Check back later this morning for today’s BMR Morning Market Musings.
1. Escalating tensions over North Korea have given a fresh spark to Gold after last week’s minor pullback in the metal…bullion has traded between $1,264 and $1,277 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $11 an ounce at $1,272…Silver has added 34 cents to $16.77…base metals are following through on yesterday’s strength…Copper, at its highest levels in more than 2 years, is up slightly at $2.93…Nickel has gained another 6 cents to $4.86 while Zinc is up 2 pennies at $1.34…Crude Oil is 23 cents higher at $49.23 while the U.S. Dollar Index has rallied one-fifth of a point to 93.79…North Korea, which 3 successive American administrations have failed to effectively address, stated that it’s considering an attack on the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam just hours after President Trump warned Pyongyang that any threat to the U.S. would be met with “fire and fury”…reports indicate North Korea may have succeeded in building a nuclear warhead that can fit atop an ICBM…the West, hopefully with some help from China, must find a way to confront the evil of North Korea…the naivety of the last couple of decades has brought us to this point…
2. Crude Oil is holding gains after a just-released report from the EIA showed a larger than expected drop in U.S. Crude stockpiles, but a surprise rise in gasoline inventories…commercial Crude inventories fell by 6.5 million barrels last week, much more than expected, but the bullish news was tempered by a 3.4 million barrel rise in gasoline stocks vs. a forecast drop of 1.5 million barrels…
3. The Dow’s streak of record closes was snapped at 9 yesterday with the index down another 40 points through the first 30 minutes of trading this morning after Disney exceeded earnings expectations but missed on sales…the TSX is up 8 points while the Venture has added 1 point to 767 as of 7:00 am Pacific…a key band of resistance for the Venture stretches from 770 through the 780’s…once that is overcome, the Index could accelerate rapidly…more high-grade from northwest B.C. as Dolly Varden Silver (DV, TSX-V) intersected 12.55 m grading 514 g/t Ag in the Torbrit deposit area at its Dolly Varden Silver Project near Stewart…3 well-mineralized holes, including that one, were located on the southeastern edge of Torbrit and filled a gap in the drilling…DV is up 6 cents at 57 cents, albeit on light volume…the 5,000-m drill program continues…two-thirds of the drilling is allocated to resource validation and expansion and one-third will focus on targets beyond the current resource estimates…
4. Jaxon Minerals (JAX, TSX-V) is pushing higher on news this morning with the company announcing some high-grade results from its just-completed first phase of fieldwork at its Silver-Zinc-Gold Hazelton VMS Project near Smithers…channel widths of up to 5 m from 9 exposures were recorded over a 700-m surface extent and almost 200 m of elevation at the Max zone…assay results released this morning were highlighted by 3 m grading 694 g/t Ag, 6.8% Zn, 4% Pb and 1.1 g/t Au in channel sample 742S-807…meanwhile, Jaxon’s prospecting teams have expanded their knowledge of the area outside the immediate focus of the Max massive sulphide zones…the previous extensive soil grid of 2,800 samples spread over a 1 x 3 km grid and the recently obtained magnetic-VTEM Survey produced significant anomalous targets which had never before been identified…Jason Cubitt, President and CEO, stated: “We acquired a property with spectacularly high grades of Silver and Zinc in outcrop at surface, but little in the way of geological mapping, structural modelling or data continuity necessary to infer mineral potential at scale. Now we’re confident that with this first phase of field operations we’ve taken a significant step toward that end.”
5. Barkerville Gold Mines (BGM, TSX-V) has intersected 18.8 g/t Au over 30.85 m at its Cariboo Gold Project…the intensely veined and silica altered sandstone hosted zone occurs 20 m vertically below previously reported drill hole IM-17–078 which cut 11.4 g/t Au over 28.5 m at a vertical depth of 450 m below surface…the geometry and true width of the mineralized zone is not known at this time…
the company is currently exploring and delineating the Valley and Shaft zones with 7 drill rigs while an 8th drill rig is testing a broad Gold in soil anomaly on Barkerville Mountain…given the continued drilling success at the project, the company has ordered 2 additional drill rigs to bring the total number of operating rigs to 10…BGM is up 6 pennies at 88 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…
6. First Cobalt (FCC, TSX-V) has commenced drilling at the past producing Keeley-Frontier mine near Cobalt, Ontario…a total of 7,000 m are planned at Keeley-Frontier as well as some nearby targets on the adjoining exploration claims…the initial drill program is based on a 3D geological model compiled from historic information and detailed field mapping conducted over the past 3 months…drill targets over a 2-km strike length, including the Haileybury and the Bellellen systems, are testing known Cobalt-rich areas of the Keeley-Frontier vein system that were not historically mined…Trent Mell, President and CEO, stated: “Through our acquisitions over the past few months, we now find ourselves with a target-rich environment, evidenced in the number of historic Silver mining operations in the Cobalt, Ontario Camp that have never been assessed for their Cobalt potential. Our proposed mergers with Cobalt One and CobalTech Mining are progressing well and on completion First Cobalt will be the largest Cobalt exploration company in the world. Controlling over 10,000 hectares of property and covering almost half of the prospective land in the Camp, we look forward to announcing additional exploration targets once this consolidation is completed.” FCC remains halted but the company expects trading will resume later this month…
7. eCobalt Solutions (ECS, TSX), which is closing in on a new high, providing an update this morning on its Feasibility Study and recently initiated pre-construction activities for its 100%-owned Idaho Cobalt Project (ICP) in anticipation of final FS receipt expected later in September…the ICP is the only near-term, environmentally permitted and primary Cobalt project located in the United States…Paul Farquharson, President & CEO of eCobalt, stated: “We are encouraged by the recent progress and preliminary results of the Feasibility Study. As we anticipate results to be filed in September, we are fast tracking key pre-construction activities at the mine site this fall in preparation for the expected recommencement of construction in 2018 after project financing is completed.”
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Is all of the cobalt refining for CSR done by outside labs or vendors? How does CSR plan to scale up this refining to commercial quantities? I would bet the demand is greater than their ability to provide it.
Comment by Marshall — August 9, 2017 @ 8:05 am
The first step, Marshall, is creation of the Cobalt hydroxide samples for end user evaluation through the Re-20X process which is being carried out by SGS…the next logical step for CSR would be a pilot plant that would also incorporate the recycling component of their plan…the federal govt. has a nice fund to tap into (for green projects) to help with a pilot plant…
Comment by Jon - BMR — August 9, 2017 @ 8:19 am
do you think that CSR and GGM could both tap into that green project plan together and build a joint plant?
Comment by marc — August 9, 2017 @ 9:01 am
GGM should focus on Granada, Marc, and it will…though of course there’s a possibility of mill sharing at Castle…
Comment by Jon - BMR — August 9, 2017 @ 9:18 am
Thanks for the quick response Jon!
Comment by marc — August 9, 2017 @ 9:30 am