Check back later today for Daniel’s Den and visit the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information.
1. Gold has rebounded, now even on the day at $1,313 after touching its lowest level ($1,307) in more than 2 weeks this morning on nervousness ahead of a Fed meeting that starts tomorrow…speculation is that the central bank will raise rates and signal at least 2 more increases this year…keep in mind, the price of Gold has bounced back after each of the 5 previous U.S. rate hikes…Silver is off 6 cents at $16.27…Copper has slipped a penny to $3.10…Nickel is 3 cents lower at $6.13 and Zinc is steady at $1.48…Cobalt is unchanged at a decade high of $39.58…Crude Oil has retreated 23 cents to $62.11 while the U.S. Dollar Index has fallen one-quarter of a point to 89.99…
2. Hecla Mining (HL, NYSE) is buying out Klondex Mines (KDX, TSX) in a friendly takeover with a mix of cash and shares of Hecla in a deal valued at $462 million, while Klondex’s Canadian assets will be spun out to its existing shareholders (newco will be Klondex Canada)…Klondex shareholders will receive $2.47 (U.S.) per share in cash or shares of Hecla which represents a 59% premium to Klondex’s 30-day volume-weighted average price as of last Friday. “Opportunities to acquire significant land packages along Nevada’s prolific Gold trends are very rare,” stated Phillip S. Baker Jr., Hecla President & CEO. “Rarer still are for these land packages to have the highest grade mines in the U.S. and this transaction is consistent with Hecla’s strategy of owning large prospective land packages with mines where we can improve costs, grow reserves and expand production. We structured the deal to use our excess cash balance so our shareholders can benefit from the approximately 162,000 Gold equivalent ounces a year of production while minimizing dilution.”
3. The internal battle for control of Colorado Resources (CXO, TSX-V) has turned personal and nasty…a letter to shareholders issued by the company (Chairman Larry Nagy) this morning read, in part, “Your Colorado Resources investment is at risk. Your Board of Directors uncovered evidence of what it believes to be a scheme by former CEO Adam Travis to rig a series of business deals to benefit himself, at the expense of Colorado Resources, and misappropriate and pocket thousands of shareholder dollars. Once our Board discovered that Travis had his hand in your cookie jar, we took action to terminate him. We have also launched a court action, on behalf of all Colorado shareholders, against Travis to recover any funds that he may have misappropriated and claims for damages he has caused in the Company’s business dealings. Now, out of animosity, he has launched an expensive and time-consuming proxy fight to take over Colorado Resources’ Board without disclosing his plan or agenda. Do not be fooled – Travis wants a Board that will allow him to keep treating your Colorado Resources as his own…the value Travis sees in Colorado is not in the shares he owns, but in the opportunity he sees to drain the company’s bank account…if you think Travis’ behavior is bad with a Board that is willing to hold him accountable, just imagine what he will do with a Board of friends he handpicks!.” After that attack, there’s little doubt this battle will heat up even more in the coming days…
4. Canada Cobalt (CCW, TSX-V) continues to deliver impressive high-grade Cobalt assays in mini-bulk samples from the first level of its 100%-owned Castle mine in the northern Ontario Cobalt Camp…the latest results feature 2.46% Cobalt and 6,173 g/t Silver from material that was crushed, blended and assayed by SGS Lakefield…Canada Cobalt is the only company in the northern Ontario Cobalt Camp with underground access, as it proceeds toward underground drilling, an important fact that was reinforced with last week’s proposed buyout of U.S. Cobalt (USCO, TSX-V) by First Cobalt (FCC, TSX-V) in all-share deal First Cobalt says “implies a total equity value of approximately $149.9 million on a fully diluted in-the-money basis”…meanwhile, Canada Cobalt has added Dr. Ron Molnar as a special advisor to advance the company’s proprietary Re-2OX process for Cobalt battery metals that’s being optimized at SGS Lakefield in southern Ontario…Dr. Molnar has designed, built and operated over 60 pilot plant circuits extracting, separating and purifying a wide range of metallic elements from Cobalt to rare earths, and he will be one of the key individuals who will assist Canada Cobalt in taking Re-2OX to the full pilot plant stage in 2018 with client-specific Cobalt formulations for the battery sector…
5. The Dow has retreated 172 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…in Toronto, the TSX is 44 points lower…the Financial Post over the weekend noted how a reinvigorated U.S. economy under President Trump is a better bet than Canada, where a ticking consumer-debt bomb and declining competitiveness are dragging on asset prices according to some top Canadian money managers…Trump’s tax cuts and pro-business agenda have revved up growth, stocks and corporate confidence…in Canada, minimum wage hikes and carbon taxes are ratcheting up business costs while a housing boom has pushed consumer credit to a near-record 170% of disposable income…besides the Klondex deal, there were 2 other takeovers announced this morning in the mining/exploration sector…Alio Gold (ALO, TSX) is acquiring Nevada-based producer Rye Patch Gold (RPM, TSX-V) in an all-share transaction valued at $128 million (CDN)…meanwhile, Anaconda Mining (ANX, TSX) has announced that it intends to make a formal offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Maritime Resources (MAE, TSX-V) for 0.364 of a common share of Anaconda for each Maritime share, a 44% premium to the volume weighted average trading price of MAE over the last 20 sessions…
6. Medreleaf (LEAF, TSX) has entered into an agreement to become the largest supplier of medical cannabis products to Cannamedical Pharma GMBH, a leading medical cannabis distributor to pharmacies in Germany…MedReleaf will provide Cannamedical with monthly exports of 5 of its premium strain varieties, significantly improving the predictability and security of drug delivery to the German market… Germany is poised to become the largest federally regulated medical cannabis market in the world, with a population of over 82 million, approximately 89% of whom are covered by the public health insurance program and the remainder covered by private insurance plans…the current medical cannabis laws in Germany came into effect just over a year ago…without domestic production, cannabis is being imported to meet the rapidly growing demand…
7. A Canadian federal task force helping the feds decide whether and how to impose marijuana testing for workers is at an impasse, ensuring no new federal rules on workplace impairment will be in place before pot becomes legal later this year…the committee, comprising federally regulated employers, labor groups and federal officials, is split over the issue of drug testing for jobs where impairment could pose a threat to public safety…a number of committee members say that means the Liberal government likely will not have time to address requests from employers, who want rules put in place for “safety-sensitive” jobs, such as transit drivers, that would allow employers to legally conduct random drug tests…there are no federal labor rules about drug and alcohol testing outside the military, but it is permissible in some circumstances…successive governments from the late 1980’s have stayed away from the issue…the Liberals are unlikely to make any final decision on drug testing until the Supreme Court of Canada rules on its legality in a case between Suncor (SU, TSX) and workers at its Alberta oil sands operation….
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NVX.v doing well.. Announced two PP’s in the last 3 days. They might be onto something any updates?
Comment by Large — March 19, 2018 @ 11:29 am
Looks like some AIS players got caught short. 51 cents up .07.
Comment by Marshall — March 19, 2018 @ 12:12 pm
Options are around 90 cents so any shorts are playing with fire and mgmt means business
Comment by Donald — March 19, 2018 @ 7:44 pm