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Check back later this morning for today’s BMR Morning Market Musings.

1. Gold has traded between $1,259 and $1,278 so far today, reversing higher and hitting its best level since April after a weaker than expected U.S. non-farm payrolls report from the Labor Department…this likely won’t alter the Fed’s determination to push through 1 more rate hike during this 1st half of the year when it meets June 13–14…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $9 an ounce at $1,275 with a breakout confirmed above $1,260 as we’ll show in a chart in today’s Morning Musings…the yellow metal is well positioned to challenge the $1,300 level this month…Silver is up 11 cents at $17.38 while the U.S. Dollar Index has fallen nearly half a point…demand for U.S. American Eagle Gold and Silver bullion coins picked up in May, its first rise after 3 consecutive monthly declines…while sales are on the rebound from April’s 16-month low, the physical market for Gold and Silver coins remains lackluster – leaves room, however, for a potential sharp demand increase during the 2nd half of the year…

2. U.S. Job creation (public and private sector employment) fell sharply in May with just 138,000 new positions created while the unemployment rate declined to 4.3%, the lowest in 16 years, according to Labor Department data released this morning…economists surveyed by Reuters had expected non-farm payrolls to grow by 185,000…wage gains also disappointed with average hourly earnings rising at a 2.5% annualized pace…in addition to the weak May numbers, previous months also saw significant downward revisions…this morning’s numbers differed sharply from the ADP report released yesterday that showed a whopping 253,000 increase in private payrolls last month…private employers are stepping up hiring and U.S. factory activity ticked up in May after slowing for 2 straight months, suggesting the economy is gradually regaining speed after struggling at the start of 2017…

3. The U.S. Oil industry exported a record 1.3 million barrels of Crude per day onto the world market last week – just a half million barrels less than the cuts OPEC and Russia agreed to make to daily production…the U.S. government also reported that domestic Oil production increased to 9.34 million barrels a day from 9.32 million the week earlier (highest daily output in nearly 2 years), a sign that shale producers continue to ratchet up output even with Oil trading below $50 a barrel…however, official U.S. data gave some bullish news yesterday as it showed the country’s Crude inventories fell sharply last week, much more than expected as refining and exports surged to record highs…WTIC is off 83 cents a barrel at $47.53 as of 7:00 am Pacific…the Saudis want Oil to gain traction above $50 – a potential trigger for that could be a significant drop in the greenback which continues to deteriorate from a technical perspective…

4. The Venture is unchanged at 800 as of 7:00 am Pacific with the broader indices down slightly in early trading…PyroGenesis Canada (PYR, TSX-V) is breaking out to a multi-year new high, pushing through resistance at 80 cents…Jaxon Minerals (JAX, TSX-V), another BMR favorite and a 51% gainer on huge volume yesterday, has retreated 3.5 cents to 30 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…we’ll have an updated JAX chart in today’s Morning Musings…

5. Cobalt prices are up 8.5% since the first week of May, equaling their early 2017 high of $25.63 (U.S.)…BMR has returned to the northern Ontario Cobalt-Silver Camp to follow up on a visit in mid-February, and our first stop has been the Castle mine in Gowganda where Castle Silver Resources (CSR, TSX-V) is the first junior in the district this year (and might be the only one) to go underground…an impressive quartz-carbonate vein structure with bands of rich Cobalt mineralization (Cobalt “bloom” and black sulphides) is the target of bulk sampling which started yesterday on the first level of the Castle mine…preparations are also ramping up for an underground drill program to intersect both Cobalt and Silver…historically, all 11 levels of the Castle mine returned exceptionally high Silver grades while no assays were ever carried out for Cobalt…a major factor in CSR’s favor is a proprietary Cobalt and multi-metal recovery process, Re-2OX, initially developed in conjunction with the National Research Council and optimized since then…it will allow CSR to create high purity Cobalt powders for end users in the battery sector while also exploring efficient and environmentally friendly extraction of Cobalt and Lithium from spent Lithium-ion batteries… 

