Good afternoon
well the English are providing us with some fun….I guess the girl friend of Boris is not the only one saying: Get off me!!!
German business confidence falls yet again - no surprise, really!
Equities are having a little pause today - but generally I would call what we have seen kind of a melt-up recently! The trade war is unresolved, Iran is a serious issue, etec etc - yet equities are very strong. I would call this a melt-up under the circumstances!
What is driving equities, is ( partially ) also driving gold: low and falling interest rates! Very important chart-break to the upside last week, and in A$ terms, we moved swiftly through the 2000 A$/oz level - currently at 2.022 !! Without any doubt, there are some cost pressures at work in Australia - mainly from the limited availibility of people - but the A$ certainly rises much faster than costs do! Only 3 weeks ago we celebrated the move through 1900 - at more than 2000 A$/oz, all serious producers are just printing it! And some of the higher cost producers like Perseus or Silver Lake are rocketing.
What is missing at this stage is some serious interest in explorers - I guess we need another week or two of high gold prices to find some enthusiasm for this sub-sector. Junior stocks definitely experienced some sentiment-crash from the problems of Gascoyne and Dacian, and to a much lesser degree, Gold Road.
West African Resources - is trying to mitigate comissioning-risk by announcing another round of excellent grade-control drilling from the M5 open pit, which has a resource of 36 millt at 1,2g gold/t. Results include 29m with 13g from surface; 28m at 6g; 20m with 7.8g; 25m with 6g etc etc…nearly all announced intersections are above 1,2g…Nobody is saying it - and that´s probably good to avoid any disappointments following some recent, spectacular comissioning problems at several mines in Australia - but I would be very surprised, if we would not see some very strong, early production numbers based on these excellent grade-control drilling results. The stock responded a little bit - but I guess developers do trade at a significant discount these days, and especially, when they have their operations in West Africa!
Liontown - rleased another batch of excellent drillin results from the Kathleen Valley lithium project - 83m with 1,5%, 53m with 1,6%; 34m with 1,4%; 74m with 1,3% also indicate a consisten resource grade of a 1,4% Li2O. The much awaited resource estimate will be out in early July, the prefeasibility study in the 4th Quarter. No doubt, that the new resource will be a very big number! whther it´s 50-60 millt nobody knows - we will find out within the next 2 weeks or so!
Horizon Gold - a little bit of life coming to them…well, nearly 700.000 oz of free-milling resources gold should be of interest with A$ gold above 2000 A$! I have not heard anything - but it would be surprising, if there would be no coprorate interest! The company is only capped at 12 mill A$, with an estimated cash position of 1.5 mill A$ at the end of this Quarter. Paying only 30$/oz ( and nothing for the refractory ore ) would result in 21 mill A$ or nearly double the current market cap. Let´s hope, that we as Panoramic shareholders ( PAN own 51% of HRN ) will have some fun one day!
Venturex - have embarked on a step-out exploration program, which resulted in a first, very strong intersection of 29m with 1,47% from 45m and 31m with 3,24% from 94m in one drill hole. I think this result might well bring some inferred resources into the indicated category. Results from a second hole are awaited, and some further drilling is planned.
Strike Energy - updated on Jaws 1, their unconventional drilling in the Cooper Basin. The well continues to do what is expected - gas is flowing continously, water productivity is still good at 450 bbls/day. At some stage in the next few weeks, the water flow will hopefully be replaced by increasing gas flows…While everybody is focusing on West Erregulla , I still have not given up on Jaws!!!!!
Dacian - this beaten-up new kid on the block finally has delivered something from the exploration front. 750 m from it´s existant Westralia Reserve, they reported 31m with 6,3g; 14 m with 12,7g; and several smaller, high grade intersections are very promising. Also, one of it´s directors has put some serious money into the stock and bought 2 mill shares in the market. As we all know, DCN have some serious work to do to regain some investor confidence, and the 5-year production outlook has been reduced from 200.000oz + p.a. to 150-170.000 oz p.a.. But this A$ gold price will do wonders for their profitability, even at the enw production arte at increased cost - assumed tehy can deliver on this forecast! Normally, I would think that they are conservative now - but their hiytory does not suggest that. I bought a small position in the stock.
Have a nice evening
WS