Check back later today for Daniel’s Den and visit the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information!
1. Gold has traded between $1,323 and $1,330 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is off $2 an ounce at $1,325…Silver has pulled back 4 pennies to $15.81…Palladium, which briefly shot above $1,550 yesterday for the first time, is up $25 an ounce at $1,543 as a worsening supply scenario unfolds…at least 15 mining firms in South Africa, a major producer of the metal, have received notices of strikes to be held later this week, providing further impetus to the metal’s gains…Palladium has risen more than 21% so far this year on a sustained supply deficit…Copper has eased off a penny to $2.95…Nickel is 2 cents lower at $5.81 while Zinc is unchanged at $1.24…Crude Oil has added 21 cents a barrel to $55.69 while the U.S. Dollar Index is off slightly at 96.35…in his semi-annual Congressional testimony on the state of monetary policy, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told a Senate committee this morning that the U.S. economy remains strong but “financial conditions are now less supportive of growth than they were earlier last year”…on the balance sheet roll-off specifically, Powell says the Fed is prepared to “adjust” the program if conditions warrant…American consumers were feeling more confident this month…the Conference Board says its consumer confidence index rose sharply to 131.4 from 121.7 in January…the index measures consumers’ assessment of current economic conditions and their expectations for the next 6 months…both rose in January…consumers’ views of today’s economy were the most optimistic since December 2000…however, the Commerce Department reported this morning that housing starts fell 11.2% in December from the previous month to the slowest pace of construction since September 2016…
2. As the 3rd most-used industrial metal in the world, after Iron and Aluminum, the fact that Copper has pushed through important resistance at $2.90 is encouraging for metals in general and the the outlook for emerging markets, not to mention the Venture…the next key price point, of course, is $3, but the metal’s bullish technical posture since last year’s lows in the $2.50’s strongly suggests we’ll see Copper conquer the $3 level in the near future…broken down by sector, Copper demand is 65% electrical, 25% industrial and 10% transportation…because it has so many uses all over the economy – homebuilding, manufacturing, power generation, electronics and transportation – it has proven to be an effective barometer of economic health across the globe…
3. A war of words is heating up between Barrick Gold (ABX, TSX; GOLD, NYSE) and Newmont Mining (NEM, NYSE) following Barrick’s hostile $17.8 billion (U.S.) takeover bid for Newmont…Barrick says its all-share, no-premium transaction is a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to create a Gold titan…Barrick touted the present value of all future cost savings from the deal at $7 billion…trading yesterday and early today suggests that many investors are less than impressed…Barrick is offering 2.5694 shares for each Newmont share, which works out to $32.40 per share with Newmont currently trading at $35.82 in New York…of course it’s impossible to support a deal where you would essentially tender your shares and have them be worth less than where they’re trading today…meanwhile, Newmont is in the process of completing a friendly transaction to buy Goldcorp for $10 billion…Barrick boss Mark Bristow extolled the virtues of a Barrick/Newmont tie-up, and criticized the Newmont/Goldcorp deal as “ill advised, desperate and bizarre, and lacking substantial business synergies”…Newmont slammed Barrick’s “poor track record on delivering shareholder returns”…since 2014, Barrick shares are down 22%…Newmont’s shareholder returns, including reinvested dividends, are up 65% over the same period…Barrick is going to have to pay much more if it wants to bag Newmont…
4. Tesla (TSLA, NASDAQ) CEO Elon Musk lashed out at the Securities and Exchange Commission today, one day after the agency asked a judge to hold him in contempt for allegedly violating the terms of a deal made last year…“Something is broken with SEC oversight,” Musk said on Twitter this morning…the CEO said that Tesla would make “around” 500,000 vehicles this year, clarifying about 4 hours later that he “meant to say” the company’s annualized production rate at the end of 2019 could be around 500,000 vehicles…total deliveries for the year are still estimated at 400,000, Musk said…“Musk did not seek or receive pre-approval prior to publishing this tweet, which was inaccurate and disseminated to over 24 million people,” the SEC wrote in the court filing…the Tesla chief responded to the SEC decision hours later, tweeting: “SEC forgot to read Tesla earnings transcript, which clearly states 350k to 500k. How embarrassing”…
