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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 $25 million 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…
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Jon, there were two fairly large trades that went through today on CLM above market price at around .35 and TSX was listed as buyer and Mackie seller. Is that a pre arranged transaction? I’ve never seen TSX as a buyer.
Comment by Weatheritout80 — May 7, 2019 @ 5:18 pm
Other BMR in the news : https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-death-valley-lithium-mine-california-environment-20190507-story.html
Comment by Gojira — May 7, 2019 @ 5:56 pm
I’ve only seen that on a very few rare occasions, Weatheritout80 – would be related to a short position that could not be covered.
Comment by Jon - BMR — May 8, 2019 @ 4:44 am
CLM trying hard to break out
Comment by Weatheritout80 — May 8, 2019 @ 7:48 am