The GraveYard Shift

[JD400]

Uranium stocks rise in latest metal trader craze

Might pick up some $URG types

Uranium price jumps to 15-year high as top miner flags shortfall

Cecilia Jamasmie | January 12, 2024 | 5:53 am Energy Markets Asia Uranium
Uranium jumps to 15-year high as top miner flags shortfall

State-controlled Kazatomprom mines uranium in Kazakhstan both independently and through joint ventures. (Image courtesy of Kazatomprom.)
Uranium prices jumped on Friday to an almost 15-year high after the world’s largest producer, Kazakhstan’s Kazatomprom (LON: KAP), warned it’s likely to fall short of its output targets over the next two years.


The miner cited shortages of sulfuric acid and construction delays at newly developed deposits as the main factors behind ongoing production challenges, which it said could persist into 2025. A detailed assessment of the potential impacts on output will be released in a trading update by Feb. 1, it added.


“Despite the ongoing active search for alternative sources of sulfuric acid supply, current forecasts indicate that the company may find it difficult to achieve 90% production levels compared to subsoil use contract levels,” Kazatomprom said in the statement.

Sulfuric acid is a favourite among producers to extract uranium from the raw ore due to its low-cost and efficiency for different types of ores.

Kazatomprom noted its guidance for next year could also be affected if supply snags continue throughout 2024 and if it isn’t able to comply with scheduled construction works.

The spot price of the radioactive metal has more-than doubled in 2023 and it is currently trading at $97.45 a pound — still far from the triple-digit figures achieved in 2007 and the fallout after the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.

The price increase comes as 24 nations, including the United States, Japan, Canada, Britain and France pledged last month in Dubai at the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, known as COP28, to triple nuclear power capacity by 2050.

Uranium jumps to 15-year high as top miner flags shortfall
China, which wasn’t part of that promise, still leads global nuclear plant construction with plans to nearly double capacity to 100 gigawatts by the end of this decade. The Asian country has 22 of 58 plants being built worldwide.

Recent legislation in the US could also affect uranium prices, even sooner than other factors. Seeking to cut its reliance on Russia, which supplies more than one-fifth of its uranium, Congress passed a bill in December that would require the US to source a portion of its nuclear fuel domestically. The bill calls for 20 tonnes of HALEU — high-assay low enriched uranium fuel needed to run most advanced reactors in the country — to come from domestic sources by the end of 2027. It now awaits President Joe Biden’s signature.

Bank of America and Berenberg Bank said this week in separate research notes that continued tightness in the uranium market could push prices over $100 in coming days.
https://www.mining.com/uranium-jumps-to-15-year-high-as-top-miner-flags-shortfall/

You got it Lurch .....Everybody lovs a good run
YOU RANG !

[JD400]

2024 reveals a GOLD BEAR TRAP - LFTV Ep 155

Kinesis Money
40.7K subscribers

20,053 views Jan 12, 2024
In this week’s episode of Live from the Vault, Andrew Maguire shares his yearly outlook and provides a long-term analysis of what we should expect as 2024 trading begins - will we see a gold price over $2500 by the end of the year?

The precious metals expert examines the bullish drivers that could propel gold forward this year, including Russian-chaired BRICS developments, globally accelerating de-dollarisation and the impact of geopolitical escalations.

Ask your questions for Andy here: https://forum.kinesis.money/threads/q...

Timestamps:
00:00 Start
02:05 What to expect as 2024 trading starts
12:15 A look at gold prices for 2024
18:00 The immediate outlook
24:00 How the paper market is changing
27:50 2024 for Silver
36:00 Looking further out
38:00 Dedollarisation

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That City of Pride, Wickedness, and Lust for Power
with MMGYS Soundtrack

"Seneca had made the bargain that many good men have made when agreeing to aid bad regimes. On the one hand, their presence strengthens the regime and helps it endure. But their moral influence may also improve the regime's behavior or save the lives of its enemies. For many, this has been a bargain worth making, even if it has cost them—as it may have cost Seneca—their immortal soul...

The Rome he has been trained to serve, the Rome of Augustus and Germanicus, was gone. In its place stood Neropolis, ruled by a megalomaniac brat.”

James Romm, Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero

"We live in a world where love itself is condemned. People call it weakness, something to grow out of. Some are saying: 'Let each one become as strong as he can, and let the weak perish.' They say that the Christian religion with its preaching about love is a thing of the past. The neo-paganism [of the Nazis] may well cast off love but, in spite of everything, history teaches us that we shall be the victors over this. We shall not forsake love."

Titus Brandsma, executed at Dachau, 26 July 1942

"Caesar was swimming in blood, Rome and the whole pagan world was mad. But those who had had enough of transgression and madness, those who were trampled upon, those whose lives were misery and oppression, all the weighed down, all the sad, all the unfortunate, came to hear the wonderful tidings of God, who out of love for men had given Himself to be crucified and redeem their sins. When they found a God whom they could love, they had found that which the society of the time could not give any one, — happiness and love.

And Peter understood that neither Nero, nor all his legions, could overcome the living truth— that they could not overwhelm it with tears or blood, and that now its victory was beginning. He understood with equal force why the Lord had turned him back on the road. That city of pride, of crime, of wickedness, and of a lust for power, was beginning to be His city."

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis, 1905


Stocks did their usual wide ranging wash and rinse, ending the day slightly higher.

Gold and silver soared in the morning, and held on to much of their gains, giving up a goodly portion of them during the day.

VIX continues in its complacency.

The conflict in the Mideast is metastasizing, and the unpriced risk it carries continues to grow.

The US presidential election season kicks off next week with the Iowa Primary.

Exceptionalism, in terms of bad judgement and shamelessness, will be on display for all.

Tossing aside the moral high ground and civilized behaviour seems to be a general trend globally.

The Beast is rising.

US markets will be closed on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King day.

Option expiration next week Friday.

Have a pleasant holiday weekend.
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/













...........................

MARKET MOVERS
COMPANY CHANGE LAST TRADE
Franco-Nevada 5.14 3.62 $147.01
Cameco 4.45 7.12 $66.96
Royal Gold 1.59 1.32 $122.47
Agnico Eagle Mines 1.31 1.89 $70.48
Endeavour Mining 1.20 4.99 $25.25
NexGen Energy 1.05 11.11 $10.50
Pan American Silver 1.02 5.16 $20.77
Wheaton Precious Metals 1.02 1.59 $65.00
Osisko Gold Royalties 0.89 4.80 $19.45
Filo 0.88 3.86 $23.70
Uranium Energy 0.82 11.83 $7.75
Energy Fuels 0.80 8.45 $10.27
Eldorado Gold 0.79 4.86 $17.05
Gold Fields 0.76 6.08 $13.25
Torex Gold Resources 0.69 4.83 $14.97


HIGH VOLUME
COMPANY VOLUME LAST TRADE
Uranium Energy 29,116,510 $7.75
Fission Uranium 6,272,785 $1.24
Denison Mines 5,395,888 $2.64
NexGen Energy 5,027,533 $10.50
GoviEx Uranium 4,343,228 $0.18
Kinross Gold 3,154,593 $7.88
Argonaut Gold 2,822,789 $0.42
Cameco 2,735,410 $66.96
Anfield Energy 2,601,794 $0.09
Calibre Mining 2,515,084 $1.32
B2Gold 2,490,591 $4.15
Mega Uranium 2,395,219 $0.49
Prime Mining 2,342,784 $1.89
First Quantum Minerals 2,180,820 $13.15
Marathon Gold 2,047,778 $0.81

[JD400]

Moloch Metropolis Miners Lament
with MMGYS Fritz Lang's 1927 German Expressionist silent sci-fi film Metropolis soundtracks

The Consumer Price Index came in on the high side this morning.

With dreams of plentiful rate cuts challenged, stocks slumped.

But by the end of the day traders' dementia reasserted its calming influence and stocks regained much of their losses.

Gold ans silver had an intraday yo-yo wash and rinse.

VIX continues to wallow.

We're heading into a three day weekend.

Have a pleasant evening.
full read here....
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

[JD400]

About That Idris Elba Gold Documentary

Folding Ideas
908K subscribers
Jan 10, 2024 #8 on Trending

Clickbait Title: Can this magical metal make you immortal? Godkings hate this one weird trick!

This was a lot of fun to work on because I got to spend a lot of time learning THE TRUTH ABOUT GOLD and by that I mean actually interesting facts about how humans use gold. The mythology of gold actually makes a lot of sense through the lens of its physical properties, the fact that ancient humans could make things out of it and those things would outlive generations. It's just rare enough that societal elites can monopolize it, but common enough you can gather enough to actually make stuff with it. So these things, namely jewellery for the leaders, are so resistant to the elements that you can see how the gold itself became representative of the power of the kings, of their claimed immortality.

[JD400]

How to out smart predator mining

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Gold CEO firing deals fresh blow to mining’s battered reputation

Bloomberg News | January 7, 2024 | 11:38 am Top Companies Africa Canada Europe Latin America USA Copper Gold Lithium Nickel

Endeavour Mining’s former CEO Se´bastien de Montessus. (Image by Endeavour Mining).
Endeavour Mining Plc’s shock firing of its chief executive has capped a miserable three months for the global mining industry — and an equally painful period for its shareholders.

The world’s biggest producers have spent much of the past decade trying to rebuild mining’s reputation, after a slew of bad deals and billion-dollar writedowns sent investors fleeing from a business already viewed by many as dirty and risky

That attempted makeover has taken a battering in recent months: The mining industry has suffered blow after blow, costing investors billions and shaking faith in some of the industry’s biggest names.

In Panama, mass protests against one of the world’s largest and newest copper mines culminated in an order to permanently shut it down, and wiped out more than half of the market value of owner First Quantum Minerals Ltd. Canada’s Teck Resources Ltd. dropped 9% on a single day in October after revealing the latest cost blowout at its flagship Chilean project, while larger rival Anglo American Plc’s surprise cut to its planned copper production sent shares plunging 19% on Dec. 8.

In South Africa, Sibanye Stillwater Ltd. dropped as much as 25% in November after announcing a convertible bond sale. while an accident at rival Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. left 12 people dead and dozens injured.

The latest jolt came on Thursday, when Endeavour — the biggest gold miner listed in the UK — announced it fired CEO Sébastien de Montessus for “serious misconduct” after discovering an alleged “irregular payment instruction” of $5.9 million related to an asset sale. The shares plunged as much as 15%. De Montessus has separately said that the relevant decision didn’t cost the company anything and had no benefit for himself.

For the mining industry broadly, the fresh wave of setbacks comes as the sector is seeking to position itself as a vital part of the green transition because of its role supplying materials like copper, nickel and lithium that are needed to decarbonize the global economy. But to do that, the producers need supportive governments and local populations, as well as investors willing to fund them.

While the setbacks vary in nature, they reflect many of the perennial challenges facing the companies responsible for digging up the world’s metals and minerals. Miners are fighting a growing battle with rising costs to build and operate mines, and many of the remaining deposits are in poorer countries, where governments and local populations are increasingly determined to seek a greater share of profits.

Panama’s move to “definitively” close First Quantum’s $10 billion copper mine — which opened just four years earlier and still has decades worth of copper to dig up — has sent shockwaves through the mining industry. The shares ended the year more than 60% lower after the loss of its biggest profit generator, and analysts have raised questions about the company’s balance sheet, with billions of dollars of debt maturing in the coming years.

Anglo American has also punished mining investors. The century-old company, long seen as one of the best mine operators, stunned shareholders by announcing it was slashing its copper production for the next two years, including a significant cut at its Los Bronces mine in Chile, as well as lowering output for nearly all the other commodities it mines.

The announcement wiped more than $6 billion off Anglo’s market capitalization in the steepest single-day fall since the global financial crisis.

The series of disappointments for the mining industry also comes against the backdrop of weak prices for its commodities — although gold has been an exception after hitting a record late last year — and soft demand from key markets such as China.

At Endeavour, the company said that de Montessus was fired after the board discovered an “irregular payment instruction” of $5.9 million. The company said it discovered the payment when it was reviewing previous acquisitions and disposals. That review is ongoing, with more deals still being assessed.

In a statement, de Montessus said he instructed a creditor of Endeavor to make the payment in 2021 to a security company, to offset money owed for essential security equipment.

The payment was connected to the sale of Endeavour’s Agbaou mine in Ivory Coast in 2021 to Allied Gold Corp., according to people familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. De Montessus instructed Allied Gold to pay $5.9 million owed to Endeavour to another company, the people said.

“The decision had no additional cost to the company and did not benefit me personally in any way,” de Montessus said. “I omitted to inform the board that I had arranged for this offset, which I have freely accepted was a lapse in judgment.”

