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Labrador Gold $LAB.ca – Gold Market Update $RIO.ca $WHM.ca $SIC.ca $NXS.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 11:54 AM on Monday, January 6th, 2020
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In this update I am not going to repeat the points made in the last fairly comprehensive update, instead we are going to focus on the importance of the resistance level just above where the price is now, and impact of the killing of the Iranian General and its potential implications for the gold price.

On the latest 10-year chart we can see that gold is making a 2nd attack on the key major resistance level in the $1530 – $1560 zone, which is hardly surprising considering what happened last week.


The reason that this resistance level is of such major importance is made abundantly clear by the following chart made by a subscriber and kindly forwarded to me, which I reproduce with his permission. As we can see gold made no less than 5 significant lows at this level between 2011 and 2013, before it finally crashed this support and plunged 15% in 2 days, so it is clearly of huge significance and is the biggest hurdle by far on the way up. Therefore, even given the latest mayhem in the Mid-East, we should not be surprised if it now stalls out here and possibly backs off for a while to form a trading range, which is also made likely by its now being critically overbought on its RSI indicator and by the latest COTs, which we will look at lower down the page, coming in with really extreme readings again. This makes sense given that we now at a time of maximum tension.

From a subscriber – highlighting gold’s key support at the $1530 – $1560 level, which is now of course strong resistance…


Detail showing the plunge that was triggered the failure of this support…


On the 6-month chart we can see how, after breaking out of the corrective downtrend in force from early September, gold has risen steeply, without one down day so far to become critically overbought on its RSI indicator as it drives into the zone of strong resistance with volume becoming heavy on Friday. This of course increases the chances of its reacting back the moment tension over the Mid-East situation eases, even if only slightly.


As for the COTs, they are showing extreme readings once more (chart is for 24th December), which suggest that, especially if tension over the Iran situation eases short-term, gold will probably back off some into a consolidation pattern that will enable it to charge up sufficiently to take out the key resistance in due course.

Click on chart to popup a larger, clearer version.


Now we come to the possible impact of the US killing of the top Iranian General. In order to figure out the real motivation for this act, we simply have to ask the usual question “Who stands to gain?” The first interest group that stands to gain is the US military, which receives about $700 billion of taxpayers’ money every year, and probably about $500 billion of this is in excess of what it needs to defend the Homeland. So in order to justify this bloated budget it creates enemies and conflicts around the world. The next interest group is Israel, which controls the US and uses the US military as a sledgehammer to achieve its objectives which include dominance of the Mid-East. Iran is the big prize. Finally the Republicans and Trump himself stand to gain at the polls later this year as the population will predictably “rally round the flag” as a result of conflict with Iran. Knowing all this, we can quickly deduce that the killing of the Iranian General was an act of extreme provocation designed to trigger some kind of counter attack by Iran that can then be used as an excuse to launch a bombing campaign against it. Even if Iran exercises maximum restraint and does nothing beyond making empty threats to assuage its angry populace, it may still fall victim to an onslaught after a calculated false flag attack which is blamed on it. So whatever it does, it loses – it’s been put in a classic “zugzwang” situation.

For all the bluster, Iran’s military is no match for that of the US of course, which spends more than the rest of the world put together on arms. The best way for Iran and Islam in general to “get even” with the West for all its many decades of Colonial interference in the Mid-East, exploitation and massive destruction inflicted on places like Iraq and Libya and the Palestinians therefore (looked at from their point of view) is to conduct “asymmetrical warfare”, invade Western countries and attack their churches and institutions etc, and then take them over gradually by outbreeding them. Western societies are now too corrupt, decadent, morally bankrupt and weak to stop this happening, and it is happening right now in Europe, and the only reason it isn’t happening to the same extent in the US is that it is a lot harder to pilot a rubber dingy across the Atlantic Ocean than the Mediterranean Sea, although as we know the Democrats and the Left appear to trying to take up the slack by destroying the country from within in places like Portland, L.A. and San Francisco, and this rot will spread unless right minded people take a vigorous stand.

All this is mentioned because it is clear that the killing of the Iranian General is the prelude to a military strike against Iran, which will probably take the form of an extensive and intensive bombing campaign that both Israel and the US have been looking forward to for years, because a ground invasion is out of the question due to the geography and logistics. The goal as usual will be to destroy its military capability and wreck its infrastructure with the eventual aim of installing a puppet government and opening up the country to Western exploitation, and the wild card in all this will be whether Russia and China will do anything to prevent it, or just stand and watch. It is thought that they don’t have the nerve to intervene. In any event, if such a campaign is launched, we can expect the world to be gripped by an acute sense of crisis and gold will spike. Iran may have the ability to disrupt the flow of oil out of the Persian Gulf, albeit temporarily, which would trigger an oil price spike and a stockmarket crash.

Last week’s updates concluded with a look at the highly bullish charts for gold measured against the Australian dollar and the Japanese Yen, and this week we will look at gold against the Canadian dollar and the Swiss Franc.

