UTS Energy shareholders have rejected the C$1.75 cash per share offer tabled by Total E&P Canada. As a result, Total has terminated the offer. UTS ended the session down C$0.06 at C$1.52.

Petro-Canada (NYSE:PCZ), which is in the midst of merger with Suncor (NYSE:SU), reported a first quarter loss of $47 million or $0.10 per share. Petro-Canada ended the day up C$0.07 at C$37.65.

NovaGold Resources (AMEX:NG) tabled a feasibility study for its 50 percent owned Donlin Creek project in Alaska. The study envisions a 53,500 tonne per day operation producing 1.6 million ounces of gold at a cash cost of $394 per ounce over the first five years of a 21 year mine life. At $900 per ounce for gold, the net present value at a 5 per cent discount rate is $1.5-billion with an internal rate of return of 9.4 per cent. NovaGold ended the day up C$0.05 at C$3.29.

Timminco managed to tack on C$0.19 to close at C$1.77 after the solar silicon supplier inked a financing deal with its controlling shareholder, AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V. Under the proposal, AMG will purchase about 7.4 million common shares at a price of C$2.02 per share for a cool C$15 million.

Western Canadian Coal announced that it has secured enough sales contracts for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010 to continue mining operations at the Wolverine operation and Brule mine in British Columbia. Western added C$0.18 to close at C$0.96.

Romarco Minerals failed to get a lift despite hitting more goodies at its Haile mine project in South Carolina. The latest included 5.1 grams gold per tonne over 54.9 metres. Romarco ended the session down C$0.02 at C$0.53.

The junior board failed to stay above the 1,000 point resistance mark and with the summer doldrums fast approaching trading volumes should start declining. We shall see what Wednesday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

This was a criminal act, pure and simple.

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Friday’s open interest in gold (after the big price spikes…that were subsequently crushed) rose 5,463 contract to 333,666. Clearly some serious opposition was present. Silver o.i. rose 1,118 contracts to 87,320. Cut off for this Friday’s Commitment of Traders report is today at the close of trading at 5:15 Eastern time. Will this data…plus yesterday’s and today’s…be in it? It should be, but who the hell knows these days.

The usual New York commentator had this to say about yesterday’s activity…”Gold drifted down steadily to the NY open, when it was hit with an avalanche of selling. Huge estimated volume of 86,098 lots traded by 9 a.m., slicing almost $20 off the price, all rally attempts were smashed, and Comex gold closed down $34 on estimated volume of 149,686 lots (switch effect 18,260). Monday morning Comex bashings seem to have become a habit.”

Not much in the way of gold or silver news yesterday. The big item was the story about Apex Silver being in the preliminary stages of going Chapter 11. As I’ve said before, this should be no surprise to anyone if they have the slightest hint of what their hedgebook is like. And I also note in a story in Canada’s National Post that NovaGold (AMEX:NG) received notice today that it might be delisted. And in a story in The Wall Street Journal yesterday, the headline read “A Wave of Buying Hits Commodity Funds…In recent weeks, commodity funds have seen an influx of several billion dollars, a stark reversal from the brutal forced selling that dominated the second half of last year. Most of the money has flowed into long-only vehicles — funds that bet on prices to rise — suggesting a combination of investors’ revived confidence and portfolio rebalancing.”

With the weekend now behind us, there’s lots of “other news”…and here are the ‘lowlights’. The Telegraph (London)…”Bond bubble is accident waiting to happen. The bond vigilantes slumber. As the greatest sovereign bond bubble of all time rolls into 2009, investors are clinging to an implausible assumption that China and Japan will provide enough capital to keep the happy game going forever.” Marketwatch.com…“Alcoa racks up $1.2 billion loss in their last quarter.” Bloomberg (Moscow)… “Russia’s ruble slid to its weakest level in almost six years against the dollar after the central bank devalued the currency for a second day as declining oil prices threaten to deepen the country’s economic crisis.” The Telegraph (London)…”The Bank of England will be able to print extra money without having to legally declare it. The government is set to throw out the 165-year-old law that obliges the Bank to publish a weekly account of its balance sheet — a move that will allow it theoretically to embark covertly on so-called quantitative easing. This will heighten fears that the Government will secretly pump extra cash into the economy.” ["heighten fears"??? This change is an absolute guarantee that the government will do exactly that! – Ed] And lastly, The Telegraph (London): The headline reads “Europe’s economy contracts at rates not seen since1930s”…”German exports and industrial orders have both plunged at the steepest rate since modern records began and Spain’s unemployment has surged above three million, capping one of the most disastrous days for Europe’s economy since the Second World War.”

