Junior miners, especially in bear markets, are all about the people… Wealth Minerals (TSX.V – WML) (http://www.wealthminerals.com) is working to ensure future success by attracting top tier talent with significant experience in Latin America. Yesterday, the company announced that Mr. Xiaohuan (Juan) Tang, B.Eng, M.Eng, M.Sc, M.Phil, is joining the leadership team as a Director… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: The chart of 30-year fixed mortgage rates dating back to the early ’70s is a sight to behold: For the last several years American borrowers have been blessed with the good fortune of historically low Treasury Bond yields which have in turn translated into historically low 30-year fixed mortgage rates (a… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: Last week we highlighted the 3200-3400 area in the Shanghai Composite as a likely support zone from which a dead-cat bounce could begin and that is exactly what has transpired over the last few days:   The rebound has been fairly aggressive (20% in 3 trading sessions) and the target area… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: The recent parabolic leveraged speculative rise and fall of the Shanghai Composite is reminiscent of silver’s epic rise and crash during 2011, have a look:  Silver (2010-2011)        Shanghai Composite (2014-2015)   While the chart structures are slightly different (silver rose 50% in barely 6 weeks while Shanghai took… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: After a margin debt fueled parabolic ascent, China’s Shanghai Composite has been in virtual free-fall for the last month. Bloomberg put together an interesting chart which effectively illustrates the timeline of events which led to where we are at now:   Judging by media coverage and social media message volume we… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: I came across two powerful China charts from J.P.Morgan this weekend:   During the last decade the correlation between Chinese monetary conditions/nominal GDP growth and commodities is almost uncanny; the CRB bottomed at the exact month that China monetary conditions bottomed in early 2009 and began rolling over again in 2011 just… Continue Reading

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a big, lush, mineral-rich country in the heart of Sub Saharan Africa, currently produces roughly 6% of the world’s copper (approx 1 million tonnes per annum). Mining engineer and CFA Tom Meyer, an equity research analyst with CIBC World Markets, is concerned DRC supply could be in jeopardy, compounding… Continue Reading

January 12, 2015 When China celebrates its new year next month, we will transition into the Year of the Ram, also known as the Year of the Goat or Sheep. If you believe in luck, this could be a good sign. The ram comes eighth in the 12-zodiac cycle, and in Mandarin, “eight” sounds very… Continue Reading

Deutsche Bank is out with some compelling slides on the Canadian housing market that should cause any good Canuck to sit up and take notice: There are more slides in the report but the picture is pretty clear. Canada has undergone a tremendous real estate boom during the past decade and prices in certain places… Continue Reading

It seems like everyone’s got an opinion on oil these days. Some people think oil is heading to $40 while others are of the opinion that the sell-off has been too harsh and prices should rebound rapidly. Sorry to disappoint but I don’t fall into either camp. Here are my thoughts on crude oil in… Continue Reading

VANCOUVER, CANADA — In the commercial real estate world, when investors expect a piece of land to be an ultra safe investment, prices get bid up, and yields come down. This makes sense: the safer the bet, the lower the return. After a crazy week in the markets however, I’m left wondering: is any investment… Continue Reading

In 1852 the clipper ship The Flying Cloud sailed from New York to San Francisco in 89 days, a world record time that would stand until 1989. What is truly remarkable about the story of The Flying Cloud is not only the speed, but the motivation behind it. The clipper’s record setting voyage took place… Continue Reading

In a shocking move, the world’s largest producer of thermal coal, Glencore (GLEN.LON), announced yesterday that it will shut down its Australian coal operations for three weeks starting in mid-December. An estimated 5 million tonnes of output (roughly 6% of Glencore’s annual Australian coal output) will be cut from the markets as a result. Seaborne thermal-coal prices remain at… Continue Reading

In a capital intensive business such as mineral exploration and development, the ability for a company president or CEO to find new money is of paramount importance. One such junior mining CEO, John-Mark Staude of Riverside Resources (RRI.TSXV), is an experienced, hard working geologist and deal-marker we trust. Luckily for Riverside they do not need… 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