??I Dial It In and Tune The Station
CEO.CA Presents the Chairman's Briefing - Feb 09.?2023
I dial it in and tune the station
They talk about the U.S. inflation
I understand just a little
No comprende--it's a riddle
In Partnership With
Silver Play + Battery Metals Potential
See new company video below.
Metals/Crypto Prices
Whiplash can be treated with either heat or cold applied to the neck for 15 minutes every three hours to help one feel better.?Dr. Ho?can also help relieve mild to moderate whiplash symptoms.?
Gold traders locked in too close to their trading screens last week likely sustained varying degrees of whiplash.
After a .25% raise on Feb. 1, investors characterized Chairman Powell's post-rate-hike comments, which included the word 'disinflation,' as dovish—Fed delivers small rate increase; Powell suggests 'couple' more hikes coming.?
Investors nevertheless took a dovish cue from remarks by Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who referred repeatedly during a news conference to the "disinflationary" process that now appeared to be underway. Equity markets rose as Powell spoke and investors slightly boosted bets for coming rate cuts.
After Powell's apparent dovishness, trade in the Gold arena generated some whipsaw action over the next 24 hours. Then the Jobs numbers dropped in the early pre-market hours in North America.
US (non-farm payroll) employment rose by 517,000 in January?versus estimates of 185,000. The unemployment rate was little changed at 3.4%. The US dollar surged 0.9% in the wake of this big-ass beat.
“Today’s strong jobs report appears to throw cold water on notions the Federal Reserve will back off on raising interest rates sooner rather than later,” said Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at?Kitco Metals.
What initially looked like the early stages of an assault on last April's highs abruptly turned tail with a profound re-discovery of gravity, plunging well back below the $1900 level.
In last week's Briefing, we stated that a correction back below $1900 might represent a healthy pause/consolidation before the next leg higher. Well, this might be it - the metal appears to be carving out a bottom. On the other side of the ledger, those bearish the metal's short-term prospects might view recent trade as a Bear Flag as further weakness, say back to $1825 or even $1750 can't be ruled out.
Uranium
With demand set to increase amidst tight supplies—we burn through roughly 190 million pounds a year and extract only 130 million pounds from our subsurface stratum—Spot Uranium has clawed back the $50 zone in recent weeks.
With numerous nations around the globe announcing buildout plans and strategies to extend the life of existing power plants, 2023 could turn into a banner f*cking year for U3O8 bulls—Uranium price expected to rise in 2023 on nuclear power revival.
Sentiment among uranium specialists who spoke at the recent Resource Investment Conference in Vancouver was decidedly bullish as Japan, France, South Korea, India, the UK, the US, and Germany, aside from new construction projects, announced additional incentives and funding for nuclear power.
Rick Rule, CEO of Sprott US Holdings: “I think the principal factor is the change of public opinion in Japan. With regards to the pace of Japanese restarts, the biggest source of new demand that you could have on the planet is from their 40 existing reactors. They don’t have to be built, they just have to be restarted. That would raise the structural demand for uranium by between 10 and 12 million pounds a year.”
More Rule: “There’s a billion people on Earth that have no access to electricity at all. There are 2 billion people on Earth who experience energy poverty, either intermittent energy or unaffordable energy. When we talk about energy in the West, we talk about stuff like Teslas,” he pointed out. “Increasing the living standards of the poorest of the poor means that we’re gonna need more energy from all sources. Solar, sure. Wind, yeah. Coal, of course. But nuclear is a wonderful source of post-construction, cheap, reliable, non-carbon generating baseload power.”
In Partnership With
“Tier One Silver has identified multiple highly prospective precious and base metals targets at its projects in Peru that we will be aggressively pursuing this year.?
Drilling at Curibaya next quarter plans to test our best silver target on the project, Cambaya, as well as the potential for an underlying porphyry copper system.?
At Hurricane, we have discovered the first known copper-nickel district in Peru, in addition to a high-grade silver target. Both of which we plan to explore further while we apply for drill permits.
We expect 2023 to be a big year for the company from an exploration standpoint, which we greatly look forward to. We’ve produced a new video that I think conveys the passion we have for the targets we’re pursuing, and the drive we have to make Tier One Silver the next great exploration success story.”
-?Peter Dembicki, CEO, Tier One Silver
Watch their company video?here.
Companies in the Fray
Newmont Looking to Bulk Up
Mining behemoth Newmont Mining is taking a run at Newcrest Mining in a deal valued at $17 billion—Newcrest Announces Non-Binding Indicative Offer from Newmont.
An interesting bit of history between the two producers: Newcrest was spun out of Newmont back in the 1990s.
If Newmont succeeds, the all-share deal will mark the largest mining takeover in Australian history. Already deemed THE largest Gold producer on the planet, Newcrest's assets would add considerable bulk to Newmont's project portfolio. This weighty acquisition would also increase its exposure to Copper (the soft, malleable metal with superior thermal and electrical conductivity properties essential to the megatrends of decarbonization and electrification).
Newcrest shareholders received a nice bump-up in price on the heels of this TO conquest...
Newmont’s proposal to combine with Newcrest is on the basis of 0.380 Newmont shares per Newcrest share, which would result in the combined company being 30 percent owned by Newcrest and 70 percent owned by Newmont.
Some analysts believe Newcrest is now in play, but before signatures are put to paper, a higher takeover premium, one consistent with a 'Money Talks, Bullshit Walks' theme, will be required—Newmont open to sweetening $16.9 bln bid for gold rival Newcrest -source.