The first story is silver analyst Ted Butler’s latest weekly commentary. Butler reports that the Commitment of Traders for gold and silver on the commodities exchange has turned in favor of the manipulative shorts. The essay is entitled “Gold COT Deterioration” and the link is here.

Today’s second story is from The Economist. “The central bankers of the Great Depression were obsessed with a single idea, rather like their successors today.” The title of the article is “Lords of Finance” and the link is here.

And lastly, about eight years ago, I read a book entitled The Creature From Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve by G. Edward Griffin. I was greatly distressed by what I read. Griffen spent a lot of time talking about an organization called the Trilateral Commission. The following story landed in my inbox on the weekend and I thought it worth sharing. It’s entitled “The Return of the Trilateral Undead” and the link is here.

Investigating Goldman Sachs’ shorting its own mortgage-backed securities when Henry Paulson was CEO would be a good start in cleaning up the mess and restoring confidence. Prosecuting JPMorgan Chase’s involvement in sucker-punching gold prices last August would be another step toward restoring confidence. – Curtis Hesler, Forbes.com, 12 January 2009

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So, are gold and silver going to get hammered from here? Well, the bullion banks (mostly JPMorgan-NYSE:JPM)) are sitting on a pile of short positions they’ve accumulated from all the tech funds and small traders that have gone long over the last month or so. If they figure they have all the mice they can get in the trap at this time, they can pull the lever whenever they want. Yesterday could have been the start. How far down we go will depend on Paulson and Bernanke…as the laws of supply and demand no longer apply in these markets.

See you on Wednesday.

Source: And Then There’s This…Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

Colossus Minerals tagged an impressive 60.5 metres grading 14.37 grams gold per tonne, 1.81 grams platinum per tonne and 2.46 grams palladium per tonne at its Serra Pelada project in Brazil. Colossus ended the day up C$0.16 at C$1.43.

Happy Creek Minerals returned 177 metres of 0.366% copper at its Rateria property in British Columbia. Happy Creek ended the day up C$0.01 at C$0.06.

Partners Motapa Diamonds and Lucara Diamond recovered 642 diamonds weighing 277.13 carats from a 7,781 tonne sample at the Mothae bulk sample project in Lesotho. Motapa ended the day flat at C$0.195, while Lucara was also unchanged at C$0.60.

Shares of NovaGold Resources (AMEX:NG) fell C$0.23 to C$1.90 after the Toronto Stock Exchange said the company is being reviewed for possible delisting. NovaGold has been granted 210 days in which to comply with listing requirements.

With earnings season about to start, investors ran for the exits in anticipation of some nasty surprises. We will see what Tuesday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup:Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

In a reversal of fortunes, Western Canadian Coal will loan up to $36 million to its major shareholder to Cambrian Investment Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cambrian Mining PLC. Cambrian will use the funds to repay its financing facility with Investec Bank. Western ended the day up C$0.17 at C$0.88.

NovaGold Resources (AMEX:NG) wasted little time in raising much needed capital. The cash-starved company inked a deal to sell just over 46.1 million units at $1.30 each for gross proceeds of $60 million. NovaGold ended the session up C$0.13 at C$1.90.

Meanwhile, New Gold (AMEX:NGD) has placed its Amapari mine in Brazil on temporary care and maintenance due to cost factors. New Gold ended the day at C$1.61 for a C$0.16 loss.

Dynamite Resources added C$0.005 to close at C$0.10 after the junior announced that Blue Note Mining acquired an additional 12.5 million shares of the cash-rich company.

Uranium players generally had a good session with junior JNR Resources adding C$0.155 to C$0.445 and Strathmore Minerals adding C$0.15 to close at C$0.44.

