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Barrick Eyes Deals as Profit Surges 55% on Higher Gold Prices SPONSOR: Loncor Resources $LN.ca $ABX.ca $TECK.ca $RSG $NGT.to $GOLD $NEM

Posted by AGORACOM at 10:27 AM on Friday, May 8th, 2020

Sponsor: Loncor, a Canadian gold explorer controlling over 3.6 million high grade ounces outside of a Barrick JV. The Ngayu JV property is 200km southwest of the Kibali gold mine, operated by Barrick, which produced 814,000 ounces of gold in 2019. Barrick manages and funds exploration at the Ngayu project until the completion of a pre-feasibility study on any gold discovery meeting their Tier One investment criteria. Newmont $NGT $NEM owns 7.8%, Resolute $RSG owns 27% Management owns 29% Click Here for More Info

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Loncor-Small-Square.png
  • Concerns about the health of the global economy due to the coronavirus pandemic have boosted ‘safe-haven’ gold by 12%

Barrick Gold Corp posted a nearly 55 per cent rise in quarterly profit on Wednesday as gold prices surged, bolstering its ability to snap up mines including in copper, its chief executive said.

Concerns about the health of the global economy due to the coronavirus pandemic have boosted “safe-haven” gold by 12 per cent so far this year, while copper, seen as a bellwether for economic health, is down about 15 per cent.

Barrick CEO Mark Bristow has previously said the world’s No. 2 gold miner could raise its exposure in copper because of its expected higher use in electrification.

He added on Wednesday the relative price performance between copper and gold made deals more attractive.

“(A stronger balance sheet) improves our capacity to take up opportunities that might arise in the short to medium term given the dynamic nature of the global economy,” Bristow told Reuters.

He did not elaborate, but has expressed an interest in acquiring Freeport-McMoran Inc’s flagship Grasberg mine.

Barrick, which maintained its quarterly dividend of 7 cents per share, trimmed its annual production forecast for gold after shutting its mine in Papua New Guinea.

The Canadian miner now expects attributable gold production of 4.6-5.0 million ounces versus 4.8-5.2 million previously.

The government of Papua New Guinea announced in April it would not renew a 20-year special mining lease for the Porgera gold mine, which is jointly owned by Barrick and China’s Zijin Mining, due to environmental damage and social unrest.

Barrick (Niugini) Limited, the local venture in which both miners have a 47.5 per cent stake, had produced about 597,000 ounces of gold in 2019 from the Porgera mine.

Barrick has said it will contest the move, which it regards as “tantamount to nationalization without due process,” and in the meantime has placed Porgera on temporary care and maintenance, while suspending 2020 guidance for the mine.

Bristow said a mediator would be appointed to help negotiations if initial talks between the government and Barrick failed.

The company, with operations in North and South America and Africa, has not closed any of its mines due to coronavirus restrictions which have hit competitors.

Larger rival Newmont, which was forced to shutter some mines in Canada and South America, warned on Tuesday of a financial hit in the second quarter.

Barrick’s first quarter production fell 9 per cent to 1.25 million ounces. Excluding one-off items, Barrick reported a profit of 16 cents per share, in line with analyst estimates.

Source: https://business.financialpost.com/commodities/mining/barrick-reports-55-higher-adj-profit-helped-by-gold-prices 

CLIENT FEATURE: Loncor Resources $LN.ca 3.6 Million High Grade Gold Ounces in the DRC $ABX.ca $TECK.ca $RSG $NGT.to $GOLD $NEM

Posted by AGORACOM at 12:45 PM on Monday, April 27th, 2020
http://blog.agoracom.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Loncor-Small-Square.png

LN:TSX

3.6 Million High Grade Gold Ounces in the Congo

Imbo Concession: Loncor controls 76.29% of the Imbo Project.

3 Seperate Deposits:

  • Adumbi, Kitenge and Manzako comprise 2.5 million ounces of gold
  • 30.65 million tonnes grading 2.54 g/t Au
  • 76.29% of the gold resource is attributable to Loncor via its 76.29% interest in the Imbo Project.

