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TSX Venture Exchange and Gold

After experiencing its worst 2 weeks of the year, the Venture rebounded during “Fed Week” and posted a 12-point gain to close at 811.

For the month of March, the Venture is down only 6 points.  Now the question is, with a rate hike out of the way and the Venture’s chart pattern suddenly more favorable, are we about to see a surge into the end of this 1st quarter as occurred last year at this time?

Click here to receive, via email, BMR’s updated “Who’s Who” List of the Greater Cobalt Camp – the top dozen or so companies active in the district. 

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!

Sign up NOW or login as a current subscriber with your username and password.

Gold has traded between $1,225 and $1,232 so far today…as of 11:15 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $3 an ounce at $1,229…Silver is 8 cents higher at $17.37…Copper is unchanged at $2.68…Nickel is up 3 cents at $4.67…Crude Oil is steady at $48.80 while the U.S. Dollar Index, headed for one of its biggest weekly losses over the past 6 months, is down slightly at 100.23…

The combination of the Federal Reserve not signaling an acceleration of normalization, and perceptions that the European Central Bank and the Bank of England can raise rates earlier than anticipated, has weighed on the greenback this week and that has allowed commodities and the Venture to rebound…the Venture is currently battling resistance around its 50-day moving average (SMA) where it backed off from this morning…

Finance leaders from the G-20 are meeting today and tomorrow in Germany, the first G-20 meeting since the U.S. elections…

Silver prices are up nearly 10% for the year to date, and the Silver Institute says this is largely due to improving sentiment toward the precious metal among institutional investors…changing expectations regarding the outlook for U.S. interest rates and the proliferation of negative policy rates across other key reserve currencies has rekindled institutional investor interest in precious metals, according to the Silver Institute…an improvement in Silver industrial offtake is also helping, the organization says…these factors have fueled investment inflows into Silver futures, options, ETF products and over-the-counter products. “We expect that the factors that buoyed institutional Silver investment over much of 2016, and have carried over into the early months of 2017, will remain relevant for the remainder of this year,” said Michael DiRienzo, executive director of the Silver Institute…

Oil prices will finish the week with a modest gain after losing almost 10% last week on concerns that an OPEC production cut was failing to reduce a global supply overhang…as we mentioned in 7 @ 7:00 this morning, though, the media has been ignoring the demand side of the equation and that’s where some positive surprises could emerge to prevent Crude from falling below critical support around $46 a barrel…

The Baker Hughes weekly rig count is just out – it rose by 14 Oil rigs to a total of 631, continuing a recovery that began in June…at this time last year, drillers were operating 387 Oil rigs in U.S. fields…

In Today’s Morning Musings…

1. Gold’s path to $1,300…

2. An emerging leader in northern Ontario’s Greater Cobalt Camp…

3. Follow the VEIN!…

4. Daniel’s Den – opportunities in the Yukon’s Dawson Range Gold Belt…

Click here to receive, via email, BMR’s “Who’s Who” List of the Greater Cobalt Camp – the top dozen or so companies active in the district.

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!

Sign up NOW or login as a current subscriber with your username and password.

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

1. Gold, on track for its first weekly gain since February, has traded between $1,225 and $1,232 so far today as it tries to hold gains from the last 2 days following the Fed rate hike and statement…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $4 an ounce at $1,230 while Silver has added 4 cents to $17.32…we’ll have an updated Gold chart in today’s Morning Musings…holdings of SPDR Gold Trust fell slightly (0.28%) to 837.06 tons yesterday after 3 straight sessions of inflows…the U.S. Dollar Index is up less than one-tenth of a point at 100.32 as of 7:00 am Pacific while Oil prices have added 29 cents to $49.01…base metal prices are stronger across the board, while Cobalt has hit a new multi-year high of $24.27…

2. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said today that Washington wouldn’t engage in negotiations with North Korea and that a pre-emptive military strike and tougher sanctions were among the options on the table in dealing with the ghastly regime.  “Let me be very clear: the policy of strategic patience has ended,” Tillerson stated at a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, during his first trip to Asia.  “We are exploring a new range of security and diplomatic measures. All options are on the table.”  Tillerson also called on China to implement sanctions against North Korea and said there was no need for China to punish South Korea for deploying an advanced U.S. anti-missile system aimed at defending against the North Korean regime. 