(By Thomas Biesheuvel)
https://www.mining.com/web/gold-ceo-firing-deals-fresh-blow-to-minings-battered-reputation/

[JD400]

Ten Junior Resource Stock Investing Lessons Learned in 2023 by Bill Powers (most fail at #4)

MiningStockEducation.com
Jan 4, 2024 #commodities #miningstocks #resourceinvesting

Bill Powers shares ten junior resource stock investing lessons he learned in 2023 in this MSE episode.

0:00 Introduction
1:40 #1 View junior resource stocks as call options with limited time value
5:29 #2 Consider intrinsic value as much greater than time value…Don’t let big profits slip away
8:33 #3 Remember non-captured unrealized gains are not losses
10:16 #4 Choose to be a self-directed investor and not a victim
14:47 #5 Lack of information/coverage in small caps allows for dishonest bashers
18:15 #6 Do not invest unless you have a (legal) competitive advantage
23:52 #7 You’ll never out-smart Vancouver insiders, but you can outperform dumb retail
25:39 #8 Stay liquid (private deals and private placements are becoming increasingly unattractive)
28:03 #9 Be willing to change your mind
31:08 #10 Increased wealth will only amplify your existing character (for better or worse)

[JD400]

The 2024 Gold Market Amidst Banking Volatility and Rising Federal Deficits

Trevor Hall
Jan 3, 2024
We kick off 2024 with a conversation with Dave Kranzler of Investment Research Dynamics. We start off the conversation with a little bit of reflection on the previous year. What surprised him the most in these markets. And now that we move into 2024, what are his expectations regarding the national deficit, gold's move into a new year, and if the junior equities can find a more supporting market than in the past 2 years.

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US Banking System Ripe For Another Crisis
With MMGYS Soundtrack

"Day by day the money-masters of America become more aware of their danger, they draw together, they grow more class-conscious, more aggressive. The [first world] war has taught them the possibilities of propaganda ; it has accustomed them to the idea of enormous campaigns which sway the minds of millions and make them pliable to any purpose.

American political corruption was the buying up of legislatures and assemblies to keep them from doing the people's will and protecting the people's interests; it was the exploiter entrenching himself in power, it was financial autocracy undermining and destroying political democracy. By the blindness and greed of ruling classes the people have been plunged into infinite misery."

Upton Sinclair, The Brass Check

"Following the second, third and fourth largest bank failures in U.S. history in the spring of last year, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell gave his semiannual monetary policy report to the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee in June. During both appearances, Powell stated the same thing: 'The U.S. banking system is sound and resilient.'

But according to a report last week from the federal agency whose mandate is to keep federal regulators apprised of the true condition of the U.S. banking system, it is actually ripe for another crisis and its condition is 'fragile and uncertain.'”

WSOP, Federal Agency Finds US Banking System 'Ripe for Another Crisis, January 2, 2024

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Upton Sinclair, I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked


The talking heads were assuring us today that stocks were retreating because they had become extremely over bought last week/year/

Funny how they only tell us these things after the fact.

The Dollar strengthened.

Gold and silver were lower.

The VIX remains fairly complacent.

And so the new year begins.

Have a pleasant evening.
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

[JD400]

123...123...
12/3123

[JD400]

The biggest global mining news of 2023
with MMGYS Soundtrack

by Frik Els | December 27, 2023 | 10:01 am Battery Metals Energy Markets Suppliers & Equipment Aluminum Bauxite Boron Chrome Coal Cobalt Copper Diamond Gold Graphite Iron Ore Lead Lithium Manganese Molybdenum Nickel Oil & Gas Palladium Platinum Potash Rare Earth Rhodium Silver Specialty Minerals Tin Uranium Vanadium Zinc

The mining world was pulled in all directions in 2023: the collapse of lithium prices, furious M&A activity, a bad year for cobalt and nickel, Chinese critical mineral moves, gold’s new record, and state intervention in mining on a scale not seen in decades. Here’s a roundup of some the biggest stories in mining in 2023.

A year where the gold price sets an all-time record should be unalloyed good news for the mining and exploration industry, which despite all the buzz surrounding battery metals and the energy transition still represents the backbone of the junior market.

Metal and mineral markets are volatile at the best of times – the nickel, cobalt and lithium price collapse in 2023 was extreme but not entirely unprecedented. Rare earth producers, platinum group metal watchers, iron ore followers, and gold and silver bugs for that matter, have been through worse.

Mining companies have become better at navigating choppy waters, but the forced closure of one of the biggest copper mines to come into production in recent decades served as a stark reminder of the outsized risks miners face over and above market swings.

Panama shuts down giant copper mine

After months of protests and political pressure, at the end of November the Panama government ordered the closure of First Quantum Minerals’ Cobre Panama mine following a ruling by the Supreme Court that declared the mining contract for the operation unconstitutional.


Public figures including climate activist Greta Thunberg and Hollywood actor Leonardo Di Caprio backed the protests and shared a video calling for the “mega mine” to cease operations, which quickly went viral.

FQM’s latest statement on Friday said Panama’s government hasn’t provided a legal basis to the Vancouver-based company for pursuing the closure plan, a plan that the industries ministry of the central American nation said will only be presented in June next year.

FQM has filed two notices of arbitration over the closure of the mine, which has not been operating since protesters blocked access to its shipping port in October. However, arbitration would not be the company’s preferred outcome, said CEO Tristan Pascall.

In the aftermath of the unrest, FQM has said it should have better communicated the value of the $10 billion mine to the wider public, and will now spend more time engaging with Panamanians ahead of a national election next year. FQM shares have bounced in the past week, but is still trading more than 50% below the high hit during July this year.

Projected copper deficit evaporates

Cobre Panama’s shutdown and unexpected operational disruptions forcing copper mining companies to slash output has seen the sudden removal of around 600,000 tons of expected supply would, moving the market from a large expected surplus into balance, or even a deficit.


The next couple of years were supposed to be a time of plenty for copper, thanks to a series of big new projects starting up around the world.

The expectation across most of the industry was for a comfortable surplus before the market tightens again later this decade when surging demand for electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure is expected to collide with a lack of new mines.

Instead, the mining industry has highlighted how vulnerable supply can be — whether due to political and social opposition, the difficulty of developing new operations, or simply the day-to-day challenge of pulling rocks up from deep beneath the earth.

Lithium price routed on supply surge

The price of lithium was decimated in 2023, but predictions for next year are far from rosy. Lithium demand from electric vehicles is still growing rapidly, but the supply response has overwhelmed the market.


Global lithium supply, meanwhile, will jump by 40% in 2024, UBS said earlier this month, to more than 1.4 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent.

Output in top producers Australia and Latin America will rise 22% and 29% respectively, while that in Africa is expected to double, driven by projects in Zimbabwe, the bank said.

Chinese production will also jump 40% in the next two years, said UBS, driven by a major CATL project in southern Jiangxi province.

The investment bank expects Chinese lithium carbonate prices could fall by more than 30% next year, dipping as low as 80,000 yuan ($14,800) per tonne in 2024, averaging at around 100,000 yuan, equivalent to production costs in Jiangxi, China’s biggest producing region of the chemical.

Lithium assets still in high demand

In October, Albemarle Corp. walked away from its $4.2 billion takeover of Liontown Resources Ltd., after Australia’s richest woman built up a blocking minority and effectively scuppered one of the largest battery-metals deals to date.


Eager to add new supply, Albemarle had pursued its Perth-based target for months, eying its Kathleen Valley project — one of Australia’s most promising deposits. Liontown agreed to the US company’s “best and final” offer of A$3 a share in September — a near 100% premium to the price before Albemarle’s takeover interest was made public in March.

Albemarle had to contend with the arrival of combative mining tycoon Gina Rinehart, as her Hancock Prospecting steadily built up a 19.9% stake in Liontown. Last week, she became the single largest investor, with enough clout to potentially block a shareholder vote on the deal.

In December, SQM teamed up with Hancock Prospecting to make a sweetened A$1.7 billion ($1.14 billion) bid for Australian lithium developer Azure Minerals, the three parties said on Tuesday.

The deal would give the world’s no.2 lithium producer SQM a foothold in Australia with a stake in Azure’s Andover project and a partnership with Hancock, which has rail infrastructure and local experience in developing mines.

Chile, Mexico take control of lithium

Chile’s President Gabriel Boric announced in April that his government would bring the country’s lithium industry under state control, applying a model in which the state will partner with companies to enable local development.

The long-awaited policy in the world’s second-largest producer of the battery metal includes the creation of a national lithium company, Boric said on national television.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in September said the country’s lithium concessions are being reviewed, after China’s Ganfeng last month indicated that its Mexican lithium concessions were being cancelled.

López Obrador formally nationalized Mexico’s lithium reserves earlier this year and in August, Ganfeng said Mexico’s mining authorities had issued a notice to its local subsidiaries indicating nine of its concessions had been terminated.

Gold to build on record-setting year

The New York futures price of gold set an all-time high at the beginning of December and looks set to surpass the peak going into the new year.

London’s gold price benchmark hit an all-time high of $2,069.40 per troy ounce at an afternoon auction on Wednesday, surpassing the previous record of $2,067.15 set in August 2020, the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) said.

“I can think of no clearer demonstration of gold’s role as a store of value than the enthusiasm with which investors across the world have turned to the metal during the recent economic and geopolitical turmoils,” said LMBA’s chief executive officer Ruth Crowell.

JPMorgan predicted a new record back in July but expected the new high to occur in the second quarter of 2024. The basis of JPMorgan’s optimism for 2024 – falling US interest rates – remains intact:


“The bank has an average price target of $2,175 an ounce for bullion in the final quarter of 2024, with risks skewed to the upside on a forecast for a mild US recession that’s likely to hit sometime before the Fed starts easing.”

Even as gold climbed new peaks, exploration spending on the precious metal dipped. A study published in November overall mining exploration budgets fell this year for the first time since 2020, dropping 3% to $12.8 billion at the 2,235 companies that allocated funds to find or expand deposits.

Despite the sparkling gold price, gold exploration budgets, which historically have been driven more by the junior mining sector than any other metal or mineral, dropped by 16% or $1.1 billion year-on-year to just under $6 billion, representing 46% of the global total.

That’s down from 54% in 2022 amid higher spending on lithium, nickel and other battery metals, a surge in spending on uranium and rare earths and an uptick for copper.

Mining’s year of M&A, spin-offs, IPOs, and SPAC deals

In December, speculation about Anglo American (LON: AAL) becoming the target of a takeover by a rival or a private equity firm mounted, as weakness in the shares of the diversified miner persisted.


If Anglo American doesn’t turn operations around and its share price continues to lag, Jefferies analysts say they can’t “rule out the possibility that Anglo is involved in the broader trend of industry consolidation,” according to their research note.

In October, Newcrest Mining shareholders voted strongly in favour of accepting the roughly $17 billion buyout bid from global gold mining giant Newmont Corporation.

Newmont (NYSE: NEM) plans to raise $2 billion in cash through mine sales and project divestments following the acquisition. The acquisition brings the company’s value to around $50 billion and adds five active mines and two advanced projects to Newmont’s portfolio.

Breakups and spin-offs were also a big part of 2023 corporate developments.

After being rebuffed several times in its bid to buy all of Teck Resources, Glencore and its Japanese partner are in a better position to bring the $9 billion bid for the diversified Canadian miner’s coal unit to a close. Glencore CEO Gary Nagle’s initial bid for the entire company faced stiff opposition from Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government and from the premier of British Columbia, where the company is based.


Vale (NYSE: VALE) is not seeking new partners for its base metals unit following a recent equity sale, but could consider an IPO for the unit within three or four years, CEO Eduardo Bartolomeo said in October.

Vale recruited former Anglo American Plc boss Mark Cutifani in April to lead an independent board to oversee the $26-billion copper and nickel unit created in July when the Brazilian parent company sold 10% to Saudi fund Manara Minerals.

Shares in Indonesian copper and gold miner, PT Amman Mineral Internasional, have surged more than fourfold since listing in July and are set to keep rising after its inclusion in major emerging market indexes in November.

Amman Mineral’s $715 million IPO was the largest in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy this year and counted on strong demand by global and domestic funds.


Not all dealmaking went smoothly this year.

Announced in June, a $1 billion metals deal by blank-cheque fund ACG Acquisition Co to acquire a Brazilian nickel and and a copper-gold mine from Appian Capital, was terminated in September.

The deal was backed by Glencore, Chrysler parent Stellantis and Volkswagen’s battery unit PowerCo through an equity investment, but as nickel prices slumped there was a lack of interest from minority investors at the stage of the $300 million equity offering which ACG planned as part of the deal.

Talks in 2022 to acquire the mines also fell through after bidder Sibanye-Stillwater pulled out. That transaction is now the subject of legal proceedings after Appian filed a $1.2 billion claim against the South African miner.

Nickel nosedive

In April, Indonesia’s PT Trimegah Bangun Persada, better known as Harita Nickel, raised 10 trillion rupiah ($672 million) in what was then Indonesia’s largest initial public offering of the year.


