Check back later this morning for today’s BMR Morning Market Musings.
1. Gold is now attempting to break out above resistance at $1,260, hitting its highest level in 4 weeks ahead of the U.S. Memorial Day long weekend despite modest gains in the greenback…as of 7:00 am Pacific, the yellow metal has added $11 an ounce to $1,267…Silver is up sharply, adding 20 cents to $17.31, and is on track to mark its biggest weekly rise since mid-April…meanwhile, Copper prices hit a 3-week high this week thanks to continuing unrest at Freeport McMorRan’s Grasberg mine where workers have vowed to extend a strike into a 2nd week…another terrorist attack this morning as masked gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians to a monastery in southern Egypt, killing at least 20 people in the latest attack on the minority Christian community…ISIS vowed last year to step up attacks on Coptic Christians and claimed responsibility for 2 recent attacks on Palm Sunday when at least 45 worshippers were killed at 2 separate churches…
2. U.S. economic growth in early 2017 was stronger than initially thought, and broad growth is poised to pick up in the current quarter…GDP expanded at an inflation and seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.2% in the 1st quarter, the Commerce Department announced this morning in a modestly higher than expected upward revision…consumer spending, which accounts for the majority of U.S. economic output, slowed a bit less during Q1 than previously estimated…the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow model last week projected a Q2 growth rate of 4.1% while forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisers yesterday predicted 3.2% growth in the spring quarter…meanwhile, the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index was just released and came in at a strong 97.1 in May, albeit slightly below the consensus estimate of 97.5…
3. Northern Vertex Mining (NEE, TSX-V) has partnered with Greenstone Resources LP to finance the company’s Moss mine Gold/Silver Project in western Arizona through to positive cash flow and launch a U.S. Gold consolidation strategy…commercial production is now targeted to begin earlier than expected, later this year…NEE has entered into a subscription agreement for a non-brokered private placement with Greenstone for aggregate gross proceeds of $20 million (U.S.) through the issuance and sale of a total of of 51.8 million units at a purchase price of 52 cents per unit…Northern Vertex has also completed a separate non-brokered private placement of $5 million (U.S.) on the same terms as the Greenstone financing…Greenstone is a private equity fund specializing in the mining and metals sector…NEE is up a penny at 52 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…
4. Castle Silver Resources (CSR, TSX-V) has just announced that it has closed the 2nd tranche of an oversubscribed private placement, bringing total gross proceeds so far to $966,500, with the company increasing the PP to $1.2 million due to investor demand…CSR, preparing for the start of a Phase 1 underground drilling and sampling program at its 100%-owned Castle mine, says a high-grade Cobalt vein structure featuring black sulphides and cobalt “bloom” has been identified on the first level of the mine and is the initial target of upcoming extraction that will utilize the company’s Re-20X process to produce value added high-purity Cobalt powder test samples for end users in the battery sector…a 3D underground model is also being produced using extensive historical data from all levels that includes some exceptionally high-grade Silver values…12 drill holes on the first level, for example, feature weighted average grades of 100 oz/ton Silver (3,428 g/tonne) or better over 1-foot intervals (9 holes with 1 such interval each, 2 holes with 2 such intervals, and 1 hole with 3 such intervals)…
5. IDM Mining (IDM, TSX-V) announced this morning that it has completed the acquisition of the mineral claims and certain other related assets comprising the Red Mountain Project from Seabridge Gold (SEA, TSX)…IDM acquired the 100% interest, subject to certain underlying agreements and royalties, pursuant to the option agreement entered into in April 2014…the Red Mountain Project covers an area of 17,125 hectares and is located 15 km northeast of Stewart…in accordance with the option agreement, IDM has replaced Seabridge’s $1.0 million reclamation security held by the province…IDM is obligated to make a $1.5 million cash payment to Seabridge upon the commencement of commercial production at Red Mountain and Seabridge retains the right to acquire 10% of the annual Gold production from the project at a cost of $1,000 U.S. per ounce up to a maximum of 500,000 ounces produced (50,000 ounces to Seabridge)…alternatively, at Seabridge’s sole option, Seabridge may elect to receive a one-time cash payment of $4 million at the commencement of production in exchange for the Gold metal stream interest. “Completing the acquisition of title for a 100% interest in the Red Mountain Project is another significant step for IDM Mining,” said Rob McLeod, President and CEO of IDM Mining. “We are grateful to have worked with Seabridge as the property vendor, and are excited for further milestones as we advance the project towards a production decision for a high-grade Gold, bulk mining underground operation.”