6.  As of 7:00 am Pacific, the TSX Gold Index is up 3 points at 211 where it’s once again challenging resistance at the 200-day moving average (SMA) which has been declining since March but is starting to flatten out…the trend points toward a robust move in the Gold Index beginning over the summer in conjunction with a further weakening in the U.S. Dollar Index…a smaller producer such as Richmont Mines (RIC, TSX) could significantly outperform the Gold Index…Richmont is trading higher for the 3rd straight session today after releasing positive results earlier this week from an expansion case PEA completed on the Island Gold mine in northern Ontario…the study confirms the increase in underground mine and mill productivity to 1,100 tonnes per day will support strong production growth of 22% at low industry cash costs and a robust cash flow stream over the 8-year Phase 1 period, with low incremental capital of $28.2-million (CDN) required…the ramp-up to 1,100 tonnes per day is currently under way and the operation is anticipated to achieve the target run rate in the latter part of 2018…

7. MGX Minerals (XMG, CSE) was halted late in yesterday’s session, pending news or clarification of news, after announcing earlier in the day that it has made the maiden shipment of Lithium chloride 30% concentrate to the company’s Lithium compound upgrader…the samples will be analyzed for upgrading to 99% Lithium carbonate and suitability for direct-to-Lithium hydroxide upgrading…MGX is currently in discussions regarding global tolling and upgrading of Lithium chloride feedstock…the stock was up 3 cents at $1.17 when it was halted…

The most popular recent BMR articles…

How The Eskay Heart of Gold Camp Will Help Drive The Coming Venture Up Wave (Part 1)

“Beyond the Supercycle”:  15 Predictions About The Future Of Natural Resources

Tech-Savvy Junior Captures Cobalt Camp Advantage

Venture Update – The Surprise That’s Just Around The Corner!

Check the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information. 7 @ 7:00 and Morning Musings returns tomorrow.

1. Gold has traded between $1,261 and $1,270 so far today as a new month begins…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is down $4 an ounce at $1,264 after a stronger than expected U.S. private jobs report…this only reinforces the near certainty of a Fed rate hike June 14 which should be viewed as bullish for Gold, contrary to what much of the mainstream media contends…Gold finished slightly positive for May, bucking an historical trend…ETF buying was subdued…Gold ETFs tracked by Bloomberg recorded inflows of only 1.7 tonnes last month while holdings in Silver ETFs increased by 710 tonnes…

2. U.S. private payrolls jumped by a whopping 253,000 last month, well ahead of expectations…economists surveyed by Reuters expected the report to show jobs growth of 185,000 in May, up from 174,000 in April…the ADP figures come ahead of the U.S. Labor Department’s more comprehensive non-farm payrolls report tomorrow which includes both public and private sector employment…meanwhile, the U.S. manufacturing index inched slightly higher last month, hitting 54.9, according to data released this morning by the Institute for Supply Management…economists had expected the index to slip to 54.5…

3. Crude prices have bounced higher this morning thanks to industry data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) late yesterday that showed that U.S. Crude inventories fell by 8.7 million barrels to 513.2 million in the week to May 26, a significantly larger drop than expected (the EIA reports its official figures within the hour)…yesterday’s bullish inventory data was welcome news after a Reuters‘ survey showed an increase in Libyan Oil production helped boost OPEC Crude output in May, the first monthly rise this year…

5.  Jaxon Minerals (JAX, TSX-V) announced this morning that it has entered into a binding Letter of Intent (LOI) to acquire a 100% interest in the promising Foremore Property in the Eskay Heart of Gold Camp…the 155 sq. km property is 30 miles north of the Eskay Creek mine and adjoins Jaxon’s recently acquired Wishbone Property and Aben Resources‘ (ABN, TSX-V) Forrest Kerr Project…Foremore hosts an abundance of known precious and base metal-rich mineralized boulder fields, outcrops, as well as multiple geochemical and geophysical anomalies over a broad area…Cominco staked portions of the property after the original discovery of a 162 g/t Au quartz boulder and several massive sulphide boulder fields during helicopter reconnaissance in the late 1980’s, just prior to the Eskay Creek discovery…since that time, millions of dollars were spent by Cominco and, subsequently, Roca Mines, developing multiple target areas…the geology is complex but a compilation and reinterpretation of historical data, combined with today’s enhanced understanding of the district, will give Jaxon a good chance to develop Foremore into a market-moving project…JAX gapped up to 28.5 cents this morning and has added 7.5 cents to 30 cents on high volume as of 7:00 am Pacific…

