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1. Gold has traded between $1,423 and $1,430 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $3 an ounce at $1,428…Gold prices rose to their highest in more than 6 years ($1,453) last week, supported by fresh tensions in the Middle East and expectations of a dovish Fed…Silver, coming off its best week since July 2016 with a gain of more than 6%, is up another 17 cents at $16.35…the long-term Silver chart is pointing to a hugely significant breakout above a multi-year downtrend line…Nickel has eased off again today after a sharp run…it’s down 20 cents at $6.40…Copper is off slightly at $2.73 while Zinc is flat at $1.10…Crude Oil prices are up modestly on concerns that Iran’s seizure of a British tanker last week may lead to supply disruptions in the energy-rich Gulf…tensions surrounding Iran have added to the already strong geopolitical risk premium…Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed on Friday they had captured a British-flagged Oil tanker in the Gulf…Britain, beset by weak political leadership, continues to weigh its next moves after a recording emerged showing the Iranian military defied a British warship when it boarded and seized the ship…this Iranian aggression in the world’s most important waterway was the latest escalation in 3 months of confrontation with the West that began when new, tighter U.S. sanctions on Iran took effect at the start of May…meanwhile, Iranian bank officials are making an about face and are backing an “indignized digital money” tied to Gold that will be mined under the permission of the rogue nation’s Central Bank…WTI is up 42 cents this morning at $56.05 while the U.S. Dollar Index is relatively unchanged at 97.18…

2. Reuters reports that Chinese firm Tsingshan Holding Group has been buying large quantities of Nickel on the London Metal Exchange (LME) to supplement its own output because stainless steel production in China didn’t fall as expected, contributing to the recent big rise in the metal’s price…Tsingshan also apparently started to worry about top producer Indonesia banning shipments of ore from 2022…analysts say Tsingshan will need more than 400,000 tonnes of Nickel in 2019 compared with the 250,000+ tonnes it has access to…an industry source says the firm’s 300 series stainless steel output in China in the 1st half of 2019 was up 25% year-on-year…the 300 series typically uses 8.0 to 8.5% Nickel compared with 200 series stainless steel with only 1.0 to 2.5% Nickel, and 400 series which contains no Nickel…nearly 70% of global Nickel consumption, estimated at 2.4 million tonnes this year, is accounted for by stainless steel mills, a majority of which are in China…Wood Mackenzie analyst Sean Mulshaw estimates China’s stainless steel output in the 1st half of this year at 14 million tonnes, up 11% from the first 6 months of last year…Mulshaw expects China’s output to climb 8-9% this year to 28-29 million tonnes out of a global total of 52-53 million tonnes, a 4% gain from 2018…higher stainless steel output and stronger than expected demand for Nickel have pushed benchmark prices on the LME to above $15,000 a tonne, their highest since late June last year and a gain of more than 25% since early last month…Nickel prices are up about 40% so far this year…they will need to push even higher to incentivize new projects around the world to meet growing demand from the fast-growing electric vehicle sector…

3. This can only be good for Gold: The White House and congressional Democrats have moved close to a budget deal that would raise the U.S. debt ceiling for 2 years, according to a report this morning from CNBC…an agreement to prevent the U.S. from hitting its borrowing limit and stop government funding from lapsing is “near final” and remaining talks relate to “technical language issues”…the developing deal would suspend the debt ceiling through July 31, 2021….it would also permanently end the sequester, automatic across the board spending cuts…a sequester would have taken effect in January without congressional action…the budget agreement would include parity between increases in defense spending and domestic, non-defense outlays – a priority for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…it would also have about $75 billion in spending offsets, measures conservatives have backed…lawmakers have been scrambling to strike a deal before they leave for their August recess…Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned that the U.S. could run out of cash to pay its bills by September, setting up the potential for default on the federal debt…meanwhile, the government faces another partial shutdown down if Congress cannot pass a spending bill by September 30…

4. K92 Mining (KNT, TSX) has drilled 6.7 m (6.09 m true width) grading 120.4 g/t Au, including 1.06 m (0.96 m true width) @ 660 g/t Au in the Kora North extension of its Kainantu Gold mine in Papua, New Guinea…that intercept in KMDD0162 highlighted results released this morning for the latest 11 diamond drill holes completed from both surface and underground into the Kora North deposit…John Lewins, K92 CEO, stated, “The latest results continue to show the very high continuity of the K1 and K2 lodes with K92 drilling now having shown a vertical extent of Kora North of almost 700 m.  The whole Kora-Kora North-Eutompi system has now been shown to have a vertical extent in excess of 1,100 m, while the known strike is over 1,000 m.  Importantly, the system remains open both at depth and along strike”…there are 5 diamond drill rigs now operating at the project, 2 surface rigs and 3 underground rigs, with the program expected to continue into 2020…KNT is up 23 cents at $2.58 as of 7:00 am Pacific…