2020 Exploration Strategy:

  • Increase the mineral resources on the Imbo Project by undertaking additional drilling
  • Initiate Preliminary Economic Assessment on the Adumbi deposit.  
    • Increase and upgrade mineral resources within the open pit
    • Develop underground potential, mineralization remains open at depth

Makapela Project, NGAYU Belt: (100% Loncor Owned)

  • Indicated mineral resource of 614,200 ounces of gold
    • (2.20 million tonnes grading 8.66 g/t Au)
  •  Inferred mineral resource of 549,600 ounces of gold
    • (3.22 million tonnes grading 5.30 g/t Au).

Barrick JV in the NGAYU Belt:

  • Ngayu Belt is 200km southwest of the Kibali gold mine, operated by Barrick Gold
    • Kibali produced 814,000 ounces at “all-in sustaining costs” of US$693/oz 2019 
    • Barrick highlighted the Ngayu Greenstone Belt an area of particular exploration interest
    • Barrick earns 65% of any exploration discovery in 1,894 km2 of Loncor ground in the JV.
  • Barrick manages and funds exploration until the completion of a pre-feasibility study on any gold discovery meeting the investment criteria of Barrick.

Barrick highlighted 6 signifcant drill targets and is moving toward drilling in 2020

Loncor Resources Inc.

Loncor a Canadian gold explorer controlling over 3.6 million high grade ounces outside of a Barrick JV in the DRC. The Ngayu JV property is 200km southwest of the Kibali gold mine, operated by Barrick, which produced 814,000 ounces of gold in 2019. Barrick manages and funds exploration at the Ngayu project until the completion of a pre-feasibility study on any gold discovery meeting their Tier One investment criteria. Newmont $NGT $NEM owns 7.8%, Resolute $RSG owns 27%, Loncor Management owns 29%

Loncor Hub on Agoracom

Affinity Metals $AAF.ca Reports Over-Limit Assays for Regal Project Exploration $SII.ca $TUD.ca $GTT.ca $AMK.ca $OSK.ca RKR.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:38 AM on Wednesday, January 15th, 2020

Affinity Metals Corp. (TSXV: AFF) (“Affinity”) (“the Corporation”) is pleased to release over-limit assays for samples from the fall 2019 exploration on the Regal property located in the northern end of the prolific Kootenay Arc approximately 35 km northeast of Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada.

As previously reported, the Corporation received assay results for all 22 rock samples collected from surface outcrops in September 2019 from the Black Jacket and ALLCO areas of the property. Of the 22 grab samples collected, the majority contained bonanza grade silver, zinc, and lead with many samples reaching assay over-limits. The over-limit results for zinc and lead are reported in the table below (italicized) beside the original assay values. Assay values for tin, including high grade samples 11, 14 and 20 which were over-limit in the original assay report, are also presented in the last column of the table.

