AGORACOM Small-cap Investor Relations Blog

Kamloops, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. – September 18, 2019) – Advance Gold Corp. (TSXV: AAX) (“Advance Gold” or “the Company”) is pleased to provide an exploration update on its Tabasquena gold and silver project in Zacatecas, Mexico. To date, 10 drill holes have been completed hitting widespread gold and silver mineralization in near surface epithermal veins. Recently, a 3D induced polarization (IP) survey was completed that identified a significant continuous chargeability anomaly, with an east-west width of approximately 250 metres and an apparent strike length of over 800 metres. This anomaly is located directly below the Tabasquena vein. The anomaly remains open to the north and to the south and at depth. A second phase 3D IP geophysical survey is scheduled to begin in the first week of October to extend the grid to the south.

The purpose of the extended grid to the south will be threefold, firstly it will establish the continuity of the anomaly to the south, secondly whether or not the target anomaly becomes shallower and lastly it will assist in positioning the upcoming drill hole locations. It is planned to commence drilling once the IP survey has been completed.

Images shown below are a 3D model of the epithermal veins hit in previous drilling and a voxel inversion model showing the extent of the large chargeability anomaly for lines L7450N and L7250N. These two diagrams are an excellent representation of the emerging targets at Tabasquena.

The black line at the surface of the 3D model of drill holes is the surface projection of the Tabasquena vein. The red shaded area is the historical mining done by Penoles. The chargeability anomaly is approximately 250 metres below the historical mining, and it follows the strike direction of the Tabasquena vein. The epithermal veins, with highlighted widespread gold and silver mineralization, are above and slightly to the west of the deeper chargeability anomaly.

Diagram 1

To view an enhanced version of Diagram 1, please visit:
https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/5492/47861_8ca2976fa4ff4af5_001full.jpg

Diagram 2

To view an enhanced version of Diagram 2, please visit:
https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/5492/47861_8ca2976fa4ff4af5_002full.jpg

Allan Barry Laboucan, President and CEO of Advance Gold Corp., commented: “Our exploration efforts at Tabasquena are coming together nicely with the past drilling and the recent IP geophysical survey. It is important to point out, the IP survey is meant to reveal sulphides through chargeability. The epithermal veins are low sulphidation and relatively small and don’t show up well in the IP survey, however right below these veins is the large continuous chargeability anomaly of over 800 metres from north to south and approximately 250 metres from east to west. Before starting our next round of drilling, we wanted to extend the IP grid to the south, where the anomaly is closer to surface. There is a significant elevation change of approximately 300 metres from the northernmost line of the geophysical survey to the most southerly one. We have approximately 1500 metres to the southern limits of our claims. The chargeability anomaly is open to the north, but due to the higher elevation and more cover it exceeds the depth limits of the IP survey. We are very excited to extend the grid to the south as that is the direction of the highest intensity of the chargeability and where it becomes closest to surface. The combination of the quality of Tabasquena and our various projects, our low share count and a tight share structure, with substantial insider ownership and tiny valuation, puts us in a unique position relative to our exploration focused peers as the market for gold and silver are gaining strength.”

Julio Pinto Linares is a QP, Doctor in Geological Sciences with specialty in Economic Geology and Qualified Professional No. 01365 by MMSA., and QP for Advance Gold and is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and he has read and approved the accuracy of technical information contained in this news release.

About Advance Gold Corp. (AAX.V)

Advance Gold is a TSX-V listed junior exploration company focused on acquiring and exploring mineral properties containing precious metals. The Company acquired a 100% interest in the Tabasquena Silver Mine in Zacatecas, Mexico in 2017, and the Venaditas project, also in Zacatecas state, in April, 2018.

The Tabasquena project is located near the Milagros silver mine near the city of Ojocaliente, Mexico. Benefits at Tabasquena include road access to the claims, power to the claims, a 100-metre underground shaft and underground workings, plus it is a fully permitted mine.

Venaditas is well located adjacent to Teck’s San Nicolas mine, a VMS deposit, and it is approximately 11km to the east of the Tabasquena project, along a paved road.

In addition, Advance Gold holds a 13.23% interest on strategic claims in the Liranda Corridor in Kenya, East Africa. The remaining 86.77% of the Kakamega project is held by Barrick Gold Corporation.