While many investors are still agonizing about whether gold is in a bullmarket or not, that is because they are fixated on the charts for gold in US dollars. When you look at gold in other currencies you realize that it is already very much in a bullmarket, and recently made new highs against many currencies, like the Canadian dollar shown below…


Even against the Swiss Franc, which amongst currencies enjoys some safe haven status, gold is performing better than it is against the dollar…


…and we should remember that the dollar may not remain as “king of the hill” forever, especially as a number of major powers in the Asia especially are preparing to ditch it.

Finally, we are going to take a quick look at an unusual chart for gold submitted by the same subscriber as some of the charts above. It is unusual because it is a yearly candlestick chart, meaning that each candle on it is for an entire year. Its supreme advantage is that it keeps things simple. The Triangle shown on it is his interpretation, not mine. It certainly looks positive here with a big white candle for 2019, with the arithmetic version shown looking even more bullish. This type of chart also has a potential advantage for the writer, as if only this chart were used, I would only have to write these updates once a year.


Courtesy of Clive Maund: https://www.clivemaund.com/gmu.php?art_id=68&date=2020-01-05

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Posted by AGORACOM at 1:21 PM on Friday, January 3rd, 2020

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With an impressive start to the year this new heightened geopolitical development could be the catalyst to break out gold to multi year highs. The U.S. strike that killed a key Iranian general could have a ripple effect on the signing of the trade agreement on the 15th as China and Iran have recently worked together on joint military operations along with Russia. Any set back in the trade agreement would severely impact the direction of U.S. equities and the expectations for interest rate decisions globally. Price Analysis and Outlook The daily gold chart shows that momentum indicator slow stochastics are rising steadily and reaching overbought territory giving longer term indication that we have pushed into a Bull Market. While ADX, which measures strength of the trend, has turned up over 40 showing that the driving force behind the recent upward move is very strong. The 2 key levels of support to watch are the November 1st high of $1525.2 and the December 30th high of $1519.1. This should act as a consolidation level while a likely upside target completing this trend would be an objective of $1572

Source: https://www.kitco.com/commentaries/2020-01-03/An-Explosive-Rally-in-Gold-and-the-Key-Levels-to-Watch.html

SPONSOR: American Creek $AMK.ca – Billionaire Eric Sprott Dishes On His Golden Investment Spree: ‘It’s Like Being At A Table With A Winning Run’ $TUD.ca $SII.ca $GTT.ca $AFF.ca $SEA.ca $SA $PVG.ca $AOT.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 3:03 PM on Wednesday, December 18th, 2019
  • Sprott is eager to believe junior gold miners are on the verge of striking the motherlode, but skeptical of nearly everything else related to the industry
https://financialpostcom.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/eric-sprott-1.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=780

One week before Halloween, Canada’s biggest gold enthusiast, the septuagenarian billionaire Eric Sprott, wearing a neatly pressed tuxedo, bounded onto a stage in a downtown Toronto ballroom and accepted his induction into Canada’s Investment Industry Hall of Fame.

He declared himself both humbled and honoured, and then rollicked into the wee hours of the night at his home in a nearby tower with expansive views of the city’s sparkling skyline. The next morning, though 75 and technically retired, he showed up at his office, grumbling about a lack of sleep, but dressed in a magenta-coloured, paisley button-up, ready for a 9 a.m. meeting with a penny stock exploration company.

“I keep reading that people are never making (gold) discoveries, the rate of discoveries is going down,” he said, occasionally rubbing his temples and closing his eyes. “The funny thing, well, I guess I’m the sucker then because I keep buying guys who say they’re making discoveries.”

Just as the price of gold often moves in the opposite direction of the stock market, Sprott has a strong contrarian streak that means he also often moves in the opposite direction of the market. For example, this past spring, after years of middling precious metal prices and declining discoveries had led most investors to abandon Canada’s gold and silver explorers, he decided to go all-in.

Sprott launched an investment blitz, the likes of which the junior mining precious metals sector had seldom seen, doling out somewhere between $200 and $300 million in a matter of just a few months to acquire large stakes in about two dozen companies, most of which have never earned a dollar of revenue

His investments between May and July accounted for about one in every four dollars raised by junior miners, according to Vancouver-based market research firm Oreninc. During that time, gold prices started to rise, breaking through US$1,400 in June for the first time in six years, bringing some investors back to the major miners — exactly where Sprott doesn’t want to be.

“They’re the worst place to put money, okay?” he said.

Putting his money where his mouth is, he has been selling his position in Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd., one of, if not the lowest-cost gold producers and one of the best-performing stocks on the S&P/TSX Composite Index since 2016.

Sprott was an early investor in Kirkland Lake, was appointed chairman in 2015, and one year later helped engineer its merger with Newmarket Gold Inc., a small gold producer in Australia. Not long after, the newly merged company discovered high-grade veins at two mines, which propelled its stock upwards to $63 per share.

Many investors pride themselves on not selling when a stock hits a bump, but Sprott said it is equally important to not sell when the stock rises, at least not until it’s gone up five or even 10 times, a so-called tenbagger.

“I’ve had lots of tenbaggers and the important thing is to stay in it,” he said.

