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1. Gold has traded between $1,283 and $1,289 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $3 an ounce at $1,286 as the greenback comes under minor pressure after another benign U.S. inflation report…Gold market continues to be rangebound between $1,275 on the downside and the low $1,290’s on the upside with significant resistance around $1,290…that’s obviously a key area to watch…Silver is up 2 pennies at $14.74…Copper and other industrial metals have rebounded this morning on hopes a U.S.-China trade deal would be hammered out as President Trump raises the stakes and gains new leverage with a tariff increase, but they remain vulnerable to further friction between the world’s 2 biggest economies…Copper is up a penny at $2.77, Nickel has rebounded 10 cents to $5.39 while Zinc is up slightly at $1.24…Cobalt remains steady at $15.76…Crude Oil is unchanged at $61.69 while the U.S. Dollar Index has slipped one-fifth of a point to 97.23…led by Ontario and Quebec, benefiting from more pro-business provincial governments, Canada’s economy posted record job gains in April, along with a pick-up in wages, in a sign that the nation’s sluggish economy may start to gain some traction…1 month doesn’t make a trend, and there are some significant underlying problems such as productivity, but employment rose by 106,500 in April, Statistics Canada said this morning…that’s the biggest 1-month increase in data going back to 1976…
2.The U.S. increased tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25% this morning (note further below, however) as President Trump ratcheted up pressure on Beijing and threatened to impose additional levies on virtually everything China exports to America…the tariff hike went into force hours after U.S. and Chinese negotiators met yesterday in hopes of getting the troubled trade talks back on track…discussions resumed this morning…keep in mind, however, as multiple traders and strategists have noted, the new tariffs are not applied to Chinese exports that are already in transit before the deadline, which provides extra time before tariffs are actually applied to goods hitting U.S. shores and theoretically gives more time for the 2 sides to reach an agreement…“Exports that have already left Chinese ports before May 10 will not be subject to the increase,” stated Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius…”This creates an unofficial window, potentially lasting a couple of weeks, in which negotiations can continue and generates a ‘soft’ deadline to reach a deal”…
3. Ride services giant Uber Technologies(UBER, NYSE) starts trading later this morning in the most anticipated debut since Facebook7 years ago….Uber priced its IPO yesterday at $45 (U.S.) per share, at the lower end of its $44 to $50 per share target range, to raise $8.1 billion at an $82.4 billion valuation…the IPO was oversubscribed, but Uber settled for a lower price to avoid a repeat of Lyft Inc’s IPO in late March, which priced strongly, began trading up, then plunged…Uber also wanted to accommodate big mutual funds…the Uber opportunity could be enormous but the company is still far from making money…it reported an operating loss of $3 billion in 2018 after losing more than $4 billion the prior year…
4. U.S. consumer prices rose less than expected in April as underlying inflation remains muted, suggesting the Federal Reserve could keep interest rates unchanged for a prolonged period (or even lower them)…the Labor Department said this morning that its Consumer Price Index increased 0.3% last month, lifted by rising gasoline, rents, and health-care costs…the CPI gained 0.4% in March…in the 12 months through April, the CPI increased 2.0% after advancing 1.9% in March…excluding the volatile food and energy components, the CPI edged up just 0.1% as apparel prices dropped for a 2nd straight month…the U.S. central bank, which has a 2% inflation target, tracks a different measure, the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, for monetary policy…the core PCE price index increased only 1.6% on a year-on-year basis in March, the smallest rise in 14 months, after advancing 1.7% in February…the April PCE price index data will be published later this month…
