Nevgold Resource announced that the drill rig will be turning on its Cordero gold project in Nevada. The junior is targeting high-grade feeders at around 450 meters depth. Nevgold ended the day unchanged at C$0.15.

The Evolving Gold story continued to evolve. The junior mobilized a fourth core drill rig to its Rattlesnake Hills property in Wyoming. Evolving Gold closed at C$1.29, for a C$0.18 gain.

The markets appear to be at a pivotal turning point with signs that an economic recovery is at hand driving buyers back into equities. We shall see what Monday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup:Monday, July 27, 2009

Merger mania continued with Silvercorp Metals offering up 0.5 of its shares for each Klondex share. The hostile offer is valued and C$70 million and would give the base metal miner exposure to an advanced gold asset in Nevada.
Silvercorp closed down C$0.54 at C$3.82, while Klondex added C$0.58 to C$1.95.

Golden Predator Royalty & Development inked a deal to acquire up to a 70 per cent interest the past producing Brewery Creek project in the Yukon. Golden must spend C$4 million by the end of 2012 to earn a 51 per cent interest. Golden will have the option to acquire an additional 14 per cent interest in the project by spending additional C$1-million and completing a preliminary economic assessment by the end of 2013. An additional 10 per cent can be reached by Golden by completing an additional C$1 million in exploration expenditures and delivering a bankable feasibility study by the end of 2014. Project owner, Alexco Resources (AMEX:AXU) retains a one time right to buy back the additional 10 per cent interest by paying to Golden Predator 2.5 times all exploration and development expenditures incurred by Golden Predator in excess of C$4 million. Golden ended the day unchanged at C$0.44, while Alexco fell C$0.19 to close at C$2.35.

The deal flow is continuing at a torrid pace in the junior end of the equity market spectrum. When will the major step into the fray and take a run at a junior? We shall see what Tuesday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup:Tuesday, June 09th, 2009

Silver suffered at precisely the same times. Funny how that works, isn’t it? But silver really took off once its bottom was in at 7:45 in N.Y. However, JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) showed up shortly after the price passed through $11.00, and that was it for the day. In the last three or four months, it has become common knowledge that JPMorgan (with the Federal Reserve in tow) has become the biggest short in both gold and silver. More evidence to that effect is posted further down.

Open interest for gold on Monday increased another 3,241 contracts to 298,306…but silver o.i. only rose 199 contracts to 85,753. Unlike gold, the silver price has being moving around a lot lately on razor-thin volume, which is very constructive. I’d be really unhappy if all these price movements were on big volume. It’s alarming enough that gold open interest is deteriorating as much as it is. Maybe JPMorgan is going to smash gold to blow out all these new silver longs. I sure hope not. But both Ted Butler and I are fearful of that.

In gold news today, the usual N.Y. commentator had the following to say…”Today’s European Central Bank weekly statement indicates consolidated ‘gold and gold receivables’ fell by €117Mm, 5.8 tonnes at current book value. Only one captive CB was involved. The previous week, the fall was 6.12 tonnes. Reported disposals have picked up somewhat recently, but of course are still well below the 9.6 tonnes notionally needed if the WAG2 quota were to be evenly sold throughout the year…Courtesy of thebulliondesk.com, Chinese gold production for the first eleven months of 2008 was reported at 246.51 tonnes…up 2.14% over the same period in 2007.”

In a Wall Street Journal story, they report that “the Treasury Department has committed nearly $10 billion more than the $350 billion Congress has authorized to date…That suggests Treasury is tapping into the second half of the $700 billion set aside in October before it has been released by Congress. “They are pushing the envelope here,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), a critic of the bailout. “What they are trying to do is create a situation to put pressure on [President-elect Barack] Obama and the Congress to provide the next $350 billion.” In a Reuters story I see that U.S. home prices plunged a record 18% year/year in October…and down a hefty 2.2% from the previous month! (Please call me in 2013 and we’ll talk about the bottom of the U.S. real estate market then. – Ed) And, in another Reuters story, the headline read “U.S. consumer confidence at record low in December”. I see in a Bloomberg story that now that GMAC has been bailed by the Fed, they are offering 0% financing up to 60 months. This basically means that the U.S. taxpayer is financing all of (NYSE:GM) GM’s new car buyers. (Can 0% financing on homes be too far behind? – Ed) And lastly, from Frank Veneroso yesterday…”China must be in a significant outright contraction, which the 24.9% annual rate of decline in China power output over the last 6 months has been indicating.”

click to enlarge

Three stories again today. All three are must reads. The first is a Reuters story filed from Chengdu, China. “The biggest migration in human history has gone into reverse…an ocean of China’s blue-collar workers is streaming back to the country’s farming hinterland…as they fall victim to the global economic crisis.” The link is here.