Harita Nickel’s IPO quickly turned sour for investors, however, as prices for the metal entered a steady and long decline. Nickel is the worst performer among the base metals, nearly halving in value after starting 2023 trading above $30,000 a tonne.

Next year is not looking great for the devil’s copper either with top producer Nornickel predicting a widening surplus due to lacklustre demand from electric vehicles and a ramp-up in supply from Indonesia, which also comes with a thick layer of cobalt:

“…due to the continuing destocking cycle in the EV supply chain, a greater share of non-nickel LFP batteries, and a partial shift from BEV to PHEV sales in China. Meanwhile, the launch of new Indonesian nickel capacities continued at a high pace.”

Palladium also had a rough year, down by more than a third in 2023 despite a late charge from multi-year lows hit at the start of December. Palladium was last trading at $1,150 an ounce.

China flexes its critical mineral muscle

In July China announced it will clamp down on exports of two obscure yet crucial metals in an escalation of the trade war on technology with the US and Europe.


Beijing said exporters will need to apply for licenses from the commerce ministry if they want to start or continue to ship gallium and germanium out of the country and will be required to report details of the overseas buyers and their applications.

China is overwhelmingly the top source of both metals — accounting for 94% of gallium supply and 83% of germanium, according to a European Union study on critical raw materials this year. The two metals have a vast array of specialist uses across chipmaking, communications equipment and defence.

In October, China said it would require export permits for some graphite products to protect national security. China is the world’s top graphite producer and exporter. It also refines more than 90% of the world’s graphite into the material that is used in virtually all EV battery anodes, which is the negatively charged portion of a battery.


US miners said China’s move underscores the need for Washington to ease its own permit review process. Nearly one-third of the graphite consumed in the United States comes from China, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents auto supply chain companies.

In December, Beijing banned the export of technology to make rare earth magnets on Thursday, adding it to a ban already in place on technology to extract and separate the critical materials.

Rare earths are a group of 17 metals used to make magnets that turn power into motion for use in electric vehicles, wind turbines and electronics.

While Western countries are trying to launch their own rare earth processing operations, the ban is expected to have the biggest impact on so-called “heavy rare earths,” used in electric vehicle motors, medical devices and weaponry, where China has a virtual monopoly on refining.

https://www.mining.com/the-biggest-global-mining-news-of-2023/

[JD400]

A Detailed Explanation of the Electric Arc Furnace - What It is and How It Works

[JD400]

Can beaten-up junior miners fight illegal short-selling?
with MMGYS Soundtrack

Alisha Hiyate | December 22, 2023 | 7:33 am Careers Education Markets Canada


Terry Lynch began to notice unusual price movements in Power Nickel (TSXV: PNPN; US-OTC: PNPNF)’s stock (then called Chilean Metals) years ago.


The shares consistently traded down at the end of the day, regardless of news, with late day trades often made anonymously.

Now the stock is stuck in a range of C25¢ to C30¢ — despite a recently released initial nickel-sulphide resource for the company’s optioned Nisk project in Quebec, and a staged deal with battery and defence supplier CVMR to fund engineering studies.

It’s not unusual for a junior mining CEO to be unhappy with his share price, but Lynch says Power Nickel isn’t alone and something is amiss in the junior sector. The disconnect between the commodity markets and the junior mining-heavy TSX Venture Index, which is at an all-time low, has reached its widest point.

“When I first started talking about this, people thought, Terry, you should have a tinfoil hat on your head. They thought I was a crazy conspiracy theorist,” he told The Northern Miner in early December. “But you know what? I got proof. Man, this is really happening and I’m not the only one that sees it.”

In search of answers to the sector’s woes, he formed the Save Canadian Mining group in 2019, recruiting big names like Eric Sprott, Rob McEwen and Sean Roosen as supporters. Now, he can point to exactly what’s bleeding the junior market dry: Predatory short-selling.

“We’re in a market where the governments, to their credit, federally and provincially, have put out some amazing incentives for miners to actually get out there and explore and develop mines,” he said. “So really, we should be in our glory years and we’re instead about to go extinct.”

Short selling is a legal way for traders to profit from a falling stock price. Traders sell borrowed shares in the hope of buying them on the market at a lower price. It serves an important function in helping the market discover the true value of a company’s shares and has even helped uncover frauds like Enron. But it can also be done illegally, if traders don’t “cover” their position — meaning the trader is selling shares they haven’t borrowed, located, or confirmed are available for them to buy.

Lynch and others say “naked” shorting is a widespread and destructive problem in the junior mining sector. Last week he filed a formal complaint with the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) and FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) in the United States asking them to act on illegal short selling and restore investor confidence in the market.

‘Neverending bear market’

Any sector with declining values will attract short selling, which plays an important role in ensuring overvalued stocks don’t stay that way.

But veteran junior mining investors say that the removal of the “tick test” restrictions on short selling in 2012 have unleashed algorithmic trading programs onto the market that prey on both companies and retail investors. The “tick test” or uptick rule only allowed short sales at a price that was higher than the last sales price of a security.

Often this activity happens in the shadows, in places only institutions like banks and their clients can access, said long-time junior mining analyst John Kaiser of Kaiser Research Online.

“Banks and professional traders are selling stock they don’t even have a means to borrow,” he said in December. “With no downtick rule to get in the way, they just lean into the bid and then everybody’s who’s been a ‘long,’ they get this feeling of despair and they sell.”

Kaiser said these traders take advantage of the share volume rise that happens when companies release news, depressing any rallies.

Any new investors are left with nothing but buyers’ regret — and juniors are stuck in a “neverending” bear market.

Kaiser said a lot of this trading must be predatory because junior mining stock is not easy to borrow.

“None of it’s high enough to be marginable and margin accounts probably don’t own this sort of stuff,” he said. And large shareholders aren’t likely to make stock available to short-sellers.

“Properly covered short selling, if that was enforced, would not be that big a problem.”

Meanwhile, junior mining CEOs, many of whom are geologists with a distaste for or lack of knowledge of the capital markets, have proven hapless and helpless.

John Feneck, an Arizona-based technical analyst and consultant who helps mining companies raise their profiles, said many CEOs believe they can let their drill results speak for themselves. But that hasn’t been the case for the last couple of years.

“Our sector is really thinly traded,” he explained in a phone interview in early December. “Certain stocks are susceptible to larger moves based on their daily trading volume – many trade less than 100,000 shares a day.”

Feneck said better disclosure could help market transparency. He notes that in the U.S., FINRA requires short-selling information to be reported only twice a month. The long gap allows for potentially deceptive activities to take place.

“It’s whatever happens between those reports that’s frustrating people,” he said.

What are the regulators doing?
Regulators have looked at the issue of naked short-selling many times over the past decade. But they’ve found scant evidence that there’s a widespread problem.

In August 2022, CIRO predecessor IIROC did clarify that naked short selling is in fact illegal in Canada. Guidance issued at the time stated that entering into a short order without “reasonable expectation” the trader will be able to access enough securities to settle it within two trading days is prohibited, and considered manipulative and deceptive behaviour.

CIRO’s latest review concluded in November without recommending any regulatory changes.

But it does expect to publish new proposals outlining how it can further “clarify and support” the reasonable expectation requirement in early 2024.

Finally, CIRO and the Canadian Securities Administrators are forming a working group early in the year to study short selling in Canada, including an analysis of stronger requirements to settle trades when they’re due. It will also look more closely at suggestions raised in the previous consultation, including the imposition of “pre-borrow” requirements before a short sale can be entered, and whether short selling of junior stocks should be treated differently. In a response to emailed questions, a CIRO spokesperson confirmed there would also be discussion around suggestions it received to bring back the tick test.

Investor protection momentum
In early 2023, several small-cap companies in the U.S. announced plans to take legal action against short-sellers targeting their stocks.

In November, South Korea placed a temporary ban on short selling until next June. The move was supported by the country’s powerful lobby of retail investors, who believe big banks are suppressing share values through short selling. Over a quarter of the nation’s population invest in the stock market.

And in September, a judge in the Harrington Global Opportunity Fund market manipulation case against CIBC and big banks in the U.S. denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case. In her decision, she found that banks and brokerage firms can be held liable for their clients’ illegal trading, if they fail to provide proper oversight.

Banks have previously argued that they’re not responsible for clients’ illegal trading.

Lynch is encouraged by the momentum.

During an “emergency” Save Canadian Mining virtual event in late November, Sprott exhorted junior executives to take action to protect their share prices. “CEOs must realize almost everyone’s working against you,” he said. “If the price sucks, why don’t you wake up and do something about it!”

While Lynch doesn’t want to take the banks to court, he wants to let them know industry is willing to go that far.

“Nobody wants to really fight them, but we need to show them, hey, we’ve got the evidence,” he said. “The banks and the regulators, once they decide they want to do something, they can move very swiftly. They can change all these rules overnight.”

That could usher in the biggest mining boom in human history, he posited.

To the banks, he offers this message:

“The money on the shorting side of this business is almost done. You’ve almost killed us. You need to invest in the long side, and then everyone’s gonna make out like crazy.”

https://www.mining.com/can-beaten-up-junior-miners-fight-illegal-short-selling/

[JD400]

Merry Christmas ........

Mog’s Christmas Calamity

Merry Christmas

[JD400]

Gold doesn’t follow, it leads Feat. Michael Oliver - LFTV Ep 154

Kinesis Money

Dec 22, 2023
In this year’s final episode of Live from the Vault, Andrew Maguire is joined by Michael Oliver, creator of Momentum Structural Analysis, to pull back the curtain on the global trade of precious metals and debate what drives the industry forward.

The experts discuss the Fed’s interest rate policy decisions and a prospective pivot to rate cuts in 2024, before analysing how precious metals stand strong while the integrity of the US government bond market hangs in the balance.

Timestamps:
00:00 Start
02:45 What’s going on with interest rates
07:00 What happens when the Fed starts cutting rates
18:10 How deep will the next stock bear market be?
25:00 A look at previous rallies and declines
34:00 Silver momentum: can it outperform gold?
39:45 Is now a good time to get into mining stocks?
51:00 Does Michael cover cryptocurrencies?

[JD400]

$STRFF Canadian Gold Corp. Highlights Transformative 2023 for Shareholders

Provides Exploration & Development Plans for Coming Year

Toronto, Ontario – December 21, 2023 – Canadian Gold Corp. (TSXV: CGC) (“Canadian Gold” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce a summary of the work completed in 2023, in what has been a transformative year, and in addition, presents the Company’s early exploration and development plans for 2024.

Flin Flon Snow Lake Greenstone Belt

Canadian Gold Corp.’s Tartan Mine project remains the Company’s flag ship project, and sees opportunity being located in the prolific, world class Flin Flon Snow Lake Greenstone Belt, where roughly 50% of all mines developed in Manitoba were established (in this area), representing just under 2% of the Province’s total surface area.

Canadian Gold Highlights and Path Forward

Tartan Mine 2023 Exploration Drilling: Completed Phase 1 drilling in September with highlights that included an impressive 12.0 gpt gold over 8.0 metres, inside the widest and deepest intersection in Tartan Mine history, namely, 4.2 gpt gold over 53.7 metres. This hole increased the vertical extent of the high-grade by 61%. Phase 2 drilling started in November with 3 holes having been completed prior to the winter break (Fig. 1). Assays from the 3 holes are currently pending and drilling is scheduled to resume early January 2024.

2024 Exploration Program: The Company will be completing its Phase 2 drill program during Q1-2024. In addition to targeting extensions of the gold mineralization at the Tartan Mine’s Main Zone, the program has been expanded to follow-up on encouraging holes from the South Zone (Fig. 2) that remains open for expansion and includes 9.6 gpt gold over 11.8 metres, and 8.8 gpt gold over 4.8 metres. The South Zone, which occurs approximately 100 metres south of the Main Zone, was also accessed by underground development for the purpose of drilling underground. Exploration drilling will also target west of the current resource estimate (Fig. 2), where high-grade gold was encountered by the previous owner between 2003-2006, and which included 11.3 gpt gold over 2.7 metres. The overall objective of 2024 is to drive resource growth and materially expand the ore system at the Tartan Mine.

Tartan Mine Engineering: During 2023, the Company reviewed the original process plant and mill design, and considered alternatives to maximize gold recoveries, while also reducing operating costs and technical risks. It is the Company’s belief that a simplified design should achieve these objectives. The Company intends to complete further testing in 2024 in order to determine if the projected gold recoveries can be further increased using a finer grind size. In addition, an evaluation will be completed on the existing processing plant/mill infrastructure in order to identify equipment that may require replacement. The Company intends to work with an equipment broker to help source replacements. Lastly, an underwater drone will be used during spring to map the condition of the underground mine, for the purposes of determining refurbishment costs.

Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) Potential: A VTEM and IP survey was conducted in 2011 and 2022 over the Tartan Mine property. The results of these surveys, combined with other prior historical work and current desk-top analyses, has outlined potential for a VMS discovery within the project area. This could be an exciting development, as the region around Flin Flon, Manitoba is well known for hosting “world class” VMS orebodies, many of which have been developed into mines. Since 1915, 34 of the 71 mines that have been developed in Manitoba were situated in the world class, prolific Snow Lake Flin-Flon greenstone belt. Canadian Gold will be completing its data compilation and the results, including next steps, will be shared with shareholders early in 2024.

Property Acquisitions: During 2023 Canadian Gold acquired three early-stage exploration projects situated adjacent to some of the largest gold mines and undeveloped deposits in Canada. In 2024, the primary focus will be on the Hammond Reef North/South (Ontario) and Malartic South projects (Quebec) – being located next to Agnico Eagle’s Hammond Reef deposit and the Canadian Malartic Mine. Work at both projects will continue to advance these projects to a drill ready stage. It is the Company’s intention to apply for various government funding programs to help finance this exploration. Canadian Gold is also open to evaluating neighbouring gold properties in the Flin Flon area.

Financing: The Company raised approximately $4.1 million during 2023. Rob McEwen, the founder and former CEO and Chairman of Goldcorp personally invested $2.0 million and now owns approximately 36% of the Company. Other sources of funding included $300,000 from the Manitoba Mineral Development Fund (“MMDF”) and approximately $1.6 million from new investors.

Tartan Mine Tax Incentives: Manitoba Finance confirmed during the year that the Tartan Mine would be considered a “Major Expansion” and eligible for a tax holiday should it re-enter production. Major Expansions by mining companies in Manitoba are exempt from paying Mining Tax until profits equal the amount of capital spent to open the mine. At the end of the tax holiday, a company is allowed to depreciate the undepreciated balance against future Mining Tax.

Board of Directors/Management Additions: During 2023 the Company has added several members to its board of directors and management team to strengthen its presence within Manitoba. Key additions include Ed Huebert as President and CEO (formerly Special Advisor on Mining to the Cabinet Secretary of Economic Development for Manitoba) and Senior Environmental Manager with Debeers Canada (NWT Projects), Jim Downey (former Minister of Energy and Mines and Deputy Premier of Manitoba) and Alex McEwen, son of Rob McEwen and founder/owner of Remote Power Corp.

For Further Information, Please Contact:

Ed Huebert
President & CEO
Canadian Gold Corp.
[phone]
[e-mail]

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information disclosed in this news release was reviewed and approved by Wesley Whymark, P. Geo., Consulting Geologist for the company, and a Qualified Person as defined under National Instrument 43-101.

About Canadian Gold Corp.

Canadian Gold Corp. is a Toronto-based mineral exploration and development company whose objective is to expand the high-grade gold resource at the past producing Tartan Mine, located in Flin Flon, Manitoba. The Company holds a 100% interest in greenfields exploration properties in Ontario and Quebec adjacent to some of Canada’s largest gold mines and development projects, specifically, the Canadian Malartic Mine (QC), the Hemlo Mine (ON) and Hammond Reef Project (ON). The Company is 36% owned by Robert McEwen, who was the founder and CEO of Goldcorp and is Chairman and CEO of McEwen Mining.

CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This news release of Company contains statements that constitute “forward-looking statements.” Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Canadian Gold’s actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in the industry to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.





https://canadiangoldcorp.com/canadian-gold-corp-highlights-transformative-2023-for-shareholders/

[JD400]

Welcome to the first day at US Steel
with MMGYS Soundtracks

Continuing Coverage

After U.S. Steel announces sale, reactions range from outrage to concern

90.5 WESA | By Oliver Morrison
Published December 21, 2023 at 5:34 AM EST
/
90.5 WESA
George DeBolt's father and grandfather worked for U.S. Steel in different capacities and he now gives tours of the region's industrial past — and he has a theory about why U.S. Steel's sale struck such a chord.
For decades, George DeBolt has given tours of former industrial sites around Pittsburgh. DeBolt’s grandfather worked for the union during the “Battle of Homestead,” where 16 people died during an armed confrontation between striking steelworkers and Pinkerton agents employed by Carnegie Steel, a predecessor to U.S. Steel. DeBolt’s father helped haul large pieces of metal for U.S. Steel as the owner of a trucking business.

DeBolt has carried on that steel-related lineage, albeit in a less hands-on way — he provides tours of significant sites related to the region’s industrial past.

“My claim to fame,” he said. “is that when he came to Pittsburgh, Prince Charles asked me to give him a tour of the industrial Valley here.”

So, Debolt had some opinions when U.S. Steel announced on Monday that it was being purchased by Nippon Steel Corporation — a larger Japanese steelmaker — for $14.9 billion.

Shareholders were happy about the announcement; U.S. Steel share prices surged at the news. But in and around Pittsburgh, the news elicited a range of negative reactions: from concern over national security implications voiced by elected representatives to outrage from the United Steelworkers union, which represents many U.S. Steel employees.

DeBolt said an important clue to why there was such a strong reaction was sitting about six miles down the Mon River from U.S. Steel’s Downtown corporate headquarters at the Waterfront, an open-air shopping complex that opened in 1999. The site was once home to the largest steel mill in the world, the Homestead Works, built by the Carnegie Steel Company, which eventually merged with the Federal Steel Company to and become U.S. Steel.

In a parking lot behind a Lowe’s hardware store, sits the 12,000 Pound Press — a 120-year-old steel press that was used to smash large steel ingots into sheets toward the end of the steelmaking process. Next to the press a sign reads, “Many World War Two battleships were outfitted with armor plate from this press, including the U.S.S. Missouri, the ship on which the Japanese signed the articles of surrender that ended the war.”

Many of the people who spoke to WESA for this article emphasized that steel made here helped win World Wars. It helped establish the U.S. as a global superpower. U.S. Steel, in a way, became synonymous with U.S. might. So, DeBolt suggests, people weren’t upset just because U.S. Steel was being sold. Rather, people were upset about it being sold to a foreign company — and a Japanese one at that.

“How about that for irony?” he said.

“This is just deja vu”
But for others, Monday’s announcement seemed to produce a sense that history was repeating itself.

American steel production peaked in the early 1970s. But, as the industry became more globalized and buyers began to buy cheaper steel elsewhere, production plummeted, bottoming out in the mid-80s. “Black Monday” in September 1977 — when Youngstown Sheet and Tube abruptly closed its Campbell Works plant in Youngstown, Ohio — was one of the first surprise announcements that upended the American steel industry — but it would be nowhere near the last.

The wave of mill closures during the next decade finally hit the Homestead Works in 1986. Mike Stout was the plant’s union representative and the last worker out before the plant shuttered for good.

The Edgar Thomson Steel Works on the day U.S. Steel announced that it was being purchased for $14.9 billion.
Oliver Morrison
/
90.5 WESA
The Edgar Thomson Steel Works on the day U.S. Steel announced that it was being purchased for $14.9 billion.
“Tens of thousands of steelworkers lost their jobs illegally, were denied pensions, were denied severance pay,” Stout said. “And the result was the complete [and] utter destruction of the Monongahela Valley and towns like Homestead and McKeesport and Duquesne.”

Many of those towns and cities are now beset by poverty and health problems, some of which are a legacy of their close proximity to sources of industrial pollution. Stout spent years fighting U.S. Steel in court for millions of dollars in back pay and pensions for the plant’s workers. And for him, and many of the people who lived through that time, the sting of U.S. Steel’s announcement this week felt familiar.

“This is just deja vu. I mean, this is exactly what they did in the 1980s,” he said.

According to Stout, the company broke its promises to the steel workers repeatedly. The most recent betrayal, Stout said, was just a couple years ago — when U.S. Steel backpedaled on a promise to invest more than a billion dollars into its remaining Mon Valley steel plants. The plan would’ve modernized the equipment and reduced pollution. Instead, U.S. Steel announced it was investing billions of dollars in new non-union steel plants in Arkansas.

Those mills will utilize cleaner, more efficient electric arc furnaces, a technological investment that Chris Briem, an economist at the University of Pittsburgh, said U.S. Steel is making decades later than it should have.

“Electric arc steel mini mills were described once as the prototypical disruptive technology,” Briem said. “It completely changed the nature of the steel industry and U.S. [Steel] ignored it. And they're paying the price.”

Briem said that’s been the pattern the past half-century. The last vestiges of steel production in the Pittsburgh region might be in jeopardy, Briem said — but it’s not because of who will be owning U.S. Steel moving forward. Instead, he said, it’s because decades passed without U.S. Steel making necessary investments in its Mon Valley operations to ensure that it remained competitive.

“So, it doesn't really matter whether it's retained by U.S. Steel or bought by Nippon Steel or one of the other potential competitors,” he said. “Without a lot of investment, it probably isn't going to stay open.”

Concerns over foreign ownership
Meanwhile, the United Steelworkers union is deeply opposed to the sale. President Dave McCall said he’s worried the company won’t honor commitments to union pensions and healthcare. He said he has seen evidence that Nippon plans to further steer investment to non-union plants in Arkansas, neglecting legacy facilities up north.

But he also said the union’s opposition to a foreign buyer is a matter of principle, no matter that Japan is one of the U.S.’s closest allies.

“We've got to be able to make things here in America and control things here in America,” he said. “And then suddenly … they decide that [a Japanese company is] going to be the supplier for steel in America, for key products? I'm concerned about that.”

Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Bob Casey agrees. The Democrat has voted for new laws that he said aim to bring back manufacturing to the U.S. The CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act offer billions of dollars in incentives for companies that build factories in the U.S. for things like electric car batteries and computer chips.

“You can't exist as a nation if you don't have a manufacturing base and steel is a big part of that,” Casey said.

George DeBolt shows an ash tray made at the Homestead Works that was given to his family and a picture of a giant piece of steel that his father moved with two trailers tied together back when DeBolt was still a kid.
Oliver Morrison
/
90.5 WESA
George DeBolt shows an ash tray made at the Homestead Works that was given to his family and a picture of a giant piece of steel that his father moved with two trailers tied together back when DeBolt was still a kid.
Casey, Fetterman and Rep. Chris Deluzio sent a letter to Nippon’s leaders this week asking them for additional information about their plans. They also sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urging her to block the proposed sale, arguing that the country’s core industries should not be dependent upon foreign actors.

Some, though, hold out hope that a sale might represent rebirth, rather than a death knell. Charlie McCollester, a retired academic and founding member of the Battle of Homestead Foundation, wrote a book about the steel industry from a labor perspective. He thinks Japanese ownership could end up being the industry’s saving grace in the region. U.S. Steel has clearly failed, he said, and he thinks Japanese owners might make better decisions.

“They had a certain responsibility towards their workers and ... they have been geniuses at involving workers in the production process from below,” he said.

Back in Homestead, Debolt said that the tension between Pennsylvania workers and foreign owners isn’t anything new. In fact, it was given the Hollywood treatment in 1986 — the same year the Homestead Works plant closed. Pittsburgh-native Michael Keaton starred in the movie, “Gung Ho,” about a Japanese company that agrees to revive an ailing manufacturing plant that had just closed.

“And of course, at the end,” he said, “the workers and the new Japanese owners are getting along fine.”

https://www.wesa.fm/economy-business/2023-12-21/us-steel-sale-reactions

$X

[JD400]

Ghosts of Bubbles Past - Yulletide Wash and Rinse
with MMGYS Soundtrack bottom of page


“You are fettered,” said Scrooge, trembling. “Tell me why?”

“I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?” Scrooge trembled more and more.

“Or would you know,” pursued the Ghost, “the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!..."

“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,' faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.

Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has shined."

Isaiah 9:1


After reaching new highs and the pinnacle of another vaporous overbought risk bubble, stocks sold off hard this afternoon.
Wash and rinse complete.

Ho, ho, ho.

Gold and silver sold, while the Dollar rose.

VIX rebounded strongly from its recent supine levels.

It never ends.

Have a pleasant evening.
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

[JD400]

Growing bipartisan opposition to US Steel purchase by Japanese might not be enough to block deal
with MMGYS A,I. Soundtrack U,S. Steels new Japan theme song "World is Mine"

New York (CNN) — Bipartisan opposition is growing to the proposed $14.1 billion acquisition of US Steel by Japan’s largest steelmaker, but that is unlikely to be enough to block the purchase, according to an expert in foreign investment deals.
Posted 12:18 p.m. Today - Updated 12:17 p.m. Today
By Matt Egan and Chris Isidore, CNN

New York (CNN) — Bipartisan opposition is growing to the proposed $14.1 billion acquisition of US Steel by Japan’s largest steelmaker, but that is unlikely to be enough to block the purchase, according to an expert in foreign investment deals.

A trio of Republican senators Tuesday called for a panel of US officials to block Nippon Steel’s takeover of US Steel due to national security concerns.