But when his stake in Kirkland Lake reached about $1.3 billion earlier this year, and it looked like gold prices would keep rising, Sprott said he decided it was time to sell.

“Here’s what I say to the management of Kirkland Lake: you will not be the No. 1 performing stock this year,” he said during an interview in October. “You will not be, because companies like Eldorado (Gold Corp.) and Detour (Gold Corp.) are going to kick your butt.”

In November, Kirkland Lake announced it was buying Detour Gold Corp., and its stock fell by 15 per cent in a day, wiping out what he estimated to be around $140 million of his net worth.

And yet, Sprott — who found out about the deal on a day he was meeting with a junior mining company seeking investment — elected to support the deal, and waxes enthusiastic about Detour.

It’s one of the reasons why Sprott doesn’t much care about Canada’s major gold miners.

The best-run companies might provide 20- or 30-per-cent returns, or maybe 100 per cent in a few cases, but Sprott would rather invest in a company that might strike gold and give him a 500-per-cent return, or even a coveted 1,000-per-cent return.

Indeed, as merger activity heats up in the gold space, another one of Sprott’s investments, Continental Gold Inc., announced a $1.4-billion cash buyout at $5.50 per share.

In July, Sprott had bought about 10 million shares at $3.10, meaning he made about $25 million or a 75-per-cent return in just a few months. But he was nonplussed, saying the buyout may have come a little early.

“You’ve got to have the dream, right?” he said. “You’ve got to have the dream you’re going to find something.”

Therein lies Sprott’s biggest paradox: he’s eager to believe that junior gold miners are on the verge of striking the motherlode, but skeptical of nearly everything else related to the gold industry.

You’ve got to have the dream, right? You’ve got to have the dream you’re going to find somethingEric Sprott

After a five-decade career in the financial services industry, during which he worked as an investment banker and founded an eponymous empire that includes fund and asset management firms, a brokerage firm, bullion storage and more businesses, he is skeptical of commercial banks, major precious metals miners, central banks, the stated rate of annual inflation and, perhaps above all, gold and silver prices.

“One of the things about the media, they never talk about the gold conspiracy,” he said. “Look at the guys who are paying fines for spoofing the precious metals markets. Every two weeks some guy’s paying a fine.”

Case in point, U.S. prosecutors in September filed criminal charges against three JPMorgan Chase & Co. bankers for allegedly spoofing the precious metals market, which means placing fake orders and then quickly cancelling them to manipulate the price. The indictment alleged a decade-long conspiracy.

Sprott believes the futures market — where investors can buy options that essentially allow them to place bets on the price of gold or silver without actually having to own any of the metals — allows commercial banks to exert way too much influence on the market for physical metals.

Stacked gold bars in Germany.
Stacked gold bars in Germany. Michaela Handrek-Rehle/Bloomberg files

As someone who stockpiles bullion, and often gives it out as a gift, he watches the prices of silver and gold so closely it often colours his mood.

This fall, Sprott was out fishing for grouper on a staffed boat somewhere warm on a Friday when he normally records his podcast. In spite of his idyllic circumstances, he sounded distinctly downtrodden when he called in to the podcast.

“I’ve had better days, you know, it’s a bit of a tough one,” he said.

As the podcast progressed, it soon became clear that gold and silver prices were both down, about four and six per cent, respectively, and options market manipulation appeared to be the reason to him.

Juan Carlos Artega, director of investment research at the World Gold Council, is skeptical that banks are having a significant effect on gold or silver prices through the futures market, but believes options do have an impact on short-term prices.

As someone who stockpiles bullion, and often gives it out as a gift, he watches the prices of silver and gold so closely it often colours his mood

“What you find is that the gold price is responding to demand-and-supply dynamics including those on the (options) market, but it’s only one component,” he said.

Artega said central bank and consumer buying, production numbers, recycling, investment in gold-backed exchange-traded funds and a host of other factors play a role in determining long-term prices.

Sprott would hear none of it, and said he’s long disagreed with the World Gold Council about many things. His skepticism of the futures market ties in to his skepticism of the financial market writ large.

“We have a weird financial system; it doesn’t make any sense to a rational thinker,” he said.

Gene McBurney, co-founder of GMP Securities LP, once a competitor of Sprott Inc. in the investment business and now a friend, said part of the key to understanding Sprott is that he enjoys entertaining other people with provocative comments.

Fine gold coins at a bullion dealer in London.
Fine gold coins at a bullion dealer in London. Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg files

“He’s told people there’s no gold in Fort Knox; that kicks off an interesting conversation,” he said.

But McBurney added that he believes Sprott is extremely well versed in the companies in which he invests, and he has even given some of his personal money to Sprott to manage.

Peter Grosskopf, chief executive of Sprott Inc., the asset management firm Sprott founded and a mentee, said Sprott is always covered as being this “unbelievable gold bug,” but there’s a lot more to it than that.

“I mean, he’s a savant at what he does,” said Grosskopf, who added that it’s not easy to explain how Sprott does what he does.

