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Gold traded as low as $1,287 overnight but has now shot back above $1,300 an ounce…as of 8:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $20 an ounce at $1,309…Silver has added 27 cents to $20.01…Copper is off 3 cents to $3.17…Crude Oil is up 40 cents to $97.80 while the U.S. Dollar Index is up slightly at 81.58 as it trades at nearly a 1-year high (see updated charts below)…

Gold, despite the headwinds of a stronger greenback, is beginning to draw safe haven appeal as concerns grow over developments along the Ukraine-Russia border…Russia has amassed around 20,000 troops on Ukraine’s eastern border and could use the excuse of a humanitarian or peacekeeping mission to send them into Ukraine, NATO said in a statement today…

Poland’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, said Russian troops are poised to pressure or invade Ukraine, in comments made during a television interview, according to Bloomberg…for a foreign minister to mention the possibility of an invasion, those are certainly strong words…meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to retaliate against the economic sanctions being imposed on the country over the Krelin’s Ukraine policy…it’s amazing that the American President, whose specialty is certainly not foreign policy, insisted the other day that we’re not in a new Cold War with Russia…

Today’s Equity Markets

Asia

China’s Shanghai Composite held up well overnight, slipping just 2 points on profit-taking to close at 2217…the Shanghai has retreated slightly for two straight sessions after hitting a 7-monthy high Monday…meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei gave up 161 points, falling for the fifth straight session and to its lowest level in six weeks…

Europe

European stocks are down moderately in late trading overseas…markets there are being pressured by Ukraine-Russia tensions as well as weaker-than-expected economic data…German industrial orders fell in June at their steepest rate since September 2011…meanwhile, Italy showed an unexpected decline in second-quarter GDP…after only one positive quarter of growth at the end of 2013, the Italian economy once again appears to be on a downward trend…

The European Central Bank is expected to leave monetary policy unchanged this week, but President Mario Draghi likely will reiterate to markets that policymakers remain ready to undertake more monetary accommodation if necessary…the ECB will be meeting tomorrow…they’ll be pondering the fact that euro zone inflation fell in July to 0.4% year-on-year, the lowest level since October 2009, and is well below the ECB’s target rate of 2%…ECB officials have suggested in the past that a rate below 1% poses a risk of deflation…

North America

The Dow opened lower this morning but is now up 47 points as of 8:00 am Pacific…Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher said after yesterday’s close that the central bank may need to hike rates sooner than expected, if data continues to be as strong as the July Institute for Supply Management’s service-sector index…the index reached the highest level since December 2005 on Tuesday…

The TSX has gained 34 points while the Venture is unchanged at 994 (see updated Venture charts below)…

Garibaldi Resources Corp. (GGI, TSX-V) Update

As a follow-up to last night’s article, we’ll have more on Garibaldi Resources (GGI, TSX-V) the next couple of days including the first part of an exclusive interview with President and CEO Steve Regoci…following yesterday’s close, GGI reported more highly encouraging results from its Silver Eagle target at the Rodadero Project, approximately 130 km north of Hermosillo in central Sonora State…Silver Eagle is giving strong indications of an emerging shallow high-grade deposit with important infrastructure advantages including road and water access and power lines running right through the target…as Phase 2 drilling begins, the key now for GGI is to expand the strike length, build tonnage and at least maintain the grades intersected so far…SE-14-06, the last hole and the farthest step-out from discovery hole SE-14-01, confirms that the system is widening to the south…as GGI reported last night, “Similar siliceous bodies are exposed for several hundred metres along a ridge to the south”…no doubt they are going to target this area right away…

Garibaldi has walked the walk in Mexico, it has delivered the goods before…in 2009, GGI’s hyperspectral remote sensing technology and the data collected from that enabled the company to cash in big on its Temoris option which was purchased by Paramount Gold and Silver (PZG, NYSE and TSX)…this very efficient exploration method is also now paying off at the Rodadero Project where eight targets have now been identified striking south, east and south-east of Silver Eagle within a 30 sq. km area…sampling at some of these targets has returned some very high and not only Silver but Gold…so the potential scale of this should start to sink in with investors in the coming days…

As of 8:00 am Pacific, GGI has backed off from a high of 31 cents in early trading and is down 2.5 cents at 26.5 cents…normal volatility following news, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see GGI close the week on a very strong note…

Critical Elements Corp. (CRE, TSX-V) Update

Critical Elements (CRE, TSX-V) has been a strong performer recently with John’s charts correctly predicting a breakout…yesterday, the company provided an update on progress with its Rose Lithium-Tantalum Project in Quebec…results obtained to date from hydrometallurgical testing (being conducted as part of a feasibility study) have shown that the developed process can safely produce lithium carbonate with an overall recovery rate of up to 96%…the overall purity gave values of up to 99.98%…

Technically, CRE has staged a confirmed breakout above 25 cents which should now act as new support…that’s also where the rising 20-day moving average (SMA) currently sits…

CRE is off a penny at 26.5 cents as of 8:00 am Pacific…

Imperial Metals Corp. (III, TSX) Update

Media reports have stated an estimated equivalent of 2,000 Olympic pools of mining waste (a 45-metre wall of mud and mining debris) was discharged into the waterways of British Columbia’s Cariboo region Monday from the tailings pond at Imperial Metals’ (III, TSX) Mount Polley mine located approximately 140 km southeast of Quesnel…a water ban was enacted which affected a few hundred people, but was expected to grow since the advisory was expanded to include residents along the Quesnel and Cariboo Rivers…company President Bryan Kynoch apologized for the massive spill, and vowed to move to quickly clean it up and restore the trust of the local community…how Imperial handles this situation from a public relations standpoint is going to be critical…at a news conference yesterday, Kynoch stated that the “the water that sits in our tailings pond, it’s very close to drinking water quality.  The water in the tailings facility are not toxic.”

While the collapse of this tailings dam is indeed very unfortunate, it’s also highly unusual and should not blemish what’s a remarkably strong record of performance for mining in B.C., environmentally and economically…ultimately, global markets and social rhythms will determine the feasibility of mining projects in this province, but the statistics reveal an industry that is growing, continues to produce immense wealth and is increasingly responsible – Monday’s incident notwithstanding, though certain groups will undoubtedly attempt to exploit the issue to advance their own agendas…

The tailings breach has stabilized and so has III’s stock price which tumbled more than 40% yesterday…III is unchanged at $9.98 through the first 90 minutes of trading today…

Updated Venture Charts

There’s no need to panic with the Venture closing below the 1000 level yesterday for the first time since mid-June, and we’ll show why with a couple of charts this morning…

CDNX 3-Year Weekly Chart

The Venture 3-year weekly chart has been a hugely valuable resource in tracking the direction of the Index over the last year…RSI(2) is now at an extreme level (10%) consistent with reversals in the Index going back to the June 2013 low…significantly, a huge wall of support exists between 970 and the rising 200-day moving average (SMA) around 980…there’s no reason why this support should not hold, followed by a strong push to the upside…

CDNX 5-Year Weekly Chart

The 5-year weekly chart shows RSI(14) now touching an uptrend support line…this will be important to watch to see if it holds – it should…