3. On the Oil front, the mainstream media has been obsessing with the Crude supply issue recently with little talk about the demand side of the equation where we’re likely to see some pleasant surprises…in recent years, Oil demand has consistently been revised higher by the International Energy Administration as well as the U.S. Energy Information Administration…the latter’s forecasts have underestimated consumption over the past 7 years with the annual figures being revised up by an average of 2.3 million barrels a day, according to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal…

4. Great news for British Columbia’s mining sector (and investors) with a provincial election just 2 months away – the staggering level of fiscal incompetence displayed by Alberta’s NDP government in its budget released yesterday should all but ensure that their socialist brothers and sisters and gender neutrals in B.C. don’t come close to stealing the reigns of power in a pro-business province running budget surpluses and enjoying the best jobs growth in the country…the Albertastan socialists, who have caused the province to plummet in the rankings for top global mining jurisdictions, are continuing their spending spree and will more than double the provincial debt to a whopping $71 billion in just 2 years…the sea of red ink expands to at least the mid-2020’s according to the NDP’S own estimates…former premier Ralph Klein is rolling over in his grave, but B.C. free enterprisers are smiling and enjoying the flight of capital (financial and human) from Alberta to the west coast…

5. The Venture is trying to start a new uptrend within a continuing overall bull market…the Index has rebounded strongly since Wednesday and is up 1 point at 812 through the first 30 minutes of trading today as it tries to overcome resistance at its rising 50-day moving average (SMA)…technically, a close above the 50-day (812) and the Fib. 816 level today would be significant…the TSX has climbed 19 points while the Dow is up 8 points as of 7:00 am Pacific…

6. Enforcer Gold (VEIN, TSX-V), which we highlighted in Monday’s Morning Musings, is up another 1.5 cents at 23.5 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…we’ll have an updated chart in today’s Morning Musings…yesterday, VEIN appointed Dr. Mark Shore, a geoscientist with 30 years’ experience in the mineral exploration field, to the role of technical advisor for the company which is focused on its high-grade Montalembert Gold project in northern Quebec…

7. On Monday we’ll have an updated report on northern Ontario’s Greater Cobalt Camp and specifically Castle Silver Resources (CSR, TSX-V) which earlier this week completed an oversubscribed private placement for $952,000 to expand exploration efforts at its Castle and Beaver past producing Silver-Cobalt mines…distinguishing features of CSR include the extensive work carried out at these properties over the last 6 years, well ahead of the Cobalt boom, and its metallurgical prowess which will introduce a technology component to this play…

The 3 most popular recent BMR articles…

Update:  Who’s Who In The Northern Ontario Cobalt Camp

The Drone Revolution:  Deveron UAS Carves A Niche In The Booming AgTech Sector

7 @ 7:00: Respected Gold producer CEO: “I don’t think, in my 20 years, I’ve ever seen the stars so aligned for a better Gold price”

BMR Morning Market Musings resumes tomorrow.

1. Gold has traded between $1,223 and $1,235 so far today, reacting bullishly to yesterday’s Fed rate hike and statement…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $8 an ounce at $1,228 while Silver has added 3 cents to $17.36…as expected, the Fed raised interest rates for the 2nd time in 3 months but officials stuck to their outlook for 2 more rate hikes this year and 3 more in 2018…Fed Chair Janet Yellen said that the central bank would maintain a gradual path of interest rate increases even if inflation runs above its 2% target…inflows into the SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s biggest Gold-backed ETF, continued for a 3rd straight day yesterday and have already nearly erased last week’s outflows…the U.S. Dollar Index is flat at 100.50 as of 7:00 am Pacific while Oil prices are also relatively unchanged at $48.82…

