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1. Gold has traded between $1,284 and $1,293 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is off $3 an ounce at $1,289 following release of a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report…Silver has slipped 5 cents to $15.08…on the base metal front, Copper, Nickel and Zinc are all relatively unchanged at $2.91, $5.93 and $1.35, respectively, while Cobalt is unchanged at $14.91…Crude Crude continues to climb…WTI, up 51 cents at $62.51, is headed for its 5th consecutive weekly gain…the U.S. Dollar Index is up slightly at 97.36, one-fifth of a point below key resistance…the U.S. and China continue to make progress in trade talks…“We’re getting very close to making a deal,” President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office yesterday…“That doesn’t mean a deal is made, because it’s not, but we’re certainly getting a lot closer. And I would think within the next 4 weeks or maybe less, maybe more, whatever it takes, something very monumental could be announced”…
2. Hiring in the U.S. sprang back in March and the unemployment rate remained at an historically low level, underscoring that the labor market remains a source of strength for the economy…non-farm payrolls increased a seasonally adjusted 196,000 in March, the Labor Department reported this morning, which exceeded expectations…better hiring last month was led by strong gains in the health care and leisure and hospitality sectors…payrolls also increased in construction and mining…meanwhile, the unemployment rate held steady at 3.8%, just above a 49-year low of 3.7% touched last fall, while average hourly wages for private-sector sectors grew 3.2% from a year earlier…the strong March report should put to rest the notion (perhaps what the mainstream media is cheering for) that the U.S. economy is doomed to falter in 2019…
3. The Trump economy remains a job-creating machine while the over-regulated and over-taxed Trudeau economy, Canada’s version of the far left Democrats’ Green New Deal in the U.S., continues to sputter…Canada lost 7,200 jobs in March…Statistics Canada says the number of employee positions in the private sector fell by 17,300 last month, while public-employee jobs increased by 4,200 and self-employed occupations rose by 6,000…year-over-year average hourly wage growth in March was 2.4% which was up from a reading of 2.3% in February but significantly below U.S. wage growth…Canada continues to underperform the U.S. in virtually every economic metric…
4. Kirkland Lake Gold (KL, TSX) produced 231,879 ounces of Gold in Q1, an increase of 57% from 147,644 ounces in Q1 2018, with the increase driven by record quarterly production at both Fosterville and Macassa…the company ended Q1 2019 well positioned to achieve its improved full-year 2019 production guidance of 920,000 to 1,000,000 ounces of Gold, with production at Fosterville expected to be weighted to the 2nd half of 2019 as development advances to depth into the high-grade Swan Zone…during Q1 2019, the company continued to build financial strength with cash increasing $78 million or 23%, to $410 million at March 31, compared to $332 million at the end of December…Tony Makuch, President and CEO of Kirkland Lake Gold, commented: “Both Fosterville and Macassa achieved record production in Q1 2019, largely reflecting strong grade performance, as well as higher levels of mill throughput at Fosterville. At Fosterville, we continued to advance development and production from the Swan Zone, with stope production advancing on multiple levels. As we develop deeper into the zone, we are targeting higher levels of production from Swan, particularly in the 2nd half of the year. At Macassa, production on the 5600 and 5700 levels continues to generate better than planned grades. Production over the balance of the year will remain largely focused on these areas”…
5. Aurora Cannabis (ACB, TSX) has been selected by Germany’s Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices as one of 3 winners in the public tender to cultivate and distribute medical cannabis in that country…the contract will be formalized at the earliest on April 17, pending the outcome of an appeal procedure on which a ruling is anticipated by next Wednesday…the tender saw 79 companies participating, with the winners able to establish production in Germany upon the completion of the contract associated with the tender…the selection process was based on the submission of a concept for domestic cannabis production, delivery and pricing…Aurora’s concept, judged on criteria such as facility design, quality, security and logistics, received the highest ranking out of all concepts submitted, validating the company’s leadership in integrated cultivation, production and delivery…the company was awarded the maximum number of 5 of the 13 lots in the tender over a period of four years with a minimum supply of 4,000 kilograms total…the cannabis produced will be sold to the German government and supplied to wholesalers for distribution to pharmacies…
6. The Dow is 57 points higher through the first 30 minutes of trading…in Toronto, the TSX has advanced 38 points…Goldcorp (G, TSX) shareholders yesterday voted decisively in favor of the company’s $10 billion (U.S.) acquisition by Newmont Mining (NEM, NYSE)…next week, on April 11, Newmont shareholders will weigh in on the transaction in what will be the final major hurdle…if the deal closes, as expected, Newmont will become the biggest Gold company in the world by market value, production and reserves….the Venture has added 1 point to 627…2 promising juniors focused on Nevada are firmly in the midst of major new uptrends – American Pacific (USGD, CSE), unchanged at 26 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific, is on the verge of a fresh 10-month high, while upstart Global Energy (GEMC, TSX-V) has turned aggressive on an increasingly intriguing Nickel-Copper-Cobalt opportunity in the Lovelock area, which is attracting considerable new interest, approximately 100 miles from the Tesla gigafactory…
7. Indonesia’s first plant to produce battery-grade Nickel chemicals is on track to start operations by 2020, though the project still needs an environmental permit that could take up to 8 months to be approved, Reuters reports…China’s Tsingshan Group and partners including GEM Co Ltd are building a $700 million high pressure acid leaching (HPAL) plant at the PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, a Nickel mining hub…ground breaking started in January on the plant, which is due to be completed within 16 to 18 months and will allow Indonesia to export Nickel sulphate, a component for Lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles…nonetheless, some analysts have cast doubt on the ambitious timeline for the HPAL facilities, which are more complicated than other Nickel processing plants that Tsingshan has built…“We are building it fast because that it is how we model our business to avoid higher costs, and we need also to catch up with the market,” Alexander Barus, coordinating executive director of IMIP, said in an interview…IMIP is also a minor stakeholder in the plant…
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Looks like CCW found a bottom…
Comment by flyinthruu — April 5, 2019 @ 8:45 am
flyinthruu… I agree, looks like we found a bottom on CCW. I was looking for signs of a bottom before buying more and I did buy more today. It was great to see some volume today, volume is key as any warrants outstanding will get eaten up pretty quickly. Hopefully some follow through on Monday.
Comment by Danny — April 5, 2019 @ 1:42 pm
Tailings were supposed to be developed into an additional cash flow. No further news (that I saw) after first comment. Getting that operating would be a really big plus IMO.
Comment by Carl — April 6, 2019 @ 9:37 am