Sample Number Sample Type Silver
g/t
Copper
%
Zinc
%
Lead
%
Gold
g/t
Tin
ppm
ALC19CR01 grab 0 .035 0 0 0 0.4
ALC19CR02 grab 1300 .415 18.20 >20.0 (35.69) 0.70 46.1
ALC19CR03 grab 120 .232 .034 .984 0.02 2.4
ALC19CR04 grab 131 .089 .026 .102 2.66 1.1
ALC10CR05 grab 16.7 .295 .060 .013 0.09 0.4
ALC19CR06 grab 74.9 .144 >30.00 (34.97) .059 0.28 2.6
ALC19CR07 grab 10.05 .310 .086 .029 0.04 0.5
ALC19CR08 grab 1870 .495 24.5 >20.0 (31.90) 1.85 189.5
ALC19CR09 grab 88.1 .077 >30.00 (39.98) 1.88 0.08 32
ALC19CR10 grab 1545 .178 26.7 >20.0 (28.67) 0.68 373
ALC19CR11 grab 2360 .366 16.80 >20.0 (43.67) 0.11 900
ALC19CR12 grab 3700 .624 1.645 >20.0 (71.14) 3.14 273
ALC19CR13 grab 964 .716 17.30 17.5 0.11 386
ALC19CR14 grab 3530 .350 1.945 >20.0 (59.54) 1.57 1600
ALC19CR15 grab 3670 .026 1.895 >20.0 (77.01) 0.33 205
ALC19CR16 grab 1790 .107 5.28 >20.0 (52.77) 0.37 146.5
ALC19CR17 grab 751 .069 6.45 18.05 0.45 107
ALC19CR18 grab 1065 .718 .178 .514 0.10 7.6
ALC19CR19 grab 2510 .299 5.58 >20.0 (70.63) 0.06 167
ALC19CR20 grab 4410 2.27 26.40 >20.0 (21.56) 5.68 4500
ALC19CR21 grab 47.5 .177 .048 .092 1.78 8.8
ALC19CR22 grab 87.7 .095 .011 .047 4.79 2.9

As part of the fall 2019 program, a total of 1,846.35 meters of diamond drilling was completed with 21 holes being drilled. The drilling was divided over two target areas with 10 holes allocated to testing one of the phyllite/limestone contacts in the ALLCO area and 11 preliminary confirmation holes designed to begin testing the historic 1971 resource (pre NI43-101 and therefore not compliant) reported for the Regal/Snowflake mines.

The core samples have been submitted to MSA Laboratories in Langley, BC and assay results are pending and will be reported once received.

Property History & Background

The Regal Project hosts several past producing small-scale historic mines including the Regal Silver. The property also hosts numerous promising mineral occurrences. From the historic records it appears that most, and perhaps all, of the known mineralized showings/zones have not been previously drilled using modern diamond drilling methods.

Snowflake and Regal Silver (Stannex/Woolsey) Mines

The Snowflake and Regal Silver mines were two former producing mines that operated intermittently during the period 1936-1953. The last significant work on the property took place from 1967-1970, when Stannex Minerals completed 2,450 meters of underground development work and a feasibility study but did not restart mining operations. In 1982, reported reserves were 590,703 tonnes grading 71.6 grams per tonne silver, 2.66 per cent lead, 1.26 per cent zinc, 1.1 per cent copper, 0.13 per cent tin and 0.015 per cent tungsten (Minfile No. 082N 004 – Prospectus, Gunsteel Resources Inc., April 29, 1986). It should be noted that the above resource and grades, although believed to be reliable, were prepared prior to the adoption of NI43-101 and are not compliant with current standards set out therein for calculating mineral resources or reserves.

ALLCO Silver Mine

The ALLCO Silver Mine is situated 6.35 Kilometers northwest of the above described Snowflake/Regal Mine(s). The ALLCO Silver Mine operated from 1936-1937 and produced 213 tonnes of concentrates containing 11 troy ounces of gold (1.55 g/t), 11,211 troy ounces of silver (1,637 g/t) and 173,159 lbs of lead (36.9%).

Airborne Geophysics to Guide Future Exploration

An extensive airborne geophysics survey conducted by Geotech Ltd of Aurora, Ontario, for Northaven Resources Corp. in 2011, identified four well defined high potential linear targets correlating with the same structural orientation as the Allco, Snowflake and Regal Silver mines. Northaven also reported that the mineralogy and structural orientation of the Allco, Snowflake and Regal Silver appeared to be similar to that of Huakan’s J&L gold project located to the north, and on a similar geophysical trend line. The J&L is reportedly now one of western Canada’s largest undeveloped gold deposits.

After completing the airborne survey, Northaven failed in financing their company and conducting further exploration on the property and subsequently forfeited the claims without any of the follow up work ever being completed. Affinity Metals is in the fortunate position of benefitting from this significant and promising geophysics data and associated targets.

