Good afternoon
CPI in Germany fell strongly last month, from 2.1% to 1.5%....Business confidence in Europe slightly lower, but still close to 6-year high. US economic number neitehr here not there today. Hence, liitle action again...markets are a bit unsure about where they want to go to next....metals going sideways at a high level ( except for nickel ), gold not strong enough to go through resistance as yet, bonds not really giving any direction as well....Only equities are looking as they could struggle higher in the short run - but also without any great conviction! Having said this, metals See getting stronger late in the day!
The English believe, that they can get a cheap deal from the EU - but I think politicians here are as p...ed of with them as much as I am, and they will not take any prisoners the way it looks. This could end up being quite nasty for the UK - but it will do us some harm as well. In the end, everybody hopes, that rational thinking prevails to keep a good friendship intact.The economy as well as confidence are holding up so far very well in Europe, despite BREXIT and Trump-uncertainties - must be testimony to some underlying strength.
All the commentry in Bloomberg about a terrible fall of iron ore prices etc etc...what a lot of bulls..t....this was very overdue, price is holding just above 80$/t, which is a fantastic price, and much better than anyone would have thought! Relevant companies are making a killing...and will continue to do at 70$ as well as at 60$!!
Cyclone Debby - the worst is over...but it´s still raining in many places at the East Coast. Gold mining operations of Evolution and Resolutre have started operations again - for some of the large coal producers, the situation is more difficult, as millions of t or material have to be transported, and some rail ways/ highways have some damage ebcause of the flooding. General commentary seems to be , that the impact will not be large enough to have a meaningful impact on coal prices, though.
West African Resourecs - incredible results out today...I am amazed, that there have been sellers of 3 mill shares today! The results are not a game changer on their own, but getting very close to that. Underneath their existing open pittable resource M5 tehy hit 42m with 3,89g ( incl 14m with 5.4g ) from 176 m; and 77m at 5.3g gold ( incl 27m with 12.26g ). Also excellent intersections from M1 deep drilling, with visible gold in 3 holes from between 280m and 365 m...assay results pending. And all of this ore is "good" ore - no metallurgical issues at all, recovery rates of around 90%.This is getting better and better...there should be VERY little doubt, that we will see a very viable underground operation here on top of the open pittable stuff, for which a bankable feasibility study had been published recently. The only caveat: it will be another say 4-5 month, before we see another resource being done. Drilling activity will be increased again very shortly, from 2 company-owned rigs + 2 contractor rigs, to a total of 6 rigs. As an interesting comment on the side: The company had problems initially to get the additional rigs...at least the good drilling companies are currently working at close to 100% utilisation rate in Western Africa. WAF have 15 mill$ cash left - much more than enough for what they need to do.
Have a nice evening
WS