5. The Dow has lost 160 points through the first 30 minutes of trading on the continuing “China chill”…global stocks fell roughly 3%, or lost nearly $2 trillion in value, Monday through Thursday, according to Refinitiv’s Datastream World Index, with China’s Shanghai Composite losing 7.4%…in Toronto, the TSX has slipped 71 points while the Venture is up a point at 594…Alamos Gold (AGI, TSX), which posted net earnings of $16.8 million (U.S.) in Q1, released strong new results yesterday from surface and underground exploration and delineation drilling at its Island Gold mine including 46.1 g/t Au over 4.67 m, 71.2 g/t Au over 5.10 m, 40.7 g/t Au over 5.15 m, and 30 g/t Au over 4.96 m in separate drill holes (true widths)…high-grade mineralization has been extended over 1,000 m east of current mine workings and remains open along strike to the east and both up and down plunge…Etruscus Resources (ETR, CSE) is one of the early volume leaders on the CSE this morning, up 4 cents at 44 cents on more than 600,000 shares after a cross at 37.5 cents shortly after the open…ETR has the tightest share structure in the Eskay Camp and is the first company with boots-on-the-ground this season as it tackles the Rock & Roll Property near the Snip mine…ETR’s big neighbor next door, Crystal Lake Mining (CLM, TSX-V), appears to be closing in on a key breakout through mid-30’s resistance while Colorado Resources (CXO, TSX-V) continues to build on a strong week after game-changing news Wednesday…
6.The British Columbia government said yesterday that more than $7 billion in dirty money was washed through its economy last year…the distorting effects of illicit proceeds of criminal activities being laundered through real estate, gambling and luxury goods are felt throughout the Canadian economy, and the most serious failures in law, regulations and enforcement that have allowed this to happen will require federal changes to tackle, according to reports from Peter German, a former RCMP deputy commissioner, and law professor Maureen Maloney, the chair of B.C.’s expert panel on money laundering in real estate…in fact, Maloney’s investigation found that Ontario, Alberta and the Prairies had an even bigger problem…“Clearly this is a national issue,” B.C. Attorney-General David Eby said…he described the scale of money-laundering uncovered in the reports as shocking…using only publicly accessible data, the 2 reviews still uncovered thousands of properties and transactions at high risk for money laundering or tax evasion…
7.Retailers across Canada are struggling with a shortage of all cannabis, but there’s one product they’re especially desperate to keep on shelves: cannabidiol or CBD, a non-intoxicating extract vaunted for its purported health benefits…the extract, most commonly sold as Oil, has been promoted as a natural cure for pain, anxiety and insomnia, despite limited medical research…many customers are coming in asking for it, especially first-time and older users, store owners say…“I don’t think the licensed producers really realized how popular CBD was, so there’s none available, really,” said Krystian Wetulani, founder of City Cannabis Co. in Vancouver…“When something becomes available on the cannabis wholesale ordering sheet, everybody tries to get all that’s available. It’s like a race. That’s one of the biggest opportunities we’re facing in the legalized market”…companies are ramping up hemp growth to produce the trendy extract, but observers expect the shortage to persist until late this year…meanwhile, scientists are working to separate the hype from reality when it comes to medical claims about the drug…
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1. Gold has traded between $1,280 and $1,287 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $5 an ounce at $1,285…data on the People’s Bank of China website shows Gold reserves rose to 61.1 million ounces in April from 60.62 million a month earlier…in tonnage terms, last month’s inflow totalled 14.9 and the increase follows the addition of almost 43 tonnes in the 4 months through March…that means that since the Chinese central bank began its latest series of purchases in December, the PBOC has built up its Gold holdings by nearly 60 tonnes…still, China’s Gold reserves are very low by international standards, at just 2.5% or so of total foreign-exchange reserves…Silver is off 4 cents at $14.76…Copper, Nickel and Zinc are all under continued minor pressure at $2.76, $5.34 and $1.24, respectively…Cobalt remains steady at $15.76…Crude Oil is down slightly, trading just below $62 a barrel, while the U.S. Dollar Index has slipped one-tenth of a point to 97.47…President Trump has ordered new sanctions on Iran, this time targeting the Islamic Republic’s export revenues from its industrial metals sector, and vowed to keep squeezing Tehran unless it “fundamentally alters” its policies…“Today’s action targets Iran’s revenue from the export of industrial metals – 10% of its export economy – and puts other nations on notice that allowing Iranian steel and other metals into your ports will no longer be tolerated,” Trump said in a statement…
