brush” blanket travel advisories were appropriate in March and April when little was understood about the virus and how COVID-19 was transmitted, but that jurisdictions such as the European Union have since moved to create “safe corridors” or “travel bubbles” based on science and virus tracking, with “bio-safety” measures put in place in airports and on flights…“In my opinion, that’s the way to go,” he said, adding that there has been “dialogue” with government officials, but no significant movement to ease global or domestic restrictions for Canadian airlines…those include mandatory 14-day quarantines that Rovinescu described as putting “the cold shower” on business travel…he said the blanket approach has persisted even as Canada’s virus reproduction rate has been contained below a key threshold that was understood to be the key to easing some restrictions…
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