That’s mainly because Sprott is investing in companies that have no revenue, which means standard investment metrics, such as internal rate of return, aren’t necessarily useful, never mind that he said they’re not something he would use.

He’s a savant at what he doesPeter Grosskopf, chief executive of Sprott Inc.

Instead, he attempts to value companies based on whether they are likely to discover a deposit of precious metals.

Of course, even if a company discovers a deposit, it would still need to figure out whether it makes economic sense to extract the deposit, including how much it would cost to build and operate a mine, which requires further calculations about energy costs, transportation, processing and refining, and so on.

Sprott said he focuses solely on the deposit and how big it could be. Though he has no education in geology, he said he has devised his own valuation method, which involves looking at a few variables to determine the potential size of a deposit.

“I want to turn it into numbers, like, okay, what could this thing earn?” he said. “You know, you multiply the strike by the depth by the width by 2.7 specific gravity times the ounces — it’s just four or five things you’ve got to multiply, five things.”

People close to him said he studies junior mining companies and can recall the details of his investments better than most fund managers.

“The guy gets up at ungodly hours, he might get up at 2 a.m. studying,” said Conor O’Brien, a former capital markets manager who joined Sprott in May to help with the investment blitz. “Neither one of us are geologists, we’re just financial people that can do mathematics, as opposed to the geology. We more kind of conceptualize, and dream and kind of multiply.”

Putting his latest investment spree of more than $200 million in perspective, the TSX Venture Exchange’s junior mining sector through August was on course to raise $2 billion for all of 2019, about 27 per cent less than it did in 2009.

Sprott takes a birdshot approach to investment that spreads his money far and wide, so that his portfolio contains companies exploring for high-grade and low-grade mines, potential open-pit and potential underground mines, and so on.

“Most of them won’t make it,” he said. “But what about the ones that do? If I’m in early and I stay the ground, I press the bet. It’s like being at a table with a winning run, you keep doubling down.”

Grosskopf said Sprott calls it “stealing value,” not because he’s conning anyone, but because he’s investing in assets the market has mispriced. He said the billionaire is an expert trader, adept at sizing up an opportunity and timing his entrance and exit.

And because of his outsized profile, recently juiced by his epic returns while chairman of Kirkland Lake, there are hordes of investors who will follow his lead, Grosskopf said.

Not all of Sprott’s bets work out, of course. In 2017, Sprott said he invested in Garibaldi Resources Corp., a nickel explorer, based on comments he read on an online chat board.

Its stock surged 1,731 per cent that year, and Sprott has continued to invest even though two years later, its stock has declined from a peak above $4 in late 2017 to 87 cents today.

“They’re for sure drilling, we know that, and they’ve announced some holes, and they’ve got more to go,” Sprott said. “They haven’t found the motherlode they’re looking for. Even I’ll say that.”

Sprott’s vast ownership may also have a downside: It’s not easy to liquidate his positions in companies without attracting attention. But his vast wealth also means he’s relatively insulated from a lot of threats, such as dilutive financings or litigation, that smaller investors can’t afford to participate in.

He also owns a private gold mining company in Nevada called Jerritt Canyon Gold LLC, which he said made its first profit in the third quarter.

Kevin Small, vice-president of operations at that mine, said Sprott likes to be generous. In April, he said Sprott showed up at the site and handed out silver coins to several hundred people who work there.

“He said when you guys make lots of money, I’ll give you each a gold coin, but he hasn’t been back yet,” Small said.

Eric Sprott at his induction into Canada’s Investment Industry Hall of Fame in October.
Eric Sprott at his induction into Canada’s Investment Industry Hall of Fame in October. Peter J. Thompson/National Post

But he added that Sprott has been investing heavily in the operation, which has a capacity to produce 280,000 ounces of gold per year, and predicted the company would soon be well known.

Colleagues also add that he can be unrelenting when judging a company’s financial performance. Case in point, one of his biggest gripes with Kirkland Lake is that he wants it to increase its dividend, an issue he once again raised in October after the miner posted solid quarterly results.

Kirkland Lake pays a quarterly dividend of four cents, and chief executive Tony Makuch said he may consider raising it, but the company still needs to spend money on exploration so it can improve its reserves of gold.

“We’re not an industry people should be buying for dividends,” Makuch said. “You should be buying bank stocks or something else. If you look at our share price, that comes from investing in new projects.”

It’s a sentiment that Sprott would likely agree with.

“I still have a lot of money in Kirkland and it’s a great company, but it’s not a tenbagger from here,” he said. “And I like tenbaggers as opposed to 100 per cent. It’s just my nature.”

SOURCE: https://business.financialpost.com/commodities/mining/billionaire-eric-sprott-dishes-on-his-golden-investment-spree-its-like-being-at-a-table-with-a-winning-run

SPONSOR: Affinity Metals $AAF.ca – Central Banks’ Appetite For Gold Expected To Continue $SII.ca $TUD.ca $GTT.ca $AMK.ca $OSK.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 11:45 AM on Wednesday, December 18th, 2019

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Central bankers have been voracious buyers of gold during the last two years, and analysts look for that trend to continue in 2020.