WRAL News Brief
Sens. JD Vance, Josh Hawley and Marco Rubio wrote Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen a letter on Tuesday warning the US Steel deal has “dire implications for the industrial base of the United States” and “was not entered into with US national security in mind.”

Yellen chairs the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an interagency panel empowered to review transactions involving foreign investment in America to determine the impact on national security. CFIUS members include the heads of the Department of Defense, State, Homeland Security and Justice.

CFIUS “can and should block the acquisition of US Steel by NSC, a company whose allegiances clearly lie with a foreign state and whose record in the United States is deeply flawed,” Vance, Hawley and Rubio said. They argued CFIUS should launch a review of the deal unilaterally, especially because US Steel received competitive bids from American companies.

The lawmakers note that domestic steel production is “vital to US national security” and cited steps taken by Republican and Democratic administrations to bolster the steel industry. Vance is the junior senator from Ohio, while Hawley and Rubio represent Missouri and Florida, respectively.

“Allowing foreign companies to buy out American companies and enjoy our trade protections subverts the very purpose for which those protections were put in place,” the Republican lawmakers wrote.

Vance, Hawley and Rubio cautioned that Nippon Steel “does not share US Steel’s storied connection to the United States and its financial interests are tied to those of Japan.” The lawmakers note that Nippon has previously been found guilty of unlawfully dumping flat-rolled steel products in the United States.

Ohio’s other senator, Democrat Sherrod Brown, also issued a statement Monday opposing the deal.

“A foreign company should not be able to swoop in, ignore the voices of union workers, and buy a major American steel manufacturer behind closed doors,” said Brown, who faces reelection in 2024. “Nippon and US Steel have insulted American steelworkers by refusing to give them a seat at the table and raised grave concerns about their commitment to the future of the American steel industry.”

Brown said that if US Steel is going to be sold, it should be purchased by Ohio-based Cleveland Cliffs, which had the support of the United Steelworkers union in its failed effort earlier this year to buy US Steel.

Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who is not seeking reelection but is still considering an independent campaign for president, also attacked the sale of the company to a foreign rival.

“This is a major blow to the American steel industry which has been instrumental in making us the superpower of the world and a direct threat to our national security,” he said in a statement Tuesday. “At a time when domestic manufacturing – including in the US steel market – is facing increased competition from unfair trade, we must be doing everything we can to prevent any further deterioration of American ownership

Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, also decried the proposed sale.

“It’s absolutely outrageous that US Steel has agreed to sell themselves to a foreign company,” Fetterman said Monday in a statement. “Steel is always about security – both our national security and the economic security of our steel communities. I am committed to doing anything I can do, using my platform and my position, to block this foreign sale.”

And the United Steelworkers union is also on record opposing the deal.

The proposed deal “demonstrates the same greedy, shortsighted attitude that has guided US Steel for far too long,” said USW President David McCall. “We remained open throughout this process to working with US Steel to keep this iconic American company domestically owned and operated, but instead it chose to push aside the concerns of its dedicated workforce and sell to a foreign-owned company.”

Blocking deal still is ‘quite unlikely’

Despite the growing political opposition to the deal from politicians and the United Steelworkers union, it is unlikely that CFIUS would block the deal by a close US ally such as Japan, said Michael Leiter, head of the CFIUS and national security practices at law firm Skadden, Arps.

“This has never happened before for a Japanese buyer of a US business - even in the height of US-Japan trade tensions in the 1980s and 1990s - and it seems quite unlikely that it would do so here,” he told CNN.

No matter the recommendation of CFIUS, the final decision rests with the president, Leiter said. Even with the political pressure from the both parties and the importance of Ohio and Pennsylvania in next year’s election, Leiter doesn’t think Biden would act to block the deal.

“Were President Biden to reject the deal this would immediately create a significant issue with our Japanese allies given the importance of collaboration on other critical issues such as China and semiconductor production and supply chains,” he said.

Representatives from US Steel did not respond to requests for comment on the letter or Brown and Fetterman’s objections. Treasury declined to comment.

US Steel officials touted the deal on Monday, arguing it’s in the best interest of all parties, including the United States. And they said they are confident it will be able to win regulatory approval.

Although US Steel was once the world’s most valuable company, it has been in decline for decades along with the broader domestic steel industry

The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

https://www.wral.com/story/growing-bipartisan-opposition-to-us-steel-purchase-by-japanese-might-not-be-enough-to-block-deal/21202784/

[JD400]

American's furious after biggest auto steel supplier sold off to Japan

$X

[JD400]

Rob McEwen: To me, these are opportune times

GOLDINVEST
Premiered 22 hours ago #robmcewen #mining #miningstocks
In this extensive Goldinvest.de interview with mining legend, Goldcorp founder, and McEwen Mining CEO Rob McEwen we talk about the state of the (gold) mining industry and the need for changes in the sector to be able to attract sufficient funding going forward, to continue fulfilling its essential role in modern society.

Rob also tells us, why he is investing in the junior mining / exploration space and we talk about two interesting companies in particular that we at Goldinvest.de are following, too.

[JD400]

Sorry America loses U S Steel
with MMGYS Soundtrack

Continuing full coverage

US Steel accepts $14.1 billion Nippon bid after rejecting Cliffs

Bloomberg News | December 18, 2023 | 6:48 am Markets Asia USA Iron Ore

Credit: US Steel
Nippon Steel Corp. will buy United States Steel Corp. for $14.1 billion to create the world’s second-largest steel company — and the biggest outside of China — with a key role in supplying American manufacturers and automakers.


The deal caps months of uncertainty over the future of US Steel, an icon of American industry, which has been considering potential transactions since it rejected an offer from rival Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. for $7.25 billion in mid-August.

For Nippon, Japan’s biggest steel producer, the transaction provides a large foothold in the American steel industry at a time when domestic demand is poised to benefit from rising infrastructure spending. US Steel is a key supplier to the lucrative automotive market in particular. The Japanese company has been seeking growth overseas to offset a litany of challenges facing its current operations.

Nippon will pay $55 a share in cash, the companies said in a statement. The deal announced Monday is a 142% premium to US Steel’s share price on the last trading day before it announced the review and Cliffs revealed it had made a bid. The company’s shares jumped 25% to $49.30 at 9:36 a.m. in New York. Cliffs was up 7.2%.

The deal would create a steel giant with plants stretching from Slovakia to Osaka to Pennsylvania. It would be the world’s second-biggest steelmaker with more than 86 million tons of capacity, leapfrogging Luxembourg-headquartered ArcelorMittal SA, according to a company presentation and Bloomberg calculations. Only China’s state-owned China Baowu Steel Group Corp. would have more.


Nippon has been seeking growth abroad as it struggles with a slowdown in domestic demand, the rapidly weakening yen and a surge in competition across Asia. The firm has been shutting blast furnaces in Japan due to weak needs.

In a presentation, Nippon said it was expanding its US presence to benefit from a growing population, cheap energy and renewed focus on building infrastructure. The company said it had secured commitments to finance the transaction from Japanese banks.

For American industry, the takeover will mark the end of an era. US Steel traces its roots back to 1901 when J. Pierpont Morgan merged a collection of assets with Andrew Carnegie’s Carnegie Steel Co.

It has undergone a dramatic shift in recent years under CEO David B. Burritt, as its investment focus pivoted away from traditional blast-furnace production of steel from iron ore, toward more modern and less-polluting plants that remelt metal scrap instead.

The company took center stage in the global steel industry in August, when it revealed it had rejected an offer from Cliffs and begun a strategic review.

The announcement kicked off a dramatic few weeks, as the influential United Steelworkers union threw its support behind Cliffs’ pugnacious chief executive, while a little-known buyer startled the industry with an even larger offer, before abruptly pulling its interest days later.

As US Steel considered its options, analysts have speculated certain buyers would be more focused the firm’s Big River Steel plant in Arkansas, which uses the greener and more efficient modern electric arc furnaces, while seeking to offload the older blast furnace assets.

Nippon Steel executive vice president Takahiro Mori said Nippon’s plan is to continue with US Steel’s existing plans for the company, including completing the Big River project and continuing to operate the legacy steelmaking assets. Mori didn’t rule out changes down the road.

“We are supportive of US Steel’s plan,” Miro said in an interview. “After a few years we may think in another way, but at this moment we are just following the current plan.”

Passing CFIUS
The deal requires US Steel shareholder approval, and will need to clear regulators, including the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, or CFIUS. Some US politicians had already come out criticizing the idea of a foreign purchaser of the iconic American company while US Steel was assessing potential bids.

Nippon’s Mori said he is confident on clearing the hurdle, pointing to Japan’s strong relationship with the US. “I don’t have any concern about passing CFIUS,” he said.

The two companies have agreed that US Steel will keep its name and headquarters. Nippon also said it will honor all agreements US Steel has with the USW, which has repeatedly said it won’t support any foreign bidders.

Relations between the USW and US Steel have remained strained. USW president David McCall said he received a call at 6 a.m. New York time from US Steel CEO Burritt, who left a voicemail. McCall said it would have been the first time he had spoken to the executive since becoming the union’s top official in September, following the death of former president Tom Conway.

“This is not how this is going to work,” McCall said in an interview. “We don’t know Nippon.”

The union has a transferable right — which it has said it would pass on to Cliffs — to counterbid after an offer for US Steel as part of its collective bargaining agreement.

However, Cliffs said in a statement it congratulated US Steel on the deal and wished it well with the transaction. Cliffs will refocus its capital allocation priorities towards more aggressive share buybacks, CEO Lourenco Goncalves said.

Citigroup Inc. is acting as financial adviser to Nippon Steel, while Barclays Plc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Evercore Inc. are advising US Steel.

(By Joe Deaux, Eddie Spence and Stephen Stapczynski)

https://www.mining.com/web/nippon-steel-agrees-to-buy-us-steel-for-14-1-billion/

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United Steelworkers union blasts $15B U.S. Steel-Nippon deal

by Nathan Bomey
, author of
Axios Closer

The United Steelworkers (USW) union on Monday ripped U.S. Steel and its proposed acquirer, Nippon Steel, for agreeing to a $15 billion deal without its approval.

Why it matters: The USW's response sets the stage for a fight over the transaction. The union has said previously that its contract with U.S. Steel requires any prospective buyer to agree to a new labor deal before a sale can be finalized.

Driving the news: On Monday, Japan-based Nippon's announced a bid for U.S. Steel — an iconic American company that powered the nation's building boom in the 1900s, but later became a symbol of industrial decline.

However, the deal is likely to attract tough regulatory scrutiny, especially given the prospective buyer is not US-based.
Anti-trust scrutiny is not a concern "because they have very little footprint in North America," CFRA Research's Matthew Miller tells Axios.
But, he adds, the deal could face scrutiny from the U.S. government over the fact that a foreign company would be acquiring critical American assets.
What they're saying: USW President David McCall hammered the deal as "greedy" and "shortsighted" and pledged to "exercise the full measure of our agreements to ensure that whatever happens next with U.S. Steel, we protect the good, family-sustaining jobs we bargained."

"Neither U.S. Steel nor Nippon reached out to our union regarding the deal, which is in itself a violation of our partnership agreement that requires U.S. Steel to notify us of a change in control or business conditions," McCall said.
"Based on this alone, the USW does not believe that Nippon understands the full breadth of the obligations of all our agreements, and we do not know whether it has the capacity to live up to our existing contract."
He also criticized U.S. Steel for arranging a deal to "sell to a foreign-owned company."
Flashback: Earlier this year, U.S. Steel rejected a bid by U.S.-based Cleveland-Cliffs, and said it would explore strategic alternatives.

Potential rival bids by Esmark and ArcelorMittal never came to fruition after the USW said it had transferred its bidding rights to Cleveland-Cliffs.
The Cleveland-Cliffs deal also faced opposition from the auto industry, one of the steel sector's biggest clients.
The other side: Representatives from U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel did not immediately respond to Axios' requests for comment on the USW's statement.

The big question: Whether U.S. Steel get this deal across the finish line amid opposition from the USW and political scrutiny.

2024 "is a presidential election year, and this is going to be a political lightning rod," Miller says. "You don't want to be on the wrong side of that."
https://www.axios.com/2023/12/18/ussteel-nippon-usw-steelworkers

This has some shades of the teck deal will go on well into 2024

but don't worry I have the juke box all keyed up ....hehe

[JD400]

Nippon Steel Corporation (NSC) to Acquire U. S. Steel, Moving Forward Together as the ‘Best Steelmaker with World-Leading Capabilities’

https://investors.ussteel.com/news-events/news-releases/detail/659/nippon-steel-corporation-nsc-to-acquire-u-s-steel

[JD400]

Board Views Best with Iphone ~

[JD400]

Friedland says $15,000/t copper price needed to spur new mines
with MMGYS Soundtrack

Bloomberg News | December 15, 2023 | 11:13 am Markets Top Companies Latin America Copper
Friedland’s Ivanhoe Electric Seeks as Much as $180 Million in IPO
Robert Friedland, founder and chairman of Ivanhoe Mines. (Image: Screenshot from PENDA Productions video | Vimeo)
Copper prices need to nearly double in order to prompt mining companies to build costly mines to meet rising demand for critical materials, according to billionaire Robert Friedland.