"A good litmus test for a reasonably-priced deal is one where both seller and buyer feel somewhat aggrieved by selling out too low or by paying too much,"?said Simon Mawhinney,?chief investment officer at Allan Gray, Newcrest's largest shareholder with a 7.4% stake. "It's not clear to me that this kind of symmetry exists with these deal terms."
Agnico Gets its Forever Wish
Agnico Eagle, the world's third-biggest bullion producer, will soon boast full ownership of the?Canadian Malartic Mine?after Yamana shareholders endorsed a US$4.8 billion deal that will see the consolidation of this 715,000 ounce per year producer. Canadian Malartic is Canada's top gold mine. On a broader scale, it's the fourth-largest producer in North America—Agnico Eagle's dealmaking brings top gold mines into fold.?
This next photo goes back to a time when Canadian Malartic was still in the exploration phase, right smack in the middle of small-town-Quebec...?
A more recent pic. And yup. The town was moved to accommodate the property's subsurface Gold wealth...
Canadian Malartic is an asset Agnico management has had in its crosshairs for quite some time.
“We wanted that other half of Malartic forever, but it never came for sale,” Agnico Chief Executive Officer Ammar Al-Joundi said in a Jan. 6 interview. Last year’s failed takeover attempt of Yamana by South Africa’s Gold Fields Ltd. left the mine available “at a decent price,” he said, “and we saw our chance.”
The Plot Thickens Over Cobre Panama?
First Quantum, (currently) owner and operator of the Cobre Panama Mine, has suspended concentrate loading operations at the Cobre Panamá port. The company states that earlier this week, it received a 'Resolution' from the Panamá Maritime Authority—First Quantum Minerals Provides Update on Status of Cobre Panamá and the Punta Rincón Port.?
The Resolution was issued by the Panamá Maritime Authority (“AMP”) and requires the suspension of concentrate loading operations at the Cobre Panamá port, Punta Rincón, until evidence is provided that the process of certification of the calibration of the scales by an accredited company has been initiated.
The company states that this Resolution "is part of a series of escalating attempts by the Government to pressure the Company into accepting a refreshed concession contract on the Government's terms."
The dispute underpinning this bit of drama has been mounting since First Quantum missed a mid-December deadline on an agreement that would see a minimum of $375 million in annual royalties flow into government coffers.
Proven and probable reserves at Cobre Panama currently stand at 3.1 billion tonnes. Once firing on all cylinders, the mine is expected to produce more than 300,000 tonnes of copper per annum, roughly 1.5% of global output. As we stated in a previous Briefing, "the mining world is waiting and watching to determine precisely how mining-friendly this Central American nation is. Three similar copper deposits, currently in a holding pattern, could generate up to $30 billion in future resource development."
A Mixed Ruling for Thacker Pass
Chief Judge Miranda Du of the federal court in Reno rejected claims that Lithium Americas'?Thacker Pass Lithium Project?in Nevada would cause unnecessary harm to the environment or wildlife—US judge orders waste rock study for Thacker Pass lithium project.?
Construction is now allowed to begin on the project, though Judge Du ordered the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to determine whether Lithium Americas has the right to dump waste rock at the site.
Hailed as THE largest lithium deposit in the US (the third largest on the planet), Thacker Pass boasts a resource base sufficient to generate enough Li to support the production of up to 1 million electric vehicles annually.
Auto manufacturing behemoth, GM, will be liking this development big time—GM conditionally OKs $650M Nevada lithium mine investment.?
A Fat (Unsmeared) Hit
A good number of (recent) assay-related headlines are worthy of coverage in this space, but I'm picking Dolly Varden to illustrate a point.?
A Feb. 6 headline:?Dolly Varden Silver Intersects 15.94 meters Averaging 1,499 g/t Silver Including 0.35 meters of 23,997 g/t Silver at the Wolf Deposit.?
The highlight interval in this press release comes courtesy of the 'Wolf Vein Northeast' in Drill Hole DV22-329: 1,499 g/t Ag, 1.89% Pb, 0.46% Zn over 15.94 meters, including 23,997 g/t Ag, 1.24% Pb, 0.34% Zn over 0.35 meters.?
When I encounter these types of values—broad intervals of high-grade mineralization with 'included' higher-grade subintervals—I plug the numbers into the Exploration Insights Drill Interval Calculator to see what remains after the high-grade subinterval is removed. A waaaay nifty tool, this one.?
After removing the .35 meters of 23,997 g/t Ag subinterval from the equation in DV22-329, we're left with a very respectable residual grade of 993.91 g/t Ag (over 15.59 meters)...?
Why this exercise? To uncover potential grade smearing—has the company sneakily pushed the high-grade (sub-interval) values into the surrounding lower-grade rock to give the impression of a broader high-grade hit?
There's no grade smearing here. We respect that, Dolly.
Hits of the Week
The spectacle of Biden smiling and offering a pointed riposte through multiple rounds of heckling from some House Republicans was, in many ways, an apt illustration of his presidency and a useful preview of his likely 2024 candidacy -?Takeaways from Biden’s State of the Union address?
On the 'corruptible kid' front, Kim Jong Un trotted out a child believed to be his daughter at a lavish banquet on Tuesday - a girl possibly being groomed as an eventual successor to the authoritarian family -?Kim Jong Un puts daughter front and center at lavish military banquet
In one of the more newsworthy events of the year, Castle Rock Entertainment announced it had closed a deal with John Cleese to bring back the Fawlty Towers television series -?Fawlty Towers: John Cleese to revive series with daughter Camilla?
Disclaimer:
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