I had the chance to visit once again with Rick Rule, Chairman of Sprott US Holdings. It was a great conversation, focusing on the state of metals and mining, a $20 billion opportunity now available due to market chaos, and ‘multiples of potential return’ in mining equities, should historical measures reassert themselves. “I’ve seen this… Continue Reading

Few majors and juniors are willing to deploy exploration capital in this market but even less are prepared to prospect on virgin ground. One junior Company with a mandate to pursue grassroots exploration is Westhaven Ventures (westhavenventures.com). Westhaven (TSX.V – WHN) is the vehicle legendary prospector Grenville Thomas and his team are using to define… Continue Reading

The Sunday Times of London reported overnight that Mick Davis’ X2 Resources has made a bid for some of Anglo American’s Chilean copper mines, their Brazilian nickel assets, and some of their coal operations.  If successful, this would represent Davis’ first acquisition since he left as head of Xstrata after the merger with Glencore in 2013, and could… Continue Reading

Patricia Mohr is Scotiabank’s Vice President of Economics and Commodity Market Specialist who, in 2012, won the Metal Bulletin Apex award for the top gold and overall precious metals price forecasts when she was 99.63% accurate in her call on the price of the yellow metal that year. Yesterday, she published a succinct report noting that a… Continue Reading

Today, the world’s largest diversified miner, BHP Billiton, announced it is looking to divest all or part of its Western Australian Nickel West business which includes the Mt Keith, Cliffs and Leinster mines and associated concentrators, the Kalgoorlie smelter, Kambalda concentrator and the Kwinana refinery.  The announcement comes as nickel prices continue to soar (although have… Continue Reading

Gold has bounced off the $1180 level twice in the last year, most recently in late December. Since then, it’s had a fantastic run and, at the time of writing, was trading at $1380. That’s nearly a 17% gain in less than 3 months. Nickel’s up nearly 20% off its 52-week low of $5.97 with… Continue Reading

Bitterroot Resources Ltd. (BTT, TSX-V) has closed a non-brokered private placement of 5,200,000 units priced at C$0.05 in a non-brokered private placement for gross proceeds of C$260,000. Each unit consists of one common share and one common share purchase warrant which is exercisable at C$0.10 until March 4, 2015. The common shares, plus any common… Continue Reading

TCR first flagged the idea of a Nelson Mandela platinum coin in early November 2013. Now, the coin idea is in the news. See: Mandela Platinum Coin A platinum coin memorializing Nelson Mandela could mesmerize Mandela fans and use 1 million ounces of the metal a year, platinum executives in South Africa estimate. Some mints… Continue Reading

This morning, explorer Desert Star Resources (DSR:TSXV) announced Mark Selby would be joining the company’s advisory board.  Mr. Selby is currently the Senior VP, Business Development at Royal Nickel (RNX:TSX) and is the owner of his own consulting firm, Selby & Co.  Mr. Selby is also and has been since August, 2009, a director of… Continue Reading

Indonesia, considered the Saudi Arabia of nickel production, has banned exports of unprocessed material, meaning domestic producers won’t be able to ship their cheap ore to China for processing anymore. The move has huge implications for the global nickel market, according to the Financial Post’s Peter Koven: Miners in Indonesia have provided roughly a quarter… Continue Reading

Not all metals and sectors have the same catalysts; so, to not miss mining opportunities in 2014, we must understand which metals/minerals will face supply gluts, difficulty financing and a lack of investor interest, and avoid them. On the flip side, we must be aware of exactly which metals/minerals are facing imminent supply deficits, because… Continue Reading

Dr. John-Mark Staude’s, prospect generator, Riverside Resources (RRI:TSXV) has announced they found a partner in Pembrook Mining (private) to option their Coatan gold project in Mexico.  Pembrook will have to pay Riverside $27,460 in cash and incur $1.8 million in expenditures on the project over the next four years to earn an initial 70% interest.  Then, to… Continue Reading

Sound familiar?  That’s because Asanko Gold (AKG:TSX) and PMI Gold (PMV:TSX) attempted a merger in late 2012 that was mutually terminated in early 2013 after it became apparent they wouldn’t get the supermajority votes necessary to complete the transaction.  Now, after the largest price decline in gold in over a decade and the substantial derisking that… Continue Reading

An article from Mineweb’s Alex Williams this morning summarized the recent discussion Rick Rule (Chairman of Sprott US Holdings) and Robert Friedland had at this year’s Mines & Money Conference in London, UK.  Below are a few of the quotes from the article: “This is very much what a bottom feels like,” said Friedland. “Most of the CEOs of the major mining… Continue Reading

Calandra: Junior Miners Need Consolidating By Hannah Tool | Index Universe Thom Calandra was co-founder and chief columnist of MarketWatch before it was sold to Dow Jones in 2005. After taking a few years off, he returned with The Calandra Report, a mining-focused newsletter. Calandra spoke to IndexUniverse contributing writer Hannah Tool about the downturn of… Continue Reading