2.Rhetoric and “positioning” ahead of high-stakes U.S.-China trade discussions has rattled the equity markets again this morning…Liu He, China’s vice premier and top trade negotiator, will have dinner with President Trump’s trade team tonight in Washington, just hours before the U.S. says it will hike tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods…Liu will dine with Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and other U.S. officials as the world’s 2 largest economies try to salvage a deal, according to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders…Liu is not expected to meet with Trump today…markets will be watching for any clues or updates to leak out of the dinner…at a boisterous rally in Florida last night, President Trump said China “broke the deal” – a reference to a slew of changes demanded by China late last week that undermined key parts of a 150-page draft agreement…
3. A new jolt of energy is needed to wake Gold up this year, according to Scotiabank which has also adjusted its previous “long Gold”2019 investment theme…“We continue to believe that it won’t take just one attempt to break the cyclical range earmarked by $1,350 as Gold remains a 2nd-tier investment while it awaits for a $-negative or vol-positive catalyst to evolve,” the bank’s commodity strategists wrote in a new report…“Our original overarching 2019 investment theme – long volatility, short politics and short the $ (which is best expressed by being long Gold) – drastically changed the past 2 months. Gold should do well in a low (and falling) real rate environment…but unless there are some macro fear and complacency is shattered, it’s tough to see Gold really outperform,” the report added…investors have been frustrated with Gold’s narrow trading range this spring, but Scotiabank believes that the yellow metal’s performance has been decent considering the macro circumstances…
4.The Golden Triangle just got another boost…not long after Australian-listed Newcrest cut a deal with Imperial Metals (III, TSX) for 70% of the Red Chris mine, Newmont Goldcorp (NEM, NYSE) is investing $17.6 million into GT Gold (GTT, TSX-V) for a 9.9% interest in that company after GTT’s world class Copper-Gold discovery at Saddle North last summer…Saddle North is on the same trend as Red Chris, just 15 km northwest of that mine…Newmont Goldcorp will be the back-end purchaser of a flow-through private placement (11.5 million shares) at $1.53 per share, a 78% premium to GTT’s closing price yesterday of 86 cents…the money that is going into the ground in key parts of Northwest B.C. this summer is phenomenal and can only lead to a major acceleration in interest from investors over the coming weeks and months…this morning’s news makes yesterday’s news from Colorado Resources (CXO, TSX-V) that much more significant as CXO’s Castle Property (expanded through its deal with Buckingham Copper) features a multi-kilometre mineralized trend, west to east, that hooks up with Saddle North and Saddle South (similar geological and geophysical signatures)…Castle is a gem, so much so that it led to a messy internal battle at Colorado starting in mid-2017…unfortunately, this prevented any serious work from being carried out at the property – a travesty…everything now has suddenly changed, however, given the deal between Colorado and privately-held Buckingham Copper…CXO is up a penny at 8 cents while GTT, battling through a resistance band between 90 cents and $1, has added a nickel to 91 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…
5. Infill drilling byMarathon Gold (MOZ, TSX) has producednew high-grade mineralization with abundant visible Gold in the Main Zone of the Leprechaun deposit at Marathon’s Valentine Lake Gold Camp, further defining a continuous corridor of high-grade Gold ranging from 30 m to more than 80 m wide, extending from surface for 300 m to the bottom of the open-pit and beyond, and stretching along strike for more than 270 m…results included 126 m grading 4.3 g/t including 12.2 g/t over 19 m (VL-19–681); 153 m @ 3 g/t including 12.5 g/t over 8 m (VL-19–686); and 5 g/t over 30 m including 14.1 g/t over 8 m (VL-19–688)…this current program of drilling downward at high-angle to and through the shallow SW dipping en-echelon stacked QTP-Au veining demonstrates significant additional width and higher Gold grades for the Main zone…it also shows the continuous nature of the high-grade Gold from surface to depths beyond the bottom of the open-pit, particularly significant in areas of limited previous drilling along the southwestern portion of the Main zone Gold corridor…