6. News from the northern Ontario Cobalt Camp this morning, just prior to a BMR site visit that begins at CSR’s Castle mine in Gowganda…First Cobalt (FCC, TSX-V) has entered into a strategic partnership/option agreement with Australian-listed Cobalt One, allowing for a 50/50 JV on the Yukon Cobalt extraction refinery in the community of Cobalt…First Cobalt says this will give them access to a refinery and 40 acres of permitted property capable of processing the Silver-Cobalt arsenide concentrates historically produced in the Cobalt Camp…the refinery is one of only 4 fully permitted facilities in Canada capable of treating this type of ore and the only such facility in the district…FCC has gained a nickel on the news to 65 cents…meanwhile, Cobalt prices continue to rise and today have matched their 2017 and decade high price of $25.63…

7. MGX Minerals (XMG, CSE) announced this morning that it has made the maiden shipment of Lithium chloride 30% concentrate to the company’s Lithium compound upgrader…the samples will be analyzed for upgrading to 99% Lithium carbonate and suitability for direct to Lithium hydroxide upgrading…MGX is currently in discussions regarding global tolling and upgrading of Lithium chloride feedstock…the stock is up 4 pennies at $1.18 as of 7:00 am Pacific…

The most popular recent BMR articles…

How The Eskay Heart of Gold Camp Will Help Drive The Coming Venture Up Wave (Part 1)

“Beyond the Supercycle”:  15 Predictions About The Future Of Natural Resources

Tech-Savvy Junior Captures Cobalt Camp Advantage

Venture Update – The Surprise That’s Just Around The Corner!

Check back later today for a special evening edition of BMR Market Musings.

1. Gold has traded between $1,259 (potential new support) and $1,269 so far today as it continues to attempt a confirmed breakout above $1,260 to close out the month…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $1 an ounce at $1,264…Gold finished April at $1,268, so a late rally today would give the metal a chance to avoid its first losing month of the year…going back 2 decades, no back-to-back months on the calendar have been weaker than May and June as we’ll show in a seasonality chart in today’s Morning Musings…the fact Gold has held up so well with another Fed rate hike expected June 14 should be interpreted as a bullish sign for the metal going into the summer….traders and investors are looking ahead to Friday’s U.S. employment report for May from the Labor Department, arguably the most important U.S. economic data point for the month…the key non-farm payrolls number for May is forecast to come in at around 210,000…Silver is off 7 cents at $17.31 as of 7:00 am Pacific…

2. Global Gold mine supply is closing in on its cycle peak, according to analysts with Standard Chartered…Gold output growth in 2016 slowed to 0.4%, its weakest rate since it turned positive in 2009, the bank said…although it forecasts that mine production will grow further in 2017 to a record high of 3,229 tonnes, it also sees the growth rate slowing to 0.2%…meanwhile, the firm says the average grade of Gold grams mined per tonne has fallen sharply from 2.5 in 2000…

3. Bitcoin’s price has the potential to hit over $100,000 in 10 years which would mark a nearly 3,500% rise from its recent record high, an analyst who correctly predicted the cryptocurrency’s rally this year told CNBC yesterday…in December, Saxo Bank published its annual report called “Outrageous Predictions” with one of the forecasts calling for Bitcoin to hit $2,000 in 2017…at the time the note was published, Bitcoin was trading in the $700’s, so the target price represented a 165% rise…but now, Kay Van-Paterson, the analyst behind the call, is looking long-term and believes Bitcoin’s move is just in its infancy…

5.  Trouble brewing in British Columbia – the NDP, which has only brought misery to investors and the population at large during the limited time it has ever held power there, has cut a backroom deal with the eco-fascist Green Party to usurp power from the Liberal free enterprise coalition that has ruled the province successfully for the past 16 years…Premier Christy Clark, who won a majority of the seats and the popular vote in the May 9 elections, will put her government to a test of confidence when she recalls the legislature next month but even Clark admits an imminent “transfer of power” appears inevitable…the NDP and Greens, in a written agreement, have vowed to “employ every tool available” to kill the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline Project which risks immediately branding the province as hostile to the energy sector and the resource industry in general…the pipeline expansion has been approved at all levels, and construction is scheduled to commence in September, but the NDP-Green coalition could easily find ways to delay the project and force the federal government to take the province to court…meanwhile, Kinder Morgan just raised $1.75 billion in the biggest IPO in the energy sector in 2 years, though shares in Kinder Morgan Canada (KML, TSX) immediately came under pressure in the stock’s debut yesterday due to the new uncertainty in British Columbia…KML is off 16 cents at $16.08 as of 7:00 am Pacific, nearly $1 below the IPO price…

