BMR Morning Market Musings returns tomorrow. Check back every day for potential separate posts in addition to daily 7 @ 7:00 and Morning Musings Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
1. Gold has traded between $1,200 and $1,208 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is unchanged at $1,204 while Silver is off slightly at $16.91 ahead of tomorrow’s anticipated Fed rate hike and Dutch parliamanetary elections…Gold ETFs tracked by Bloomberg saw inflows of 6.4 tonnes yesterday – their first daily inflow in 7 sessions…Gold has dipped only 5.4% from its recent high on the expectation of a rate increase tomorrow, a far better performance than prior to the last 2 rate hikes in December 2016 and December 2015…
2. Producer prices for finished U.S. goods rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in February vs. the consensus estimate of 0.1%…the Consumer Price Index is scheduled for release tomorrow…meanwhile, Oil prices remain under pressure this morning with WTI at a fresh 3-and-a-half month low, down another $1.06 a barrel to $47.34…OPEC has raised its forecast of production in 2017 from outside the group, suggesting complications in the effort to clear a supply glut…
3. Supply disruptions at mines in Chile and Indonesia should keep Copper prices firm…over the weekend, the union at Chile’s Escondida – the world’s largest Copper mine – rejected efforts by BHP Billiton, the majority owner of the mine, to re-start talks…the strike has now been running for more than a month and negotiations likely won’t begin again before new Chilean labor regulations go into force at the start of April…meanwhile, a strike at the Cerro Verde mine in Peru, owned by Freeport-McMoRan, began last Friday…a dispute over the terms of an export license for Freeport’s Grasberg mine in Indonesia also continues to drag on…
4. North American markets are down modestly in early trading, led by the TSX which has shed 110 points as of 7:00 am Pacific…the Venture, after back-to-back days to the upside, has retreated 2 points to 802…getting an interest rate hike out of the way imminently should prove to be supportive for both the Venture and the overall commodities space…
5. Outside it’s still wintry, but inside Red Mountain it’s just beautiful!…IDM Mining (IDM, TSX-V) crews have mobilized to the company’s Red Mountain Project near Stewart, B.C., to initiate a spring 2017 Phase 1 underground drilling program…the objective is to expand mineralization to the north of the JW zone, following up on wide and high-grade historic intercepts…additionally, drilling will step out both up-dip and down-dip from the AV and JW Zones, where mineralization can be traced for hundreds of meters from 2016 and historic drill intercepts, often with stacked, gently dipping mineralized zones…Phase 1 will consist of 8,000 m of core drilling in approximately 35 holes, using 2 underground diamond drills, collared from the production-sized underground decline…IDM is unchanged at 14.5 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…
6. Thanks to a relatively low snow pack and an aggressive snow clearing program, Ascot Resources (AOT, TSX-V) has commenced the surface drilling portion of its $20-million 2017 exploration and development program at its Premier Property near Stewart…surface drilling is expected to consist of 120,000 m and is targeted to establish an initial 2 to 3 million ounce high-grade Gold resource…this work will require up to 8 drill rigs…later in the season, an additional 20,000 m of drilling is planned to explore grassroots targets and high-grade areas in the northern portions of the property…AOT is unchanged at $1.71 as of 7:00 am Pacific…
7. Nemaska Lithium (NMX, TSX) has released results of its initial production of spodumene concentrate at grades better than 6% from the Whabouchi mine, using a mine-representative bulk sample…the plant is running continuously at half its capacity, 12 hours per day since March 7…the operation is steadily ramping up and should reach a throughput of around 150 tpd…concentrate composite samples, produced on a 6-hour basis, yielded 2.89% Li and 6.22% Li2O; 3.05% Li and 6.56% Li2O; and 3.09% Li and 6.65% Li2O. “Generally speaking, the hard rock Lithium industry requires a 6% concentrate or higher to efficiently produce battery grade Lithium salts,” said Guy Bourassa, President and CEO of Nemaska Lithium. “We have seen other hard rock producers struggle to achieve this quality concentrate, making it more technically challenging and costly to produce battery grade Lithium salts. With this concentrate production we have met another important milestone as we continue to de-risk our project.” Nemaska is up 6 cents at $1.36 through the first 30 minutes of trading.
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The nickel chart looking nice so far today.
Comment by Laddy — March 14, 2017 @ 9:19 am
How some people trade is bizarre, but mistakes create opportunities…if you look at Metallis (MTS), which has a very strong situation emerging at the Kirkham Property, CIBC bought 100,000 shares last week at 18 cents…and this morning CIBC (perhaps the same investor who was maybe on the wrong side of the Oil trade or something) put up 100,000 shares in MTS at 16 cents (84,000 still left)…market cap $2.9 million…refer to our Sunday Sizzler…classic example of how you lose money and make money in the markets…
Comment by Jon - BMR — March 14, 2017 @ 9:58 am
Jon, when will the special section on the “Heart of Gold Camp” be available?
Comment by Dan1 — March 14, 2017 @ 11:12 am
Bernie, thanks for the tip on IP, only wish I had bought more.
Comment by Danny — March 14, 2017 @ 11:16 am
Jon its hard to get filled on MTS too, crazy stuff… that may be the best buy out there at a 2.9 million market cap, they even get a sniff at Kirkham and this thing is over a buck in my opinion
Comment by GREGH — March 14, 2017 @ 12:59 pm
Hoping v.csr will close. their pp shortly and we can begin moving up. Cobalt is holding up well. Im hoping we are not in a long drawn out situation as with ggm!! Comments on this situation would be appreciated.
Comment by goldilo — March 14, 2017 @ 3:24 pm
We’re aiming for sometime during the last half of March, Dan1. There are a few creators we’re dealing with on this – we’re going to make it good!
Comment by Jon - BMR — March 14, 2017 @ 6:21 pm
MTS – hard to fill. naw just take out the asks! day after day till news comes! the CIBC sellor wasn’t the trade from last week.
Comment by david — March 14, 2017 @ 6:37 pm
Jon, any idea when GGI will be conducting the EM survey at E&L? Not sure what the weather is like during spring in that area but assuming the cold clear days are getting few and far between.
Comment by Dan1 — March 14, 2017 @ 7:04 pm
Jon: so what do you expect after tomorrow’s rate hike announcement? Venture took it on the chin again today 🙁
Comment by STEVEN1 — March 14, 2017 @ 7:25 pm
There will be a rate hike, Steven, no question. The focus will be on the tenor of the Fed statement and how hawkish the markets interpret it to be. Both previous rate hikes were positive for the Venture, though not instantly—remember the few days of weakness and the “head fake” following the rate hike last December (what a buying opportunity!). Just over a month after the first rate hike in December 2015, the Venture bull market began. This hike will be helpful, too, I’m sure, but whether we get instant gratification we’ll have to wait to find out. There could be further testing of the Venture support band.
Comment by Jon - BMR — March 14, 2017 @ 7:54 pm