The mining magnate said that forecasts of copper prices reaching $9,000 a metric ton next year isn’t enough to stimulate the industry to take on risks of building huge, capital intensive mines, especially in Latin America.

“We probably need about $15,000 a ton, stable for a long period of time, before the industry can really gear up and build those giant mines,” Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.’s founder and executive co-chairman said Friday in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

Demand for metals like copper is set to jump as nations mandate cleaner energy technology while vying to develop their own supply chains. Meanwhile, a slew of major setbacks at key mining operations is seen tightening the market for the wiring-metal in the coming year, erasing a large surplus that analysts had been expecting going into 2024.

Copper prices on the London Metal Exchange traded at $8,531 a ton on Friday.

(By Alix Steel, Dani Burger and Jacob Lorinc)

Read More: The world’s copper supply is suddenly looking scarce
https://www.mining.com/web/friedland-says-15000-t-copper-price-needed-to-spur-new-mines/

[JD400]

Copper prices could run as high as $5 per pound in 2024, says Ellis Martin

Kitco Mining

Dec 15, 2023
Next year will be a breakout year for copper, said Ellis Martin, founder of The Ellis Martin Report.

In late-November Martin was interviewed at Resourcing Tomorrow held in London, UK.

“I think we're going to see something we've never really seen before at least in a sustained fashion. We're going to see a rise in the copper market,” said Martin, predicting that the red metal could go as high as $5 a pound next year. “It’s going to be very good for the equities and I believe you'll see more of a consolidation between the majors, the mid- tiers and the juniors.”

Martin cited Rio Tinto’s (NYSE:RIO) recent CAD$6 million investment into Western Copper & Gold’s (TSX:WRN) Casino project as an example. The greenfield copper and gold property, located in the Canadian Yukon territory, is at the feasibility stage.

Regarding the seeming lack of interest by large copper miners in smaller companies, Martin said the former are waiting to time it right.

“They’ve had their eyeballs on everything for a long time, they’ve never taken their eyes off… they’d like to know that there's no more downside, and some signal that this energy transition is going to hold. People will continue to build and manufacture batteries and electric vehicles, and also there's some sort of turn in the general economy of the world which we haven't really seen yet.”

In this bear market, Martin urged resource investors to load up on cheap stocks.

“This is the time where you can hit that five-bagger, 10-bagger, and maybe 20-bagger. If you're patient, you can wait one to two to five years. Now’s the time,” he said.

The interview was sponsored by Aris Mining (TSX:ARIS).

0:00 Macro trends
2:56 Copper market rise
3:30 Gold juniors
5:45 Copper majors
8:31 Tough market
10:08 M&A
11:18 Healthy investment strategy
12:22 2024

______________

[JD400]

Aluminium High Grade Dec '23 (Q8Z23)
2,162.75s +64.65 (+3.08%) 12/14/23 [LME]
QUOTE OVERVIEW for Thu, Dec 14th, 2023
https://www.barchart.com/futures/quotes/Q8Z23

[JD400]

Slouching Back to Babylon
with MMGYS Soundtrack

"We live in an age when breaking the rules for personal profit, cheating if you will, and telling lies about it has become an accepted means of acting in public, quietly fashionable, almost admirable to some, provided that the lying is done skillfully, more as a distortion than an outright whopper, and with style.

What is truth? This could be the vulgar motto for the generation that is passing. Truth is whatever we say it is, and woe to any who dare to disagree with the lie, or bring any light to our fanciful imaginings. The children of the darkness of this world will hate them for it. For they are given over to greed and power, not truth."

Jesse, What Is Truth, 15 June 2016

“The more power a government has, the more it can act arbitrarily according to the whims and desires of the elite, the more it will make war on others and murder its foreign and domestic subjects. And for the elite to sufficiently coalesce to commit itself to murdering its own citizens, there must be a near fanatical, driving interest.

Power can now achieve its potential. Where also the elite have built up frustrations regarding those who have lost power or nonetheless feel threatened by them, where they see them as outside the moral universe, where they have dehumanized them, where the outgroup is culturally or ethnically distinct and the elite perceive them as inferior, or where any other such factors are present, Power will achieve its murderous potential. It simply waits for an excuse, an event of some sort, an assassination, a massacre in a neighboring country, an attempted coup, a famine, or a natural disaster, that will justify beginning the murder en masse.

R. J. Rummel, Death By Government, 1994

“Religion used to be the opium of the people. To those suffering humiliation, pain, illness, and serfdom, religion promised the reward of an after life. But now, we are witnessing a transformation: a true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, we are not going to be judged.”

Czeslaw Milosz, Discreet Charm of Nihilism


The equity rally fizzled in the big dogs, aka The Magnificent Seven of tech, grandchildren of the Nifty Fifty, but did spread to the lesser knowns of the Russell 2000.

Gold and silver rallied again, as the The Dollar weakened further.

Gold did give up quite a bit of its gain, but silver stood firm impressively.

VIX bounced a little but remains subdued.

Stock Index option expiration in a triple witch tomorrow.

At some point the most recent gold pool is going to collapse, and the metal may see $100+ rally days.

But until then we can only watch the elites attempting to breath some life back into an obvious equity bubble.

Is this for the year end, a traditional hand off to the bigger fools, or something presaging a miraculous 'soft landing' in which inflation subsides while the economy grows with vigor.

Will otherwise good, educated people throw away their morals, and join the forces of pillage and murder?

Be as mindful of your own soul as your coin purse and stock portfolio, for that is what this is all about.

Have a pleasant evening.
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

[JD400]

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bubble
with MMGYS Soundtrack

"As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool returns to his folly. "

Proverbs 26:11

"And in some ways, it creates this false illusion that there are people out there looking out for the interest of taxpayers, the checks and balances that are built into the system are operational, when in fact they're not. And what you're going to see and what we are seeing is it'll be a breakdown of those governmental institutions. And you'll see governments that continue to have policies that feed the interests of -- and I don't want to get clichéd, but the one percent or the .1 percent -- to the detriment of everyone else."

Neil Barofsky, 2012 interview with Bill Moyers

"Now why don't you just take it easy, Group Captain, and please make me a drink of grain alcohol and rainwater, and help yourself to whatever you'd like."

General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden), Dr. Strangelove

"Where are the leaders? Has our political process become so compromised by powerful interest groups and the threat of character assassination that even the best among us will not dare to speak honestly about the solutions that might bring us back to common sense and fundamental fairness?"

Senator Jim Webb, A Time to Fight, 2008

"General Turgidson, I find this very difficult to understand. I was under the impression that I was the only one in authority to order the use of nuclear weapons."

President Merkin Muffley, Dr. Strangelove

From Wall Street to the White House, it's all about serving the oligarchy, the 1 percent, while maintaing plausible deniability.

The market came in broadly expecting a whipsaw, with the FOMC standing pat with dovish verbiage, and then Jay Powell coming in and raining on the parade with skeptical cautions.

No way Zimbabwe Jay.

Although it must be said that the Street took it much further than he allowed. It reminded me of a college friend who kept seeing 'signs' from a girl for which he pined, but would not actually approach.

I think it would have been interesting to see the FOMC commentary on bubblevision performed by the voice-over actor from The Curse of Oak Island.

Stocks rallied very hard, parabolically surpassing their bubble peaks.

The Dollar dropped off a cliff.

Gold and silver rallied like rockets.

And there is the second phase of the wash and rinse.

VIX did not drop but marked time in place.

Stock option expiration on Friday.

I can feel the hammer getting closer, and closer, to the retail bulls.

But give it some time.

This is not sour grapes. I snagged some serious coin in the miners today, buying them into this recent pounding down the last two days. It was just too contrived and cliché.

Pretty much like all the official 'verbiage' we get these days.

You know how they ran gold up to a new high, ran all the short stops, and then smashed it down into yesterday?

Patented move.

And I think they may have the same play in store for stocks.

But timing and leverage are everything.

Meanwhile, we've got two wars a leaping.

Changed my mind about not using twitter.

Have a pleasant evening.
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

[JD400]

Hunting for Gold & Water In My Abandoned Ghost Town!

Ghost Town Living
Premiered 20 hours ago #15 on Trending
Hello there! This past month was a great one up here at Cerro Gordo! We had a lot of experts come to look for things like water, gold, and wood. We made progress on a lot of projects and even started some new ones.

[JD400]

The Most Valuable Plot Of Land In America

Nov 15, 2023
The McDermitt Caldera is a 28 by 22-mile wide area that spans across northern Nevada and southern Oregon. A recent discovery could make it the most important plot of land in the country. And with value comes conflict.

[JD400]

Gold Speaks Uncomfortable Truths
with MMGYS soundtrack

"For the game had never been fair, the dice were loaded. They were swindlers and thieves of pennies and dimes, and they had been trapped and put out of the way by the swindlers and thieves of millions of dollars."

Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

"Gold has worked down from Alexander's time. When something holds good for two thousand years I do not believe it can be so because of prejudice or mistaken theory."

Bernard Baruch

“Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible.”

Frank Herbert, Children of Dune

“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief.”

Frantz Fanon

"The press is the hired agent of a monied system, and set up for no other purpose than to tell lies where their interests are involved."

Henry Adams, The Letters of Henry Adams

The equity markets were divergent today, with the SP500 moving higher, but the tech heavy NDX finishing decidedly lower.

Gold fell, as the Dollar rose sharply.

Silver rallied once again, in step more with the SP 500. It has the appearance of a short squeeze.

VIX fell.

Have a pleasant evening.
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/







more cards here

[JD400]

“Right Now is When You Can Make 5x-10x Your Money Just Catching the Cycle” says $FURY CEO Tim Clark

MiningStockEducation.com

Nov 30, 2023 #gold #goldstocks #goldinvesting
“Right Now is When You Can Make 5x-10x Your Money Just Catching the Cycle” says Fury Gold CEO Tim Clark. “The problem here is the market. The problem is the lack of liquidity in the junior space. But that will change. And I think my message to investors now is: I’m not asking you to go out and buy a huge chunk of $FURY. But I think you’d be prudent to buy some. Because once this market moves, because of a lack of liquidity, you’ll have a hard time getting in at a reasonable price and you’ll be sitting there doubting yourself as it is up 50% wondering if it is going to go up 100%. And if it goes up 100% you are going to be killing yourself that you did not get in.”

Currently $FURY has a C$78m market cap with a $61m treasury in $DV.v shares ($53m) and cash ($8m). So unlike most gold explorers now, the company does not have financing risk. Functionally, $FURY is currently a call option on Dolly Varden Silver ($DV.v).

SVP Exploration Bryan Atkinson reviews the just-released positive infill drill results from the Hinge Target at the high-grade Eau Claire gold project located in the Eeyou Istchee Territory in the James Bay region of Quebec. The Hinge Target infill program has increased confidence in the geological model and potential for expansion of the Eau Claire resource to the west. Drilling continues to intercept multiple zones of gold mineralization including 5.5 metres (m) of 4.52g/t gold and 3.0m of 3.34g/t gold from 23EC-069; 1.0m of 20.20g/t gold and 3.5m of 3.51g/t gold from 23EC-070; 1.0m of 19.55g/t gold from 23EC-066; and 3.5m of 3.82g/t gold from 23EC-067.

0:00 Introduction
1:11 Positive infill drill results
2:15 Accomplished 19,000m drilling in 2023
4:25 Drill program 2024
6:21 Committee Bay project
8:14 Juniors and Producers need to work together
11:12 Robust treasury with apprx $59mm in $DV shares and cash
13:28 Tim’s personal investment in $FURY is at significantly higher cost-basis
15:55 Now is the opportunity to position to make 5x-10x in junior gold stocks

How you been starboy ?

[JD400]

$MUX McEwen Mining: Stable Gold Production and Huge Upside with Los Azules Copper Project

Swiss Resource Capital AG

Nov 27, 2023 #Gold #Copper #Kupfer
Interview with Chairman and Chief Owner Rob McEwen at the Precious Metals Summit 2023 in Zurich. McEwen Mining is a gold producer with several mines in North and South America and will reach the guidance of 150,000 ounces in 2023. However, the company's great potential lies in the spun-out copper project McEwen Copper, in which McEwen Mining holds a 47.7% stake and which is one of the largest undeveloped copper projects in the world. McEwen Mining shares bucked the trend, reflecting the company's success with McEwen Copper.

Company overview:

McEwen Mining Inc. ? https://mcewenmining.com/

[JD400]

Mining The Deep Sea Offers Green Energy Potential But Environmental Risk

Scripps News

Nov 27, 2023
From the Pacific Islands to the Arctic Circle, “In Real Life” goes to the frontlines of the debate over deep sea mining. As companies rush to the bottom of the oceans to mine rare earth minerals that could power future technology, conservationists push back on impacts on fragile marine ecosystems.