Through the end of October, net official-sector purchases this year totaled 562 metric tons, reported Alistair Hewitt, director of market intelligence with the World Gold Council. That 56.2-tons-a-month average puts sales on pace to roughly match the 656 tons bought in 2018, which were the most central-bank purchases since 1967, according to WGC data.

“This year has been exceptionally strong. We think that next year, net buying will continue at a high level, even if it’s not as high as this year,” said Philip Newman, director of the London-based consultancy Metals Focus.

Goldman Sachs looks for global central banks to collectively acquire around 650 tons in 2020, while Standard Chartered is projecting central-bank purchases will total 525 tons.

“It’s still elevated,” said Suki Cooper, precious-metals analyst with Standard Chartered. “That is still firmly on the buy side.”

‘Safe, liquid and generates returns’

Hewitt commented that central banks are looking at three main criteria when deciding to expand the amount of gold they hold within their foreign-exchange reserves.

“For a central bank, gold is a fantastic asset because it’s safe, liquid and generates returns over the long term,” Hewitt said.

He also listed two more factors why the central-bank buying has suddenly jumped in recent years.

“One issue is we are seeing heightened geopolitical tensions,” Hewitt said, with these involving major gold-buying countries and economies. “Central banks are looking toward gold to balance some of that risk.

“We’ve also got negative rates and yields for a large number of sovereign bonds.”

Newman added that many central banks are “trying to get away” from the U.S. dollar. This is especially the case with Russia due to U.S. sanctions, he added.

As recently as 2017, most of the official-sector buying came from a handful of central banks, including Russia, Turkey and Kazakhstan. But in 2018 and 2019, there have been a slew, including some that had not been in the market for years.

“You’ve got a whole range of buyers,” Newman said.

The largest buyers during the first 10 months of the year were Turkey with 144.8 tons; Russia, 139; Poland, 100; and China, 95.8.

Others include Kazakhstan, 26.9 tons; India, 17.7; Qatar, 11; Ecuador, 10.6; Serbia and the U.K., 9.9; Argentina, 7; Colombia, 6.1; Kyrgyz Republic, 3.2; Mongolia, 2.3; Belarus, 1.9; Guinea, 0.9; Egypt and Mauritania, 0.7; Albania and Malta, 0.6; and Ukraine and Greece, 0.3.

Goldman Sachs projected that central-bank purchases could amount to as much as 22% of global supplies during 2019.

Central banks ‘buy for an extended period’

Hewitt looks for official-sector buying momentum to continue.

Central banks tend to put a lot of thought into decisions to buy – with a long, rigorous policy-making process — and purchase the metal for strategic reasons, rather than simply reacting to day-to-day moves in the price, Hewitt said.

“Once these people start buying, they continue to buy for an extended period of time,” Hewitt said. For instance, he pointed out that Kazakhstan has been a regular gold buyer since 2010.

“Both trade tensions and negative yields are still here,” Hewitt said. “They may rear their ugly heads again and become more pronounced, or they may fade away and become less pronounced. But those underlying forces will remain ever present in the market. Certainly in the next year or so, those two factors should continue to support and underpin central-bank demand for gold.”

Observers pointed out that not only have central-bank gold purchases been strong, but sales have been light. Back in 1999, when European central banks were selling the metal, they began following central-bank sales agreements to try to limit how much was sold in any one year and thereby keep this from being a destabilizing force in the gold market.

These agreements have been discontinued, Hewitt noted. Commerzbank analysts pointed out they were no longer necessary since hardly any European central banks are selling anyway. Germany’s central bank sells a modest amount each year only for its coin-minting program, Hewitt said.

“The market was not bothered by the central-bank gold agreement coming to an end, partly because the gold market is very different from what it was in 1999,” Hewitt said, adding that there “dramatic selling” back then.

“The gold market today is just more diverse, more resilient and more liquid. That’s why the market just shrugged its shoulder when the central-bank gold agreement came to an end.”

Further, analysts at Commerzbank, in their 2020 outlook, commented that one or more Western European central banks might even enter the market as a gold buyer.

“One possible candidate is the Dutch central bank (DNB), which in October published a remarkable statement about the role of gold on its website,” Commerzbank said. “In it, it described gold as an anchor of trust for the financial system. According to the DNB, gold reserves could serve as the basis for a new beginning in the event of a system collapse.

“If one or more Western central banks indeed started to actively buy gold, this would attract considerable attention and spark market reactions.”

SOURCE: https://www.kitco.com/news/2019-12-18/Central-banks-appetite-for-gold-expected-to-continue.html

Labrador Gold $LAB.ca – Gold’s Deal Blitz Could Draw In The Rest Of The Mining Sector $RIO.ca $WHM.ca $SIC.ca $NXS.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 4:19 PM on Thursday, December 12th, 2019
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is LAB-square-logo-2.png

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Newmont to buy Goldcorp in $10bn deal creating world's largest gold miner

Completed gold acquisitions have reached about $33 billion so far in 2019, the highest since 2011

A torrent of deal-making among gold producers that’s pushed M&A in the sector to an eight-year high is seen spilling over into the wider mining industry — if there’s a rally in global growth.

