Honduras orders Aura Minerals subsidiary to suspend gold mining at indigenous cemetery WTVB
Category: Gold
Gold mining costs remain stable but could rise soon Kitco NEWS
Kinross Gold Nears Sale of Russian Business to Local Mining Executive The Wall Street Journal
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Gold gains on weaker dollar – CNBC
- Gold gains on weaker dollar CNBC
- Daily Gold News: Wednesday, Mar. 30 – Gold Price Remains Above the $1,900 Level FX Empire
- Gold price could fall $100 as safe-haven premium weakens but prices won’t collapse – Natixis Kitco NEWS
- Gold Prices Drop As Investors See Hope For Peace In Ukraine Forbes
- Gold posts first gain in 4 sessions with traders wary of Russia’s pledge to cut military operations MarketWatch
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Gold price unfazed by U.S. Q4 GDP at 6.9% Kitco NEWS
Honduras Orders Aura Minerals Subsidiary to Suspend Gold Mining at Indigenous Cemetery U.S. News & World Report
Russian gold miners dig for ways to overcome Ukraine impact Reuters.com
Sanctioned Russian bank VTB sees strong demand for gold bars Reuters.com
World events are driving a volatile and potentially pivotal environment ahead for investors. Huge swings in financial markets are likely still to come.
Direction, magnitude, and timing are difficult to predict. But precious metals bulls are eying massive upside potential for gold and silver as war and inflation stoke safe-haven buying.
What follows are four major macro scenarios that could impact metals markets in a big way in the months ahead.
Scenario 1: Recession Incoming
In recent weeks, rising yields have stuck bondholders with big losses. Higher borrowing costs also threaten to hit the housing market and force businesses to scale-down spending.
Economists are paying particularly close attention to the shape of the yield curve.
A flattening yield curve (meaning long-term rates are converging closer to shorter-term rates) suggests a slowing economy. An inverted yield curve (with long-term bond yields falling below shorter duration paper) is a classic indicator of an incoming recession.
On Tuesday, a key zone of the U.S. Treasury yield curve inverted for the first time since September 2019. Yields on the two-year note moved slightly above those on the benchmark 10-year note.
Federal Reserve officials may be afraid to hike their ultra-short benchmark rate much further into this yield curve setup.
If recession warnings continue to build, the Fed may opt to pause on tightening – and possibly even reverse course by next year with rate cuts.
In the event of a recession, though, industrial metals and other economically sensitive commodities could suffer sharp sell-offs – at least until the Fed reinflates the economy.
Gold, being uncorrelated to the economic cycle, is likely to hold up relatively well in a recession scenario.
Scenario 2: Summer of Shortages
Recent spikes in energy and food prices are raising fears of widespread supply shortfalls.
A devastating war in agriculture-rich Ukraine combined with sanctions on Russian fertilizer exports could deliver a massive shock to the global food supply chain. Some are warning of a famine in food-insecure countries.
By the summer, it will be too late to recapture losses from a diminished planting season.
Summer also typically sees peak demand for gasoline. But with global energy markets thrown into chaos by war and sanctions, supply may be insufficient to meet that demand.
Any shortages in food, energy, and other essentials are likely to extend to precious metals markets at the retail bullion level – and possibly the physical delivery mechanism on futures exchanges as well.
Scenario 3: Global Monetary Disorder
The world monetary order based on the U.S. dollar as world reserve currency is becoming unstable.
In waging a currency war on Russia, the U.S. government may have inadvertently accelerated the process of dethroning King Dollar. The U.S. has essentially announced to all countries that wish to trade with Russia that they must seek alternatives to the dollar. (Or if they ever envision themselves being crossways with the U.S. in the future.)
Russia, meanwhile, has declared that those who wish to obtain oil, gas, and other Russian exports should be ready to pay in rubles or in gold.
In a surprising twist, Russia is now seeing an influx of demand for rubles – and the currency is actually strengthening in value.
In part that is because Moscow intends to use surplus rubles to buy gold.
Gold could suddenly become a lot more relevant to other countries, including China, as the ultimate money and a facilitator of international trade.
Even if no new formal gold standard emerges, a large increase in central bank buying of gold around the world would pressure precious metals prices higher in terms of depreciating U.S. currency.
