Check back later this morning for today’s BMR Morning Market Musings.
1. Gold has traded in a narrow range between $1,265 and $1,269 on this U.S. Memorial Day holiday…equity markets were also closed in London and China today for holidays there…as of 7:00 am Pacific, the yellow metal is off $1 an ounce at $1,265 after Friday’s push through key resistance at $1,260…however, confirmation of a breakout will hinge on how Gold trades tomorrow and Wednesday to close out the month…Silver has added a nickel to $17.26…base metals are quiet today…Cobalt has climbed to $25.40, putting it just 23 cents shy of its 2017 decade high…hedge funds and other money managers increased their net long position in COMEX Gold for the first time in 4 weeks in the week to May 23, according to the latest U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data…concerns over North Korea continue to mount as the rogue regime fired at least 1 short-range ballistic missile today that landed in the sea off its east coast, the latest in a fast-paced series of missile tests defying world pressure and threats of more sanctions…
2. Crude Oil prices are stable this morning, essentially unchanged at $49.77 as of 7:00 am Pacific, after last Thursday’s deal among OPEC and certain non-OPEC countries to extend their production cut by 9 months to the end of Q1 2018…meanwhile, U.S. production has soared 10% since mid-2016 to more than 9.3 million bpd, close to top producer levels Russia and Saudi Arabia…U.S. drillers have added rigs for 19 straight weeks, bringing the total to 722, the highest number since April 2015 and the longest run of additions on record, according to energy services firm Baker Hughes…almost all of the recent U.S. output increases have been onshore, from so-called shale Oil fields…Even if the rig count did not rise further, Goldman Sachs estimates that U.S. output would increase by 785,000 bpd between the 4th quarter of 2016 and the 4th quarter of 2017 across the Permian, Eagle Ford, Bakken and Niobrara shale plays…
3. The crowd followers who were chasing Bitcoin to new record highs last week are feeling some pain, at least temporarily…nearly $4 billion has been wiped off the value of Bitcoin the past 4 days after a sharp correction that has seen the cryptocurrency’s price fall 20%…last Wednesday, Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $2,792…this morning, the digital currency is trading at $2,222, marking a $570 drop or a 20.4% decline from the record high…it’s difficult to say where support could form…however, there is a lot of fresh liquidity flowing into Bitcoin, thanks to a surge in interest among investors in Asia, notably Japan and Korea, coupled with a resolution to the scaling debate (boosting the capacity of the Bitcoin network)…some analysts are calling for Bitcoin to climb as high as $6,000 by year-end…
4. Deveron UAS (DVR, CSE) has become one of the first nationally Compliant drone operators in Canada…the company announced this morning that it has been granted approval as a Compliant operator under its special flight operations certificate (SFOC) for the operation of a small unmanned airborne vehicle (UAV) system within visual line of sight, issued under the authority of the Minister, Transport Canada, pursuant to the Aeronautics Act…the certificate is valid for aerial data collection and surveying throughout Canada, and meets the highest level of approvals under Transport Canada’s regulatory environment related to UAV activities…Deveron is one of the first companies in the country to receive this Compliant status as well as one of the first to receive Compliant approval using the senseFly eBee UAV system…DVR is up 6 cents at 50 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…
5. Dolly Varden Silver (DV, TSX-V) has mobilized crews for its 2017 program on the Dolly Varden Silver Project in northwest B.C.’s Golden Triangle…this season’s program will have a minimum budget of $3.5 million featuring approximately 5,000 m of diamond drilling…two-thirds of that will be allocated to resource validation and expansion while one-third will consist of exploratory drilling outside the current resource…there are over 50 exploration targets on the property…geological mapping, plus geophysical and geochemical surveys, are planned for both the main Dolly Varden Ag-Pb-Zn Project as well as the adjacent Big Bulk Cu-Au Project…DV is unchanged at 65 cents in early trading where its 50-day SMA has flattened out after a gradual decline since late March…