As expected Friday marked a slow trading day as most investors do not get back to their computer screens until Monday. That said, the buy side interest is encouraging. We will see what Monday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Monday, January 05th, 2009

The Hudbay takeover saga just got a tad more interesting after Jaguar Financial announced that it would offer Hudbay shareholders the cash value of Hudbay, less a 1% fee estimated at C$5.40 per share, plus the cash from the remaining assets of Hudbay under a sale. HudBay Minerals and Lundin Mining (NYSE:LMC) have inked a friendly deal that would have Lundin shareholders getting 0.3919 of a Hudbay share for each Lundin share held. Hudbay ended the day up C$0.15 at C$3.31, while Lundin lost C$0.10 to close at C$0.95 and Jaguar Financial closed down C$0.005 at C$0.07.

Sherwood Copper made C$12.1 million in the third quarter after excluding adjustments to unrealized forward sales and other non-cash adjustments. Copper production from its Minto operation tallied 7.3 million pounds of payable copper with total cash costs ringing in at $2.10. Sherwood, which became Capstone Mining as of Monday, ended the session up C$0.22 at C$0.90.

NovaGold Resources (AMEX:NG) hit the wall after announcing that it has to repay a $20 million loan by December 29 and has only $10 million in the bank. The part owner of the Donlin Creek project in Alaska and the Galore Creek project in British Columbia will pony up its cash call for Donlin but not Galore. NovaGold closed down C$1.48 at C$0.72.

Canplats Resources tallied a measured and indicated resource of 3.445 million ounces grading 0.66 gram gold per tonne at its Represa zone in Mexico. Canplats ended the day up C$0.15 at C$1.39.

The junior board appears to be forming some sort of bottom at around the 700 point mark. Let’s hope that tax loss selling does not prompt a serious breach of this already beaten down level. We will see what Tuesday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange lost 1.22%, while the TSX Gold Index plunged 4.4% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, fell 2.84% with the declining issuers swamping the advancers by a 612 to 254 margin on volume of 119 million shares traded.

Gammon Gold (GRS) cut 12.25 grams gold over 1.2 metres at its Guadalupe y Calvo property in Mexico’s Chihuahua state. Shares of Gammon however followed the bullion price by ending the day down C$0.60 at C$9.05.

Financially troubled Geoinformatics Exploration (GXL) added C$0.005 to close at C$0.40 after reporting that the first hole of its 2008 drill program on the Whistler zone in Alaska cut 726.8 metres running 0.48 gram gold per tonne.

NovaGold (NG)and its long time shareholders must be shaking their heads about rebuffing the $16 per share takeover bid from Barrick Gold (ABX) in late 2006. Well, Barrick may get another chance only this time at a cheaper price because NovaGold announced that it was considering selling all or part of itself to unlock shareholder value. NovaGold, which closed down C$0.33 at C$6.20, holds a 50% stake in the Donlin Creek gold project in Alaska and a 50% interest in the Galore Creek copper-gold property in British Columbia.

The junior bourse has once again taken out its yearly low and is now trading some 45% off its high hit in May 2007. The next key down stop is at 1650, which is still a long way off the 890 point bottom encountered in 2002. We will see what Thursday trading has in store.

Source:  Resource Stock Roundup Thursday, September 4th, 2008

Many in the mainstream press are calling an end to the “commodities bubble.” But oil and energy expert Byron King warns investors against betting against cheap oil and gold.

Byron says what we are seeing now is a short- to medium-term correction in the trends for energy and resources. Investors who buy beaten-up oil service stocks and gold miners now stand to make major profits…

Back when oil was in the $140s, I said – in both print and broadcast interviews – that oil prices were running up too far, too fast. I predicted that oil prices would decline to $100-110, based on the fundamentals. Well, we’ve seen the decline and we’re almost there.

High oil prices have caused big changes in patterns of consumption. Indeed, the U.S. Department of Energy just announced that U.S. oil demand fell by about 800,000 barrels per day during the first half of 2008, compared with the same period last year. This is the biggest volume decline in 26 years, since the recession of the early 1980s.

