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Gold has traded between $1,204 and $1,217 so far today…as of 8:30 am Pacific, bullion is up $3 an ounce at $1,214…Silver has slipped 7 cents to $16.46…Copper is flat at $2.80…Crude Oil is 23 cents higher at $48.88 while the U.S. Dollar Index has climbed another one-fifth of a point to 92.23 as it rapidly approaches a long-term downtrend line on the 34-year monthly chart we posted Monday…

Despite the fact Gold is now back above $1,200 U.S. and showing resilience in the face of a continued strong greenback, the world’s largest Gold-backed ETF, SPDR Gold Trust, reported another 3-tonne outflow yesterday…holdings are now at their lowest since late 2008 at 704.83 tonnes…

Gold will continue to flow into India unobstructed as Reuters reported that a government minister said yesterday there are no plans to impose any new curbs to imports (the collapse in Oil prices is helping India control its current account deficit)…according to government numbers, 151.8 tonnes of Gold was imported into India in November…imports fell to 39 tonnes in December and are around 7 tonnes so far in January…in late November, the government removed the 80:20 rule but it has maintained increased duty costs which in 2013 were raised to 10%…the Gold lobby in India is pushing to get the government to reduce those tariffs on the yellow metal…

Inflation rates across the world’s largest economies eased for the 6th straight month in November as energy prices fell sharply, and the trend toward lower inflation is likely to continue in the months ahead…the OECD said the annual rate of inflation in its 34 members was 1.5% in November, down from 1.7% in October…

Minutes released yesterday from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting gave little reason to believe the central bank was considering raising interest rates ahead of schedule…interestingly, though, the meeting included several references to the urgency U.S. officials and market participants are placing on new policy actions to counteract slow growth outside the U.S., particularly in the fledgling euro zone…

Today’s Equity Markets

Asia

China’s Shanghai Composite cooled off on profit taking overnight, falling 80 points or 2.4% to close at 3294…Japan’s Nikkei, however, climbed 282 points or 1.7% thanks in part to a weaker yen…

Europe

European markets were up sharply today on expectations that that the European Central Bank (ECB) would implement further aggressive stimulus measures…

North America

The Dow has soared 286 points as of 8:30 am Pacific, and is now in positive territory for the year…comments late yesterday by Fed Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans has helped the bullish tone…Evans suggested the Fed may not move on interest rates until 2016…

In Toronto, the TSX is up 145 points through the first 2 hours of trading while the Venture has added 5 points to 689…

Updated Venture Chart

Venture support this week has held just above the now rising 20-day moving average (SMA), currently at 675, and the 664–680 Fib. levels as outlined below in this 2-month daily chart…that support needs to continue to hold to keep the recovery from the December low intact…

Richmont Mines (RIC, TSX) Update

Richmont Mines (RIC, TSX) has intersected more high-grade Gold at depth in exploration drilling at its Island Gold mine in northern Ontario, confirming the excellent potential for the down plunge extension of the mine’s mineralization…highlights included hole GD-14–01C, drilled from surface, which intersected the targeted “C” Zone” at a vertical depth of 1,203 m, and assayed 19.87 g/t Au over a true width of 3.93 m…significantly, this intersection is approximately 250 m down plunge from the limits of the currently defined resources…

Last year, Richmont announced NI-43–101 indicated resources for the Island Deep discovery of 1.1 million ounces (456,000 tonnes grading 11.52 g/t Au in the indicated category for 169,000 ounces, and inferred resources of 3.2 million tonnes grading 9.29 g/t Au for 955,000 ounces)…

The company this morning also announced a 61,000 m drill program ($7.6 million) for Island in 2015…the first objective will be to test the eastern extension potential of the resource between 500 and 1,000 m depth…

RIC is up a nickel at $4.06 as of 8:30 am Pacific…

Cannabix Technologies Inc. (BLO, CSE) Update

Cannabix Technolgies (BLO, CSE), one of our favorite non-resource companies, is poised for a major breakthrough during this first quarter of 2015 as progress continues toward the unveiling of “Version 1.0” of its marijuana breathalyzer prototype…