6. The Dow has lost 314 points through the first 30 minutes of trading on the continuing “China chill”…in Toronto, the TSX has slipped 71 points while the Venture is 3 points lower at 598…Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM, TSX) has posted Q1 net earnings of $57.4 million (U.S.) with the company generating $120 million in operating cash flow, driven by record Gold sales volumes…meanwhile, Franco Nevada (FNV, TSX, NYSE) reports record revenue and income in the 1st quarter, announces higher dividend and also says that Pierre Lassonde plans to step down as board chair after the next annual meeting in 2020…by then, he will have been chair for a dozen years…the company says it earned $65.2 million (U.S.), or 35 cents a share, up from $64.6million in the year ago period…Metallis Resources (MTS, TSX-V) is up in early trading after news last night regarding its Thunder North target, contiguous to the southern border of Garibaldi Resources‘ (GGI, TSX-V) Nickel Mountain Project…a petrographic thin section analysis has confirmed the presence of olivine gabbronorite with 8.55% MgO which points to the potential to identify a prospective intrusion at Thunder North…this area represents part of the Texas Creek suite “Lehto Pluton”, a segment of the Eskay Rift that has seen no historic exploration for Nickel sulphide mineralization…meanwhile, a high-resolution VTEM Survey generated 25 coincident conductive and magnetic anomalies outside of the footprint of the volcanic center at Thunder North…this highlights the potential to identify conductive sulphide mineralization in association with magnetic gabbroic rocks…another key takeaway is that olivine gabbros are more widely distributed along the western margin of the Eskay Rift than previously thought, with gabbroic boulder samples containing 25–26% MgO from Harrymel Creek, 2.2 km to the east of Thunder North…
7. Bitcoin’s 9-day rally has pushed it backabove $6,000…the biggest cryptocurrency outperformed its closest peers again in the digital market today and has now rebounded more than 90% from its trough last December…it’s the latest milestone as the wild ride continues for the decade-old token, which crashed last year from a peak of more than $19,000 in 2017…the price has been bolstered by an increasing interest in Bitcoin trading from investment institutions…Fidelity Investments will begin to allow customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, Bloomberg reported earlier this week…other trading platforms like Robinhood have already started digital currency trading…Bitcoin is still prompting fierce debate over its future and viability…major Bitcoin skeptic Nouriel Roubini called crypto the “mother and father of all bubbles” at a conference earlier this week…Roubini was debating with Bitcoin bull and former hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz, who had a different point of view…“The realty is there’s a tremendous amount of stuff going on. In some ways, there’s been a small miracle. The debate is over, Bitcoin won. It is now seen by people all around the world as a legitimate place to store their value”…
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1. Gold has traded between $1,285 and $1,292 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up slightly at $1,285 after hitting a new 3-week high on global market turbulence…despite weak buying in biggest bullion consumer China so far this year, analysts and traders expect resilient Indian accumulation to support physical demand in Asia…Indians are expected to buy at least 10% more Gold during the annual Hindu and Jain holy festival of Akshaya Tritiya than a year ago…central banks, of course, continue to be big buyers of Gold, limiting further downside in the metal…Silver is flat at $14.88…Copper, Nickel and Zinc are all off slightly at $2.79, $5.43 and $1.25, respectively…Cobalt remains steady at $15.76…Crude Oil is up 9 cents at $61.49 while the U.S. Dollar Index is unchanged at 97.54…President Trump said this morning that China “just informed” the White House that its vice premier will lead a delegation “coming to the U.S. to make a deal” on trade…Dow futures but losses but major indexes still opened lower following the President’s tweet, which added that “we’ll see” what comes of the negotiations because “I am very happy with over $100 billion a year in Tariffs filling U.S. coffers”…all part of a complex trade negotiation, and China is never easy to deal with…