Pending and completed gold acquisitions have reached about $33 billion so far in 2019, the highest since 2011, according to data complied by Bloomberg. That’s as deals among all mining companies have declined about 29% from last year to $60-billion, the data show.

A revival in the economic outlook, with higher interest rates and inflation, would prompt other metals producers to rethink their current strategy of cutting debt and lifting shareholder returns — and focus again on pursuing growth, according to Christopher LaFemina, a New York-based analyst at Jefferies.

“Until now, the market has rewarded companies for austerity” amid a chase for yield, LaFemina said in a phone interview. “We will see a significant acceleration of M&A activity when global growth recovers.”

In recent times, the biggest miners, including Rio Tinto and BHP, have made only some small investments in undeveloped projects and authorized new spending on expansions at existing operations.

Larger-scale M&A could be an option for Rio next year, UBS Group analysts, including Glyn Lawcock, said in a report this month. “Will 2020 see the shackles come off? Growth in the portfolio is limited,” they said.

Rio has a “watching brief for attractive M&A opportunities,” though intends to remain “absolutely disciplined,” CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques told investors at an October seminar. The company has said its ventures team is evaluating opportunities in battery materials, including in nickel. There would be “plenty of logic” for Rio in adding copper producer First Quantum Minerals, according to Barclays.

BHP is also seeking to add oil, copper and nickel, and could consider deals that offer an early entry into high-quality resource bases, particularly before the value of a project is fully understood, CFO Peter Beaven said in May.

Still, large companies and their investors continue to be chastened by past failed deals, according to Paul Mitchell, EY’s global mining and metals leader, and they remain cautious after a multi-year effort to repair balance sheets in the wake of the 2015 price collapse.

Sectors such as base metals have fewer opportunities for consolidation than precious metals, and a price downturn hasn’t yet forced companies into distress, according to David Harquail, chief executive officer at Franco-Nevada Corp., a mine streaming and royalty company.

Since January’s $10-billion gold mega-merger between then Newmont Mining and Goldcorp, companies in the sector including Newcrest Mining have added individual mines, while Kirkland Lake Gold and Zijin Mining Group acquired smaller rivals. Barrick Gold and a partner on Tuesday agreed to a $430 million deal to sell a 90% stake in a project in Senegal to with Teranga Gold.

Gold’s rally means there’s been “a slightly improved environment to be able to finally do transactions,” Harquail said. There’s a prospect of further activity among gold producers into next year, with investors ready to back proposals that reduce overheads and combine assets, he said.

“I want to see smart consolidation, not the same thing that we’ve seen in the past” among gold producers, said Joe Foster, a New York-based portfolio manager at Van Eck. “There’s value to be created by consolidating some of these single-asset companies.” 

SOURCE: http://www.miningweekly.com/article/golds-deal-blitz-could-draw-in-the-rest-of-the-mining-sector-2019-12-11/rep_id:3650

American Creek $AMK.ca: Interview with Ken Konkin Concerning Potential World Class Deposit in Golden Triangle $TUD.ca $SII.ca $GTT.ca $AFF.ca $SEA.ca $SA $PVG.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 3:06 PM on Thursday, December 12th, 2019

Ken Konkin Discusses the Goldstorm Deposit at Treaty Creek (including recent outstanding drill results like 0.725 g/t over 838.5m), it’s Potential, and 2020 Development Plans

https://mailchi.mp/bf6603f1de9b/ken-konkin-discusses-the-goldstorm-deposit-treaty-creek-its-potential-and-2020-development-plans-in-a-brand-new-interview?e=d81c2ca55c

https://www.commodity-tv.com/play/tudor-gold-the-next-major-discovery-in-the-golden-triangle/

Cannot view this image? Visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/682/49176_99c64899f4a48b79_001.jpg

About American Creek

American Creek is a Canadian junior mineral exploration company with a strong portfolio of gold and silver properties in British Columbia.

Three of those properties are located in the prolific “Golden Triangle”; the Treaty Creek and Electrum joint venture projects with Tudor Gold/Walter Storm as well as the 100% owned past producing Dunwell Mine.

The Treaty Creek Project is a Joint Venture with Tudor Gold owning 60% and acting as operator. American Creek and Teuton Resources each have 20% interests in the project. American Creek and Teuton are both fully carried until such time as a Production Notice is issued, at which time they are required to contribute their respective 20% share of development costs. Until such time, Tudor is required to fund all exploration and development costs while both American Creek and Teuton have “free rides”.

More information about the Treaty Creek Project can be found here: https://americancreek.com/index.php/projects/treaty-creek/home

A drill program is also ongoing on American Creek’s 100% owned Dunwell Mine property located near Stewart. More information can be found here: https://americancreek.com/index.php/projects/dunwell-mine

The Corporation also holds the Gold Hill, Austruck-Bonanza, Ample Goldmax, Silver Side, and Glitter King properties located in other prospective areas of the province.

