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A Happy 4th of July and “Independence Day” to our American friends…Gold is quiet today, trading between $1,611 and $1,621 an ounce…as of 7:30 am Pacific, the yellow metal is down $3 an ounce at $1,614 after yesterday’s nice jump…Silver is off 13 cents at $28.16…Copper is 3 cents lower at $3.50…Crude Oil is down 41 cents at $87.25 while the U.S. Dollar Index is up one-quarter of a point to 82.05…

U.S. Stock markets are of course closed today for the Independence Day holiday which will affect volumes on the Canadian markets…Asian markets were mixed overnight while European shares are relatively unchanged this morning…

The Venture Exchange enjoyed its second consecutive strong day yesterday, climbing 34 points to 1225…a good argument can be made that this market has put in a bottom but we’d like to see more follow-through as the month progresses…at the very least, the Venture appears to be in the midst of a substantial rally which may have caught some investors off guard…when the Venture turns, it can do so very abruptly as we’ve all seen on several occasions over the last couple of years…as of 7:30 am Pacific, the Venture is up another 8 points at 1233 but on very light volume given the American holiday…

Euro Zone – France Hikes Taxes

In typical socialist fashion, France is imposing $8.7 billion in new taxes this year including large one-off levies on wealthy households and big corporations to plug a revenue shortfall left by slowing economic growth, according to a revised 2012 budget…it seems Europeans (even an American President for that matter) haven’t figured out yet that besides the fact taxes (and regulatory uncertainty) kill jobs and investment, the problem with most governments is that they consistently spend more than they take in…they are addicted to spending…giving a wasteful government more tax dollars is insane…the root of the problem is what needs to be addressed and that’s spending, plus fixing policies that don’t encourage growth or investment…

France,  by the way, is also imposing a “one-off” tax on its oil sector to raise some $600 billion, but all that will do is hurt its already struggling refining industry…

European Central Bank Watch

All eyes will be on the ECB Thursday which is widely expected to lower interest rates and possibly take steps, through an asset purchase program, to bring down bond yields for Spain and Italy…

RJK Explorations (RJX.A)

Last Saturday, we had a good chat with RJK Explorations (RJX.A, TSX-V) President Glenn Kasner who’s more optimistic than ever about his company’s chances for success in the Blackwater District of central British Columbia…at BMR, we were very early to the Blackwater story when it first broke in late 2009 after Richfield Ventures reported initial impressive drill results…we followed Richfield over the next year-and-a-half as it surged from under a dollar to $10 a share and was ultimately bought out by New Gold Inc. (NGD, TSX) in a deal valued at $550 million…New Gold continues to drill Blackwater like Swiss cheese and at last report the deposit contains indicated/inferred resources of 6.5 million ounces of Gold and 36 million ounces of Silver…
the company also tightened its control over the area by acquiring two companies last fall (SilverQuest and Geo Minerals) and recently cutting a deal with Gold Reach Ventures (GRV, TSX-V) for $6 million…

RJK holds a large land package in the heart of the Blackwater camp, and no doubt New Gold is keeping a close watch on any exploration results from RJK’s Blackwater East/Northeast, Blackwater West and Dave 2 claims…

What we find particularly interesting (we’re sure New Gold does too) is the June 13 news from RJK that investors missed the significance of…the stock actually took a beating that day, falling from an opening price of 22 cents to an intra-day low of 8.5 cents…it closed that day at 9.5 cents before rebounding the next two trading sessions back into the mid-teens where it sits now…

At Blackwater East/Northeast, RJK hit a 3.3-metre intersection at a depth of 79 metres grading a whopping 79.04 ounces per ton Silver (2,710 g/t)….perhaps the market was looking for Gold which is why it sold off, but that’s a stunning, encouraging and important result worthy of follow-up…a second intersection nearly 7 metres farther down the hole graded 1.13 ounces per ton (38.9 g/t)…core recovery was poor which is why the company is going to follow-up with some RC drilling (reverse circulation) in the coming weeks after additional geological/structural interpretation, geophysical and geochemical work…Kasner is sending out a crew from Quebec to help in that process, so the company is taking the significance of those Silver intersections very seriously and they’re smartly getting some fresh eyes on this discovery…the key is to follow this trail of high-grade mineralization and see where it may lead to…

RJK has really only scratched the surface of Blackwater land package and drilling will also start later this summer on the Blackwater West and Dave 2 claims…

We’ll be following RJK closely over the summer given the possibility of another significant discovery in the Blackwater camp…it wouldn’t take much, in our view, for New Gold to pounce on this one as they are being aggressive in their approach to this area…

RJK is also looking very attractive from a technical standpoint, despite the recent pullback…below is a 10-year monthly chart from John – note how the 500 and 1,000-day moving averages are continuing to rise which suggests the stock remains in a long-term uptrend…accumulation has also been occurring…the stock is up 2.5 cents to 14.5 cents on light volume this morning, just a few pennies above the supporting 1,000-day SMA…

John has two additional charts this morning – Gold Reach Ventures (GRV, TSX-V), as mentioned above, and Impact Silver Corp. (IPT, TSX-V)…these are two interesting plays but, as always, perform your own due diligence…

Gold Reach Ventures (GRV, TSX-V)

Impact Silver Corp. (IPT, TSX-V)

Note: John., Jon and Terry do not hold positions in RJK Explorations, Gold Reach Ventures or Impact Silver Corp.