We predict it’ll be a “game changing” moment for BLO when its feature-rich breathalyzer, powered by the latest software, is shown in studio for the first time…”all the gloves are off”, so to speak, at that point, and the attention that BLO will receive may dwarf the significant exposure it has already garnered for being a first-mover in the development of a patent-pending marijuana breath-analysis device for law enforcement and the workplace…

As far as the market is concerned, some important observations: 1) For the first time since its debut on the CSE in late June of last year, BLO has formed an impressive support base in a tight trading range from which it appears ready to launch higher; 2) American interest in BLO continues to build which is critical because this is mainly a U.S. story – of the 5.4 million Cannabix shares that have traded since December 1, more than half of that volume (53%) has been in the U.S. where the stock trades on the OTC under the symbol “BLOZF“…

Updated Chart

Technically, BLO is showing all the textbook signs of getting ready for a potential breakout above Fib. resistance at 14 cents CDN (12 cents U.S.)…

The rising 50-day moving average (SMA) is providing exceptional support and is about to cross above the 100-day SMA which has flattened out in preparation for a reversal to the upside…RSI(14) has unwound from temporarily overbought conditions in November and has found strong support around the 50% level (it’s currently showing up momentum at 57%)…

A picture tells a thousand words – quite simply, BLO will take the path of least resistance which should be higher based on the technical dynamics and the fundamental factors mentioned above…below is a 4-month daily BLO chart in U.S. currency (charts for stocks on the CSE aren’t yet available from Stockcharts.com)…

On New Year’s Eve, BLO announced the resignation of 2 directors who had joined the company in its early days as a mining entity in late 2011…that opens the door for some fresh expertise, so we do expect BLO will further strengthen its board in the near future as it prepares for an exciting new stage in its development in 2015…

Fairmont Resources Inc. (FMR, TSX-V)

This is such a real and refreshing Venture opportunity with immediate potential catalysts to drive value…combined with the simplicity of it all, we’re compelled to label this a “Special Situation” highly worthy of our readers’ attention and due diligence – especially given the current state of the junior resource market…

It’s rare that a Venture company is so fortunate and lucky enough to be in the position of Fairmont Resources (FMR, TSX-V) which is rapidly moving toward yet another milestone that has the potential to deliver near-term cash flow and earnings momentum over the next several years…that’s the kind of scenario that not only keeps a junior resource company in business, but allows it to thrive no matter what the overall market conditions are…and with just 17.5 million shares outstanding, this experienced group has the benefit of an extremely favorable share structure…

We’ve uncovered other success stories in Quebec; Fairmont, we’re convinced, will be added to that list…currently, it has a tiny market cap as it has been flying “under the radar”…in our view, that’s about to change as FMR has all the ingredients to do what 95% of Venture companies can only dream about – create shareholder wealth…

Fairmont has embraced the “KISS” principle…it’s an industrial minerals company, and relatively easily they can make products that are in demand…running a quarry is not rocket science and it can be highly profitable, especially when you’re in an area, as FMR is, with easy access that’s blessed with all the infrastructure you require…

As you can see on the map below, the Buttercup (along with FMR‘s other properties which we’ll get to in the coming days), is just 30 km north of Chicoutimi and less than an hour’s drive from the Port of Saguenay…

FMR Receives Certificate of Authorization For Buttercup

Just a few weeks ago, shortly before Christmas when most investors were still in shock from the Venture’s nearly 40% collapse, Fairmont announced that it had just received the all-important “CA” – the certificate of authorization (the extraction permit) for its Buttercup Project from Quebec’s MDDEP…that’s a valuable certificate, allowing production of up to 300,000 tonnes annually of titano-magnetite aggregate from the Buttercup…notably, the project received the unanimous support from the counsellors of the Municipality of St-David-De-Falardeau…

Armed with the “CA”, Fairmont is now in a position to line up sales agreements in advance of production, and that’s in part what can energize this stock over the winter…