The aforementioned Northaven airborne geophysical survey conducted at a cost of $319,458.95 in August of 2011 is described in The BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Assessment Report #33054. The results of the survey are competently explained and illustrated by professionals on You Tube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX431eBY_t0

Condor Consulting, Inc. who compiled the survey data and produced the original geophysics report was recently retained by Affinity in order to provide more detailed interpretations and potential drill target locations with the aim of testing two of the four target areas in the future.

Earth Sciences Services Corp. (ESSCO) has also provided acoustical geophysics data for portions of the Regal property.

The Corporation is in the process of correlating and interpreting all of the historic and new geophysical data with the objective of further advancing exploration plans and associated drill targets.

Affinity Metals has been granted a 5 Year Multi-Year-Area-Based (MYAB) exploration permit which includes approval for 51 drill sites.

Qualified Person

The qualified person for the Regal Project for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 is Frank O’Grady, P.Eng. He has read and approved the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for the disclosure contained in this news release.

About Affinity Metals

Affinity Metals is focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of strategic metal deposits within North America.

The Corporation’s flagship project and present focus is the Regal.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Robert Edwards, CEO and Director of Affinity Metals Corp.

The Corporation can be contacted at: [email protected]

Information relating to the Corporation is available at: www.affinity-metals.com

Dollar Weakness Could Be the Catalyst Commodities Are Looking For SPONSOR: Affinity Metals $AAF.ca $SII.ca $TUD.ca $GTT.ca $AMK.ca $OSK.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 3:57 PM on Tuesday, January 14th, 2020

Sponsor: Affinity Metals (TSX-V: AFF) a Canadian mineral exploration company building a strong portfolio of mineral projects in North America. The Corporation’s flagship property is the Drill ready Regal Property near Revelstoke, BC. Recent sampling encountered bonanza grade silver, zinc, and lead with many samples reaching assay over-limits. Further assaying of over-limits has been initiated, results will be reported once received. Click Here for More Info

By: Frank E. Holmes, Chairman/CEO/CIO of U.S. Global Investors, Inc.,

 — Published: Tuesday, 14 January 2020 | 

Near the start of every year, I share our ever-popular Periodic Table of Commodity Returns, now updated to reflect the final results of 2019. To view the interactive table and download a copy of your own, click here.  

  • Having broken above $2,000 an ounce last week, palladium in now forecast by Citi analysts to hit $2,500 by the middle of this year.

Commodities as a whole had a mostly positive 2019, returning 16.53 percent as measured by the S&P GSCI. This far surpasses commodities’ five-year average return of about negative 11.52 percent, between 2014 and 2018.

Precious metals were responsible for much of the growth. For the third straight year, and for the fourth time in six years, palladium was the top-performing commodity. The metal, used widely in the production of catalytic converters, increased an incredible 54.21 percent to end 2019 at $1,912 an ounce, a slightly higher price than gold’s all-time high set in September 2011.

As was the case in past years, palladium benefited from mounting global demand to curb emissions from gasoline-burning engines. It’s also among the world’s scarcest precious metals, mined primarily in Russia and South Africa, which means supply will potentially remain in deficit for years to come.

Having broken above $2,000 an ounce last week, palladium in now forecast by Citi analysts to hit $2,500 by the middle of this year.

Gold Price Up in Four out of Every Five Years

Gold, meanwhile, had its best year since 2010, climbing as much as 18.31 percent. The yellow metal’s role as an exceptional store of value shined brightly in the second half of the year when the pool of negative-yielding debt around the world began to skyrocket, eventually topping out at around $17 trillion in August. On the news last week that Iran launched a counterstrike against U.S.-occupied military bases in Iraq, the safe haven briefly broke above $1,600 an ounce for the first time since April 2013.    

In the past two decades, gold has helped investors limit market volatility and portfolio losses. Between 2000 and 2019, the precious metal’s average annual price was down in only four years. Put another way, gold was up on average in four out of every five years—a remarkable track record.