6.  Canadian Zeolite (CNZ, TSX-V) has signed a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI) to acquire 100% of a manufacturer and distributor of Zeolite products based in the United States…according to news this morning from CNZ, the target company has a state-of-the-art, GMP-certified (good manufacturing practice) research and development lab in Arizona where it develops its product formulations and manufactures product lines…the facility can accommodate bulk Zeolite warehousing and distribution of manufactured Zeolite products into the U.S. market…the company is focused on creating nutraceutical products for human use, as well as enhanced fertilizers and water filtration systems…CNZ is up 8 cents to 69 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…we’ll have an updated CNZ chart in today’s Morning Musings…

7. Critical Elements (CRE, TSX-V) is approaching its yearly high of 95 cents after releasing positive results Monday from a pilot plant program recently completed by the company to demonstrate easy and efficient conversion of CRE’s spodumene resources into battery quality Lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) using the thermal leaching process…this well-known conversion process (calcination, thermal leaching, and bicarbonization and crystallization) from spodumene concentrate to Lithium carbonate showed strong results with extraction rates of 88.4% and very high purity of Lithium carbonate at 99.9%…this extraction rate surpasses the worldwide average of between 70% and 75% which is accepted as an industry standard…CRE is up a nickel at 85 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…

The most popular recent BMR articles…

How The Eskay Heart of Gold Camp Will Help Drive The Coming Venture Up Wave (Part 1)

“Beyond the Supercycle”:  15 Predictions About The Future Of Natural Resources

Tech-Savvy Junior Captures Cobalt Camp Advantage

Venture Update – The Surprise That’s Just Around The Corner!

Check the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information, and visit BMR for possible additional posts today. Morning Musings returns tomorrow.

1. Gold has traded between $1,259 (potential new support) and $1,269 so far today as it attempts a confirmed breakout above $1,260 to close out the month…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is down $3 an ounce at $1,264…TD Securities stated, “Given the current political circumstances and emerging uncertainty surrounding U.S. rate hikes and broader monetary and fiscal policy, we believe there could be further room for Gold to move higher still.  The yellow metal may well trend toward a technically determined high near the upper bound of the trading range just under $1,290“…Silver is up slightly at $17.34…political uncertainty in Europe is another factor in Gold’s favor…in particular, investors are nervous about the German vote September 24 along with mounting speculation that Italians could head to the polls in autumn though elections aren’t due there until May 2018…euro zone finance ministers’ failure to agree on Greek debt relief with the International Monetary Fund last week has also added to risk aversion…

2. Goldman Sachs‘ analysts have trimmed their longer-term forecasts for Oil prices, saying that falling U.S. production costs will keep supply rising for years to come…the bank said that once OPEC’s production growth resumes after its self-imposed cuts, U.S. and OPEC output would rise by 1 million to 1.3 million bpd between 2018 and 2020…Goldman, however, remains bullish on near-term prices as inventories normalize…

3. The Venture is flat at 810 through the first 30 minutes of trading…Jaxon Minerals (JAX, TSX-V) continues to trade robustly, up a penny at 24 cents…it has momentum in its favor as it attempts a breakout above that resistance…Arizona Silver (AZS, TSX-V) was halted at 6:45 am Pacific, pending news…AZS has climbed dramatically this month after the company reported May 11 that it had intersected massive silica with locally banded quartz-chalcedony veins over a downhole distance of 44.2 m at its Ramsey Silver Project in Arizona…Orca Gold (ORG, TSX-V) is pushing higher after reporting this morning that an extensive airborne geophysical survey carried out to the west of its 70%-owned owned Block 14 Project in Sudan has resulted in the discovery of a new and larger water resource for the project – a significant development…the TSX is 25 points lower while the Dow has slipped 37 points as of 7:00 am Pacific…Amazon (AMZN, NASDAQ) traded above $1,000 per share this morning for the first time ever…

