Today's Market View Including: Aureus Mining, Noricum Gold, Savannah Resources
Date
6/23/2016 6:55:52 AM
(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors - UK) SP Angel, 10:51
Aureus Mining (LON:AUE) Approval for restart of New Liberty plant
Noricum Gold* (LON:NMG) Drilling starts on copper target
Savannah Resources (LON:SAV) Secures lithium licences in Finland
The Stoxx Europe 600 and the MSCI Asia Pacific equity indices increased to the highest levels in two weeks on expectations for the UK to remain in the EU as people are heading to ballot boxes today.
The pound hit the strongest level of the year while the US$ weakened against its major peers except the yen.
Polling stations are closing at 10pm today with final results due tomorrow morning at around 7am.
Crude is trading just above the US$50/bbl level as the latest data showed US production dropped for 14 out of the last 15 weeks while inventories hit the lowest mark since Sep/14.
Metal prices are range-bound as investors and traders await UK referendum results with gold trading at US$1,269/oz and copper at US$4,731/t.
Dow Jones Industrials -0.27% at 17,781
Nikkei 225 +1.07% at 16,238
HK Hang Seng +0.35% at 20,868
Shanghai Composite -0.47% at 2,892
FTSE 350 Mining +1.85% at 9,679
AIM Basic Resources -0.64% at 1,867
Economic News
US
Date Index Period Actual Expected (Bloomberg) Previous
Wednesday Existing Home Sales May 1.8%mom 1.8%mom 1.3%mom (revised from 1.7%mom)
Thursday Weekly Jobless Claims 270k 277k
Markit Manufacturing PMI 50.9 50.7
Friday Durable Goods Orders/Core May -0.5%mom/0.1%mom 3.4%mom/0.5%mom
Capital Goods Orders May 0.4%mom -0.6%mom
Source: Bloomberg
Japan Manufacturing output remained in a contractionary territory with both production and new orders continuing to decline.
Markit Manufacturing PMI: 47.8 in Jun 47.7 forecast.
''The earthquakes that occurred back in Apr still seem to be having a detrimental effect on the goods-producing sector, although uncertainty caused by negative rates could also be a factor.''
''Employment growth eased to the weakest in nine months of expansion''.
Eurozone Euro-wide PMI indicated both manufacturing and services sectors growth accelerated through Jun; industrial production growth accelerated to the strongest seen so far this year, while expansion in services hit the slowest level in 18 months.
New exports'' growth increased in manufacturing but slowed in services yielding only a moderate rise in the composite measure.
On a country level, growth in German business activity was balanced by a marginal decline in activity in Franzce for the first time in four months.
Markit Eurozone Manufacturing PMI: 52.6 in Jun v 51.5 in May and 51.4 forecast.
Markit Eurozone Services PMI: 52.4 v 53.3 in May and 53.2 forecast.
Markit Eurozone Composite PMI: 52.8 v 53.1 in May and 53.0 forecast.
Germany ''The outcome of the UK EU referendum does not seem to have an impact on hiring or investment decisions,'' the latest Markit report said.
Markit Manufacturing PMI: 54.4 in Jun v 52.1 in May and 52.0forecast.
Markit Services PMI: 53.2 v 55.2 in May and 55.0 forecast.
Markit Composite PMI: 54.1 v 54.5 in May and 54.3 forecast.
Respondents highlighted increasing demand from overseas markets including the US and China.
On inflation front, input costs are reported to have climbed for a second month driven by rising staff and raw materials costs.
''Although overall output increased at a slightly weaker rate, the survey results pointed to a further solid rise in second quarter GDP.''
France
Markit France Manufacturing PMI: 47.9 in Jun v 48.4 in May and 48.7 forecast.
Markit France Services PMI: 49.9 v 51.6 in May and 51.6 forecast.
Markit France Composite PMI: 49.4 v 50.9 in May and 51.0 forecast.
Currencies
US$1.1348/eur vs 1.1277/eur yesterday. Yen 104.54/$ vs 104.42/$. SAr 14.482/$ vs 14.717/$. $1.479/gbp vs $1.467/gbp.
0.756/aud vs 0.749/aud. CNY 6.580/$ vs 6.581/$.
Commodity News
Precious metals:
Gold US$1,270/oz vs US$1,268/oz yesterday
Gold ETFs 61.2moz v 61.2moz yesterday
Platinum US$977/oz vs US$981/oz yesterday
Palladium US$558/oz vs US$553/oz yesterday
Silver US$17.43/oz vs US$17.25/oz yesterday
Base metals:
Copper US$ 4,730/t vs US$4,717/t yesterday The State Reserve Bureau (SRB) Is expected to grow its copper inventories by additional 50kt this year which are unlikely to lead to a meaningful impact on prices.