For further information please contact Kelvin Burton at: Phone: 403 752-4040 or Email: [email protected]. Information relating to the Corporation is available on its website at www.americancreek.com.

Hub on Agoracom
  FULL DISCLOSURE: American Creek is an advertising client of AGORA Internet Relations Corp.

Tags: #BC, #BruceJack, #copper, #Discovery, #Drilling, #goldentriangle, #HighGrade, #KenKonkin, #Mine, #Ounces, #SII, #sprott, #TUD, $AMK, $SEA, gold

Advance Gold $AAX.ca – 50-Year High In Central Bank Gold Purchases $FA.ca $ANG.jo $ABX.ca $NGT.ca $MGG.ca $TECK.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 3:16 PM on Tuesday, December 10th, 2019

SPONSOR: Advance Gold AAX.v – Advance Gold controls 100% interest in the Tabasquena Silver Mine in Zacatecas, Mexico. A cluster of 30 Epithermal veins have been discovered, with recent emphasis on exploring a large anomaly to drill. Advance also owns 13.5% of the Kakamega JV attached to Barrick Takeover Offer for Acacia Mining. Click Here For More Info

Opportunities

  • 2019 is on track to be a 50-year high in central banks’ net gold purchases. Bloomberg Intelligence reports that central banks have been absorbing about 20 percent of global gold mine supply. Based on the gold-to-silver ratio, it looks like silver might have more upside if demand for safe haven assets rises. Bloomberg’s Eddie van der Walt writes that the gold-silver ratio has dropped to 86 from 93 in July and that means silver has outperformed on the back of gold’s gains. UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo is bullish on palladium and platinum. Staunovo wrote in a December 5 report that palladium will likely enter its ninth straight year of market deficit in 2020 and could climb above $2,000 an ounce. Even as platinum is set to enter a surplus, its price could be driven by gold. “As platinum is highly correlated to gold, our bullish view for gold should mean higher platinum prices, which we expect to trade at around $1,000 an ounce next year.”
  • Zijin Mining Group Co. has agreed to buy Continental Gold in a rare all-cash deal worth C$1.37 billion – the second big takeover in a few weeks of a junior Canadian gold miner. Bloomberg reports the offer reflects a 29 percent premium to the Continental Gold share price from the past 20 days and that major shareholder Newmont Goldcorp was supportive of the deal. In hostile M&A news, Centamin Plc rejected Endeavour Mining Corp.’s $1.9 billion takeover offer saying that it undervalues its assets, reports Bloomberg News. Centamin has been a takeover candidate since the size of its Egyptian mine was discovered at the start of the decade, though the company has faced many operational setbacks.
  • Kinross Gold has been busy raising cash. Kinross announced this week that it has agreed to sell its remaining shares of Lundin Gold for C$150 million to Newcrest Mining and the Lundin Family Trust. Kinross earlier announced that it has sold its royalty portfolio to Maverix Metals for $74 million.

Threats

  • ABN Amro strategist Georgette Boele says they see gold weakening in the coming weeks and months with a price average of $1,400 an ounce. However, they do expect prices to increase to $1,600 by December of 2020. Before this happens, extreme net-long positioning would clear u p because “these positions currently hang over the market and prevent prices from moving substantially higher.”
  • Another sign of a weakening economy was released last week. The ISM manufacturing PMI unexpectedly declined to 48.1 in November, below the median forecast of 49.2. The reading remains below the 50 level that indicates activity is shrinking.

Bloomberg’s Enda Curran writes that cheap borrowing costs have sent global debt to another record – $250 trillion of government, corporate and household debt. This level is almost three times global economic output and policymakers are now grappling with how to keep economies afloat – with more debt? According to Cornerstone Macro’s head of technical analysis Carter Worth, his S&P 500 chart signals a 5 to 8 percent decline in the coming months. Bloomberg reports that the S&P 500 fell 1.4 percent on Tuesday, pushing it below an upward trend line established in October.

SOURCE: https://www.gold-eagle.com/article/50-year-high-central-bank-gold-purchases

Affinity Metals $AAF.ca: Goldman Says Case for Diversifying into Gold ‘as Strong as Ever’ $SII.ca $TUD.ca $GTT.ca $AMK.ca $OSK.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 6:41 PM on Monday, December 9th, 2019

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

https://news.goldcore.com/ie/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2017/09/goldman-gold.jpg

American Creek $AMK.ca: Interview with Ken Konkin Concerning Potential World Class Deposit in Golden Triangle $TUD.ca $SII.ca $GTT.ca $AFF.ca $SEA.ca $SA $PVG.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 2:21 PM on Thursday, December 5th, 2019

Ken Konkin Discusses the Goldstorm Deposit at Treaty Creek (including recent outstanding drill results like 0.725 g/t over 838.5m), it’s Potential, and 2020 Development Plans

https://mailchi.mp/bf6603f1de9b/ken-konkin-discusses-the-goldstorm-deposit-treaty-creek-its-potential-and-2020-development-plans-in-a-brand-new-interview?e=d81c2ca55c

https://www.commodity-tv.com/play/tudor-gold-the-next-major-discovery-in-the-golden-triangle/

Cannot view this image? Visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/682/49176_99c64899f4a48b79_001.jpg

About American Creek

American Creek is a Canadian junior mineral exploration company with a strong portfolio of gold and silver properties in British Columbia.