For further information, please contact:

Allan Barry Laboucan,
President and CEO

Phone: (604) 505-4753
Email: [email protected]

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 15% of the Kakamega JV attached to Barrick Takeover Offer for Acacia Mining. Click Here For More Info

Diversify Well To Protect Oneself Against The Coming ‘Paradigm Shift’

The most important forces that now exist are:

1) The End of the Long-Term Debt Cycle (When Central Banks Are No Longer Effective)
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2) The Large Wealth Gap and Political Polarity
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3) A Rising World Power Challenging an Existing World Power
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The Bond Blow-Off, Rising Gold Prices, and the Late 1930s Analogue

In other words now
1) central banks have limited ability to stimulate,
2) there is large wealth and political polarity and
3) there is a conflict between China as a rising power and the US as an existing world power. 

If/when there is an economic downturn, that will produce serious problems in ways that are analogous to the ways that the confluence of those three influences produced serious problems in the late 1930s.

Before I get into the meat of what I hope to convey, I will repeat my simple timeless and universal template for understanding and anticipating what is happening in the economy and markets.

My Template

There are four important influences that drive economies and markets:

1. Productivity
2. The short-term debt/business cycle
3. The long-term debt cycle
4. Politics (within countries and between countries).

There are three equilibriums:

1. Debt growth is in line with the income growth required to service the debt,
2. The economy’s operating rate is neither too high (because that will produce unacceptable inflation and inefficiencies) nor too low (because economically depressed levels of activity will produce unacceptable pain and political changes), and
3. The projected returns of cash are below the projected returns of bonds, which are below the projected returns of equities and the projected returns of other “risky assets.”

And there are two levers that the government has to try to bring things into equilibrium:

1. Monetary policy
2. Fiscal policy

The equilibriums move around in relation to each other to produce changes in each like a perpetual motion machine, simultaneously trying to find their equilibrium level. When there are big deviations from one or more of the equilibriums, the forces and policy levers react in ways that one can pretty much expect in order to move them toward their equilibriums.

For example, when growth and inflation fall to lower than the desired equilibrium levels, central banks will ease monetary policies which lowers the short-term interest rate relative to expected bond returns, expected returns on equities, and expected inflation. Expected bond returns, equity returns, and inflation themselves change in response to changes in expected conditions (e.g. if expected growth is falling, bond yields will fall and stock prices will fall).

These price changes happen until debt and spending growth pick up to shift growth and inflation back toward inflation. And of course all this affects politics (because political changes will happen if the equilibriums get too far out of line), which affects fiscal and monetary policy. More simply and most importantly said, the central bank has the stimulant which can be injected or withdrawn and cause these things to change most quickly.

Fiscal policy, which changes taxes and spending in politically motivated ways, can also be changed to be more stimulative or less stimulative in response to what is needed but that happens in lagging and highly inefficient ways.

For a simpler explanation of this template see my 30-minute animated video â€œHow the Economic Machine Works” and for a more comprehensive explanation see my book Understanding the Principles of Big Debt Crises, which is available free as a PDF here or in print on Amazon. Also, to learn more about our extensive debt cycle research, please visit our debt crises research library on Bridgewater.com.

Looking at What Is Happening Now in the Context of That Template

Regarding the above template and where we are now, in my opinion, the most important things that are happening (which last happened in the late 1930s) are

a) we are approaching the ends of both the short-term and long-term debt cycles in the world’s three major reserve currencies, while

b) the debt and non-debt obligations (e.g. healthcare and pensions) that are coming at us are larger than the incomes that are required to fund them,

c) large wealth and political gaps are producing political conflicts within countries that are characterized by larger and more extreme levels of internal conflicts between the rich and the poor and between capitalists and socialists,

d) external politics is driven by the rising of an emerging power (China) to challenge the existing world power (the US), which is leading to a more extreme external conflict and will eventually lead to a change in the world order, and [Ian Bremmer calls this the return of a bi-polar world but with significant differences in the goals of the powers—JM]

e) the excess expected returns of bonds is compressing relative to the returns on the cash rates central banks are providing.

As for monetary policy and fiscal policy responses, it seems to me that we are classically in the late stages of the long-term debt cycle when central banks’ power to ease in order to reverse an economic downturn is coming to an end because:

• Monetary Policy 1 (i.e. the ability to lower interest rates) doesn’t work effectively because interest rates get so low that lowering them enough to stimulate growth doesn’t work well,
• Monetary Policy 2 (i.e. printing money and buying financial assets) doesn’t work well because that doesn’t produce adequate credit in the real economy (as distinct from credit growth to leverage up investment assets), so there is “pushing on a string.” That creates the need for…
• Monetary Policy 3 (large budget deficits and monetizing of them) which is problematic especially in this highly politicized and undisciplined environment.