4.  Golden Predator Mining (GPY, TSX-V) is up modestly in early trading after releasing assay results for 16 of 43 drill holes completed as of mid-May at its 3 Aces Project in southeastern Yukon…step-out drilling has successfully encountered mineralization 150 m from previous Ace of Spades drill intercepts while this morning’s results also featured the highest-grade drill intercept received to date on the Ace of Spades vein…assays included 39.6 m @ 13.3 g/t Au from a depth of 9.1 m (hole 3A17–098); 14.5 m of 15.3 g/t Au from a depth of 8.4 m (3A17–099); and 3.05 m @ 8.12 g/t Au (3A17–111) from a depth of 16.8 m…the 2017 drill program started in February and is initially focusing on the Spades Zone before expanding to other areas of the property…the fully funded 40,000-m drill program will continue throughout 2017…

5.  RJK Explorations (RJX, TSX-V) has cut an interesting deal with Earth Science Services Corp. (ESSCO) which has identified a promising area at RJK’s Maude Lake Gold Property in northern Ontario using its proprietary target modeling interpretation system (Maude Lake has already delivered some impressive results this year and features abundant historical intercepts including 19.5 g/t Au over 8 m at depth)…ESSCO will complete 1 drill hole to test its model…if the hole returns mineralization that RJK determines, at its sole discretion, deserves further evaluation and drilling of the target area, RJK will then issue to ESSCO 1 million shares…RJX.A is up more than 50% this month, closing yesterday at 23 cents – just 1.5 cents below a new multi-year high…

6. Lundin Gold (LUG, TSX) has arranged a project finance package of $400 million to $450 million with the Orion Mine Finance Group and Blackstone Tactical Opportunities, underscoring the growing support for mining investment in Ecuador as Lundin works toward development of the rich Fruta del Norte Project…Ron Hochstein, Lundin President and CEO, says the financing “confirms the strength of this project and gives us the ability to move full speed ahead with construction.”  The company says the expected first Gold production has been moved forward several months, from the 1st quarter of 2020 to 4th quarter of 2019…average annual Gold production is anticipated to exceed 300,000 ounces over 15 years at an average life-of-mine cost of $561 an ounce and all-in sustaining cash cost of $609 an ounce (U.S.)…life-of-mine production is expected to be approximately 4.5 million ounces of Gold and 5.5 million ounces of Silver…estimated project capital cost is $684 million…

7. Osisko Mining (OSK, TSX) reported significant new assay results this morning from 13 intercepts in 10 drill holes focused on infill and expansion drilling in the main Windfall deposit and Lynx Zone at its Windfall Lake Gold Project in Urban township, Quebec…highlights included OSK-W-17–837 in the Lynx Corridor which intersected 97.4 g/t Au over 8.5 m (33.7 g/t Au over 8.4 m cut) and 116 g/t Au over 2.4 m (46.4 g/t Au over 2.4 m cut) in OSK-W-17–814 in the new Lynx 5 discovery…the 400,000-m drill program continues…the Windfall Lake deposit is currently one of the highest grade resource-stage Gold projects in Canada…the bulk of the mineralization occurs in the Main Zone, a southwest/northeast trending zone of stacked mineralized lenses, measuring approximately 600 m wide and at least 1,400 m long…the deposit is well defined from surface to a depth of 500 m, and remains open along strike and at depth…mineralization has been identified only 30 m from surface in some areas and as deep as 870 m in others, with significant potential to extend mineralization up and down-plunge and at depth….

The most popular recent BMR articles…

How The Eskay Heart of Gold Camp Will Help Drive The Coming Venture Up Wave (Part 1)

“Beyond the Supercycle”:  15 Predictions About The Future Of Natural Resources

Tech-Savvy Junior Captures Cobalt Camp Advantage

Venture Update – The Surprise That’s Just Around The Corner!

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…

The most popular recent BMR articles…

How The Eskay Heart of Gold Camp Will Help Drive The Coming Venture Up Wave (Part 1)

“Beyond the Supercycle”:  15 Predictions About The Future Of Natural Resources

Tech-Savvy Junior Captures Cobalt Camp Advantage

Venture Update – The Surprise That’s Just Around The Corner!

Check back later this morning for today’s BMR Morning Market Musings.

