Gold has traded in a range between $1,685 and $1,699 so far today…as of 7:30 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $2 an ounce at $1,696…Silver is 20 cents higher at $33.11…Copper is off a penny at $3.64 after rising five straight sessions…Crude Oil is off $1.30 at $86.58 while the U.S. Dollar Index has rallied one-third of a point to 80.14…
ECB, Bank of England Leave Rates Unchanged
The European Central Bank left key interest rates unchanged today, as expected, at a record low 0.75%, while the deposit rate paid on money parked overnight at the institution was held at 0%…meanwhile, the Bank of England also left monetary policy unchanged today, voting as it did last month not to buy more government bonds and pump money into Britain’s stagnant economy…the decision comes despite finance minister George Osborne saying yesterday that Britain’s economy would grow much more slowly than expected over the next three years and that a key debt reduction goal would not be met…the forecasts also showed Britain’s economy was likely to shrink over the last three months of 2012 – a prospect reinforced by weak trade data earlier today and downbeat purchasing managers’ surveys this week…
Today’s Markets
Asian markets were mixed overnight…Japan’s Nikkei average hit a 7-month high while China’s Shanghai Composite fell 3 points to 2029 after yesterday’s sharp jump that took it back above the 2000 level…on the economic front, U.S. jobless claims fell 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 370,000, according to the Labor Department this morning…economists had expected a reading of 380,000 compared with 393,000 in the prior week…North American markets are down slightly in early trading with the Venture is flat at 1185 as of 7:30 am Pacific…
Copper Chart Update
Copper’s resilience continues to be impressive, and it’s one reason we continue to believe the Venture will perform much better in the first quarter of 2013…below is a 2.5-year weekly chart update for Copper from John…Copper broke out of a long down trendline in September, and has since successfully re-tested that breakout area which has become new support…the next major resistance is $3.90…
Canadian Dollar Update
Another important leading indicator for the economy and the markets is the Canadian Dollar which has tremendous technical support between 99 cents and $1.00…the loonie had a powerful run from early June to September, pulled back in October, stabilized in November, and now appears ready to head higher once again as it has broken above its EMA-20…below is a 3-year weekly chart from John…
Rainbow Resources (RBW, TSX-V) Update
Rainbow Resources (RBW, TSX-V) took a hit yesterday, with some follow-through selling this morning, after the company’s exploration update Tuesday – not surprising given the disappointing results from the International, but likely more a reflection of the general market and tax-loss pressures…continued good prospects for Jewel Ridge and other properties (even including the International as just a tiny fraction of the vein structure has been tested) will give RBW a good opportunity for a rebound as the month progresses…history shows it’s also a bad time of the year to be a seller of any stock…the overall strength of Rainbow’s Big Strike Project in the Kootenays is reflected in the fact that PDAC has awarded RBW with a core shack display for Big Strike at the March convention in Toronto…this puts RBW in a very select, elite group – in particular because the display is apparently for Session “A” which covers the first two days of the convention…as of 7:30 am Pacific, RBW is off another 2.5 cents to 11 cents, putting RSI(2) in very oversold territory…
Corvus Gold (KOR, TSX)
Corvus Gold (KOR, TSX) has been a strong performer throughout the year but note in John’s 2-year weekly chart below that the stock is once again near the top of an upsloping trading channel…KOR came out with some positive news this morning as the company provided the results of an independently prepared preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its North Bullfrog Project in Nevada…the two phased PEA development plan is based on the company’s updated resource estimate and does not include any of the 2012 drilling outside of the Mayflower deposit infill drilling…the study produced a robust positive economic analysis for a conceptual, low capex, heap leach project that generates average annual Gold production of 74,800 ounces over 10 years at a life of mine strip ratio of 0.48 to 1 (overburden to process feed), indicating a pre-tax, pre-royalty NPV(5%) of $166M, and an IRR of 26% at $1,479 per ounce Gold…the PEA also shows the project has a considerable leverage to the Gold price, with a pre-tax, pre-royalty NPV(5%) of $345M and an IRR of 43% at $1,800 per ounce Gold…KOR is up a nickel at $1.77 as of 7:30 am Pacific…
Woulfe Mining (WOF, TSX-V)
Below is a chart from John that some of our readers have requested for Woulfe Mining (WOF, TSX-V) which has over 300 million shares outstanding but some interesting projects in South Korea…Ned Goodman at Dundee Corp. announced yesterday that Dundee has acquired another 5.6 million shares of WOF through the Venture Exchange, giving it nearly 40 million shares or almost 12% of the total number of shares outstanding (plus 10 million warrants)…WOF has doubled in price since a low of 19 cents in August…it’s unchanged in early trading today at 36 cents…
Note: John and Jon both hold share positions in RBW.
hit bottom @ .11 hopefully
Comment by brian — December 6, 2012 @ 8:40 am
Hi Brian,
let us hope that you are correct. I must acknowledge some respect to Mr. Johnston who will be facing bullets this afternoon at his live presentation. Obviously they are continuing with their duties. I will have access to the presentation, and as it will be at 0245 this morning, I hope to be still awake by then.
Richmont is also having a rebound and the year low is hopefully also behind them.
Comment by Alexandre — December 6, 2012 @ 8:55 am
Looks like the selling has stopped. Hopefully Nevada can bring some success. Mineralization in all holes is a good sign, also drilling into a previously producing pit could be good. This is what Cadillac(CQX) did when they drilled into their pits and hit some decent amounts of gold, which sent their stock from 8 cents to 50 in one day. Drilling into an area where there has been surface gold production in the past is not a bad idea.