5. The Dow has added 59 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…in Toronto, the TSX has gained 42 points with the Gold Index up another 2 points at 239.41 (best level since the summer of 2016)…SNC-Lavalin (SNC, TSX) is under pressure in early trading…the struggling construction and engineering firm, a favourite of Justin Trudeau, has withdrawn its forecast for 2019, citing significantly lower results as it considers options for its resources unit and exits fixed-price contracts…the Venture, on a 5-session winning streak, continues to push higher as it breaks out above a short-term downtrend line…a powerful move through 600 appears to be in the works…higher metal prices are helping, along with leadership from Northwest British Columbia where over $100 million is being poured into exploration and drilling programs…Eskay Camp stocks are leading the way again this morning…Garibaldi Resources (GGI, TSX-V) is up 13 cents at $1.90…GGI’s 50-day moving average (SMA) has crossed above its 200-day for the first time since late July 2017, immediately ahead of its huge run during a summer of discovery at Nickel Mountain…GGI neighbor Metallis Resources (MTS, TSX-V) soared 50% last week and is up a penny at 91 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…Crystal Lake Mining (CLM, TSX-V) has hit a fresh 9-month high of 42 cents as crews prepare for the start of first-ever diamond drilling at the company’s Burgundy Ridge discovery…Dr. Peter Lightfoot calls the geology at Burgundy Ridge “spectacular”…overlooked CLM neighbor Etruscus Resources (ETR, CSE), active on its 160 sq. km Rock ‘N Roll Project contiguous to CLM’s Newmont Lake Project, is coming to life, up a penny at 41 cents…ETR, a new listing earlier this year, sports a market cap of just $8 million, unusually low for a quality Eskay Camp play with a highly attractive share structure and an historic deposit…they were the first company in the district on the ground this spring as they work toward the start of a drill program…record volume has come into Tudor Gold (TUD, TSX-V), closing in on a fresh 2-year high, after Eric Sprott bumped up his position at the end of last week with a $3 million private placement at 45 cents a share…Aben Resources (ABN, TSX-V) is threatening to push through resistance in the mid-20’s…Azimut Exploration (AZM, TSX-V) announced this morning that it has started new exploration programs on 4 Gold properties under the Azimut-Soquem strategic alliance in Quebec’s James Bay region…after canceling a planned $125 million offering last week, The Flowr Corp. (FLWR, TSX-V) has arranged a $43.5 million bought deal, led by GMP Securities, at $4.10 per unit…

6. Common sense prevails:  The National Energy Board has cleared the way for construction to resume on portions of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project by revalidating all the orders and decisions it enjoyed before permits were overturned last year…the NEB announced late Friday that “decisions and orders issued prior to the Federal Court of Appeal decision will remain valid,” meaning that 73% of the detailed pipeline route has been approved and 64 of 98 pre-construction conditions for the project have been fully satisfied…among those previously issued and now still-valid orders are clearances for Trans Mountain Corp. to begin construction on “portions of the pipeline route,” on temporary infrastructure sites along the route and at the Westridge marine terminal in Burnaby…the NEB did not say when full construction would begin on the 590,000 barrels per day pipeline project to twin the existing line between Alberta and metro Vancouver…“I think this is a positive step moving in the direction of getting an incredibly important piece of infrastructure for this entire nation built,” stated Explorers and Producers Association of Canada President Tristan Goodman…“We need this pipeline developed and we need construction to start in a timely fashion”…

7. Microsoft (MSFT, NASDAQ) is investing $1 billion in Elon Musk’s OpenAI to build artificial intelligence that can tackle more complex tasks, the companies announced this morning…through the partnership, the companies will build new Azure AI supercomputing technologies and Microsoft will become OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider…the technology they plan to build, artificial general intelligence (AGI), will apparently be able to solve more complex problems that AI currently is capable of…“Modern AI systems work well for the specific problem on which they’ve been trained, but getting AI systems to help address some of the hardest problems facing the world today will require generalization and deep mastery of multiple AI technologies,” this morning’s news release stated…“OpenAI and Microsoft’s vision is for artificial general intelligence to work with people to help solve currently intractable multidisciplinary problems, including global challenges such as climate change, more personalized healthcare and education”…

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