1. Gold is now attempting to break out above resistance at $1,260, hitting its highest level in 4 weeks ahead of the U.S. Memorial Day long weekend despite modest gains in the greenback…as of 7:00 am Pacific, the yellow metal has added $11 an ounce to $1,267…Silver is up sharply, adding 20 cents to $17.31, and is on track to mark its biggest weekly rise since mid-April…meanwhile, Copper prices hit a 3-week high this week thanks to continuing unrest at Freeport McMorRan’s Grasberg mine where workers have vowed to extend a strike into a 2nd week…another terrorist attack this morning as masked gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians to a monastery in southern Egypt, killing at least 20 people in the latest attack on the minority Christian community…ISIS vowed last year to step up attacks on Coptic Christians and claimed responsibility for 2 recent attacks on Palm Sunday when at least 45 worshippers were killed at 2 separate churches…

2. U.S. economic growth in early 2017 was stronger than initially thought, and broad growth is poised to pick up in the current quarter…GDP expanded at an inflation and seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.2% in the 1st quarter, the Commerce Department announced this morning in a modestly higher than expected upward revision…consumer spending, which accounts for the majority of U.S. economic output, slowed a bit less during Q1 than previously estimated…the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow model last week projected a Q2 growth rate of 4.1% while forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisers yesterday predicted 3.2% growth in the spring quarter…meanwhile, the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index was just released and came in at a strong 97.1 in May, albeit slightly below the consensus estimate of 97.5…

3.  Northern Vertex Mining (NEE, TSX-V) has partnered with Greenstone Resources LP to finance the company’s Moss mine Gold/Silver Project in western Arizona through to positive cash flow and launch a U.S. Gold consolidation strategy…commercial production is now targeted to begin earlier than expected, later this year…NEE has entered into a subscription agreement for a non-brokered private placement with Greenstone for aggregate gross proceeds of $20 million (U.S.) through the issuance and sale of a total of of 51.8 million units at a purchase price of 52 cents per unit…Northern Vertex has also completed a separate non-brokered private placement of $5 million (U.S.) on the same terms as the Greenstone financing…Greenstone is a private equity fund specializing in the mining and metals sector…NEE is up a penny at 52 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…

4. Castle Silver Resources (CSR, TSX-V) has just announced that it has closed the 2nd tranche of an oversubscribed private placement, bringing total gross proceeds so far to $966,500, with the company increasing the PP to $1.2 million due to investor demand…CSR, preparing for the start of a Phase 1 underground drilling and sampling program at its 100%-owned Castle mine, says a high-grade Cobalt vein structure featuring black sulphides and cobalt “bloom” has been identified on the first level of the mine and is the initial target of upcoming extraction that will utilize the company’s Re-20X process to produce value added high-purity Cobalt powder test samples for end users in the battery sector…a 3D underground model is also being produced using extensive historical data from all levels that includes some exceptionally high-grade Silver values…12 drill holes on the first level, for example, feature weighted average grades of 100 oz/ton Silver (3,428 g/tonne) or better over 1-foot intervals (9 holes with 1 such interval each, 2 holes with 2 such intervals, and 1 hole with 3 such intervals)…

5.  IDM Mining (IDM, TSX-V) announced this morning that it has completed the acquisition of the mineral claims and certain other related assets comprising the Red Mountain Project from Seabridge Gold (SEA, TSX)…IDM acquired the 100% interest, subject to certain underlying agreements and royalties, pursuant to the option agreement entered into in April 2014…the Red Mountain Project covers an area of 17,125 hectares and is located 15 km northeast of Stewart…in accordance with the option agreement, IDM has replaced Seabridge’s $1.0 million reclamation security held by the province…IDM is obligated to make a $1.5 million cash payment to Seabridge upon the commencement of commercial production at Red Mountain and Seabridge retains the right to acquire 10% of the annual Gold production from the project at a cost of $1,000 U.S. per ounce up to a maximum of 500,000 ounces produced (50,000 ounces to Seabridge)…alternatively, at Seabridge’s sole option, Seabridge may elect to receive a one-time cash payment of $4 million at the commencement of production in exchange for the Gold metal stream interest.  “Completing the acquisition of title for a 100% interest in the Red Mountain Project is another significant step for IDM Mining,” said Rob McLeod, President and CEO of IDM Mining. “We are grateful to have worked with Seabridge as the property vendor, and are excited for further milestones as we advance the project towards a production decision for a high-grade Gold, bulk mining underground operation.”