2. Sunday’s Trump tweets explained:CNBC reported this morning that a diplomatic cable from Beijing arrived in Washington late on Friday night, with systematic edits to a nearly 150-page draft trade agreement that would blow up months of negotiations between the world’s 2 largest economies…the document, according to CNBC’s sources, was riddled with reversals by China that undermined core U.S. demands…in each of the 7 chapters of the draft trade deal, China had deleted its commitments to change laws to resolve core U.S. complaints that led to the trade battle: theft of U.S. intellectual property and trade secrets; forced technology transfers; competition policy; access to financial services; and currency manipulation…the stripping of binding legal language from the draft struck directly at the highest priority of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer who views changes to Chinese laws as essential to verifying compliance after years of what American officials have correctly called empty reform promises…
3.Long-awaited positive change at Colorado Resources (CXO, TSX-V): Colorado announced this morning that it has entered into an LOI with privately-held Buckingham Copper, contemplating a potential acquisition by Colorado of all of the issued and outstanding shares of Buckingham…what this amounts to is a much-needed change in Colorado management and direction…Colorado will retain 3 existing directors, including Patrick Soares who will continue as Chairman of the Board…Buckingham will propose 2 directors, including Michael Cathro…Joe Mullin, Buckingham’s CEO, an experienced restructuring and M&A professional who has worked for Goldman Sachs, Invesco Ltd. and Millennium Global Investments, and has held a number of operating roles, will be appointed CEO of Colorado replacing Robert Shaw, Colorado’s current ineffective President and CEO…in addition, a newly appointed CFO and Corporate Secretary will replace Terese Gieselman…Buckingham will raise at least $2.5 million to give CXO the working capital it needs to start making things happen again on the exploration front, with the Castle Property next to GT Gold (GTT, TSX-V) the immediate priority…Castle is an exceptional drill-ready prospect on trend with the world class porphyry system and high-grade Gold deposit at Saddle North and Saddle South…CXO also has a large land package (KSP and KingPin) in the heart of the Eskay Camp…CXO is up 1.5 cents at 7.5 cents through the first 30 minutes of trading…
4. After a big drop yesterday, the Dow is just 26 points lower through the first 30 minutes of trading…a recovery today is certainly possible…in Toronto, the TSX is 45 points higher while the Venture has rebounded 2 points to 601…Barrick Gold (ABX, TSX; GOLD, NYSE) has reported a profit during its 1st quarter of operations since it acquired Randgold Resources…officials also said they expect a joint venture with Newmont Goldcorp, for the 2 companies’ Nevada mines, to be completed by the end of the current quarter…Barrick’s adjusted net earnings for the period from January through March were $184 million, or 11 cents per share, compared to $170 million, or 15 cents, in the same quarter a year ago…this was also an improvement from $69 million, or 6 cents, in the 4th quarter…Radius Gold (RDU, TSX-V) is under pressure in early trading after providing “visuals” on 3 of its latest drill holes (11, 12 and 13) completed at the Amalia Project in Mexico (the last results, of course, were from hole #10 which cut 44 m @ 12.4 g/t Au and 309 g/t Ag)…Mr. Market wasn’t overly impressed with the visuals; however, an incorrect headline on Stockwatch (Radius Gold drills 30 m of 0.3 g/t Au) didn’t help matters (that result was from a much earlier hole in the 2018 program)…Radius also noted in this morning’s news release, “Drilling is currently on-going with 2,000 m of program budgeted. The holes presently underway will be more proximal to the high grade intercepts encountered in holes 009 and 010 in an effort to gain a better understanding of the geological control of these exceptional high-grade shoots”…
5. GrowMax Resources (GRO, TSX-V), yesterday’s volume leader on the Venture, is up half a penny at 12 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…notably, company recently went through some major corporate changes (new board) and announced during the trading session yesterday that it’s currently considering investments in the legal cannabis, hemp and related sectors with a focus on advance-stage licensed producers in North America…it’s also armed with nearly $30 million in cash…“We intend to leverage the company’s strong cash position of approximately $30 million to make investments primarily in the legal cannabis and hemp sectors,” stated Kal Malhi, Chairman and CEO…“The company now has a strong management team and its two largest shareholders include Bullrun Capital Inc. and Kisan International, a division of Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd., together owning 27.6% of outstanding shares”…GrowMax continues to pursue disposition of its Peru-based phosphate and potash assets and will provide further guidance on its proposed dividend after reviewing outstanding liabilities and ongoing investment opportunities…