5. The Dow, aiming for a 10-week winning streak, is off 59 points after 30 minutes of trading…in Toronto, the TSX is 34 points higher while the Venture has added 2 points to 625…American Pacific Mining (USGD, CSE) has increased its previously announced financing at 10 cents to $1.3 million with the PP expected to close next week…USGD is exploring an attractive high-grade Gold opportunity in Nevada…strong technical support at the 14-cent breakout point…Miramont Resources (MONT, CSE) has signed an option agreement to acquire the An An concession adjacent to its existing Cerro Hermoso Project in Peru where a drill program is in progress…Miramont has now consolidated a total of 1,886 hectares at the project with the addition of this 568 hectare concession…An An borders the Cerro Hermoso on its southeast boundary…drilling at Cerro Hermoso is testing 3 priority targets known as the Stockwork zone, the Central Breccia zone and the Carbonate Replacement zone…this is a large and energetic mineral system located along a regional trend of epithermal and CRD deposits…coincident magnetic and chargeability IP anomalies indicate a potential buried intrusion which may have driven a lot of the action in the broader area…MONT is unchanged at 39.5 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…strong support at the rising 50-day SMA, currently 37 cents…
6. Galway Metals (GWM, TSX-V) has drilled 5.4 g/t Au over 11 m, including 20.9 g/t over 2.55 m, according to first assays (more to come) from another hole of its previously reported new Gold discovery at the Clarence Stream Gold Project in southwestern New Brunswick…the new Gold zone is in an area where there has been no previous drilling, centered between the George Murphy and Jubilee Zones, approximately 1 km from each…the discovery hole, BL18–12, returned 7.3 g/t Au over 36.7 m, including 38.1 g/t over 6.5 m in multiple quartz veins containing abundant visible Gold, starting only 51 m downhole and 36 m vertical…follow-up drilling in hole BL19–15 intersected 5.4 g/t Au over 11 m, consisting of all the initial rush samples (assays pending on both ends and for the remainder of the hole), including 20.9 g/t Au over 2.55 m…this hole intersected visible Gold twice, approximately 50 m NW of and 97 m vertically below the VG seen in BL18–12…BL-19–13, meanwhile, cut 2.5 g/t over 6.85 m including 7.1 g/t over 2.2 m, plus 13.4 g/t over 1.4 m at vertical depths of 71 m and 35 m, respectively…the new discovery in holes BL18–12, BL19–13 and BL19–15 represents the 2nd zone that Galway has found since the company began drilling Clarence Stream in October 2016…only 2 of them, the North and South zones, are in the existing resource which is scheduled to be updated later this year…the new discovery will be named the Richard Zone in honour of Rob Richard who is responsible for making the discovery…‘The Richard Zone main vein now has been intersected twice, with both holes containing nice visible Gold and returning high-grade intersections. Once we do the downhole optical work to confirm the orientation of the veining, and finish the current Jubilee Zone drill program where we are targeting expansion of the deposit ahead of the resource update later this year, we’ll return to the Richard Zone. Two high-grade holes 100 m apart are likely suggesting there is more to come,’‘ stated Robert Hinchcliffe, President and CEO…
7. It’s unacceptable to have Canadian resource projects held hostage to internal strife within a native band...many native bands in Canada can’t even manage their own affairs properly, yet they insist on what amounts to veto power over resource projects in this country…The Globe and Mail reported this morning that Wet’suwet’en Nation chiefs who oppose TransCanada’s Coastal GasLink pipeline route in British Columbia stripped hereditary titles from 3 indigenous women who support the project…the women formed the Wet’suwet’en Matrilineal Coalition (WMC) in August, 2015, hoping that it would lead to a collective decision-making body…internal strife within the Wet’suwet’en Nation has grown in recent years, with conflict between hereditary chiefs administering their unceded territories (passed down through oral traditions) versus elected band councillors on reserves (codified by federal law)…it has placed a spotlight on the challenges faced by resource companies and governments when pursuing energy projects in British Columbia…the women say they have been ostracized behind the scenes since forming WMC and want to bring their case into the public light….the 3 indigenous women say they launched WMC in an effort to encourage Wet’suwet’en members to make informed decisions about contentious issues…hereditary chiefs say non-indigenous opposition from environmentalists to Hollywood celebrities is mounting against plans for the 670-km route – all the more reason, of course, for Canadian politicians to show leadership and backbone…they must stand up for Canada to prevent a fringe minority, partially organized and funded by foreign sources from Hollywood and elsewhere, from destroying jobs and eroding economic opportunities in this country…
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