Scenario 4: World War III
The final scenario is the bleakest for investors and for humanity overall: an escalation of U.S.-Russia tensions past the point of no return.
Vladimir Putin’s government has said it won’t use nuclear weapons unless it perceives an “existential threat.” A U.S.-led campaign for regime change would likely constitute such a threat.
President Joe Biden asserted last week in supposedly off-the-cuff remarks that Putin “cannot remain in power.”
Biden’s foreign policy handlers scrambled to issue statements denying that the administration intends to pursue regime change in Russia.
They understand the dangers of such talk even if Biden himself doesn’t.
A single misstatement or diplomatic blunder could start World War III. The nuclear Doomsday Clock is ticking closer toward midnight than at any time since the height of the Cold War.
Among the economic consequences of war are huge spending commitments, a scramble for resources, and ramped up pressure on inflation.
The time to hunker down is before the first bombs are dropped. Hunkering down financially means holding assets outside the banking system and far removed from Wall Street. It means holding the highest-quality, most durable, most universally recognized assets. It means holding gold and silver in physical form.
Source: Streetwise Reports 03/29/2022
This company that specializes in bioleaching technology expects its new plant to open in Ecuador in Q1 2023.
Green tech company BacTech Environmental Corp. (BAC:CSE;BCCEF:OTC;OBT1:FRA) received a welcome surprise this month when it learned the construction permit for its bioleaching processing plant in Ecuador was approved quicker than expected.
President and Chief Executive Officer Ross Orr said the company had expected approval for the plant, set to start production near Ponce Enriquez in Q1 2023, to take months.
“The government is very committed to getting this project done because they can see the benefits,” Orr told Streetwise Reports. “They see that not all mining is bad. We still need to do it.”
Bioleaching technology has been in limited use since the 1980s. According to Genome Atlantic, it was first used commercially at the Fairview gold mine in South Africa in 1986. The process, which uses naturally occurring bacteria to process metals, makes it possible to work with lower-grade ore and extract metals from tailings sites as well as mines.
“For people who ‘get’ its business and ability to profitably process arsenic-laden and gold-bearing material, do better for local miners in Ecuador, and still make a very healthy income itself, this all vindicates and confirms years’ worth of work.”
—Chris Temple, editor and publisher of The National Investor
More than 90 small mines in the Ponce Enriquez area produce a significant amount of arsenic — which is bad for the environment and local health — in concert with gold, the company said. The 50 tonne-per-day BacTech plant would be capable of treating high gold/arsenic material and producing 1.75 ounces of gold per tonne of feed for about 30,900 ounces of gold per year, the company said. The total market in the Ponce Enriquez area is estimated to be 250 tonnes per day, so there is potential for increased throughput.
Data from EPCM Consultores found that the project would have pre-tax earnings of approximately $10.9 million and a two-year payback period.
BacTech has said it also intends to return local miner compensation back to previous payment levels prior to a sweeping price reduction imposed by Chinese buyers due to recent import levies on arsenic/gold concentrates entering China.
“For people who ‘get’ its business and ability to profitably process arsenic-laden and gold-bearing material, do better for local miners in Ecuador, and still make a very healthy income itself, this all vindicates and confirms years’ worth of work,” Chris Temple, editor and publisher of The National Investor, wrote recently in a piece contributed to Streetwise Reports.
Orr said receiving the permit showed the area’s commitment to the project.
“Permitting is everything,” Orr said. “If nobody wants it, it’s not going to happen. But nobody complains when you’re cleaning something up.”
The company in March announced it had closed on the first tranche of a non-brokered private placement for $1.21 million at a price of $0.20 per unit. It had expected to raise as much as $3 million, but Orr said the war in Ukraine temporarily delayed those plans.
Orr said with few “feel-good stories” in mining, they will still be able to attract investors.
“We’ll get our $3 million,” he said.
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Disclosures
1) Steve Sobek compiled this article for Streetwise Reports LLC. He or members of his household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. He or members of his household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None.
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4) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the decision to publish an article until three business days after the publication of the article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of BacTech Environmental Corp., a company mentioned in this article.
( Companies Mentioned: BAC:CSE;BCCEF:OTC;OBT1:FRA,
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