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1. Gold has traded between $1,268 and $1,279 so far today, rebounding after release of a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report that also gave little evidence of inflationary pressures…Gold is up $8 an ounce at $1,278 as of 7:00 am Pacific…Silver has jumped 23 cents to $14.83…Copper is 3 cents higher at $2.86…Nickel has added 5 cents to $5.56 while Zinc has gained 3 pennies to $1.32…Cobalt remains steady at $15.76…Tesla (TSLA, NASDAQ), a major minerals consumer, sees shortages of Nickel, Copper and other electric-vehicle battery minerals down the road due to under-investment in the mining sector, its global supply manager for battery metals told a conference in Washington, D.C, yesterday that brought together miners, regulators and lawmakers…Crude Oil is relatively unchanged at $61.90…U.S. Crude supplies will continue to rise as its export infrastructure is improved, with de-bottlenecking of the Permian basin expected in the near future through new pipelines and export capacity (Canada is a different story, of course)…this will connect the world’s largest shale basin to the global Oil market…the U.S. Dollar Index is off slightly at 97.80…Vice President Mike Pence believes the Fed should look to cut its benchmark interest rate due to a lack of inflationary pressures in the economy…“I think it might be time for us to consider lowering interest rates,” Pence stated in a CNBC interview this morning…“We just don’t see any inflation in this economy at all”…
2. The Trump economy is showing no signs of slowing down: The U.S. jobs machine kept humming along in April, adding a robust 263,000 new hires while the unemployment rate fell to 3.6%, the lowest in a generation, according to a Labor Department report this morning…non-farm payroll growth easily beat Wall Street expectations of 190,000 and a 3.8% jobless rate…average hourly earnings growth, an important inflationary metric, held at 3.2% over the past year, slightly below estimates…unemployment has not been this low in the United States since 1969 when it hit 3.5%…at a time when many economists see a tight labor market, big job growth continues as the economic expansion is just a few months away from being the longest in history…
3. The contrast couldn’t be more stark: As Canadian senators (unelected and unaccountable) ponder passage of a bill (C-69) that is certain to further hamper resource development in this country, in another Trudeau/Liberal scheme to “save the planet”, a U.S. senator is introducing legislation to streamline regulation and permitting requirements for the development of electric-vehicle supply chain minerals – part of a plan to offset China’s dominance in the space…while Tesla, Volkswagen AG and other electric-focused automakers and battery manufacturers are expanding in the United States, they are reliant on mineral imports without a major push to develop more domestic mines and processing facilities…Senator Lisa Murkowski, the Alaska Republican who is chair of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is introducing the Minerals Security Act alongside Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat…“Our challenge is still a failure to understand the vulnerability we are in as a nation when it comes to reliance on others for our minerals,” Murkowski said…“Whether we realize it or not, energy and minerals fuel our 21st century economy and standard of living. Access to energy and minerals impacts everything from healthcare, to poverty levels, to defense readiness, and the strength of our manufacturing sector. In the past decade, we have seen a dramatic increase in domestic energy production and a corresponding decrease in our dependence on energy imports. This remarkable shift has led to substantial economic benefits here at home, while also giving us options to help our allies to achieve a level of energy security. In contrast to the energy sector, our nation is headed in the wrong direction on mineral imports. This is our Achilles’ heel that serves to empower and enrich other nations, while costing us jobs and international competitiveness”…
4. Alberta’s Oil and gas sector woes have claimed another victim as privately-held Calgary-based Trident Exploration ceased operations this week…other companies could soon suffer the same fate…Trident’s board of directors resigned, 94 people are without work and a large number of Oil and gas assets now have no owner…while there is no official list of how many firms have declared bankruptcy in recent years, at least a dozen companies have become insolvent in the last 12 months according to Insolvency Insider, an industry newsletter…plenty of companies are in rough shape, said Daryl Bennett who works with small energy companies through his positions with the Action Surface Rights Association and Alberta Surface Rights Federation…“It’s going to get a lot worse,” he told the CBC during a phone interview from his home in Taber, in southern Alberta…“There are close to 31 companies right now that are close to going insolvent”…since the beginning of January, heavy Oil in the province has sold for more than $40 (U.S.) per barrel and even climbed above $50 this month…still, this week, the Petroleum Services Association of Canada lowered its 2019 drilling forecast for the 2nd time…it now anticipates 5,300 Oil and gas wells will be drilled in Canada, down from a revised estimate of 5,600 wells in January and a 20% drop from its original 6,600 forecast in November 2018…this is Canada’s self-inflicted wound – the destruction of jobs, investment, and many families’ hopes for the future…