Safe haven-seeking investors around the world piled into gold-backed ETFs in 2019, making it the best year on record for gold holdings. Assets under management (AUM) in gold bullion ETFs expanded 37 percent from the previous year, adding $19.2 billion, or 400 tonnes, according to the World Gold Council (WGC). During the fourth quarter, total holdings hit a jaw-dropping 2,900 tonnes, the equivalent of 102 million ounces, which is the most on record.

As of the end of last week, gold looked slightly overbought on a relative strength basis, meaning a correction wouldn’t be such a bad thing and in fact expected.

Has the Greenback Peaked?

Short of escalating tensions in the Middle East or a pullback in stocks, the catalyst for higher gold prices—and, indeed, commodity prices in general—may very well be a substantial weakening of the U.S. dollar. On Tuesday, the U.S. Dollar Index experienced a “death cross,” a bearish signal that takes places when an asset’s 50-day moving average crosses below its 200-day moving average. We haven’t seen this from the greenback since May 2017.

Other firms and analysts have recently made the case that the dollar is ready to decline in 2020, which would give gold and other hard assets the room to gain momentum. Below are just three such forecasts from the past couple of weeks:

“Our view is that the dollar is ready to decline in 2020 and will be encouraged to do so as negative interest rates abroad turn less negative while the Fed holds pat (or cuts)… In the event of an unlikely recession in 2020, U.S. fiscal and monetary policy will turn sharply expansionary, the dollar will decline further, and gold will do well.”

                ~Murenbeeld & Co., January 3

“We expect that U.S. dollar weakness will likely characterize global financial markets throughout 2020… A weaker dollar is always good news for commodity prices. We are particularly bullish gold at this point. Gold is a direct play on a weaker dollar and could also benefit from any major flare-up in geopolitical tensions.”

                ~Alpine Macro, January 6

“Starting 2020, the key setup from a macro perspective is the confirmed top in the U.S. Dollar Index as well as the U.S. Trade-Weighted Broad Dollar Index… The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) has broken below the 97 support to trigger the bearish implication of the June-December topping pattern (head-and-shoulders top) and the U.S. Trade-Weighted Broad Dollar Index has broken below the early-November 2019 low as well as the 200-day moving average to confirm a similar topping pattern to the DXY.”

                ~CLSA, January 7

Bitcoin as a Safe Haven Asset

Gold isn’t the only asset that responded positively to geopolitical uncertainty involving Iran. The price of bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap, surged on the news that President Donald Trump had ordered a strike on Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, before commenting that the U.S. was targeting as many as 52 sites in Iran.

From January 2, the day before the strike, to January 8, when Trump announced that Iran appeared to be “standing down,” bitcoin traded up as much as 21 percent to its highest level in six weeks. In addition, there were reports that local bitcoin sellers in Iran were charging three times the market rate in response to the threat of war with the U.S.

Google searches for “bitcoin” were also up. Cointelegraph reports that the search term “bitcoin Iran” exploded more than 4,450 percent in the seven days through January 8.

All of this tells me that bitcoin continues to mature as an asset, and that investors and savers increasingly trust it as a store of value in times of uncertainty.

Looking for the inside scoop on mining companies? Click here to read U.S. Global Investors portfolio manager Ralph Aldis’ interview with MoneyShow and get his favorite mining picks for 2020!