More specifically, central bank policies will push short-term and long-term real and nominal interest rates very low and print money to buy financial assets because they will need to set short-term interest rates as low as possible due to the large debt and other obligations (e.g. pensions and healthcare obligations) that are coming due and because of weakness in the economy and low inflation. Their hope will be that doing so will drive the expected returns of cash below the expected returns of bonds, but that won’t work well because:

a) these rates are too close to their floors,

b) there is a weakening in growth and inflation expectations which is also lowering the expected returns of equities,

c) real rates need to go very low because of the large debt and other obligations coming due, and

d) the purchases of financial assets by central banks stays in the hands of investors rather than trickles down to most of the economy (which worsens the wealth gap and the populist political responses).

This has happened at a time when investors have become increasingly leveraged long due to the low interest rates and their increased liquidity. As a result we see the market driving down short-term rates while central banks are also turning more toward long-term interest rate and yield curve controls, just as they did from the late 1930s through most of the 1940s.

To put this interest rate situation in perspective, see the long-term debt/interest rate wave in the following chart. As shown below, there was a big inflationary blow-off that drove interest rates into a blow-off in 1980–82. During that period, Paul Volcker raised real and nominal interest rates to what were called the highest levels “since the birth of Jesus Christ,” which caused the reversal.

During the period leading into the 1980–82 peak, we saw the blow-off in gold. The below chart shows the gold price from 1944 (near the end of the war and the beginning of the Bretton Woods monetary system) into the 1980–82 period (the end of the inflationary blow-off). Note that the bull move in gold began in 1971, when the Bretton Woods monetary system that linked the dollar to gold broke down and was replaced by the current fiat monetary system. The de-linking of the dollar from gold set off that big move. During the resulting inflationary/gold blow-off, there was the big bear move in bonds that reversed with the extremely tight monetary policies of 1979–82.

Since then, we have had a mirror-like symmetrical reversal (a dis/deflationary blow-off). Look at the current inflation rates at the current cyclical peaks (i.e. not much inflation despite the world economy and financial markets being near a peak and despite all the central banks’ money printing) and imagine what they will be at the next cyclical lows. That is because there are strong deflationary forces at work as productive capacity has increased greatly. These forces are creating the need for extremely loose monetary policies that are forcing central banks to drive interest rates to such low levels and will lead to enormous deficits that are monetized, which is creating the blow-off in bonds that is the reciprocal of the 1980–82 blow-off in gold. The charts below show the 30-year T-bond returns from that 1980–82 period until now, which highlight the blow-off in bonds.

To understand the current period, I recommend that you understand the workings of the 1935–45 period closely, which is the last time similar forces were at work to produce a similar dynamic.

Please understand that I’m not saying that the past is prologue in an identical way. What I am saying that the basic cause/effect relationships are analogous:

a) approaching the ends of the short-term and long-term debt cycles, while

b) the internal politics is driven by large wealth and political gaps, which are producing large internal conflicts between the rich and the poor and between capitalists and socialists, and

c) the external political conflict that is driven by the rising of an emerging power to challenge the existing world power, leading to significant external conflict that eventually leads to a change in the world order.

As a result, there is a lot to be learned by understanding the mechanics of what happened then (and in other analogous times before then) in order to understand the mechanics of what is happening now.

It is also worth understanding how paradigm shifts work and how to diversify well to protect oneself against them.

by Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, August 28, 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 15% of the Kakamega JV attached to Barrick Takeover Offer for Acacia Mining. Click Here For More Info

• Value of Russia’s gold reserves climbed 42% in the past year
• Russia is diversifying from U.S. assets and gold has rallied
• Russia’s long-running bet on gold is looking better every month.

The country quadrupled gold reserves in the past decade as it diversified away from U.S. assets, a move that has paid off recently as haven demand sent prices to a six-year high. In the past year, the value of the nation’s gold jumped 42% to $109.5 billion and the metal now makes up the biggest share of Russia’s total reserves since 2000.

Russia’s central bank has been the largest buyer of gold in the past few years as President Vladimir Putin seeks to break reliance on the U.S. dollar as relations between the countries remain strained. If Russia did need to tap its gold holding, it would fetch a hefty price — the metal is heading for the best year since 2010 as the U.S.-China trade war hurts global growth and central banks ease monetary policy.

“Russia prefers to cushion its macroeconomic stability through politically neutral tools,” said Vladimir Miklashevsky, a strategist at Danske Bank A/S in Helsinki. “There is a massive substitution of U.S. dollar assets by gold — a strategy which has earned billions of dollars for the Bank of Russia just within several months.”