6. Strength in precious metals this morning has lifted the Venture 4 points higher to 804 through the first 30 minutes of trading, though there are no runaway leaders so far this morning…today marks the final day of trading on the Venture for success story Nighthawk Gold (NHK, TSX-V) which graduates to the TSX Monday, a pivotal moment in the company’s evolution…NHK commenced a 25,000 m drill program in March at its advanced Indin Lake Gold Property in the Northwest Territories…initial drill results are expected shortly and should further delineate the high-grade potential at Colomac…the TSX is off slightly in early trading along with U.S. markets…U.S. equities came into today’s session riding a 6-day winning streak with the S&P and Nasdaq indexes notching new record highs yesterday…

7. Enforcer Gold (VEIN, TSX-V) has enjoyed a strong week, thanks largely to a big jump yesterday on volume of more than 2 million shares…VEIN is off a penny at 22 cents through the first 30 minutes of trading today…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…

The most popular recent BMR articles…

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Their Last Deal Was Just Shy of a 100-Bagger!

Gold has traded between $1,228 and $1,238 so far today…as of 11:45 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $3 an ounce at $1,231…Silver has jumped 20 cents to $16.64…Copper is up 2 pennies at $2.54…Nickel is steady at $4.20…Crude Oil has climbed more than $1 a barrel to $48.86 while the U.S. Dollar Index has fallen one-quarter of a point to 98.94…

Chinese economic data released overnight, including industrial production and retail sales for April, came in below expectations…however, fresh liquidity injections into the Chinese economy, which have eased some monetary pressures, as well as recently announced trade deals between China and the U.S. have lifted the morale of the commodities complex after a late April-early May slump…the Chinese-U.S. deals, announced last Thursday, are the first tangible results of trade talks that began last month after President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Florida to discuss cooperation between the world’s 2 largest economies…the mainstream media got so discombobulated over the Comey firing, it hasn’t been able to focus on much else since – hence, little coverage on positive developments in the U.S.-China trade relationship…

Multiple factors gave Gold a boost today as mentioned in 7 @ 7:00…despite some weaker than expected U.S. economic data since Friday, including the manufacturing sector within the New York region contracting for the first time since October of last year, the Fed remains on track to increase interest rates again June 14…that’s what could actually spark a nice summer run in Gold, Silver and commodities in general…

A Friday after market report out of Chile showed a stunning decline of 26% in Silver production in that country during the 1st quarter of this year…that’s a big deal considering that Chile is the 4th largest Silver producing country in the world…the majority of Chile’s Silver production comes as a by-product of Copper…by a long shot, Chile is the largest Copper producer in the world – 5.5 million tons last year vs. Peru (#2) at 2.3 million tons…

Oil Update

Meanwhile, the volatile Oil market is likely to get spooked again at some point by rising U.S. production…U.S. firms added Oil rigs for a 17th week in a row, extending a 12-month drilling recovery…

However, as Daniel wrote last week, the market’s worst fears about shale Oil may not come true…

5 Big Ideas You Must Know About Shale And The Industry Right Now

CRB Index Update

Two weeks ago we called for a further retracement in the CRB Index from 181 to the 177 level, the bottom of a horizontal channel that has defined the trading pattern for over a year…indeed, the CRB touched 177 last week and closed Friday just below 182…

Going forward, the outlook is clearly bullish with the CRB having successfully tested support and now pushing higher with some momentum behind it…Slow Stochastics (SS) is forming a low bullish “W” and RSI(14) is bullishly aligned as it continues to follow a long-term uptrend after extreme lows in early 2015…RSI(14) also has an excellent chance to break out above a short-term downtrend line before the end of this month, setting the stage for a potentially strong summer…great for the Venture!…

The CRB Index is up just over 1 point to 183 as of 11:45 am Pacific…

In Today’s Morning Musings….

1. Eldorado buys out Integra – bullish implications for northwest Quebec and junior exploration market…

2. Updated Silver charts – wow, this is interesting!…

3. Junior cuts deal with New Gold, will have 20 cents in cash (just 15 million shares) with stock trading at 14.5 cents…

4. Daniel’s Den – organic inputs, the sophisticated way to bet on marijuana?…

Did you know that for as little as just over $2 a day, you can be a BMR subscriber and tap into the best analysis and picks for the junior resource sector that you’ll find anywhere?  Last year’s BMR Top 50 List returned a whopping 118% and we are delivering market-trouncing returns again in 2017.  BMR was the first to call the new bull market in the Venture in early 2016, and our coverage of the commodities space gives you valuable daily insights into price movements and critical trends.  BMR is daily information that puts you ahead of the crowd!