Three of those properties are located in the prolific “Golden Triangle”; the Treaty Creek and Electrum joint venture projects with Tudor Gold/Walter Storm as well as the 100% owned past producing Dunwell Mine.

The Treaty Creek Project is a Joint Venture with Tudor Gold owning 60% and acting as operator. American Creek and Teuton Resources each have 20% interests in the project. American Creek and Teuton are both fully carried until such time as a Production Notice is issued, at which time they are required to contribute their respective 20% share of development costs. Until such time, Tudor is required to fund all exploration and development costs while both American Creek and Teuton have “free rides”.

More information about the Treaty Creek Project can be found here: https://americancreek.com/index.php/projects/treaty-creek/home

A drill program is also ongoing on American Creek’s 100% owned Dunwell Mine property located near Stewart. More information can be found here: https://americancreek.com/index.php/projects/dunwell-mine

The Corporation also holds the Gold Hill, Austruck-Bonanza, Ample Goldmax, Silver Side, and Glitter King properties located in other prospective areas of the province.

For further information please contact Kelvin Burton at: Phone: 403 752-4040 or Email: [email protected]. Information relating to the Corporation is available on its website at www.americancreek.com.

Hub on Agoracom
  FULL DISCLOSURE: American Creek is an advertising client of AGORA Internet Relations Corp.

Affinity Metals $AAF.ca – Gold Is New Obsession for East Europe’s Nationalist Leaders $SII.ca $TUD.ca $GTT.ca $AMK.ca $OSK.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 3:30 PM on Monday, December 2nd, 2019

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

  • Slovakia joins a host of countries seeking to repatriate
  • Serbia, Poland and Hungary have boosted their bullion reserves

Gold is all that nationalist leaders in Europe’s east can talk about these days.

Just this week, Poland’s government touted its economic might after completing the repatriation of 100 tons of the metal. Over in Hungary, anti-immigrant Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been ramping up holdings of the safe-haven asset to boost the security of his reserves.

Hungary's Prime Minister Victor Orban Attends The Opening Session Of Parliament
Viktor Orban Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg

The gold rush mirrors steps by Russia and China to diversify reserves exceeding $3 trillion away from the dollar amid flaring geopolitical tensions with the U.S. Motivations in Europe’s ex-communist wing, however, can vary.

Take the latest example. Former Slovak Premier Robert Fico, who has a shot at returning to power, urges parliament to compel the central bank into bringing home gold stocks stored in the U.K.

The reason? Sometimes your international partners can betray you, Fico said, citing a 1938 pact by France, Britain, Italy and Germany allowing Adolf Hitler to annex a chunk what was then Czechoslovakia, and — more recently — the Bank of England’s refusal to return Venezuela’s gold stock over political differences.

“You can hardly trust even the closest allies after the Munich Agreement,” Fico told reporters. “I guarantee that if something happens, we won’t see a single gram of this gold. Let’s do it as quickly as possible.”

His comments came despite the U.K. being one of Slovakia’s closest allies after the Soviet empire crumbled, helping ease the path to European Union and NATO. Fico said Brexit and the risk of a global economic crisis put Slovak gold stored in Britain in a dangerous situation.

The gold Poland brought back also came from the U.K., though there was no questioning of Britain’s reliability by central bank Governor Adam Glapinski.

Poland's Central Bank Governor Adam Glapinski News Conference As Rates Held And Hawks Sidelined
Adam GlapinskiPhotographer: Piotr Malecki/Bloomberg

Instead, he said he wanted to demonstrate the strength of his nation’s $586 billion economy — the largest in the EU’s east. Poland has doubled its gold holdings in the past two years and now has the region’s biggest stockpile.

Hungary, though, has been an active buyer too. Gold reserves surged 10-fold last year, setting the clamor for the metal in the countries around it in motion.

Serbia’s strongman leader Aleksandar Vucic took note, ordering the central bank to boost reserves and prompting the purchase of nine tons in October. Vucic said last week that more should be bought because “we see in which direction the crisis in the world is moving.”

The biggest nation to emerge from the breakup of Yugoslavia still keeps some of its gold abroad, the central bank said by email. The region is buying more of the metal because of global uncertainty over trade and politics, Brexit and low interest rates, it said.

Romania had also sought to relocate some of its gold reserves from the U.K., but those plans were put on hold when the government behind them was ousted in October.

For the no-nonsense leaders that have come to dominate eastern Europe, the main benefit may be the message to voters that hefty holdings of the precious metal conveys.

“Gold is a symbol,” said Vuk Vukovic, a political economist in Zagreb. “When states purchase it, people everywhere see it as a sign of economic sovereignty.”

By Andrea Dudik and Radoslav Tomek

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-29/gold-is-the-new-obsession-for-east-europe-s-nationalist-leaders