2. President Donald Trump has called for sharp cuts to spending on foreign aid, the arts, environmental protection and public broadcasting to rebuild the American military and create a more secure border in a fiscal 2018 budget blueprint released this morning…the plan shows how the administration hopes to offset an increase of $54 billion in military spending with an equivalent amount of reductions across other programs to avoid increasing the budget deficit, which the Congressional Budget Office has projected at $487 billion for 2018…that should be music to the ears of the Gold market as the deficit will likely exceed that, in our estimation, while the debt will surpass $20 trillion…Trump’s proposal leaves untouched roughly $2.5 trillion in annual outlays on Medicare, Social Security and other mandatory spending that Washington doesn’t want to touch…according to data from the CBO, spending on non-defense discretionary programs is already historically low…as a share of the economy it’s at its lowest level since 1998, well below where it was 50 years ago…

3. After its best single-day performance since December 28, the Venture is up another 5 points at 812 through the first 30 minutes of trading…Fed rate hikes have proven to be bullish for the Index since the first one in nearly a decade in December 2015…the TSX has climbed 67 points while the Dow is up 40 points as of 7:00 am Pacific…

4. Golden Predator Mining (GPY, TSX-V) released assay results this morning for the final 25 holes of its winter 2016 drill program at the 3 Aces Project in southeastern Yukon…drilling has confirmed high-grade Gold mineralization with good continuity in the Ace of Hearts vein with additional veining identified at depth…the Hearts zone was tested with 15 holes totaling 1,541 m and significant Gold mineralization (minimum interval of 3.0 g/t Au) was encountered in 13 of those holes; 2 holes did not reach the target depth…highlights from separate holes included, at true width, 7.6 m grading 6.4 g/t Au, 17.3 m @ 4.8 g/t Au, 7.4 m @ 9.4 g/t Au, while hole 3A16-DD-082 bottomed in mineralization intersecting 13 m of 16.7 g/t Au from a depth of 42.7 m, including 3.4 m of 61.7 g/t Au, which included 0.54 m of 315 g/t Au…the Ace of Hearts zone is located approximately 1 km west of the Ace of Spades zone and approximately 1.6 km south of the Queen of Clubs zone where drilling results were previously reported…GPY, which closed a $17 million financing earlier this week, commenced a 20,000 m drill program in February and is initially focusing on the Spades Zone before expanding to other areas of the property…GPY is up 12 cents at $1.74 as of 7:00 am Pacific…

5. Colorado Resources (CXO, TSX-V) touched a monthly high of 32 cents during the first 30 minutes of trading this morning and is up 2.5 cents at 31 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…results are pending from the company’s recently completed drill program at its newly-acquired Green Springs Project in Nevada…as CXO gears up for a major campaign at its KSP Project in the Heart of Gold Camp, earlier this week it acquired the ROK-COYOTE Property in the Red Chris area to double the prospective strike at its North ROK Cu-Au porphyry deposit…

6. Castle Silver Resources (CSR, TSX-V) has completed an oversubscribed private placement for $952,000, all in “hard” dollars at 15 cents, setting the stage for a ramping up of the company’s exploration efforts at its past producing Silver-Cobalt mines in northern Ontario’s Greater Cobalt Camp…a distinguishing feature of CSR is the advanced nature of its Castle and Beaver properties from extensive work carried out over the last 6 years, ahead of the Cobalt boom…on January 31, CSR reported Silver and Cobalt recoveries of 98.5% and 70.5% respectively, produced an extremely high concentrate grade of 11,876 grams per tonne Silver and 10.5% Cobalt using a simple flotation process…the mineralized material surface rock sample was a composite collected from the waste pile assaying 2,064 g/t Ag and 5.6% Cobalt at the Beaver mine…CSR, whose $7.9 million market cap still significantly trails the average valuation in the district, is up a penny at 20 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…

7. First Cobalt (FCC, TSX-V) has secured an option to acquire 100% of the historic Keeley-Frontier Silver-Cobalt mine, the largest past producer of Cobalt in Silver Centre, part of northern Ontario’s Greater Cobalt Camp…the Keeley and Frontier mines produced over 3.3 million pounds of Cobalt and 19.1 million ounces of Silver from approximately 300,000 tonnes of ore, for an estimated recovery of 0.5% Co and 1,800 g/t Ag…Keeley-Frontier was the largest past producer of Cobalt in Silver Centre and is believed to have had the highest ratio of Cobalt to Silver of all the major producers in the Greater Cobalt Camp at 1 pound of Cobalt for every 5.8 ounces of Silver…FCC hit a new high of 92 cents in early trading before backing off to the mid-80’s…