We also give first-time subscribers an industry-leading 100% money-back satisfaction guarantee.  If you don’t believe BMR has helped you make money for your first 6-month subscription period, we’ll refund your subscription fee in full – no questions asked!

Did you know that for as little as just over $2 a day, you can be a BMR subscriber and tap into the best analysis and picks for the junior resource sector that you’ll find anywhere?  Last year’s BMR Top 50 List returned a whopping 118% and we are delivering market-trouncing returns again in 2017.  BMR was the first to call the new bull market in the Venture in early 2016, and our coverage of the commodities space gives you valuable daily insights into price movements and critical trends.  BMR is daily information that puts you ahead of the crowd!

We also give first-time subscribers an industry-leading 100% money-back satisfaction guarantee.  If you don’t believe BMR has helped you make money for your first 6-month subscription period, we’ll refund your subscription fee in full – no questions asked!

To read the rest of today’s Morning Musings, sign up NOW or login as a current subscriber with your username and password.

Gold has traded between $1,271 and $1,279 so far today…as of 11:00 am Pacific, the yellow metal is down $2 an ounce at $1,273…Silver is off 5 cents at $18.27…Copper and Nickel have each slipped 6 pennies to $2.55 and $4.38, respectively…Crude Oil has retreated 25 cents to $53.15 while the U.S. Dollar Index has gained one-tenth of a point to 100.79…

Gold’s “safe-haven” effect is clearly in play ahead of the Easter holiday with bullion also now enjoying some technical momentum following the long-awaited breakout above resistance in the $1,260’s…as analysts at UBS pointed out, Gold reactions to geopolitical risks tend to be volatile and headline-driven, which “could make it difficult to trade purely on the back of these factors”…nonetheless, it’s important to note that Gold has been in a new bull market for just over a year now and the recent Q4 slump which threw so many people off was merely a healthy correction within an overall bullish context…the Venture’s trading activity supports that contention…there are still many Gold skeptics at the moment and that’s a good thing…

Silver, meanwhile, is expected to mount a challenge to its February high of $18.54 with very important resistance immediately above that at $18.75…

News reports state that Chinese President Xi Jinping told President Trump in a phone call yesterday that Beijing is willing to work with Washington on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, but wants to do so through peaceful means…Xi told Trump that China insists on peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula in the wake of the deployment of the USS Carl Vinson to the area and the conducting of the biggest-ever U.S.-South Korea military drills…nothing like a little saber-rattling to get China’s attention…the call came after Trump warned in a pair of tweets yesterday, with the Navy strike force group steaming toward Korean waters, that North Korea “is looking for trouble” and vowed to get Kim Jong-Un’s regime under control with or without China’s help…

Meanwhile, Russia stepped up its rhetoric today against the Trump administration in the wake of last week’s U.S. missile attack on Syria, calling it “primitive” and “inconsistent” (what does that make Russia?)…this came as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Moscow today with the top U.S. diplomat receiving a barrage of criticism from Russian officials, obviously intended particularly for domestic consumption/propaganda…Tillerson unexpectedly met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for 2 hours today, and now Tillerson is holding a news conference with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov…

Venture 6-Month Daily Chart

Slowly but surely, the Venture has traversed through 4 levels of Fib. resistance from 799 to 824 over the last 20 sessions, and the low-to-mid 820’s is where new support should exist…a breakout above an ascending triangle also occurred when the Index pushed through the Fib. 816 level…

The ADX indicator confirms a weak bullish trend – momentum is lacking but any one of a number of potential catalysts could quickly change that…

Oil Update

Crude Oil is taking a breather today after 8 straight sessions of gains…traders found a good excuse to lock in some profits after the release of data that showed an unexpected drop in overall U.S. Crude inventories…however, the report also showed that stockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma, hub rose by 276,000 barrels while preliminary U.S. production estimates included in the weekly EIA report confirmed that domestic output continues to climb…