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Gold continues to push higher amid a variety of bullish factors, including the fact cruise missiles are being locked in on Syria and ready to be fired in order to deter that regime from using chemical weapons…as of 7:30 am Pacific, bullion is up $6 an ounce at $1,422…the West needs to get it just right in Syria – their pending attack, which will likely occur over a maximum 48-hour period according to reports, has to be destructive enough to deter Assad from using chemical weapons again, yet proportionate enough that Russian and Iranian retaliation is limited to rhetoric…Syria also has friends in China…keep in mind, also, that many of the rebels Assad is fighting against in Syria are Islamic militants with ties to al Qaeda…so which side is worse?…Silver is off a nickel at $24.47…Copper is down a penny at $3.29…Crude Oil (see updated chart below) has added another 84 cents to $109.85, its highest level in 2 years, while the U.S. Dollar Index has gained one-third of a point to 81.47…

According to our technical guru, it’s looking increasingly likely that bullion is destined (at the very least) to test its previously strong support band between $1,550 and $1,600 – exact timing is uncertain and there will be pullbacks along the way, but for both fundamental and technical reasons there’s a very bullish set-up in Gold at the moment…forget about the Fed starting to scale back its bond-buying program in September – that’s one message Gold appears to be sending…the political environment just isn’t favorable, either in the U.S. (debt ceiling debate coming up) or globally…recent economic numbers out of the U.S. have not been very encouraging, and the prospect of Fed tapering is hurting emerging markets which in turn isn’t helpful to the United States…the Fed seems to be trapped and how Bernanke decides to maneuver through all of these obstacles is going to be fascinating to watch…

The Indian rupee fell more than 3.5% to hit a fresh record low of 68.75 to the dollar today…the currency has been hit hard by a sell-off in emerging markets assets which has focused attention on India’s wide current account deficit, sluggish economy and the slow pace of long-term structural reforms…the Indian government believes the way to fix the country’s current account deficit is to encourage or prevent its citizens from buying Gold…it’s an incompetent, corrupt government and when an incompetent, corrupt government is asking or telling you not to buy Gold, what would you be motivated to do?…buy even more Gold, by the truckloads, and that’s what the Indians are doing, either legally or by circumventing government rules…

WTIC Updated Chart

Crude prices are at 2-year highs, jumping more than $5 this week on fears that tensions in Syria could spill over and further destabilize the Middle East which pumps one-third of the world’s Oil…the “risk premium” could carry WTIC to at least $115 a barrel, and that’s a level the chart is pointing to right now…a prolonged outage at several Libyan oilfields is also underpinning  prices…Libya’s largest western oilfields closed when an armed group shut down the pipeline linking them to ports, its deputy oil minister confirmed yesterday…sectarian violence continues in Iraq, while supplies from Nigeria, Libya and Sudan are coming in lower than expected…

So how does the WTIC chart look?…in 1 word, bullish…John’s initially provided a Fibonacci target of $110 quite a while ago…significantly, WTIC broke above a pennant yesterday…this is a “continuation pattern” which requires confirmation today…the next Fib. level is $115…

Thankfully, North America is not as dependent on Middle East Oil as it once was…and the current situation in that always troubled part of the world is just one more reason why it’s so critical for President Obama to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline Project – vital to U.S. energy (and national) security…if it plays its cards right, the U.S. can be in a position in a few years where it doesn’t have to import any Oil whatsoever from the Middle East (or Venezuela for that matter) – only from Canada and Mexico…according to the latest statistics from the EIA (the U.S. Energy Information Organization), the U.S. imported 1,140,000 barrels of oil per day from Saudi Arabia in May of this year, 361,000 from Kuwait, 321,000 from Iraq, and 674,000 from Venezuela…Canada of course is the top exporter to the U.S. (2.2 million barrels in May) while Mexico (#3) exported 777,000 barrels…U.S. Oil production has reached its highest level in 2 decades, thanks to previous policies enacted by the Bush Administration…

More Crude Oil is moving around the U.S. on trucks, barges and trains than at any time since the government began keeping records in 1981 – a precursor to what may become a bigger change in the next few years with the construction of more than $40 billion in Oil pipelines now underway or planned…

Today’s Markets

After falling for 8 out of the last 10 sessions (562 points or 3.7%), the Dow is up 30 points as of 7:30 am Pacific…the TSX has gained 39 points while the Venture is hugging its 100-day moving average (SMA), down 2 points at 935…Mike England’s Ashburton Ventures (ABR, TSX-V) is the volume leader this morning after reporting positive sampling results from its Sienna West claims in Saskatchewan, approximately 40 km southwest of the PLS uranium discovery…ABR is up 2.5 cents at 9 cents on total volume (all exchanges) of nearly 3 million shares…

Asian markets were all lower overnight but it wasn’t exactly a rout…Japan’s Nikkei average fell 204 points or 1.5% to close at 13338…China’s Shanghai Composite was virtually unchanged at 2101…European markets are down moderately in late trading overseas…