The next article is silver analyst Ted Butler’s latest commentary. It’s a ‘must read’ because of the following e-mail that arrived in my in-box yesterday. Please read this e-mail very very carefully…then read Ted’s latest very very carefully as well…”Silvercorp Metals came out after the close and announced that it is suspending its TLP and HPG mines, as well as scaling down mining at the LM mine in China. The miner also expects its newly constructed Ying mill to be put on care and maintenance. A sign of things to come, Silvercorp says that smelters in China are shutting down or reducing their capacities, resulting in less demand for concentrates and a change in smelter terms. Silvercorp ended the day unchanged at C$2.95. As a Silvercorp shareholder, I am very puzzled. Why would they do this? Silver is moving higher, and the byproduct people are shutting mines. One would think that pure silver producers would be champing at the bit. I don’t get it. Any ideas?” Yep! Ted Butler has the answer. Click here.

And lastly, here is a GATA release entitled “Morgan Chase’s gold derivatives soared as gold was floored.” The article (with wonderful graphs and charts) is prefaced by comments by GATA’s secretary treasurer, Chris Powell, and this is worth the read as well. I mentioned earlier in my rant that JPMorgan was the big gold and silver short on the Comex. Here’s some more proof. With this in mind, it’s easy to see why the SEC and CFTC do nothing, as they are there to protect the big shorts, including JPM…and by extension, the Federal Reserve. The link is here.

That’s it for another year! As bad as 2008 was, I’m expecting 2009 to be worse…much worse. And on that happy note, all of us at Casey’s Daily Resource Plus wish you…our loyal readers…a happy, prosperous and Golden New Year!

See you on Saturday morning.

Source: And Then There’s This…Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

Silvercorp Metals came out after the close and announced that it is suspending its TLP and HPG mines, as well as scaling down mining at the LM mine in China. The miner also expects to put its newly constructed Ying mill to be put on care and maintenance. A sign of things to come, Silvercorp says that smelters in China are shutting down or reducing their capacities, resulting in less demand for concentrates and a change in smelter terms. Silvercorp ended the day unchanged at C$2.95.

Hawthorne Gold has stepped up to the plate and is taking full ownership of the Taurus gold deposit in British Columbia by buying the remaining 70% stake from American Bonanza Gold. The price tag is 6.75 million shares giving American Bonanza a 13% stake in Hawthorne. At last count, Taurus held 32.4 million tonnes grading 1 gram gold per tonne. Hawthorne ended the day down C$0.03 at C$0.35, while American Bonanza closed unchanged at C$0.045.

Shares of Merrex Gold added C$0.01 to close at C$0.18 after the junior announced that it has acquired a 50% stake in the Crackingstone River uranium project in Saskatchewan and sold a 25% interest in the West Voiseys Bay joint venture project. Merrex will issue 1.2 million shares and spend C$1.2-million of exploration in the first year, and may incur a further C$2.4-million of exploration expenditures in the second year. For the 25% interest in the Voiseys Bay project, Merrex pockets C$1.2-million and retains a net 25% participating interest.

Western Prospector Group had another good day on no new developments. The company recently upgraded the resource estimate for its Gurvanbulag uranium project in northeast Mongolia with a feasibility study pending. Western added C$0.14 to close at C$0.53.

Cash strapped Oilexco is a stock to watch as the producer was halted from trading pending news at C$0.89.

The mini-rally in the junior market is going full bore and with such a dramatic sell off in 2008 one has to wonder how big the bounce could be. We will see what Wednesday trading has in store.

Source: Resource Stock Roundup: Wednesday, December 31st, 2008