6. Strength in precious metals this morning has lifted the Venture 4 points higher to 804 through the first 30 minutes of trading, though there are no runaway leaders so far this morning…today marks the final day of trading on the Venture for success story Nighthawk Gold (NHK, TSX-V) which graduates to the TSX Monday, a pivotal moment in the company’s evolution…NHK commenced a 25,000 m drill program in March at its advanced Indin Lake Gold Property in the Northwest Territories…initial drill results are expected shortly and should further delineate the high-grade potential at Colomac…the TSX is off slightly in early trading along with U.S. markets…U.S. equities came into today’s session riding a 6-day winning streak with the S&P and Nasdaq indexes notching new record highs yesterday…
7. Enforcer Gold (VEIN, TSX-V) has enjoyed a strong week, thanks largely to a big jump yesterday on volume of more than 2 million shares…VEIN is off a penny at 22 cents through the first 30 minutes of trading today…VEIN has commenced a major field exploration program at the Montalembert Gold Project in northern Quebec…this will include the first-ever large diameter core drilling campaign (expected to commence in mid-to-late June) to be conducted on the high-grade Galena and No. 2 veins…the exploration program is expected to run uninterrupted through the late fall of 2017 and is fully funded…the style of the vein systems at Montalembert is shear-hosted quartz-carbonate Gold mineralization, the most significant source of Gold in the Abitibi greenstone belt…
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CSR -do they know if the silver holes on the first level mined out or remaining to quantified and mined?
100 oz silver per ton X 17 us is almost 1 1/2 oz per ton gold in us dinero – just salivating with cobalt byproduct @25 us per ton or vice versa.
Comment by donald — May 26, 2017 @ 8:37 am
Ps do you know what are black sulfides and any significance that are associated with the cobalt bloom in the news release?
Comment by donald — May 26, 2017 @ 8:43 am
CSR has indicated that much was left behind by Agnico Eagle, Donald, not just Cobalt but Silver as well. I suspect some more of those exceptionally high grades will be found, even though quite a bit was mined, and Anigco Eagle also ignored anything that was 3 ounces per tonne Silver or less…Cobalt all over the place…
Comment by Jon - BMR — May 26, 2017 @ 8:47 am
rjx.a looking stronger,closed $300,000 pretty quick..plus should have money in a month from sale of blackwater-if approved-
Comment by Silverhook — May 26, 2017 @ 9:56 am
black sulfides – that’s what you see in very high-grade Cobalt, Donald…the pinkish Cobalt bloom indicates very good grades but the black sulfides, which CSR mentioned this morning, can really kick…
Comment by Jon - BMR — May 26, 2017 @ 10:09 am
Jon, vanc. Sun re headwaters protection by province for Tahitian nation for 20 years.Page A8, your take please.
Comment by richard — May 26, 2017 @ 10:49 am
Jon…do you think Secutor is about out of GGM shares, dumping into the bid seems to have eased last 2 days.
Comment by bob — May 26, 2017 @ 11:13 am
Old issue in B.C. (Klappen controversy, Coal, Oil and gas) and doesn’t affect any of the plays we follow, Richard…
Comment by Jon - BMR — May 26, 2017 @ 11:34 am
Close, Bob, but not quite there yet…
Comment by Jon - BMR — May 26, 2017 @ 1:05 pm
Hi Jon,
Granada Gold Ggm global inferred 80 millions tons with a grade of 1.3 grams per ton . The inferred grade of the resource is 4.86. , 8x more tonnage for global resource . What will it take to raise the grade of the global inferred? 4.86 g /t underground sounds very similar to Integra’s grading. 80 million tons is crazy big.
.
Comment by Donald — May 28, 2017 @ 5:33 am
Donald, first off, if GGM used a higher cut-off grade, comparable to ICG around 2.5 g/t Au, you’d see a grade of probably 7 or 8 g/t Au for GGM’s underground resource, though less ounces of course – perhaps a million or so vs. 1.5. Further drilling in that area would also impact the grade as well as tonnage.
Even better grades are believed to exist to the west and northwest (Genesis target) which has never been previously drilled. Yes, the high-grade potential of this entire package to the north of the LONG Bars Zone is really quite remarkable – this is where everything started at Granada. They need to drill aggressively in this area. Major high-grade resources at depth + an open-pit in the LONG Bars Zone. Interesting scenario to say the least. The high-grade should extend directly below the open-pit to depth.
Comment by Jon - BMR — May 28, 2017 @ 5:52 am
When will DRA report be available and what about the concentration benefits they talked about to lower costs?
Comment by Donald — May 28, 2017 @ 6:21 am
Hopefully soon, Donald…I believe GGM stated by the end of Q2.
Comment by Jon - BMR — May 28, 2017 @ 7:27 am
In DRA’s LOI they said:
DRA and CCP’s work will comprise several phases that can be progressed in parallel, culminating in a final technical and financial proposal to be provided to the Company in May 2017 including details of the feasibility study (FS) to be completed and an optimal financing strategy to complete the FS.
They are known to deliver on time, but we’ll know in 3 business days.
Comment by bob — May 28, 2017 @ 7:39 am
granada presentation shows target of 100000 oz per year. the new resource is 2.3 millions ounces, so is that equivalent to 23 years of production? why not increase the target especially if there is global inferred is 80 milliopn tons underground.
Comment by donald — May 28, 2017 @ 7:59 am
can you compare the new cross section block resource image to the PEA image of 2012 ln the same presentation ? what does it mean?
Comment by donald — May 28, 2017 @ 8:55 am