Comment by Ed — December 6, 2012 @ 8:57 am
Except for the crash of 2008, the TSX Venture has not been so low since July 2003. Bottom picking for the patient investors.
Comment by Alexandre — December 6, 2012 @ 8:57 am
Jon/John – Has there been any indication of how deep these holes in Jewel Ridge Nevada were drilled?
Comment by Ed — December 6, 2012 @ 9:03 am
RBW lovers,
Don’t worry, all we need to do is keep buying at the ask lol
if we do this as a team effort, we can bring this thing back up to 22 cents lol
who’s in with me!?!!?!? Jon, john and terry???? lol
oh wait, i know ALEX is in for sure…..let’s do this!!
Comment by Avo — December 6, 2012 @ 9:17 am
Rainbow announced every 1.5 metre intercept was sent in for analysis and there were over 750 of them, so that would mean about 1100 metres drilled or an average of about 180 metres per hole. Not sure what the deepest hole was but there could be more on that today when they do their presentation.
Comment by Jon - BMR — December 6, 2012 @ 9:25 am
Thanks for chart on WOF. Much appreciated. Note RIN on the TSX V owns 26 million WOF shares.
Comment by James — December 6, 2012 @ 9:45 am
I wonder if Mr Johnston is as ‘jovial’ as he was a few months ago at the conference and if not I wonder what could possibly have changed his mood.
Comment by Rick — December 6, 2012 @ 10:03 am
According to the new facts sheet on Rainbows Website hole JR-12-06 hit some significant mineralization from 38 meters down to the end of the hole at 152 meters. If they could come out with a result of significant gold (maybe 4 g/t or better) over 114 meters that would get this thing rolling for sure.
Comment by Ed — December 6, 2012 @ 12:43 pm
You have a good point Ed. There is a long way to go with this program.
Comment by John - BMR — December 6, 2012 @ 1:21 pm
Ed- If I recall correctly they also said that the holes at International hit mineralization…we know how that seems to be turning out…
Comment by db — December 6, 2012 @ 1:37 pm
Ed, good comments. I think you hit the nail on the head. All we need is one hole that hit significant mineralization and we be great shape. I am hoping we will get the rest of the assay results before the end of the year.
Comment by Steven — December 6, 2012 @ 1:51 pm
Well db, from where I sit, stand or swim….I like the chances at Jewel Ridge better than International at the the moment. Don’t you?
Comment by John - BMR — December 6, 2012 @ 2:10 pm
Jon, if you are able to speak to management of RBW, can you ask them when we can expect some results from Jewel Ridge? I mean, we already have some results from Gold Viking, so Jewel Ridge shouldn’t be far behind. Will we get them before Christmas? Also will there be further results from Gold Viking before Christmas? I believe they owe you guys that much.
Thanks, Dan
Comment by Dan — December 6, 2012 @ 5:38 pm
Danny, I can answer that right now as I spoke with Johnston briefly today. Hoping to set up an interview soon. Anyway, they do expect all results in by the end of the month. Because of the holidays, it’s possible there may not be news until the beginning part of January, but he can’t say for sure. I don’t think they want to be pinned down on dates again as you can imagine as there are different variables at play, and perhaps the labs don’t deliver as promised. But it sounds like things are moving fairly quickly. That’s generally a good sign as good news often travels fast. I think there’s a genuine sense on RBW’s part that they have good results coming out of Jewel Ridge and perhaps a surprise from Gold Viking. That’s what the news certainly suggested. Human nature is very strange, but that’s what makes a market. Investors see some disappointing results out of one property and all of a sudden they write the company off, even though the company deliberately set itself up to avoid being a one-trick pony and spread the risk over a number of different properties. If they pull one dandy hole out of Jewel Ridge – and some of these holes hit very intense, colored jasperoid which is gold in this area – then this is a whole new ball game and this week’s sellers will be kicking themselves severely. RBW wouldn’t be the first company on the Venture this year that suddenly surged on a great drill result out of Nevada that confirmed historical results.
Comment by Jon - BMR — December 6, 2012 @ 6:08 pm
Still keep on scooping more RBW? Yes… I am one of them…. unique chances and my current portfolio is 220,000 shares….. average price 15.5 cents 🙂
Comment by Theodore — December 6, 2012 @ 8:10 pm
This is what one poster had to say regarding VGN
Say good bye investors or should I say suckers it’s over boys and girls this baby is going private , your ceo “alibaba and the seven dwarfs will do it for them selves only and you helped them .
He appears everytime the stock price takes another leg down – VGN looks like a skank machine to rob sharehodler of their cash.
Comment by Hugh — December 7, 2012 @ 6:34 am
Ridiculous comment regarding VGN which has zero interest in going private….in fact, they’ve set VGN up for a potentially spectacular rise once they get things going with Deveron (DVR)…at the moment, VGN has 15 cents in cash and liquid securities (it’s trading at half that value) not including their Deveron shares…..CEO Tony Roodenberg keeps adding to his position in VGN…..if you’re patient with this play, you can make a ton of money at current prices if history and common sense are any guide….
Comment by Jon - BMR — December 7, 2012 @ 7:04 am
Yeah Ok I agree with you to some extent. But I can share investors anger to this stock, I am stuck holding it and its disheartening when the company rarely reports to shareholders and they rarely update their website. They isnt even an valid email address to contact them.
Comment by Hugh — December 7, 2012 @ 7:08 am