6. American Pacific (USGD, CSE) provided an update this morning on its recently announced Gooseberry mine acquisition…in 1983, Asamera Inc., owner and operator of the Gooseberry mine at the time, reported in the company’s 1983 Annual Report to its shareholders a mineral reserve estimate for Gooseberry in the Proven and Probable category totalling 550,661 metric tonnes at an average grade of 7.9 g/t Au and 333 g/t Ag (Asamera, 1983)…this is considered an historical estimate and is not compliant with current NI-43–101…historic grades are impressive, however, and extensions to these types of deposits are common…in 1984, Asamera Inc. reported production figures of 14,938 ounces of Gold and 617,733 ounces of Silver (Spreecher, 1985)…the Gooseberry mine has been developed vertically to 1,450 feet from surface with significant underground development across 7 of 10 underground levels…the principal vein structure has been explored along strike for approximately 3,000 feet…initial mapping and sampling programs are anticipated to commence in late May…“The Ramsey Mining District is clustered amongst some of the most famous and prolific mining districts in Nevada,” commented Eric Saderholm, American Pacific President…“Foremost among the state’s top districts is the historic Comstock Mining District, located west of the Ramsey District where the Gooseberry Mine is located. The lodes and veins discovered in the Comstock District alone led to the production of 8.6 million ounces of Gold and 192 million ounces of Silver. Similar structural trends have been observed within the Ramsey and Talapoosa Mining Districts. Nevada has been among the world leaders in the discovery and production of precious metals for over 150 years and it looks like that trend will continue for decades to come”…
7. Charlotte’s Web Holdings (CWEB, CSE) has expanded its canine-focused pet products, launching an all-new 12 SKU lineup comprising hemp-extract-infused chews, flavoured and unflavoured oils, and a topical balm…since introducing its first Paws hemp-extract product for pets in February 2017, interest has exceeded all expectations, producing high demand and sales growth…with this week’s launch of the expanded pet product line, Charlotte’s Web aims to increase its market share in the rapidly growing market segment for hemp-derived CBD pet products…according to market research firm Brightfield Group, the CBD pet market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 151% between 2018 and 2022 to a market size of $1.16 billion (U.S.)…Charlotte’s Web’s canine product line can be viewed and purchased on-line at the company’s website and is available for order through the company’s retail distribution partners…
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1. Gold has traded between $1,277 and $1,284 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, the yellow metal is flat at $1,281 an ounce…holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest Gold-backed ETF, continued a dismal run as they fell by 0.16% to 739.64 tonnes yesterday to the lowest since October 11…as of yesterday, ETFs had sold Gold on 9 out of the last 10 days of trading…Commerzbank noted, “It is not clear to us what is motivating ETF investors to continue to sell Gold now. It appears that many market participants still assume that the various flashpoints will not flare up any further, and that agreement in the trade dispute will be reached sooner or later”…Silver is off 5 cents at $14.82…Copper and Nickel are at their lowest levels in more than 3 months…Copper has retreated another 4 cents to $2.79 while Nickel is down 6 cents at $5.46…Zinc is off 2 pennies at $1.28…Cobalt remains steady at $15.76…Crude Oil has slumped $1.19 a barrel to $61.06…Oil markets remain tense, however, as the U.S. has tightened sanctions on Iranian Oil exports and plans to bulk up its forces in the world’s top Oil-exporting region…American officials announced on Sunday that the movement of the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and a bomber task force toward the Middle East was meant to counter “credible threats”, but Tehran dismissed the move as “psychological warfare”…U.S. sanctions have already halved Iranian Crude exports over the past year to below 1 million barrels per day (bpd), and shipments to customers are expected to drop to as low as 500,000 bpd in May as sanctions tighten…the U.S. Dollar Index has climbed one-tenth of a point to 97.65…
