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Check back later this morning for today’s Morning Market Musings.

1. Gold has traded between $1,244 and $1,250 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is down $3 an ounce at $1,246 while Silver has slipped 16 cents to $18.06.  “Since we view real medium-term U.S. rates as a primary driver of spot Gold, particularly since 4Q’16/Trump election, we think Gold investors will continue to buy the dips over the short-term,” stated Citi Research…Gold enjoyed its best quarter in a year, gaining 8.6%, which was marginally better than Copper (5.9%) but behind Silver which raced 14.2% higher in Q1…hedge funds and money managers raised their net long positions in COMEX Gold for the 2nd straight week ending March 28, according to Friday’s U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data…

2. Activity at China’s factories expanded for a 9th straight month in March but at a softer pace as new export orders slowed…the Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ index (PMI), which tends to focus more on small to mid-sized manufacturers, fell to 51.2 in March, missing economist forecasts’ of 51.6 and down from February’s 51.7…growth in export orders slowed sharply, falling to a 3-month low of 51.9 from 53.8 in February…the findings from the private survey contrast with those of China’s official factory survey on Friday which showed activity grew the fastest in nearly 5 years in March…it also showed orders improved from home and abroad…generally, the PMI data from all sources in China has to be regarded as positive and should provide background support for commodity prices…President Trump has an important southern White House summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this this week…trade and North Korea will be at the top of the agenda…

3. Oil prices, which snapped back above $50 last week to finish the quarter, are holding steady today as a rebound in Libyan Oil production over the weekend weighed against upbeat economic data from Asia that pointed to strong energy demand from the region…meanwhile, energy services firm Baker Hughes said the U.S. rig count rose by 10 to 662 last week…Q1 was the strongest quarter for rig additions since mid-2011…

4. Charts are showing gradually increasing Venture bullishness as the Index attempts to overcome a band of Fib. resistance between 817 and 824…as of 7:00 am Pacific, the Venture is up 3 points at 819…one of the early trading leaders is Tinka Resources (TK, TSX-V) on outstanding drill results (see below)…in Toronto, the TSX has climbed 42 points through the first 30 minutes of trading while the Dow has edged 7 points higher…the ISM Manufacturing Index was just released and slightly exceeded expectations with a March reading of 57.2…

5. Tinka Resources (TK, TSX-V), halted on Friday, has confirmed a significant new high-grade high discovery at South Ayawilca, approximately 400 m south of the existing Zinc resource at its 100%-owned project in central Peru…in the best results ever from 2 adjacent drill holes at Ayawilca, A17–056 returned 51.9 m @ 10.1 % Zinc, 62 g/t Silver & 233 g/t Indium from 242 m depth (a shallower high-grade zone was previously reported) while A17–057 intersected 40.1 m @ 9.1 % Zinc, 22 g/t Silver and 168 g/t Indium from 157.6 m depth…A7–057 also hit 15.3 m grading 20.0 % Zinc, 2.5 % Lead, 102 g/t Silver & 263 g/t Indium from 264 m depth.  “The intercepts in these holes are between 60 and 100 metres apart, and we interpret two mineralized bodies gently dipping to the south, formed by replacement of the host sequence, and remaining open in all directions.  Furthermore, mineralization can be correlated from hole to hole showing good continuity, and aiding our interpretation of this blind target. Hole A17–056 has semi-massive to massive sulphide replacement of the entire 150 meter thick carbonate sequence, indicating a very strongly mineralized system,” stated Dr. Graham Carman, Tinka President and CEO…2 drill rigs are currently testing the scale of this newly discovered system while a 3rd rig will be added shortly, followed by a 4th rig by late this month…TK gapped up at the open to 69 cents, a new multi-year high, and quickly climbed to 73 cents before pulling back on profit-taking…it’s up 9 cents at 65 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…

6. Atlantic Gold (AGB, TSX-V) released results this morning from a further 21 holes comprising resource definition diamond drilling at its Fifteen Mile Stream Gold Project in Nova Scotia, a key Gold deposit not yet included in the Life of Mine Plan (LOM) for the Moose River Consolidated (MRC) Gold Project which is on target for start-up in September (Canada’s only open-pit Gold project that is permitted, financed and in construction)…2 rigs are currently operating at Fifteen Mile with nearly half of the planned 25,000 m having been drilled to date…results continue to suggest that AGB will be successful in bringing the resource at the property to the higher confidence level of Measured and Indicated status as an important next step to potentially adding to the existing LOM plan at MRC…AGB is off slightly at $1.17 as of 7:00 am Pacific…

7. Pilot Gold (PLG, TSX) reported this morning that results from metallurgical testing of oxide material from its Goldstrike Project in southwestern Utah provide “unequivocal” support for a simple heap-leach mining scenario…Gold recoveries from 19 of the 20 column tests were rapid and >80% complete within 10 days, with final column leach recoveries ranging from 65% to 97%…importantly, Gold extraction has proven relatively insensitive to particle size, and can be projected out to 150 millimetres (mm) (6 inch) particle size, simulating run of mine conditions, without significant loss of Gold recovery…the company has drilled 226 holes into the Main Zone thus far, with approximately 90% of the holes intersecting oxide Gold mineralization…the Goldstrike oxide Gold system has district scale potential based on historical and current drill results covering a 22 sq. km target area…PLG is off 2 pennies at 55 cents through the first 30 minutes of trading…

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