5. The Dow has jumped 132 points after the first 30 minutes of trading…in Toronto, the TSX is up 50 points lower while the Venture has rebounded 3 points to 604 after weakness in cannabis stocks dragged the Index down yesterday…Radius Gold (RDU, TSX-V) has pulled back slightly in early trading but that’s also what it did yesterday before turning north later in the session…RDU appears destined to push significantly higher given a major technical and fundamental breakout powered by Wednesday’s news of a 44-m intercept grading 12.4 g/t Au and 309.3 g/t Ag at the company’s Amilia Project…geologists now know where they are in the system, and that bodes well for upcoming results…the system may also expand going further to depth…drilling continues with holes stepping out 100 m along strike and +- 50 m below known mineralization…similar style major epithermal mines of the Sierra Madre (e.g. Palmerejo, Pinos Altos, La Cienga) located in the same regional volcanic belt as Amalia are known to have mineralization occurring over large vertical intervals between 600 and 750 m…48North (NRTH, TSX-V) is up 8 cents at 98 cents after reporting that is has raised another $13.6 million from an accelerated expiry of December 2020 warrants…the company will put the proceeds toward the execution of its proposed 100-acre outdoor cannabis facility and the development of next-generation cannabis products expected to be available for retail sale this fall…
6. Pretium Resources (PVG, TSX) is trading sharply higher after reporting net earnings of $4.16 million (U.S.) for Q1 2019 on total revenue of $103 million (81,434 ounces sold)…adjusted earnings were $16.5 million (U.S.), the company’s 7th consecutive quarter of positive adjusted earnings, while all-in-sustaining costs were $868 per ounce (upper end of guidance)…Joseph Ovsenek, President and CEO, stated, “Brucejack delivered another profitable quarter and generated free cash flow. Our AISC for the quarter was within our annual guidance, and we generated almost $40 million in cash from operations, which enabled us to pay down $20 million of debt ahead of schedule. We made significant progress in the quarter towards achieving our 3,800 tonnes per day production rate target at Brucejack and with increased accessibility from continued underground development, we have established a solid foundation for operating effectively at our higher target rate. Both grade and tonnes are expected to be higher in the 2nd half of the year and we remain on track to achieve 2019 guidance”…the Company expects to achieve its 2019 Gold production guidance of 390,000 ounces to 420,000 ounces and the planned production ramp-up from 2,700 tonnes per day to 3,800 tonnes per day over the course of the year…as the mine plan sequences through a lower grade area of the Valley of the Kings, all stopes above cut-off grade of approximately 5 g/t are being mined as they become available for production…accordingly, Gold grade in the 1st quarter was 8.7 g/t…the grade is expected to average approximately 10.4 g/t over the course of 2019…
7. The number of Canadians using cannabis has gone up substantially over the last year, according to the latest figures from Stats Canada…during the 1st quarter of 2019, 646,000 Canadians reported trying cannabis, compared to just 327,000 a year prior…among Canadians aged 15 and older, a remarkable 5.4 million people reported using cannabis in the past 3 months, a 4% per cent jump from those who said they were cannabis users a year ago…although the number of cannabis users is increasing in Canada, their demographic appears to be relatively unchanged – cannabis users remain predominantly male and young…for instance, 22% of Canadian males consume cannabis, compared to 13% of females…usage was also substantially higher (30%) among 15 to 24-year-olds (a statistic no country should be proud of) compared to those aged 25 and above (16%)…Stats Canada says an estimated 38% of Canadian cannabis users obtained cannabis from the black market in the first 3 months of 2019, down from 51% in the same year-ago period…
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Any opinions on 48North?
Comment by flyinthruu — May 3, 2019 @ 7:27 am
Nothing’s changed since Sunday Sizzler report, flyinthru…great buying opportunity on the pullback, and pressure is off after the acceleration on the warrants…another $13 million in the bank…looks great…
Comment by Jon - BMR — May 3, 2019 @ 7:40 am
Looks like something cooking with CCW-bring in a guy from London & I believe the London exchange isnt in favour of cobalt from Congo ?
COQUITLAM, BC, May 3, 2019 /CNW/ – Canada Cobalt Works Inc. (TSXV: CCW) (OTC: CCWOF) (Frankfurt: 4T9B) (the “Company” or “Canada Cobalt”) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Marc T. Bamber to the Company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately.
Mr. Bamber, based in London, England, has nearly two decades of successful deal-making experience in the capital markets, with a primary focus on the resource sector, and will use his international connections to help spearhead an aggressive corporate development strategy pertaining to Canada Cobalt’s proprietary Re-2OX Process (refer to April 30, 2019, news release).
“Given the latest results, Dr. Molnar and SGS Lakefield have taken Re-2OX to an exciting new level that opens new doors of opportunity for Canada Cobalt and its shareholders, not only in Northern Ontario but on a global scale,” stated Bamber. “I look forward to playing an important role in leveraging this technology into much more of a key value-driver for Canada Cobalt among a series of positive catalysts for the company.”
Mr. Bamber was a core member of an award-winning special situations fund for 7 years, vetting and executing investments in hundreds of resource, tech, media and food companies.
About Canada Cobalt Works Inc.
Canada Cobalt is focused on immediate and longer-term value drivers at its past producing Castle mine and adjoining land package in the historic Northern Ontario Silver-Cobalt district, Canada’s cobalt heartland since the start of the electric vehicle revolution. The Canada Cobalt “advantage” includes underground access at Castle, an innovative tailings program with a plan to recover silver, gold and cobalt, a recently installed pilot plant to produce gravity concentrates on site, a proprietary hydrometallurgical process known as Re-2OX, and exciting exploration discovery potential at Castle East.
“Frank J. Basa”
Frank J. Basa, P. Eng.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Comment by Silverhook — May 3, 2019 @ 12:03 pm
Looks like Marc Bamber could be an excellent addition for CCW. I don’t see anything negative about this. Should be a good complement to Frank.
Comment by Danny — May 3, 2019 @ 3:08 pm