[JD400]

Refining Pure Gold From An 1800s Gold Mine!

Ghost Town Two
Nov 15, 2023
I took a trip to Washington state to meet up with my friend Jason at his gold mine from the 1800s. He is reopening the mine and was nice enough to allow us to take a tour and do some mining! We spent the day chipping out gold from the walls and refining it back at Jason's shop.

Happy Thanksgiving

[JD400]

Rob McEwen, CEO & Chief Owner of McEwen Mining, presenting at the 2023 Precious Metals Summit Zurich

McEwen Mining
Nov 20, 2023

Thanks Tred Happy Thanksgiving to you and all 😊

[JD400]

Why the FED will revalue gold 2024 - LFTV Ep 149

Kinesis Money
Nov 17, 2023
In this week’s episode of Live from the Vault, Andrew Maguire reveals the Federal Reserve’s Achilles Heel: the exchange of deflating dollars to undervalued bullion, ask asks why anyone would buy treasuries when they could buy gold.

Andrew explains how global central banks are accruing physical gold ahead of this game-changing event. The precious metals expert and whistleblower reveals there may be only 35 trading days until a possible gold revaluation.

Timestamps:
00:00 Start
01:45 Short-term volatility outlook
06:00 Gold reserves
11:20 How a gold revaluation might roll out
15:30 Current gold prices
30:30 What we’re seeing in the silver markets

[JD400]

“Unless You Need the Money, Don’t Sell Junior Gold Stocks Here” says Fund Manager Dave Kranzler

Mining Stock Education
Nov 14, 2023 #goldstocks #miningstocks #resourceinvesting
“Unless You Need the Money, Don’t Sell Junior Gold Stocks Here” says fund manager Dave Kranzler in this MSE episode. Dave is the editor of the Mining Stock Journal. He returns to the program to provide his commentary on precious metals and reveal some junior gold stock picks. Dave holds an MBA from the University of Chicago with a concentration in accounting and finance. Over the years he has worked in various analytic and trading jobs on Wall Street. For nine years of those years he traded junk bonds for a large bank. For the past 16 years, Dave has been an avid student of the precious metals markets and steadfast proponent of holding physical gold and silver in one’s portfolio. Currently, he co-manages a precious metals and mining stock investment fund in Denver. Dave’s stated goal is to help people understand and analyze what is really going on in our financial system and economy.

0:00 Introduction
0:49 Junior gold sector investor sentiment
5:35 Trigger for gold & gold stock run-up
8:12 Calibre take-over of Marathon Gold
15:35 Mining stock pick #1
18:04 Mining stock pick #2
24:27 Mining stock pick #3

[JD400]

Five Reasons Why Junior Mining Investors Fail explains Bill Powers (#4 blindsides newbies)

MiningStockEducation.com

Nov 11, 2023 #smallcapstocks #miningstocks #resourceinvesting
Bill Powers explains five reasons why junior mining investors fail in this MSE episode. He shares numerous insights gained by firsthand experience over the past eight years of focused investing in junior resources stocks. Learn and heed all five warnings, if you have not already. Number four frequently blindsides newbies.

0:00 Introduction
2:19 Failure Reason #1
8:12 Failure Reason #2
13:14 Failure Reason #3
18:39 Failure Reason #4
22:12 Failure Reason #5

Video mentioned at 7:13 “Discerning Mining Promoter Claims”:

• Discerning Mining Promoter Claims wit...
Video mentioned at 8:47 “Discerning Bias”:

• Discerning Bias in the Mining Investm...
Video mentioned at 19:37 “Bre-X Scam”:

• Warren Irwin | Discerning Mining Stoc...
Video mentioned at 19:48 “Mining Scams”:

• Don’t Fall for Mining Stock Scams War...

[JD400]

MCEWEN MINING | Red Cloud's Fall Mining Showcase 2023

Red Cloud TV
3 days ago
Rob McEwen, Chairman & Chief Owner, Stefan Spears, V.P. Corporate Development, McEwen Mining joined us at Red Cloud's Fall Mining Showcase 2023, brought to you by Red Cloud Financial Services.

[JD400]

Wonder if Los Azules jewel city with hotel will have some other major attractions like the Cresta run.

Hey they got the ice ! hehe

The Cresta Run 125th Anniversary Film

I think thats Rob in green skeleton suit at 2:42 ish mark haha

$MUX

[JD400]

Rob McEwen Discusses Mining And McEwen Mining
RocksAndStocksNews

Nov 10, 2023
Rob McEwen has had a stellar career in mining, in this interview he shares his insights into what the mining industry needs and efforts they are making at McEwen Mining to be a leader of change.

[JD400]

McEwen Mining shares jump despite Q3 loss
with MMGYS sound track

by
Staff Writer | November 9, 2023 | 9:17 am Markets Canada Copper Gold

McEwen Mining NYSE: MUX) (TSX: $MUX shares are lifting off despite reporting on Wednesday a loss of C$18.5 million in the third quarter of 2023.

The Toronto-based company said it had a loss of C$0.39 per share, versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of C$0.77. This compares to loss of C$0.21 per share a year ago.

The gold and silver mining company posted revenue of C$38.4 million in the period.

According to the miner, consolidated gold equivalent ounce (GEO) production in Q3 improved by 8% compared to both Q2 2023 and Q3 2022. McEwen produced 38,500 GEOs in Q3, and 104,400 GEOs for the nine months ended September 30.

The Fox mine complex in Ontario produced 11,200 oz. of gold and remains on track to meet guidance of 42,000 to 48,000 oz. for the year. The Gold Bar mine in Nevada produced 9,500 oz. of gold, an increase of 20% compared to Q2 2023. The San José mine in Argentina produced 17,800 GEOs, an increase of 3% over last quarter.

The company said it continues to advance exploration at Los Azules in Argentina, aiming to deliver all information required for the feasibility study.

During Q3, it completed planning and preparation work for the 2023-2024 drilling campaign, which has a target of 48,000 meters and includes additional exploration, infill, geotech, hydrological and hydrogeological drilling. The project is anticipated to produce an annual average of 322 million lb. of copper cathode over a 27-year life of mine.

McEwen invested C$18.5 million in Los Azules copper project during the quarter, primarily to build a winter camp, further improve road access, and to construct a logistics facility in San Juan.

The company reiterated its consolidated production guidance at the lower end of a range of 150,000 to 170,000 GEOs for the year.

Shares of McEwen surged 12.7% by 12:14 p.m. EDT Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of C$301 million ($218.5m).

https://www.mining.com/mcewen-mining-shares-jump-despite-q3-loss/

[JD400]

Gold, Bitcoin rally over? Santa coming early for the S&P?
with MMGYS soundtrack

by
Jonathan Da Silva
Wednesday November 08, 2023 09:08
Kitco Commentaries | Opinions, Ideas and Markets Talk

Featuring views and opinions written by market professionals, not staff journalists.

Commentaries & ViewsShare this article:
I was wrong about gold consolidating for a quick upward move to its all-time high, but prices are still correcting via time rather than volatility.

The 4-hour chart below shows the breakdown from the flag, which sent the price down another $20 in a hurry. The yellow highlighted box is the same support zone I showed when I originally suggested gold was looking droopy on the daily timeframe before flipping and winding up wrong. I’m not sure the price gets all the way down there, though. I would give bulls the benefit of the doubt still, as I expect this sideways period to lead to a move higher, regardless.

As far as stocks are concerned, more specifically the S&P, I remain bullish. Notwithstanding the suggestion for a long at the exact bottom last week, the chart is providing every reason to stay long. Price looks ready to get up to the top of the Bollinger band range. Looking at momentum, there’s plenty of fuel to propel the move.

The Bitcoin 4-hour chart has the same look to it as gold did before breaking down, but thus far HODLers are proving resilient. I would beware of a correction such as is transpiring in gold if Bitcoin were to break below the bottom of the range shown in the chart below

Of course, like with gold, my view on Bitcoin as far as stacking it has not changed. For that reason - I would also give Bitcoin bulls the benefit of the doubt; that is, dips are to be bought, in my opinion.

https://www.kitco.com/commentaries/2023-11-08/Gold-Bitcoin-rally-over-Santa-coming-early-for-the-S-P.html

[NYBob]

Central Banks On Course For "Colossal" Year Of Gold Buying
Tyler Durden's Photo
BY TYLER DURDEN
FRIDAY, NOV 03, 2023 - 04:20 AM
Via SchiffGold.com,

After setting a record through the first half of the year, central banks continued to gobble up gold in the third quarter.



https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/central-banks-course-colossal-year-gold-buying

Gold Breaks Out of Inside Day: Bullish Momentum Building
By: Bruce Powers | November 3, 2023

• Amid strong upward movement, gold targets a breakout above the trend high, setting the stage for a possible new record monthly close in November.

Gold broke out of yesterday’s inside day today on a rise above 1,991.
It subsequently reached a three-day high of 2,004.
A daily close above 1,991 will confirm the inside day breakout and a close above the three-day high of 1,984 shows further strength.
Further, for the short term, a daily close above the middle of today’s range around 1,994 will show greater strength than a close below that level.



Canadian Gold Corp. Announces Exploration and Financing Update
October 31, 2023


Toronto, Ontario – October 31, 2023 – Canadian Gold Corp. (TSXV: CGC) (“Canadian Gold” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the completion of its regional field exploration program, and that planning for a November, 2023 phase 2 drill program at the 100%-owned Tartan Mine, situated in the prolific Flin Flon-Snow Lake Greenstone Belt, Manitoba, is currently underway.

https://canadiangoldcorp.com/news-2023/

Canadian Gold Corp. Announces Non-Brokered $2.25 Million Financing, Lead order from Rob McEwen the Company’s Largest Shareholder
October 18, 2023
Toronto, Ontario – October 18, 2023 – Canadian Gold Corp. (TSXV: CGC) (“Canadian Gold” or the “Company”) announces that it has initiated a non-brokered private placement offering of up to $2,225,000, by the issuance of both flow-through common shares and non-flow through Units. Rob McEwen, the Company’s largest shareholder (37.6% of the outstanding common shares) has committed to purchase $500,000 of the Units.

Edward Huebert Appointed President and CEO
October 18, 2023

Toronto, Ontario – October 18, 2023 – Canadian Gold Corp. (TSXV: CGC) (“Canadian Gold” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce, with the endorsement of Rob McEwen (the Company’s largest shareholder – 37.6% of the outstanding common shares), the appointment of Edward (Ed) Huebert, as President, Chief Executive Officer, and director. Ed will be replacing Ian Ball, who was serving as Interim President and CEO.

Phase 1 Exploration & Development Update at Tartan Mine
September 27, 2023

Toronto, Ontario – September 27, 2023 – Canadian Gold Corp. (TSXV: CGC) (“Canadian Gold” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce additional drill results from its Phase 1 Exploration Program at the Tartan Mine, located near Flin Flon, Manitoba, which builds on the earlier drill holes that are targeting resource growth at depth (click here August 23, 2023 news release). The results to date indicate the potential for a larger discovery below the current resource estimate, which remains open for meaningful expansion. The Company is also providing an update on its regional field work at the Tartan Mine, where high-grade gold samples have been identified approximately 1.4 kilometres (km) from the mine, with the goal of discovering a third zone close to the existing infrastructure, and an update on its engineering review, specifically around the process plant design and potential mine reopening.

Phase 1 Exploration at Tartan Mine Significantly Expands High-Grade Mineralization Below Resource Limit Indicating Potential for Larger Discovery at Depth
August 23, 2023
Toronto, Ontario – August 23, 2023 – Canadian Gold Corp. (TSXV: CGC) (“Canadian Gold” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce initial results from its Phase 1 Exploration Program at the Tartan Mine, located near Flin Flon, Manitoba, including its first test at depth. Drilling has intersected one of the best holes in the mine’s history, 325 metres below the lower limit of the current resource estimate, increasing the vertical extent of the high-grade mineralization by 61% compared to the resource (Fig. 1). Hole TLMZ23-26 returned 12.0 gpt gold over 8.0 metres, inside the widest interval ever at the Tartan Mine, 4.2 gpt gold over 53.7 metres, and has outlined the potential for a larger discovery at depth. The drill highlights for the first three holes can be seen in Table 1.

Robert McEwen Appoints Jim Downey to Board of Directors Long Serving Member of Provincial Legislature
August 1, 2023
Toronto, Ontario – August 1, 2023 – Canadian Gold Corp. (TSXV: CGC) (“Canadian Gold” or the “Company”) announces that Robert McEwen, the Company’s largest shareholder (owning 37.6% of the outstanding common shares), has exercised his option and appointed Jim Downey as his second board nominee. Mr. Downey’s appointment will help strengthen the Company’s connection with Manitoba as it advances the Tartan Mine, near Flin Flon.