The 3 most popular recent BMR articles…

Update:  Who’s Who In The Northern Ontario Cobalt Camp

The Drone Revolution:  Deveron UAS Carves A Niche In The Booming AgTech Sector

7 @ 7:00: Respected Gold producer CEO: “I don’t think, in my 20 years, I’ve ever seen the stars so aligned for a better Gold price”

Gold has traded between $1,197 and $1,216 so far today, getting a boost within the past 15 minutes from Ma Yellen and the Fed…as of 11:15 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $12 an ounce at $1,211..Silver has shot up 25 cents to $17.08…Copper is up slightly to $2.65…Nickel is unchanged at $4.60…Crude Oil has rallied 85 cents to $48.87 while the U.S. Dollar Index has fallen two-thirds of a point to 101.04…

No surprises from the Fed moments ago, and markets are shooting higher as a result…the Fed raised rates by one-quarter of a point, as expected, and indicated that it still expects 3 moves in 2017 with no change as to where it sees rates through the end of 2018…it added language that “measures of consumer and business sentiment have improved of late” though it noted that business investment remains “soft”…Ma Yellen starts a news conference at 11:30 am Pacific…

Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest Gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 0.36% to 834.99 tons yesterday from Monday following a 2nd straight positive session after outflows last week…despite recent selling, global ETF physical Gold holdings at 54.45 million ounces are still nearly 3% higher than at the start of February…holdings are also roughly 6 million ounces or 13% above where they were in early March 2016…

Today’s parliamentary elections in the Netherlands could impact the Gold price, depending on the outcome and how the Party for Freedom performs…traders will be viewing the Dutch vote as a possible indicator of the strength of populism ahead of upcoming national votes in France and Germany…

For the very first time, the U.S. government has criminally charged Russian officials for cyber offenses…the Justice Department this morning unsealed charges against 4 individuals, including a Canadian-Kazakh national, for allegedly pilfering 500 million Yahoo user accounts in 2014…the officers of the FSB, Russia’s Federal Security Service and a successor to the KGB, were identified as Dmitry Dokuchaev and his superior, Igor Sushchin…Alexsey Belan, who is on the list of most-wanted cyber criminals, and Karim Baratov, who was born in Kazakhstan but has Canadian citizenship, were also named in the indictment…

Canadian household debt as a share of income rose to a fresh record in the 4th quarter, data from Statistics Canada showed today, in a report likely to underscore concerns consumers are becoming overly indebted…the ratio of debt to disposable income rose to 167.3% from an adjusted 166.8% in the 3rd quarter…that means Canadians owed $1.67 for every dollar of disposable income…total household credit market debt, which includes consumer credit, and mortgage and non-mortgage loans, totalled nearly $2.029 trillion in the final quarter of last year…mortgage debt accounts for about two-thirds of total household debt…years of low interest rates since the global financial crisis, as well as rising home prices, have prompted Canadians to steadily increase their debt…now, by the example of the federal government under the Trudeau free-spending Liberals, they’re being encouraged to do the same…

In Today’s Morning Musings…

1.  Things to look for to signal a Venture reversal from the mini-correction that started February 22…

2.  Spotting an opportunity in Ecuador…

3. A 400% jump in 1 week, a healthy pullback, and now time to accumulate again…

4. Daniel’s Den – 2 technology companies with everything in their favor…

Click here to receive, via email, BMR’s “Who’s Who” List of the Greater Cobalt Camp – the top dozen or so companies active in the district.

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!

Sign up NOW or login as a current subscriber with your username and password.

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

1. Gold has traded between $1,200 and $1,206 so far today, just a few hours ahead of a widely anticipated interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $1 an ounce at $1,200 while Silver has added 2 cents to $16.86…this morning’s CPI report was a non-event for precious metals…consumer prices in February posted their smallest increase since last July, a seasonally adjusted 0.1% which was in line with expectations…the core index, excluding the volatile food and energy sectors, was up 0.2%…the Labor Department says consumer prices have risen 2.7% over the past year (2.2% excluding volatile food and energy)…

