The following piece from Yahoo! Finance (Michael Santoli) is making the rounds: A final purge to $700? What gold bulls’ surrender might look like. It has a sexy title that draws forth the reader’s curiosity and the piece does a decent job of summarizing the overall state of the gold market in a cogent and to the… Continue Reading

Patient and steadfast uranium investors were given an early Christmas present last week when the Japanese community of Satsumasendai announced approval of the restart of the Sendai nuclear power-plant, the first restart to be approved in Japan since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. In addition, an unusual amount of demand entered the spot market leading up to the announcement of… Continue Reading

There hasn’t been much from the miners or E&P’s to get excited about this year.  One exception (there are always exceptions) is Lucara Diamond (LUC.TSX).  Not surprisingly it’s a Lundin Group company.  Shares of Lucara are up 40% year-to-date, but even that return doesn’t reflect the true state of their operations. After the market closed today the company released its Q3 results… Continue Reading

The uranium space caught some attention last week after an important vote in Japan opened the door for nuclear reactor restarts. Here’s an excerpt from Haywood Mining Team’s week in review: “The Broker Average Price (BAP) for U3O8 rose 8.1% this week, up 3.8% on Thursday alone, before finishing at $41.00 per pound U3O8 on… Continue Reading

Gold posted a powerful upside move during Friday’s session following dovish comments by ECB President Mario Draghi and a weaker than expected US payrolls report: Click to enlarge Gold (Hourly) The rally stopped just shy of previous support near $1180 while printing a bullish reversal ‘hammer’ candlestick on the weekly chart: The CFTC Commitments of… Continue Reading

I came across an interesting article from Bloomberg this morning with some quotes from some big names on gold: “I don’t care if you are Einstein…..It’s impossible to forecast for a week from now and a year from now.” ~ Peter Munk “Nobody really understands gold prices…..And I don’t pretend to really understand them either.” ~… Continue Reading

West Africa has encountered a series of significant set backs recently, including the outbreak of Ebola and the dissolution of the Burkina Faso political framework.  One place in West Africa that hasn’t been affected by either Ebola or political instability is Ghana.  Fortunately for Asanko Gold (AKG:TSX), their two gold mines – which hold almost 11 million ounces… Continue Reading

Copper has long been one of the trickiest markets to trade; it has regularly caught the crowd positioned exactly the wrong way and posted vicious moves in the opposite direction. However, in recent weeks the red metal has been unusually placid as it has oscillated near major support at ~$3.00/lb: Click to enlarge Copper Weekly… Continue Reading

Robert Friedland’s Ivanhoe Mines (IVN:TSX) and the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) in South Africa jointly announced today that the mining right for the development and operation of the Platreef project has been finalized and work can resume immediately. Work at Platreef, which will be one of the world’s largest platinum mines, had been delayed since May… Continue Reading

Gold miners, as represented by the HUI (NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index), gapped below their 2008 lows on the open this morning: Click to enlarge This chart is remarkable considering the magnitude and severity of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008 and speaks to the depth of the bear market in gold shares we’re seeing today. However,… Continue Reading

The Central Fund of Canada (NYSE:CEF, TSX:CEF.A) is a $3 billion closed-end fund whose sole mandate is to invest in gold & silver bullion. As of yesterday’s market close the Central Fund had 61.1% of its assets in gold bullion and 38.4% of its assets in silver bullion: Click to enlarge CEF trades like a regular… Continue Reading

After pre-marketing their latest venture, Denham Capital, which is one of the largest resource-focused private equity firms, announced the formation of Auctus Minerals, to focus on acquiring underperforming operations across Australia and applying operating efficiencies to them in order to turn a profit. The venture is being funded with US $130 million (initially) from Denham and will… Continue Reading

Mark Dow of the Behavioral Macro blog is out with a thoughtful post titled “Precious Metals. The Second Wave of the Bubble Unwind is Upon Us”.  Dow has been bearish on gold for the past couple of years, and he makes several astute points in his post. Here is a key excerpt: “When I’m asked how… 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

It is not a coincidence that gold has seen a low of $1161 thus far in today’s large sell-off: Click to enlarge There is a great deal of Fibonacci confluence in the $1154-$1160 area (the 50% retracement of the entire 2003-2011 bull run and the 61.8% retracement of the 2008 low to the 2011 peak).… Continue Reading