6. The Venture is up 1 point at 810 as of 7:00 am Pacific in a quieter session than usual due to the U.S. holiday…Friday’s pullback was indeed a good accumulation opportunity in Jaxon Minerals (JAX, TSX-V) as the stock has reversed aggressively to the upside this morning, touching a new high of 24 cents in early trading…Canadian Zeolite (CNZ, TSX-V) has jumped 7.5 cents to 56 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific after announcing a distribution agreement with Shift Supplies Ltd. for the its natural Zeolite product line…CNZ has been restrained by a declining 50-day SMA, currently in the low 60’s, since late February…a breakout above the 50-day and a reversal to the upside in that SMA would signal the start of a bullish new trend…Nighthawk Gold (NHK, TSX), making the jump from the Venture, started trading on the TSX this morning and is unchanged at $1.11 as of 7:00 am Pacific…drill results shortly from Colomac…
7. Enforcer Gold (VEIN, TSX-V) is coming off a strong week, thanks largely to a big jump Thursday on volume of more than 2 million shares…VEIN is unchanged at 23 cents through the first 30 minutes of trading today as volume remains robust…VEIN has commenced a major field exploration program at the Montalembert Gold Project in northern Quebec…this will include the first-ever large diameter core drilling campaign (expected to commence in mid-to-late June) to be conducted on the high-grade Galena and No. 2 veins…the exploration program is expected to run uninterrupted through the late fall of 2017 and is fully funded…the style of the vein systems at Montalembert is shear-hosted quartz-carbonate Gold mineralization, the most significant source of Gold in the Abitibi greenstone belt…
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Thoughts on Wynn gov. talking up the ROF? Noront in on the rise along with good volume for KWG. This ROF talk the real deal? WIll the ONt.Gov. finally do something after 10 years of sitting idle?
Comment by tony t — May 29, 2017 @ 8:52 am
The Wynn govt., the most incompetent in the country, is good at talking, tony t. We’ll see what develops but this never should have taken this long. Think how much less this critical infrastructure would have cost if the Ontario govt. had gotten its act together on this a decade ago.
Comment by Jon - BMR — May 29, 2017 @ 9:16 am
agreed Jon
Comment by tony t — May 29, 2017 @ 9:38 am
You mentioned US markets being closed. I wonder how much difference that really makes for most junior miners. The large majority of world miners are registered in Canada, and I’ve read about the large percentage of Canadian equity investors that hold mining shares.
In the US, not so much,….. in fact very little.
I always thought Canadian precious metal juniors might do very well with a pretty cheap investment in US advertising. Many US investors would be interested if shown a good opportunity.
I’ve mentioned this to my favorite (Lion One). I.E. small classified type ad in Wall Street Journal, Forbes, NYT money section etc.
Oh well– a little too far outside their boxes I guess.
Comment by Carl N — May 29, 2017 @ 11:09 am
Carl, look at the volumes on the Venture and TSX today…Canadian volumes are typically half what they normally are when U.S. markets are closed…
Comment by Jon - BMR — May 29, 2017 @ 12:44 pm
Jon
I think Carl does make a point , I’m in the US and anytime I bring up junior mining shares no one has a clue or they think I’m crazy throwing my money away …. I’m sure there are people in other parts of the country that pay more attention to the mining industry than where im at in California
Comment by GREGH — May 29, 2017 @ 1:48 pm
CNZ: glad I averaged down last week… nice 62% jump today !
Comment by rgiroux — May 29, 2017 @ 3:14 pm
The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday edition that through a series of small but decisive steps taken over the past 18 months, Deveron UAS, a drone data services company that focuses on the agriculture sector, is slowly taking flight. The Post’s Barry Critchley writes that Deveron announced Monday that it had been given the nod by the Minister of Transport to operate across Canada. Prior to this, Deveron, which started life in 2012 as Deveron Resources and whose major shareholder is Greencastle Resources, had received government approval to operate in three additional provinces, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, alongside its home base of Ontario. Deveron chief executive officer David MacMillan says: “With national compliance, we have the ability to fly anywhere under one area of interest. It makes things easier for us as we scale (up) and talk to nationally-based agricultural providers.” Accordingly, because the firm’s clients have a national perspective, the new licence allows Deveron to adopt a national approach to its business. Mr. MacMillan says, “We are excited about (the business) because the data we generate produces intelligence that can help farmers increase yields and reduce costs.”
Comment by Jon - BMR — May 30, 2017 @ 6:06 am