Colorado Resources Ltd. (CXO, TSX-V) North ROK Update

Colorado Resources (CXO, TSX-V) released results from 9 additional holes at North ROK this morning…nothing “sizzling”, like 2 of the initial 4 holes, which is why CXO is under pressure in early trading today (also due to typical “knee jerk” selling on news)…the results from North ROK can best be described as neither poor nor great, sort of “in between” and lukewarm…for some investors, uninspiring…this supports the theory that we’ve been advancing that the best project in this area is actually further west in the Sheslay River Valley where investor focus is going to shift to very soon…Pete Bernier’s Prosper Gold (PGX.H, TSX-V) project is more advanced than North ROK and in our view has greater potential as we’ve been stating…also, keep in mind, the combined Sheslay and Grizzly properties are 240 sq. km, 5 times the size of North ROK…

These are still very early days for North ROK…this morning’s news, though not spectacular, does confirm that it remains a very promising property with strong upside potential…CXO has managed to show continuity of mineralization on multiple sections along a 500-metre strike length…NR-13-13, a 400-metre step-out to the southeast of the original discovery hole, returned a very respectable interval of 402 metres grading 0.28% Cu and 0.27 g/t Au (0.45% CuEq)…NR-13-13 was terminated at the drill’s maximum capacity (565 metres) with 0.31% CuEq at the bottom of the hole…drilling continues which is positive and the possibility of another stellar hole that lights up the market is certainly very possible…CXO hit a low of 45 cents (where there is support) during the 1st hour of trading…buyers stepped in at that point…as of 7:30 am Pacific, CXO is down 22 cents at 48 cents…Dundee, with the largest house position in CXO (they’re net about 2 million shares over the past 6 months at an average price of 87 cents), hasn’t sold a single share so far this morning…geologically, the North ROK story remains intact (the system remains open along strike in both directions and at depth) and bargain hunters this morning stand a good chance of being handsomely rewarded…

Castle Resources Inc. (CRI, TSX-V)

Northwest B.C. remains hot, which is 1 important reason we brought Castle Resources Inc. (CRI, TSX-V) and its high-grade Granduc Copper Project near Stewart to our readers’ attention August 19 when it was trading at a nickel…yesterday it broke out above resistance and closed up 2 cents at 7 cents on total volume (all exchanges) of 2.8 million…we’re expecting September and October to be great months for exploration activity and excitement in B.C., so Castle – like Garibaldi Resources (GGI, TSX-V) and several others – could just be warming up for potentially very powerful moves…the dynamics are in place…

About 6 weeks ago, Castle engaged KPMG Corporate Finance to identify, analyze and execute a transaction that will fast-track the development of Granduc…the company is considering a range of transaction structures, including a joint venture, off-take agreement, earn-in or some form of business amalgamation or merger…since that announcement, and up until yesterday, the stock traded between a low of 2.5 cents and a high of 6 cents on a huge uptick in volume (good sign)…

In February, Castle issued a Granduc PEA using a measured/indicated resource of 11.3 million tonnes grading 1.47% Cu, 0.17 g/t Au and 12.4 g/t Ag, and an inferred resource of 44.6 million tonnes grading 1.43% Cu, 0.19 g/t Au and 10.7 g/t Ag…the capex is estimated at $494 million…the payback period is 4 years with annual production averaging 70 million pounds of payable Copper equivalent over a 15-year mine life…resources are open for expansion, and excellent infrastructure is in place…the PEA envisions an underground mining operation similar in scope to the historic mining operations at Granduc in the 1970′s and 1980′s…

Below is an updated CRI chart from John which helps show why this stock is waking up and the potential (like Garibaldi and others in northwest B.C.) that is still has…CRI’s ADX indicator on this 8-month weekly chart shows a looming +DI/-DI crossover, always a bullish sign…as of 7:30 am Pacific, CRI is off half a penny at 6.5 cents…

Niogold Mining Corp. (NOX, TSX-V)

Niogold Mining Corp. (NOX, TSX-V) has formed a strong base around 12 cents in recent months, and interestingly it added Simon Ridgway to its board of directors just a couple of months ago…the company, which reported about $4.5 million in working capital as of the end of May, has retained a 100% interest in the Marban Block Property in Quebec which previously was under option to Aurizon Mines, recently acquired of course by Hecla Mining (HL, NYSE), the largest U.S. primary Silver producer…

“We are extremely pleased to again have full control and ownership of the Marban property,” President and CEO Mike Iverson stated in a news release this morning…“Aurizon had previously incurred a total of $11,600,000 of exploration expenditures under the option agreement, which has grown the estimated measured and indicated Gold resources by 255% to 1.53 million oz (32.1 million tonnes at 1.48 g/t) and the inferred Gold resources by 165% to 599,000 oz (16.5 million tonnes at 1.13 g/t).”

NOX is up a penny in early trading at 15 cents…below is a 2.5-year weekly chart from John…

Adventure Gold Inc. (AGE, TSX-V)

Adventure Gold (AGE, TSX-V) is one of our old favorites and we continue to like it, especially with AGE trading in the mid-teens…we’ll have more on AGE in the next few days, but in the meantime, for our readers’ due diligence, is an updated chart from John…AGE closed at 15.5 cents yesterday…