2. By an overwhelming 56–13 margin, the Idaho House of Representatives has voted to end all Idaho taxation on precious metals, e.g. Gold and Silver coins and bars…the entire Republican caucus voted for the measure…if the Republican-controlled Idaho Senate follows suit and Governor Butch Otter (R) signs the bill, as expected, Idaho citizens will better be able to use Gold and Silver as a form of savings and to protect against currency devaluation…backed by the Sound Money Defense League, Idaho Freedom Foundation, Money Metals Exchange and and grassroots activists, HB206 expands Idaho’s existing sales tax exemption to end Idaho income taxation of sales of precious metals bullion…

3. The bigger news coming out of today’s Fed meeting will be Fed officials’ projections of how much more they expect to lift rates this year – that’s what the market will be watching…in December, they penciled in 3 quarter-percentage-point increases for 2017…traders will be eager to see if officials stick to those forecasts or add a 4th, given recent signs of a strengthening labor market and inflation that’s trending higher, albeit gradually…Fed statement at 11:00 am Pacific followed by the Ma Yellen news conference…

4. North American markets have a generally positive tone this morning going into the Fed decision…the Venture is flat at 793 but the TSX and Dow are both modestly higher…Americans spent only slightly more last month at retail stores compared with January, a sign of consumer caution despite rising optimism about the economy…the Commerce Department says retail sales ticked up a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in February, after a much bigger gain (revised) of 0.6% the previous month…meanwhile, President Trump’s promise to roll back strict environmental regulations has led to the highest home builder sentiment in 12 years…it was announced this morning that the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market index hit 71 in March, a sizable jump from 58 in March of 2016…anything above 50 is considered positive sentiment…

5. Data obtained by CTV News shows the number of Canadians registered to use medical marijuana has soared from 30,000 to nearly 130,000 since Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister, after campaigning on a promise to legalize the drug…in the month before the October 2015 election, 30,357 people had prescriptions to use the drug, according to figures from Health Canada…that number more than quadrupled to 129,876 by December 2016…as police in Canada’s biggest cities shut down unregulated pot dispensaries, many individuals are obtaining the drug legally by seeking prescriptions from doctors at clinics so they can register with Health Canada…some of those clinic doctors never meet their patients in person – they communicate via Skype video conferencing…patients then get their pot in the mail…after all, it’s 2017, Trudeau would argue…

6. Columbus Gold (CGT, TSX) says it will announce the results of an independent Feasibility Study for its Montagne d’Or Gold Project in French Guiana next Monday, March 20, following the market close…the study was funded by Nordgold (NORD, LSE) which has earned a majority interest in the project by spending a minimum of $30 million U.S. and completing a Bankable Feasibility Study…

7. A Tanzanian export ban on Gold and Copper ore has cast a shadow of doubt over a potential $4 billion (U.S.) merger between Barrick Gold (ABX, TSX) subsidiary Acacia Mining (ACA, LSE) and Endeavour Mining (EDV, TSX) according to a report this morning in the Globe and Mail…the Endeavour–Acacia deal could be delayed or scuttled by Tanzania’s unexpected move March 3 to freeze the export of Gold and Copper ore…a merger would create an African mining giant with mines in 5 countries…Acacia said it responded to the ban by halting its exports from Tanzania where the company’s only producing Gold mines are located…Tanzania’s new President, John Magufuli, is an anti-corruption campaigner and economic nationalist nicknamed “The Bulldozer” who has repeatedly criticized the foreign-owned mining companies in his East African country, accusing them of “a lot of funny deals” to avoid taxes in Tanzania…

The 3 most popular recent BMR articles…

Update:  Who’s Who In The Northern Ontario Cobalt Camp

The Drone Revolution:  Deveron UAS Carves A Niche In The Booming AgTech Sector

7 @ 7:00: Respected Gold producer CEO: “I don’t think, in my 20 years, I’ve ever seen the stars so aligned for a better Gold price”

BMR Morning Market Musings returns tomorrow. Check back every day for potential separate posts in addition to daily 7 @ 7:00 and Morning Musings Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