More on Russia’s reserves

Russia’s gold reserves total more than 2,200 tons, the fifth-biggest hoard by country, and gold now accounts for 20.7% of overall reserves.The value of Russia’s currency reserves are up 9.5% in the past year, lagging the gains seen in bullion.The central bank bought about 106 tons so far this year, the latest data show. That’s down 19% from the same period in 2018 but still more than any other nation.Last year, Russia’s gold buying exceeded its mine supply for the first time.

Russia isn’t alone in hoarding gold. China, Kazakhstan and Poland have been among the biggest buyers in the past couple of years, and global holdings are expected to increase for a while yet.

Not all of Russia’s moves are paying off. Last year, the central bank shifted about $100 billion of U.S. holdings into euros, yuan and the yen, and since then the Chinese currency has dropped. Russia also missed out on the rally in U.S. Treasuries.

Russia may keep buying gold to compensate for those other losses in its reserves, said Kirill Tremasov, a former Economics Ministry official and now director of analysis at Loko-Invest in Moscow. So far it’s working, with gold up 18% this year to $1,513 an ounce.

For Russia at least, it’s more about diversification than benefiting from the price. The central bank started buying gold more than a decade ago as it rallied toward 2011‘s record, and kept adding when prices dropped in the following few years.

“The central bank is unlikely to have pursued the goal of earning in the process of managing gold reserves,” Dmitry Dolgin, an economist at ING Bank, said by email. “The buying was rather about diversification of assets

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-09/russia-s-massive-gold-stash-is-now-worth-more-than-100-billion

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 15% of the Kakamega JV attached to Barrick Takeover Offer for Acacia Mining. Click Here For More Info

• Uncertainties surrounding U.S.-China trade relations and Britain’s departure from the European Union influencing gold price
• The dollar climbed to a more than two-year high against other major currencies, making dollar-denominated gold costlier for investors holding other currencies.

Gold prices held steady on Tuesday as uncertainties surrounding U.S.-China trade relations and Britain’s departure from the European Union offset pressure from a stronger dollar.

Spot gold was up 0.1% at $1,532.48 per ounce but still not far off its more than six-year high of $1,554.56. U.S. gold futures were up 0.8% at $1,541.40.

“We are having a battle right now against multiple layers of uncertainties in the market and a strong dollar,” Saxo Bank commodity strategist Ole Hansen said.

“The trade talks between U.S. and China are going nowhere. The political debacle in the UK with Brexit, where we are potentially facing another vote before the day is over, is adding enough underlying support to gold to offset the strength in dollar.”

The dollar climbed to a more than two-year high against other major currencies, making dollar-denominated gold costlier for investors holding other currencies.

On the trade front, China has lodged a complaint at the World Trade Organization over U.S. import duties, trashing the latest tariff actions as violating the consensus reached by leaders of both countries at a meeting in Osaka.

In Britain, lawmakers will decide on Tuesday whether to move towards a snap election when they vote on the first stage of their plan to block Prime Minister Boris Johnson from pursuing a no-deal Brexit.

But analysts said that fears of a deceleration in global economic growth, negative yielding debts around the world and hopes for interest rate cuts by global central banks also provided support for gold.

“Given this week’s economic calendar is jam-packed with crucial economic releases that will shape monetary policy expectations for the September 18 Federal Open Market Committee meeting, gold traders are trading very delicately waiting for more convincing U.S. economic signals,” VM Markets Managing Partner Stephen Innes said in a note.

Investors are awaiting the U.S. manufacturing survey by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), due at 1400 GMT, for some forward guidance on U.S. economic conditions.

Federal fund futures implied traders saw a 91% chance of a 25 basis point rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve this month.

“Rate cut will happen almost no matter what kind of economic data we’re going to be presented with from now on until the Fed meeting but any acceleration to the weaker side could increase the expectations of how big the cut would be,” Saxo Bank’s Hansen said.

Silver rose 0.2% to $18.48 per ounce. Platinum was up 0.9% at $938.34 per ounce, while palladium gained 0.3% to $1,535.79.

SOURCE: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/03/gold-markets-us-dollar-in-focus.html

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 15% of the Kakamega JV attached to Barrick Takeover Offer for Acacia Mining

• In Canada, Gold is $100 higher than its (previous) all-time highs.
• Gold and Silver Ratio also close to previous highs

SOURCE: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-08-11/everything-has-changed-gold-all-time-high-73-countries