2. ETFs are asleep at the switch as central banks gobble up Gold at the fastest rate in almost half a century in a trend that appears destined to continue…over the 12 months through March 31, they purchased a whopping 715.7 metric tons of Gold bullion worth around $29.4 billion, according to the World Gold Council…the volume of Gold purchased by such institutions over the most recent 4 quarters was higher than for any calendar year since 1971…that was when President Richard Nixon pulled the U.S. off the Gold standard at a time when the yellow metal was worth $35 a troy ounce…notably, central bank Gold holdings in the developing world are far smaller than in much of the developed world…three-quarters of U.S. reserves and 70% of Germany’s are in Gold…compare that to Russia, the biggest central bank buyer of the metal in Q1, where Gold amounts to only about 18.5% of the country’s reserves…the figures for China and India are 2.5% and 6.3%, respectively…emerging market countries are driving the push to buy more Gold and diversify away from holding U.S. dollars…they started snapping up more of the metal in earnest just after the financial crisis of 2008–2009, reversing a trend of ditching the metal…
3. China’s commerce ministry confirmed this morning that Vice Premier Liu will visit the U.S. Thursday and Friday for bilateral trade talks at the invitation of senior U.S. officials…this comes after President Trump’s tweets on Sunday with U.S. officials accusing Beijing of reneging on its promises and vowing to implement the President’s threat to raise tariffs quickly on Chinese imports…“Over the course of the last week or so, we’ve seen an erosion in commitments by China, I would say retreating from commitments that have already been made, in our judgment,” said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, declaring tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports would rise to 25% starting Friday…the comments from Mr. Lighthizer, who was joined by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, followed tweets from President Trump on Sunday that accused China of trying to “renegotiate” and threatened to expand tariffs to cover nearly everything the U.S. imports from China…Trump’s threat rattled financial markets around the world yesterday and again today, but also triggered speculation that it might be a negotiating tactic aimed at getting the best deal out of Beijing…
4.First-time revenue from a revolutionary extraction process, now being patented, was announced by Canada Cobalt (CCW, TSX-V) this morning as the company unveiled its “Re-2OX Unlocks” program, the first of multiple ways the company plans to profit from the environmentally friendly Re-2OX process that recently delivered more exceptional results for recovery of Cobalt, Silver, Nickel and Copper, along with removal of arsenic…through Re-2OX, which bypasses a traditional smelter, CCW has also become the first junior resource company during the electric vehicle revolution to create a battery grade Cobalt sulphate product from its own mineralized material (Castle mine)…this morning, CCW announced that it has entered into an MOU with Global Energy Metals (GEMC, TSX-V) that allows for Cobalt-Nickel-Copper-bearing mineralized material from GEMC’s Nevada properties to be put through the Re-2OX process to confirm efficient battery metal extraction and create a battery grade test product…the upfront first-stage Re-2OX fee payable to CCW is $200,000, and that’s mostly profit – all costs related to sampling and lab work are borne by GEMC…CCW supervises the program and protects its intellectual property related to Re-2OX…
5.Marc Bamber, CCW’s newly-appointed London-based director, commented:“CCW’s ‘Re-2OX Unlocks‘ is a powerful merging of technology with the 2020’s resource sector and the global trend toward mass electrification. It’s also an excellent example of how Re-2OX is a very adaptable process, technically, and can be used in multiple ways to leverage value for shareholders. This first agreement with Global Energy Metals puts us on a big runway of opportunity while it heightens potential for GEMC at its promising Cobalt-Nickel-Copper battery metal properties in Nevada. A very active 2nd quarter is unfolding for Canada Cobalt. Re-2OX is one of four key pillars of a very focused strategy that will also be powered by our unique underground access/Phase 2 drilling at the Castle mine, a simple but effective tailings program, and discovery potential at Castle East”…CCW is also making an investment in Global Energy, acquiring 2 million units of the company at 7.5 cents per unit, a 50% premium to GEMC’s last PP…CCW may have hit the technology jackpot with Re-2OX…not only do they expect to cut more deals with other companies, public and private, but the federal government has a $2 billion green fund that could have been made for Re-2OX…Loblaw (L, TSX) recently tapped into that free money, getting $12 million to help the company convert its refrigeration systems in approximately 370 stores across Canada so they are more energy efficient…
