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Gold continues to power higher after briefly dropping very close to a major support level at $1,475 last week…as of 8:00 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up another $13 an ounce at $1,529…Silver, after a big run yesterday, is another 37 cents higher at $35.85…Crude Oil is down 54 cents at $96.35 while the U.S. Dollar Index has climbed nearly half a point to 75.06…euro zone debt concerns continue which is helping to fuel precious metals…China has raised its benchmark interest rates for the third time this year, adding to efforts to cool the world’s fastest-growing economy with inflation at a three-year high…the one-year lending rate will increase to 6.56% from 6.31% tomorrow while the one-year deposit rate will also go up 25 basis points to 3.5%…this could mark the end of tightening this year for China with a very gradual loosening of monetary policy possible through the remainder of the year…inflation is expected to top out in June at 6%…recent comments from Chinese authorities, including the premier, suggest officials in that country believe they have inflation under control which will allow China to focus more on growth going forward…statistics have shown the Chinese economy has been slowing somewhat in recent months…GDP, however, is not expected to drop below 8% which will keep commodity markets healthy…China, in the context of its own economy, seems to have successfully engineered a “soft landing”…the growth story there continues and that’s what will help support commodities…the CDNX is up another 14 points this morning to 1946…as expected, results from the Yukon are beginning to light a fire underneath this market and investors have to pay attention to what’s unfolding there…ATAC Resources (ATC, TSX-V), though it already has a very healthy market cap, is up another 37 cents this morning to $8.02 after reporting a 114.93-metre intersection grading 3.15 g/t Au from the first hole of the 2011 season at the Conrad Zone at its Rackla Gold Project – a 100-metre step-out from last year’s discovery hole that returned 21.13 metres grading 8.03 g/t Au…the Conrad Zone is one of four Carlin-type Gold zones drilled to date within the Osiris area, located in the eastern part of ATAC’s 185-km long project…some 80 companies are spending approximately $400 million this summer in the Yukon, so there is going to be an avalanche of news over the next few months that could potentially spark a major run in the CDNX and lift the Index much higher…fundamentally and technically, the pullback we’ve seen since March has been nothing but a normal correction within an ongoing bull market and the balance of this year could indeed be quite dramatic…there are many excellent plays in the Yukon but just some of the ones we believe have the best potential, besides ATAC if it indeed makes a Carlin-scale discovery, include Silver Quest Resources (SQI, TSX-V), Kaminak Gold (KAM, TSX-V), Golden Predator (GPD, TSX-V), and Ethos Capital (ECC, TSX-V)…another geologically fascinating part of the country of course to keep an eye on is northwest Quebec, an area we’ll be visiting again in the near future to check on the likes of Gold Bullion Development (GBB, TSX-V) – GBB is stirring again and looking very strong – Adventure Gold (AGE, TSX-V), Visible Gold Mines (VGD, TSX-V), Golden Valley Mines (GZZ, TSX-V), Abcourt Mines (ABI, TSX-V), Mazarro Resources (MZO, TSX-V) and others…while there is plenty of excitement and huge opportunities in some of those situations, one of the most exciting stories in the area is Richmont Mines (RIC, TSX)…while we focus almost exclusively at BMR on Venture-listed companies, one of our favorite Gold stocks and a “super growth” opportunity with earnings momentum and major exploration upside is TSX-listed Richmont which we’ve become very familiar with given our keen interest in the Cadillac Trend and the Rouyn-Noranda area since late 2009…this is a company with no debt, $50 million in cash, earnings per share of 46 cents through the first six months of this year, exploration drilling of 100,000 metres in 2011, and annual production that’s expected to increase by 40% in 2012 and possibly triple from current levels (80,000 to 85,000 ounces in 2011) within about three years if it’s growing Wasamac deposit goes into production by then which seems quite possible…developments at Wasamac are highly intriguing as demonstrated by the updates the company has issued on the property over the last year and recent months in particular…Richmont has already outlined an all-category 43-101 resource estimate of 1.4 million ounces, a figure that could still grow significantly if mineralization continues to be discovered at deeper levels and trends eastward…results such as 46.6 metres of true width grading 3.45 g/t Au  (#65, Main Zone, 713 metres vertical depth) and 68.4 metres of true width grading 2.66 g/t Au (Zone 1, #66A, 534 metres vertical depth) demonstrate how robust this system is…if Richmont is able to connect the various zones (which are already quite wide) and continue to discover mineralization at deeper levels and further eastward, Wasamac could very easily develop into a multi-million ounce deposit…Richmont continues to feverishly drill Wasamac and will be delivering a scoping study on the project by the end of this year…Wasamac of course is a former producer and the increase in the price of Gold forced Richmont to take another look at it, and the results have been impressive…it’ll be an underground operation in one of the best mining jurisdictions in the world…with a current market cap of just $233 million, the potential of Richmont is obvious given its earnings momentum and rapidly growing production profile…it has been one of the best performing stocks on the TSX this year, as mentioned in this morning’s Globe and Mail, and John likes how the stock looks from a technical standpoint as outlined below…

Currie Rose Resources (CUI, TSX-V) gave an exploration update yesterday on its projects in Tanzania…drilling has started at Mabale Hills where the company has completed three holes at Sisu River…506 samples have already been sent in for assaying to a nearby lab and more holes are being drilled there at the moment which suggests CUI’s geological team likes what it sees so far…it’s believed that drilling didn’t go deep enough in the first-pass drill program late last year which is why one of the first three holes went as deep as 150 metres…Sisu River still has the potential to get quite interesting…to the southwest there are new targets at Mwamazengo, west of a previous discovery area, and drilling will also take place at Dhahabu where encouraging trenching results have been previously reported…the possibility of Currie Rose pulling out some dandy holes at Mabale Hills certainly exists, as history has shown, but what has us most excited is the Sekenke Project which is about 200 kilometres to the southeast…ground preparations continue for a major drill program there…Sekenke is strategically located as it includes a land package that surrounds and runs in between two former high-grade mines including one of Tanzania’s original producers…there has been consistent accumulation in Currie Rose over the last several months and as activity heats up on its properties, a major breakout through resistance at 22.5 cents seems very possible with CUI which is currently at 18 cents…John updates the chart below…