Update to Shareholders on Tartan Mine Tax Incentives
July 25, 2023
Toronto, Ontario – July 25, 2023 – Canadian Gold Corp. (TSXV: CGC) (“Canadian Gold” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that Manitoba Finance has confirmed that the Company’s Tartan Mine, located near Flin Flon, would be considered a “Major Expansion” and eligible for a tax holiday should the mine re-enter production. Under the Mining Tax Act, companies need to meet certain requirements to receive the tax holiday. Based on the Company’s review and meetings with Manitoba Finance, the Tartan Mine should meet all requirements.

Tartan Mine: Looking To Improve Financial Returns & Sustainability
June 5, 2023
Toronto, Ontario – June 5, 2023 – Canadian Gold Corp. (TSXV: CGC) (“Canadian Gold” or the “Company”) is pleased to outline several initiatives the Company is undertaking at the Tartan Mine (Flin Flon, Manitoba) to improve potential future returns, while focused on sustainability. In addition to the items outlined in this news release, the most important driver for the Company will be the discovery of additional high-grade gold resources.

Phase 1 Exploration Program to Begin at Tartan Mine Main Objective: Extend High-Grade Gold at Depth Property Wide Exploration Potential Outlined
May 12, 2023
Toronto, Ontario – May 12, 2023 – Canadian Gold Corp. (TSXV: CGC) (“Canadian Gold” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that its Phase 1 exploration program at the 100%-owned Tartan Mine near Flin Flon, Manitoba will begin on June 1, 2023. The Company is using this opportunity to highlight for shareholders the discovery potential on the property, specifically at the mine, and at its recently acquired projects adjacent to Agnico Eagle’s Hammond Reef Gold Deposit (Ontario) and Barrick’s Hemlo Gold Mine (Ontario). The Company plans to update shareholders in the coming weeks on its various initiatives designed to improve the economics of the Tartan Mine and its future advancement.

Satori Resources Name Change to Canadian Gold Corp. New Ticker Symbol “CGC” ON TSX Venture Exchange
May 4, 2023
Toronto, Ontario – May 4, 2023 – Canadian Gold Corp. (the “Company”) (BUD – TSX-V) (formerly Satori Resources Inc.) is pleased to announce that its corporate name change has been completed and trading of the Company’s common shares on the TSX-V will commence under the ticker symbol “CGC”, as of tomorrow, Friday, May 5, 2023.

Ian Ball Appointed Interim President & CEO Satori Resources
April 27, 2023
Toronto, Ontario – April 27, 2023 – Satori Resources Inc. (“Satori” or the “Company”) (BUD – TSX-V) is pleased to announce Ian Ball has been appointed interim President and CEO effective today. Ian will replace Jennifer Boyle, who is continuing with the Company as Executive Vice-President and Director.

Satori Closes Acquisition of Rob McEwen’s Apollo Exploration Resulting in Rob McEwen Holding 37.6% of the Company
April 25, 2023
Toronto, Ontario – April 25, 2023 – Satori Resources Inc. (“Satori” or the “Company”) (BUD – TSX-V) is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of Rob McEwen’s 100% owned private exploration company, Apollo Exploration Inc. (“Apollo”). Rob McEwen is now the Company’s largest shareholder representing 37.6% of the Company. Satori has approximately $2,000,000 in cash, no debt, and in addition to the Tartan Lake Mine, now owns exploration properties in Ontario and Quebec surrounding some of Canada’s largest gold mines and development projects (see news releases dated February 4, 2023 and March 31, 2023).

Satori Shareholders Approve Acquisition of Rob McEwen’s Apollo Exploration, Resulting in Rob McEwen holding a 37.6% of the Company – New Company proposed to be Named Canadian Gold Corp.
March 31, 2023
Toronto, Ontario – March 31, 2023 – Satori Resources Inc. (“Satori” or the “Company”) (BUD – TSX-V) is pleased to announce that shareholders have approved the acquisition of Rob McEwen’s 100% owned private exploration company, Apollo Exploration Inc. (“Apollo”). Apollo has been acquiring key exploration projects around Canada’s largest gold mines and development projects, including the Canadian Malartic Mine (Agnico Eagle), the Hemlo Mine (Barrick Gold) and the Hammond Reef Project (Agnico Eagle). At closing, the combined company will have approximately CDN$2.2 million and no debt.

Rob McEwen to Acquire 37.6% of Satori Resources
February 6, 2023
Toronto, Ontario – February 6, 2023 – Satori Resources Inc. (TSXV:BUD) (“Satori” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that the founder and former Goldcorp Inc. Chairman and CEO, Rob McEwen, will become Satori’s largest shareholder owning 37.6% of the Company with the objective of expanding the high-grade gold zones at the past producing Tartan Lake Gold Mine in Flin Flon, Manitoba. Satori is proposing to acquire Rob McEwen’s 100% owned private exploration company, Apollo Exploration Inc. (“Apollo”), that has been acquiring key exploration projects around Canada’s largest gold mines and development projects, including Canadian Malartic Mine (Agnico Eagle), the Hemlo Mine (Barrick Gold) and the Hammond Reef Project (Agnico Eagle) (Fig. 1, 2 & 3). Upon closing, Apollo will also have approx. CDN$1.5 million in cash and no debt.

$GOLD PRICES HIT ALL TIME HIGH IN AUSTRALIA, JAPAN, CHINA, TAIWAN | CNBC TV18
WATCH



https://www.bitchute.com/video/ePabMYIGyaoh/

$GOLD HUGE! This Is the BIGGEST $Gold News in 50 Years, It's Time to Go All-In - Andy Schectman
Finance Log
15.8K subscribers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FufotnaO3kQ

$GOLD BULL CATALYST: Situation Is Dire As Worries Mount Over United States
Worries are increasing regarding the United States and this is definitely going to be a positive catalyst
for the gold bull market.

Is it Finally Happening! Is This What's Happening -
With $Gold Prices -



$Gold Legal Tender GOD'S Real Money -
$GOD We Trust - Real Money - AU Safety 6000yrs



$Gold & Silver is the only REAL Legal Tender -
by The Founding Fathers for your -
Rights, Liberty and Freedom -[
Prayers TIA.

http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/monie.htm

https://www.usdebtclock.org/

God Bless
Amen

[JD400]

Rhyming - Busts and Bubbles
with MMGYS movie scenes

"It was around July 2020, when we were all locked down and not knowing what was going on with our lives, our personal economies, our health, and our families, when I realized that the Federal Reserve had doubled the size – or even more so — of its book of assets. It had created about $5 trillion worth of money in a very short period of time.

During that time, the markets went from being very afraid and down to being very, very high. A lot of people said, well, we’re all at home using Zoom, so therefore the market just rebounded by so much. But that was just a small part of it. The bigger part was that money became available at such an immense level and therefore the distortion between where money goes in the financial markets and where it doesn’t go in the real economy became permanent. At that moment I saw that this can happen in any amount, at any time. There’s no restriction, no transparency, no responsibility."

Nomi Prins, You’re Living in a World Wrought by the Fed, 17 November 2022

"Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand. As soon as men know that they can kill without fear of punishment or blame, they kill; or at least they encourage killers, with approving smiles. Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, or even a duty."

Simone Weil

"Once central banks unleashed monetary policy to accommodate mega-banks, subsidize Wall Street financiers, and bolster global markets, the very idea of free and open markets and laissez-faire investing died. No one wanted to call the Fed’s QE a Ponzi scheme. But it was.

Whether it was done to soothe a stock market crash, a ruptured subprime housing market bubble, or a pandemic, the Fed’s response to the financial crisis of 2008 and later crises has confirmed that it will always seek a way to grease the wheels of capitalism for its wealthiest participants and private banks. The results speak for themselves."

Nomi Prins, Permanent Distortion: How the Financial Markets Abandoned the Real Economy, October 11, 2022





As you may have likely heard the economic data this morning from the Non-Farm Payrolls report was a big miss, but apparently not great enough to swing the fear vector all the way around.
Hence, we have the 'goldilocks' effect.

Stocks roared higher, on expectations of no more Fed rate increases anytime soon.

And wistful yearnings for a rate cut.

The Dollar tanked.


Gold and silver rallied. Gold was held below the optic resistance at $2000.
VIX fell again, showing some abandonment of risk concerns, and a generally happy-go-lucky attitude, at least compared to the short term.
I rewatched the movie Margin Call last night. I think the last time was closer to its release around 2011. Has it really been that long?
My son said it was a good movie to watch. I said I had seen it, and had lived it. And the crash before that. And that. And that.

A stunning cast illuminates a realistic but somewhat spare depiction of unbridled greed going badly, for some. It was spare, perhaps, reflecting the characters who were really that banal.

The same sorts of people make the same egregious errors and fiduciary lapses, again and again, and are richly rewarded and rarely punished, pleading ignorance and benign intentions.

Bubbles and busts are acts of nature, right? Maybe the unnatural nature.

Who could have seen it coming— with their eyes closed and their greedy maws open?

Have a pleasant weekend.
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

[JD400]

Gold lacks the juice to break through $2,000 next week, but analysts don't recommend shorting it
with MMGYS soundtrack

by
Neils Christensen
Friday November 03, 2023 15:43

(Kitco News) - Gold’s inability to convincingly break above $2,000 an ounce is creating some cautious sentiment in the marketplace, with some analysts saying that prices might need to consolidate in the near term before the precious metal takes a run at its all-time highs.

While analysts are not looking to short gold in the environment, some have said its price action is disappointing as gold has not benefited from a sharp drop in yields and weakness in the U.S. dollar.

Currently, at $1,999, gold has ended a three-week winning streak as it looks to close the week roughly unchanged from last Friday. However, prices are down nearly 1% from its opening gap at the start of the week.

Commodity analysts have said that gold continues to be driven by global geopolitical factors as waning fear in the marketplace takes its toll on the precious metal’s safe-haven allure. Although Israel’s war with Hamas continues to rage, the conflict remains within Gaza, keeping the ongoing chaos in the Middle East in check.

"The geopolitical crisis that has fueled gold’s rally is becoming exhausted,” said Christopher Vecchio.

Vecchio said that while a geopolitical event can provide the gold market with tradeable momentum, it does nothing to attract long-term investors. He noted that a gold rally based on a specific geopolitical event needs to see constant escalation to maintain its safe-haven bid.

Vecchio said he exited his gold position last week and will remain on the sidelines in the near-term as he expects prices to consolidate.

"The bulk of gold’s big move is done. But I would not want to short gold as the fundamental backdrop of a weaker dollar and lower bond yields are positive for gold,” he said. "I think gold can continue to grind higher, but it will be a frustrating grind for potential traders.”

David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation, described gold as a market that is in search of a new catalyst.

Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said that he is neutral on gold; he also noted that a consolidation around current levels would be healthy. The neutral outlook comes after gold saw a nearly 7% rally in October, its best monthly performance since March.

"Gold has paused after rallying almost 200 dollars last month after profit-taking emerged once again above $2,000 per ounce. Having rallied so hard in a short space of time, the market needs consolidating, but so far, the correction has been relatively shallow, with support appearing at $1,953, ahead of $1,933, the 200-day moving average and 38.2% retracement of the mentioned rally,” said Hansen.

On the downside, Hansen said that gold prices would have to fall back to $1,900 an ounce to put this new uptrend at risk.

With little economic data on the docket next week, analysts have said investors will continue to digest the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision.



The Fed's monetary policy is irrelevant and won't stop gold's push above $2,000 - abrdn's Robert Minter
Although the U.S. central bank left interest rates unchanged for the second consecutive time in this tightening cycle, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell maintained his tightening bias.

"Is monetary policy restrictive enough to bring inflation down to 2%? That is what we are asking ourselves," said Powell in his press conference following the monetary policy decision.

"The Fed has left the door open to another rate hike. Even though we are confident that interest rates have already peaked, market participants are nonetheless likely to remain cautious in this respect. Assuming there is no further escalation in the Middle East, the upside potential for the gold price will probably be severely limited,” said Barbara Lambrecht, commodity analyst at Commerzbank.

Markets will get a chance to hear more from Powell as he participates in a panel discussion on "Monetary Challenges in a Global Economy" at a conference in Washington.

The only major economic report to be released next week will be the University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer sentiment survey.

Last month’s revision to the survey surprised markets as one-year consumer inflation expectations rose 4.2%. Powell, during his press conference, dismissed the reading, saying it was an outlier and most consumer surveys show inflation expectations remain "well anchored.”

Next week’s data
Monday: Reserve Bank of Australia monetary policy decision
Thursday: Weekly U.S. unemployment claims; Powell participates in a panel discussion
Friday: University of Michigan preliminary consumer sentiment

https://www.kitco.com/news/2023-11-03/Gold-lacks-the-juice-to-break-through-2-000-next-week-but-analysts-don-t-recommend-shorting-it.html