6. The Dow has lost 254 points through the first 30 minutes of trading on the continuing “China chill”…stocks recovered the bulk of their early losses yesterday in a strong comeback that accelerated after CNBC reported that a Chinese trade delegation will in fact still travel to the U.S. to continue negotiations this week, albeit with a smaller group than originally planned…in Toronto, the TSX has lost 122 points…Kirkland Lake Gold (KL, TSX, NYSE) is trading higher after reporting Q1 net earnings of $110 million (U.S.) or 52 cents (U.S.) per share, a 120% increase from Q1 2018, on revenue of $304.9 million (U.S.), a 54% increase over Q1 2018…cash has jumped by $83.9 million or 25% to $416.1 million, and the company is increasing its dividend by 34%…best Gold producer you can own…the Venture is off 2 points at 602 in early trading…cease trade orders were slapped against more than a dozen Venture and CSE companies this morning for failure to file annual financial statements…Great Bear Resources (GBR, TSX-V) has cut 3.7 m grading 28.4 g/t Au (DHZ-039), including an interval of 0.5 m @ 200.5 g/t, in the deepest high-grade DHZ intercept to date at the Dixie Creek Project in the Red Lake Camp…construction at Victoria Gold’s (VIT, TSX-V) Eagle mine in the Yukon is more than 90% complete…“With construction activities on the verge of completion and operations well advanced, the Eagle Gold mine is nearing reality,” explained John McConnell, President and CEO…“The mine is ahead of schedule and ready to deliver tremendous value for all Victoria shareholders for many years to come”…Khiron Life Sciences (KHRN, TSX-V) has arranged a $25million bought deal financing, spearheaded by Canaccord Genuity and BMO Capital Markets, at $2.90 per share…this comes just 2 months after the company raised $28.9 million at $2.20 a share…Khiron is positioned to be the dominant integrated cannabis company in Latin America and is fully licensed in the country for the cultivation, production, domestic distribution and international export of both THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol) medical cannabis…it became the first Colombian-based medical cannabis company to trade on any exchange globally in May of last year…Alvaro Torres, Khiron CEO, stated earlier this year: “Fiscal 2018 marked an important year for Khiron as we accomplished a number of significant objectives towards delivering on our strategy of becoming an internationally recognized, market-leading cannabis company. From a start-up to a team over 250, we have established operations and activity in multiple jurisdictions, acquired medical clinics, developed a market-leading skin care brand, entered into research partnerships, set up educational programs and received patient association endorsements”…
7. Ballard Power Systems (BLPD, TSX) has announced that it will provide next-generation FCmove®-HD fuel cell modules – utilizing Ballard’s LCS technology, planned for commercial availability later this year – to power 2 tractor-trailer trucks as part of an industry-lead $15 million (CDN) Alberta Zero-Emissions Truck Electrification Collaboration (AZETEC) project…AZETEC will test the ability of hydrogen to fuel Alberta’s heavy duty freight transportation sector and is seen as a first step in exploring a potential made-in-Alberta hydrogen economy…AZETEC will help ensure the continuation of a timely, efficient and cost-effective supply chain of goods, transported by 64-tonne B-train tractor-trailers carrying very large freight loads over long distances…the project will test hydrogen as a zero-emissions alternative fuel to diesel, along with the refueling infrastructure and other systems that would be required for Alberta to implement this new fuel solution…the 3-year project also will investigate the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and airborne pollutants in Alberta’s freight transportation sector…freight transportation accounts for almost 70% of diesel fuel demand in Alberta and contributes about 12 million tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHGs) per year in the province…the AZETEC project is scheduled to run until mid-2022 and will involve the design and manufacture of two heavy duty, extended range, hydrogen fuel cell electric hybrid trucks that will move freight year-round between the cities of Edmonton and Calgary…