Sure, some headlines describe what’s going on as something like the “oil bubble” or “commodities bubble” popping. Some people are talking and acting as if we were going back in time to the last era of cheap energy, cheap gold and cheap commodities. But don’t believe it. Don’t bet on it. And don’t play the markets that way.

A Gold And Oil Correction Was Due

What’s going on? We are in the midst of a short- to medium-term correction in the trends for energy and resources. Keep this in mind: This is a CORRECTION, not a fundamental change in the long-term correlation of things.

The long-term trends are still upward, in terms of value and pricing. But for now, the money is leaving energy and resources for pastures that look greener.

What pastures are greener? Well — speaking of green — the U.S. dollar is strengthening. It turns out that the euro is not the powerhouse currency that a lot of people believed it was. So the dollar has been strengthening against the euro for the past couple of weeks.

The Euro Can Go Down

And it turns out that euroland has its own economic problems. In fact, the euro can go down against the dollar, as well as up. That’s exactly what has happened. Euro down, dollar up. So in consequence, we are seeing the dollar going up, and oil and gold going down.

There is more to the equation. The economists are describing a recession occurring in parts of the euroland economic space. Germany — with Europe’s largest economy — has been hard hit, so there’s been quite a bit of drag on the euroland economy.

And then there are indications that the long-awaited U.S. recession is finally just around the corner. Really, we are just in the middle innings of the banking meltdown and housing crash in the U.S. The recent stock market turnaround may just be the seventh- inning stretch. I expect to see more large banks and investment houses either fail or get bailed out before the end of 2008.

So with two of the world’s largest economies about to enter the doldrums, world markets are seeing demand for energy and commodities slacken.

Thus, we have monetary issues with the dollar. And there are demand issues with economic slowdown in two of the world’s largest economic blocks. Prices for benchmark items like gold and oil are falling.

Stocks to be looking at…

And this is taking the stuffing out of energy and gold stocks. The mining stocks are down. The oils and service companies are down. It’s painful to watch. But it’s not a reason to give up.

As I said, this is a correction. This is an August swoon. Share prices are down, so it’s time to look at your shopping list. You can pick up shares in 2008 and pay 2005 prices. You can build a portfolio for the next five years with some prudent stock picking in the next couple of months.

Some of the most beaten-up oil and oil service companies are Apache (APA: NYSE), Halliburton (HAL: NYSE), Baker Hughes (BHI: NYSE) and Superior Energy Services (SPN: NYSE).

Some of the most beaten-up miners are Kinross Gold Corp. (KGC: NYSE), Yamana (AUY: NYSE), Hecla Mining (HL: NYSE) and the development-stage NovaGold (NG: AMEX).

When oil and gold turn around – which they will – all of these companies should do very well.

Source: The Gold and Oil Correction

For the tail of the tape; the TSX Exchange fell 0.42%, while the TSX Gold Index (TSX:XGD) gave back 4.1% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, dropped 1.82% with the declining issuers beating out the advancers by a 520 to 327 margin on pathetic volume of only 95 million shares traded.

In the face of high operating costs, Yukon-Nevada Gold (TSE:YNG) has decided to suspend its underground operations at its Jerritt Canyon mine in Nevada and focus on operating the profitable 4,000 ton per day mill that has been refurbished over the past six months. Yukon-Nevada ended the day down C$0.31 at C$0.54.

Aurizon Mines (AMEX:AZK) tallied earnings of $5.6 million or $0.04 per share during the second quarter on production of 36,871 ounces of gold from its Casa Berardi mine in Quebec. Aurizon ended the day down C$0.10 at C$4.17.

NovaGold Resources (AMEX:NG) and several of its officers have been named as defendants in a purported securities class action lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The complaint alleges that the company failed to disclose materially adverse facts concerning its operations and prospects in various public statements. The lawsuit comes on the heels of NovaGold halting development of its huge 50% owned Galore Creek project in British Columbia due to big capital cost increases. NovaGold ended the day down C$0.38 at C$7.06.

The junior bourse is now at levels last seen in 2005 and there appears to be no end in sight for the much beleaguered junior explorers. We will see what Monday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Saturday, August 9th, 2008