The last few days showed a high volatility for the precious metals. After the miserable US-employee data, precious metals gained some dollars under high volatility. While Atlanta-Fed-Boss Dennis Lockhart still fantasizes about good economic data beyond the Atlantic and still anticipates three more increases of the federal funds rate, Europe is facing a high uncertainty in cause of the coming referendum about the United Kingdom’s disposition in the EU, which already seems to influence the standard indices on a negative basis. This could only be helpful for precious metals. Therefore we are anticipating higher prices for precious metals and also increasing prices for precious metals stocks.
As promised, we would like to have another close look on the lithium sector. The lithium production is concentrated on only a few producers. At the beginning of 2015 Albemarle, the largest lithium producer worldwide, acquired Rockwood Holdings which owns the second largest lithium deposit on the planet. Albemarle and three other companies, SQM, FMC and Tianqi (Albemarles joint venture partner in Australia), apportion most of the lithium sector. Even though there is abundant lithium existing on the planet, the extraction can be very cost intensive and time-consuming, which means that higher lithium prices do not necessarily result in a supply increase. Supply should raise in the future, although forecasts for the time after 2020 are not easy to do, in cause of too less data for mine expansions or the establishment of new mines. A stronger exploration activity from (small) development companies indicates that new mines could be open. In Mid-June 2016 17 development companies already have an own lithium resource. Some of them with grades below 1%, which may make an economic production not easy or even impossible. Thereby the current increase in demand has to be satisfied from the majors on their own.
Cyprium Mining appoints mining contractor for Potosi Silver mine development
Cyprium Mining is still back into the business! After the finalization of the first phase of rehabilitation of the Potosi silver mine a couple of days ago, the company now announced that it has signed an agreement with Chihuahua, Mexico based mining contractor Bergmann Mexico SA de CV with respect to mine development and other mining activities including drilling, blasting and extraction of mineralized material at the Potosi silver mine. That means nothing less than that Cyprium has started its production from the Potosi silver mine and processing at the Aldama plant right now! Therefore the company will be able to deliver concentrates to Trafigura Mexico SA de CV and generate some positive cashflow.
News:
Top drill news CUG
Video:
CUG Potosi Shaft #3 video of start
Altona Mining: Hartley Research sets a first scent mark!
After the recent finalization of a joint venture between Altona Mining and Sichuan Railway Investment Group (SRIG) regarding the Cloncurry copper project, Hartley Research announced a first course aim for the Australian company. Hartley Research sees a fair evaluation at 0.33 AU$ (current stock price 0.12 AU$)! But it is not only the perfect deal, which makes Hartley Research bullish for Altona, it is also the fact that Altona could use the SRIG deal as a platform to generate further deals whereby the Company will look to acquire base metals development projects at the current depressed bottom of the market prices. Altona now has a well-funded partner to collaborate with and take advantage of the cyclical downturn in base metals and build a Company ready for the next cycle. The company has another project called Roseby South Project, which lies directly south of Cloncurry.
Research:
Hartley price target AOH 33 Cents
Fission Uranium’s Patterson Lake South (PLS) ranked top undeveloped uranium project in the World!
The Mining Journal recently evaluated the promising uranium projects not yet developed and ranked them based on criteria including resource quality, grade, location and anticipated costs. Thereby, The Mining Journal, one of the mining industry's most-read publications, has rated Fission's PLS project as the number one undeveloped uranium project in the world! This top ranking is the latest in a string of industry awards and acclaim that includes: PDAC's Bill Dennis Award for Prospecting Success, The Mining Journal's Excellence Award for Exploration, Finance Monthly's Dealmaker Award and The Northern Miner's Mining Persons of the Year. It should bring a much higher focus on PLS to acquisition-ready majors.
OceanaGold: 58m grading 17.5g/t Au at Haile!
A few days ago OceanaGold announced – amongst others – 58 m grading 17.5 g/t Au from its Haile gold project in South Carolina. The company acquired the future mine nearly one year ago by a merger with Romarco Minerals. The 380 million US$ project is currently in the construction phase with plans for a production start in early 2017. From this time on, it shall be a 150,000 ounce per annum operation. The most recent drill campaign supports the current resource at the Horseshoe deposit and will be incorporated into an updated estimate later this year.
Stornoway Diamond: Mine nearly complete, below budget, higher resource
Stornoway Diamond Corp. recently announced that the Renard diamond mine in the Otish Mountains region of Quebec was 96 per cent complete at the end of May. The ramp to access the underground portion of the mine has been the only problem, and even there Stornoway has largely caught up to its target. The completion of the mine will cost 775 million CA$, which is significantly less than the 802 million CA$ Stornoway originally budgeted for in its 2011 feasibility study. As a result, the company will not have to access a significant portion of the 944 million CA$ in financing that it put together two years ago. The company had stripped nearly nine million tonnes of overburden from the surface of the Renard-2, Renard-3 and Renard-65 pits and it is building a kimberlite stockpile for when the 6,000 tpd plant commences its commissioning and ramp-up later this year. The first ore will be sent to the plant by early fall and Stornoway expects to declare Renard in commercial production before the end of the year. Stornoway's revised mine plan incorporates an increase in its reserve, declared earlier this year, to 22.3 million carats from 17.9 million carats. The new plan now projects a 14-year life, compared with 11 years before. Renard contains an additional 13.4 million carats in inferred resources that probably will be mined, and between 33 million and 71 million additional carats deemed a target for further exploration. That exploration will undoubtedly occur but there is little rush, as Renard could run for over 20 years based on just its reserve and inferred resources at its planned mining rate.