1. Gold has traded between $1,200 and $1,208 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is unchanged at $1,204 while Silver is off slightly at $16.91 ahead of tomorrow’s anticipated Fed rate hike and Dutch parliamanetary elections…Gold ETFs tracked by Bloomberg saw inflows of 6.4 tonnes yesterday – their first daily inflow in 7 sessions…Gold has dipped only 5.4% from its recent high on the expectation of a rate increase tomorrow, a far better performance than prior to the last 2 rate hikes in December 2016 and December 2015…

2. Producer prices for finished U.S. goods rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in February vs. the consensus estimate of 0.1%…the Consumer Price Index is scheduled for release tomorrow…meanwhile, Oil prices remain under pressure this morning with WTI at a fresh 3-and-a-half month low, down another $1.06 a barrel to $47.34…OPEC has raised its forecast of production in 2017 from outside the group, suggesting complications in the effort to clear a supply glut…

3. Supply disruptions at mines in Chile and Indonesia should keep Copper prices firm…over the weekend, the union at Chile’s Escondida – the world’s largest Copper mine – rejected efforts by BHP Billiton, the majority owner of the mine, to re-start talks…the strike has now been running for more than a month and negotiations likely won’t begin again before new Chilean labor regulations go into force at the start of April…meanwhile, a strike at the Cerro Verde mine in Peru, owned by Freeport-McMoRan, began last Friday…a dispute over the terms of an export license for Freeport’s Grasberg mine in Indonesia also continues to drag on…

4. North American markets are down modestly in early trading, led by the TSX which has shed 110 points as of 7:00 am Pacific…the Venture, after back-to-back days to the upside, has retreated 2 points to 802…getting an interest rate hike out of the way imminently should prove to be supportive for both the Venture and the overall commodities space…

5. Outside it’s still wintry, but inside Red Mountain it’s just beautiful!…IDM Mining (IDM, TSX-V) crews have mobilized to the company’s Red Mountain Project near Stewart, B.C., to initiate a spring 2017 Phase 1 underground drilling program…the objective is to expand mineralization to the north of the JW zone, following up on wide and high-grade historic intercepts…additionally, drilling will step out both up-dip and down-dip from the AV and JW Zones, where mineralization can be traced for hundreds of meters from 2016 and historic drill intercepts, often with stacked, gently dipping mineralized zones…Phase 1 will consist of 8,000 m of core drilling in approximately 35 holes, using 2 underground diamond drills, collared from the production-sized underground decline…IDM is unchanged at 14.5 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…

6. Thanks to a relatively low snow pack and an aggressive snow clearing program, Ascot Resources (AOT, TSX-V) has commenced the surface drilling portion of its $20-million 2017 exploration and development program at its Premier Property near Stewart…surface drilling is expected to consist of 120,000 m and is targeted to establish an initial 2 to 3 million ounce high-grade Gold resource…this work will require up to 8 drill rigs…later in the season, an additional 20,000 m of drilling is planned to explore grassroots targets and high-grade areas in the northern portions of the property…AOT is unchanged at $1.71 as of 7:00 am Pacific…

7. Nemaska Lithium (NMX, TSX) has released results of its initial production of spodumene concentrate at grades better than 6% from the Whabouchi mine, using a mine-representative bulk sample…the plant is running continuously at half its capacity, 12 hours per day since March 7…the operation is steadily ramping up and should reach a throughput of around 150 tpd…concentrate composite samples, produced on a 6-hour basis, yielded 2.89% Li and 6.22% Li2O; 3.05% Li and 6.56% Li2O; and 3.09% Li and 6.65% Li2O.  “Generally speaking, the hard rock Lithium industry requires a 6% concentrate or higher to efficiently produce battery grade Lithium salts,” said Guy Bourassa, President and CEO of Nemaska Lithium. “We have seen other hard rock producers struggle to achieve this quality concentrate, making it more technically challenging and costly to produce battery grade Lithium salts. With this concentrate production we have met another important milestone as we continue to de-risk our project.”  Nemaska is up 6 cents at $1.36 through the first 30 minutes of trading. 

The 3 most popular recent BMR articles…

Update:  Who’s Who In The Northern Ontario Cobalt Camp

The Drone Revolution:  Deveron UAS Carves A Niche In The Booming AgTech Sector

7 @ 7:00: Respected Gold producer CEO: “I don’t think, in my 20 years, I’ve ever seen the stars so aligned for a better Gold price”