Source: http://news.goldseek.com/USFunds/1579015085.php

SPONSOR: Affinity Metals $AAF.ca – 12-Year Breakout in Mining Stocks Relative to Gold $SII.ca $TUD.ca $GTT.ca $AMK.ca $OSK.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 2:39 PM on Wednesday, January 8th, 2020

Sponsor: Affinity Metals (TSX-V: AFF) a Canadian mineral exploration company building a strong portfolio of mineral projects in North America. The Corporation’s flagship property is the Drill ready Regal Property near Revelstoke, BC. Recent sampling encountered bonanza grade silver, zinc, and lead with many samples reaching assay over-limits. Further assaying of over-limits has been initiated, results will be reported once received. Click Here for More Info

Excerpts from Crescat Capitals November Newsletter:

Precious Metals

Precious metals are poised to benefit from what we consider to be the best macro set up we’ve seen in our careers. The stars are all aligning. We believe strongly that this time monetary policy will come at a cost. Look in the chart below at how the new wave of global money printing just initiated by the Fed in response to the Treasury market funding crisis is highly likely to pull depressed gold prices up with it.

The gold and silver mining industry endured a severe bear market from 2011 to 2015 and have formed a strong base over the last four years.

The imbalance between historically depressed commodity prices relative to record overvalued US stocks remains at the core of our macro views. On the long side, we believe strongly commodities offer tremendous upside potential on many fronts. Precious metals remain our favorite. We view gold as the ultimate haven asset to likely outperform in an environment of either a downturn in the business cycle, rising global currency wars, implosion of fiat currencies backed by record indebted government, or even a full-blown inflationary set up. These scenarios are all possible. Our base case is that governments and central banks will keep their pedals to the metal to attempt to fend off credit implosion or to mop up after one has already occurred until inflation becomes a persistent problem.

The gold and silver mining industry is precisely where we see one of the greatest ways to express this investment thesis. These stocks have been in a severe bear market from 2011 to 2015 and have been formed a strong base over the last four years. They are offer and incredibly attractive deep-value opportunity and appear to be just starting to break out this year. We have done a deep dive in this sector and met with over 40 different management teams this year. Combining that work with our proprietary equity models, we are finding some of the greatest free-cash-flow growth and value opportunities in the market today unrivaled by any other industry. We have also found undervalued high-quality exploration assets that will make excellent buyout candidates.

We recently point out this 12-year breakout in mining stocks relative to gold now looks as solid as a rock. In our view, this is just the beginning of a major bull market for this entire industry. We encourage investors to consider our new Crescat Precious Metals SMA strategy which is performing extremely well this year.

“This is just the beginning of a major bull market for this entire industry”

Zero Discounting for Inflation Risk Today

With historic Federal debt relative to GDP and large deficits into the future as far as the eye can see, if the global financial markets cannot absorb the increase in Treasury debt, the Fed will be forced to monetize it even more. The problem is that the Fed’s panic money printing at this point in the economic cycle may hasten the unwinding of the imbalances it is so desperate to maintain because it has perversely fed the last-gasp melt up of speculation in already record over-valued and extended equity and corporate credit markets. It is reminiscent of when the Fed injected emergency cash into the repo market at the peak of the tech bubble at the end of 1999 to fend off a potential Y2K computer glitch that led to that market and business cycle top.
After 40 years of declining inflation expectations in the US, there is a major disconnect today between portfolio positioning, valuation, and economic reality. Too much of the investment world is long the “risk parity” trade to one degree or another, long stocks paired with leveraged long bonds, a strategy that has back-tested great over the last 40 years, but one that would be a disaster in a secular rising inflation environment.

With historic Federal debt relative to GDP and large deficits into the future as far as the eye can see, rising long-term inflation, and the hidden tax thereon, is the default, bi-partisan plan for the US government’s future funding regardless of who is in the White House and Congress after the 2020 elections. The market could start discounting this sooner rather than later.
The Fed’s excessive money printing may only reinforce the unraveling of financial asset imbalances today as it leads to rising inflation expectations and thereby a sell-off in today’s highly over-valued long duration assets including Treasury bonds and US equities, particularly insanely overvalued growth stocks. We believe we are in the vicinity of a major US stock market and business cycle peak.

Source:”Running Hot”

Courtesy of Crescat Capital: https://www.crescat.net/running-hot/

Thanks to

Kevin C. Smith, CFA
Chief Investment Officer

Tavi Costa
Portfolio Manager