This will bring total purchases for the year to 200kt, down from 300kt recorded in 2015.
''Our conversations with participants in China suggest the copper price really needs to get to the US$4,000 level before the SRB really get serious about building stockpiles,'' Wells Fargo said during the annual copper conference in New York.
Aluminium US$ 1,633/t vs US$1,638/t yesterday
Nickel US$ 9,165/t vs US$9,270/t yesterday
Zinc US$ 2,027/t vs US$2,044/t yesterday
Lead US$ 1,714/t vs US$1,724/t yesterday
Tin US$ 17,060/t vs US$17,070/t yesterday
Energy:
Oil US$50.1/bbl vs US$50.9/bbl yesterday
Natural Gas US$2.686/mmbtu vs US$2.752/mmbtu yesterday
Uranium US$26.40/lb vs US$26.40/lb yesterday
Bulk:
Iron ore 62% Fe spot (cfr Tianjin) US$50.2/t vs US$48.4/t
Thermal coal (1st year forward cif ARA) US$57.7/t vs US$57.3/t yesterday
Other:
Tungsten - APT European prices stood at $200-220/mtu vs $205-222/mtu last week tungsten prices slide
Company News
Aureus Mining (LON:AUE) 4.1 pence, Mkt Cap 22.3m Approval for restart of New Liberty plant
Aureus Mining reports that the Liberian Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy has granted approval for the restart of the processing plant at the New Liberty Mine.
This follows a number of plant modifications including the installation of a larger gravity screen to improve recovery rates and upgrading of the detoxification circuit whose shortcomings contributed to the original order to suspend operations.
The company has also introduced operational changes to the tailings storage facility with the aim of increasing water retention times.
During the period when processing was suspended, management has taken the opportunity to complete a liner renewal and upgrade of the ball mill which had originally been planned for late June.
The ramp-up of processing operations will proceed gradually using low grade (<2g/t) ore initially and build up over time to test the plant at operational grades.
During the period when processing was suspended, ore mine production and New Liberty now has a run-of-mine stockpile of just over 122,000 tonnes at an average grade of 3.88 g/t which should help to maintain plant feed in the event that the forthcoming wet season causes any disruption to mining activity.
Conclusion: The permission to resume processing at New Liberty Is most welcome. The recent injection of funds from MNG Gold should ease the financial pressures as the mine builds back up to full operational status.
Noricum Gold* (LON:NMG) 0.1p, Mkt Cap 5.9m Drilling starts on copper target
Noricum Gold has announced the start of drilling on copper target within its 861 square kilometre Bolnisi Project in Georgia.
The copper target is located adjacent to the quartzite gold deposit which the company is currently developing and the copper mineralisation extends beneath it.
There is a large body of historic geological and drilling information on this target and Noricum''s initial objective is to validate this data and then move towards the development of an initial resource estimate.
Among the historic drill results reported by the company are intersections of 40m at an average grade of 2.11% copper from a depth of 69m, an 83m wide intersection averaging 0.71 copper from 23m and drill sample data located near ''two anomalous adits'' (tunnels) showing 11.6m at an average grade of 1.9% copper from a depth of 31m and 11.4m at 2.47% copper both of these reportedly ended in mineralisation.
A deeper, historic drill hole reported 43m at an average of 0.95% copper from a depth of 83m.
The company reports that infill drilling on the Bolnisi gold target is continuing with a further 14 shallow holes planned ''before an upgrade and expansion of the existing soviet style resource is prepared.''
Agreement on gold ore processing with the company''s local partner is expected to be concluded ''in the coming weeks.''
Noricum Gold is also strengthening its management team with the appointment of an experienced Chief Geologist, Jim Royall, to be based in Georgia.
Conclusion: Noricum Gold is making considerable exploration progress in Georgia and the appointment of a full time Chief Geologist, based in-country, should maintain this momentum. We look forward to results from the drilling programmes and news of the processing agreement before long.
*SP Angel acts as Nomad and Broker to Noricum.
Savannah Resources (LON:SAV) 3 pence, Mkt Cap 11.5m Secures lithium licences in Finland
Savannah Resources has announced that it has been granted two lithium exploration permits in Finland.
The announcement follows a report earlier this month that the company had applied for the Somero and Erajarvi permits . The company has now been granted these licences until 11 May 2018.
SP Angel