This company delivered on its promise of securing a “CA” for extraction…that was a major milestone, so we don’t doubt their ability to start nailing down buyers for their product in the very near future…

And what’s FMR‘s current market cap?…just $3.3 million based on the current price of 19 cents (the rising 300-day SMA has been providing solid support around 15 cents)…

Buttercup’s titano-magnetite is the kind of clean, dense (heavy) aggregate that should command interest…from landscaping to rail tracks, it has valuable potential uses…

Based on an historical resource (non-compliant) and extensive sampling, Buttercup has an abundance of titano-magnetite with some special characteristics that could also attract the interest of steel makers as a high-end product for use in blast furnaces (upon additional permitting at the Buttercup)…we’ll get more into that in the near future…

Highly confident in its property, and given the relatively straightforward and inexpensive process of blasting, crushing and sorting, Fairmont hasn’t seen the need to incur the costs of a NI-43–101 resource estimate or a feasibility study…keep in mind, this is a simple aggregate quarry, not an underground or open-pit precious metals mine…even with those situations, some feasibility studies aren’t worth the paper they’re written on…there is always a certain degree of risk and unknown factors with any production scenario, but operating a quarry at the Buttercup should be about as simple as it gets…

The junior resource sector has been hit hard in recent months but this has created unprecedented opportunities for investors among select companies, particularly those with a “niche” (like BLO and FMR) and a simple low cost model with an opportunity to sustain operations and grow internally…

Fairmont has many refreshing aspects to it – we’ll have more tomorrow…

Precipitate Gold Corp. (PRG, TSX-V) Update

We’ve mentioned this one before – keep an eye on Precipitate Gold (PRG, TSX-V) and its exploration activities in the Dominican Republic…yesterday, the company reported highly encouraging results from a recent IP survey at the Ginger Ridge zone within the company’s Juan de Herrera Project…

The main Gold target chargeability anomaly has been extended an additional 850 m north of discovery hole 5 which returned 13.4 g/t Au over 5.0 m within 18 m of 4.5 g/t Au as reported by the company late last September…most investors have overlooked this discovery given the state of the markets over the last 4 months…interest in PRG should definitely pick up once a new drill program is announced…

Below is a 2-year weekly PRG chart…the stock made progress during a challenging 2014, and the overall technical posture gives a favorable outlook for 2015…

PRG is off 3 pennies at 16 cents as of 8:30 am Pacific…the mid-teens appears to be a very attractive entry point based on John’s chart below…as always, perform your own due diligence…

Calibre Mining Corp. (CXB, TSX-V) Update

Calibre Mining (CXB, TSX-V) has enjoyed an active start to 2015 with total volume (all exchanges) of nearly 3 million shares through the first 4 trading days of the New Year…

CXB was a strong out-performer in 2014, a trend that seems likely to continue in the year ahead…

A healthy technical consolidation occurred in Calibre during last October and early November after quite a dramatic run that began near the end of May…support held, as expected, between the 9 and 12-cent Fib. levels…

Results from a 5,000-meter Phase 1 drill program at the Eastern Borosi Gold-Silver Project, financed by IAMGOLD Corp. (IMG, TSX) have so far been very encouraging, and more assay results are pending…

Meanwhile, at the end of October, CXB announced commencement of a Phase 1 diamond drilling program (1,500 meters in up to 13 holes) on the Minnesota Gold Project within the B2Gold Corp. (BTO, TSX) joint venture on the Borosi concessions, northeast Nicaragua…Calibre controls a 49% interest in the JV while B2Gold has a 51% interest and is project operator…BTO has the right to earn an additional 19% per cent in Borosi by spending $6 million in additional project expenditures over 3 years…

CXB is off half a penny at 14.5 cents as of 8:30 am Pacific…the 50-day SMA is now on the rise again, a positive sign, while support at the rising 100-day SMA, currently at 13 cents, has been superb since the stock broke out near the end of June last year…

Note:  John and Jon both hold share positions in BLO.