FN Media Group Presents Oilprice.com Market Commentary
London – April 14, 2021 – Over the past two months, the gold and precious metals markets have been surprising investors with prices remaining flat or even stalling despite growing demand for bullion coins. And it looks like the U.S. Mint is still rationing gold and silver coin sales due to overly strong demand. That hasn’t happened since 2008. Mentioned in today’s commentary includes: AngloGold Ashanti Limited (NYSE: AU), Teck Resources Limited (NYSE: TECK), Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. (NYSE: TRQ), Lithium Americas Corp. (NYSE: LAC), Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. (NYSE: SQM).
In other words, there could ongoing gold-buying interest very similar to that recorded during the last financial crisis. More importantly, Mint director Ed Moy has said gold is poised to hit record highs before this bull run is over.
In 2020, the Mint sold 844,000 ounces of its American Eagle gold bullion coins, or 455% higher than the 152,000 coins sold in 2019. The silver jump was big, too, but not quite as dramatic after sales of the American Eagle silver bullion coins doubled to 30 million ounces in 2020 from 15 million sold in the previous year.
This trend has not stopped in 2021, with an additional 220,500 ounces of gold American Eagle coins sold in January alone along with another 4.775 million ounces of its silver counterpart. Despite those massive stimulus packages and ongoing rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, it’s abundantly clear to us that fear still rules the financial markets–and in our opinionfor good reason.
Sure, Treasury yields have increased, with the 10-year note more than doubling from 0.51% in August to 1.19% currently. In our view, the rising yields have taken some shine off gold. But make no mistake about it: Stimulus packages on the scale the world is witnessing today are completely unprecedented and could very well come back to bite us as New York Times bestselling author and founder of ‘The Bear Traps Report’ Lawrence ‘Larry’ McDonald warned last year.
The U.S. economy remains very weak, with jobless claims high and declining Covid-19 cases providing little relief for the jobs market. The week’s total ended February 6 was well above the 760,000 consensus forecast, though continuing claims for benefits declined to a 10-month low of 4.54 million.
Meanwhile, the Covid-19 war is very far from being won, with new variants of the virus threatening to overrun us and reverse our gains over the past three or four months. It’s exactly the kind of mayhem that pushed gold prices to an all-time high of $2,075 per ounce in August.
“If gold follows the same pattern as during the financial crisis, watch for gold prices to climb over the next couple of years until the economic uncertainty and the fear of inflation subside. Before going down, gold will set new historical record highs above the 2020’s August high,” Mint director Moy says.
Massive Expansion
AngloGold Ashanti is a South Africa-based gold mining company. The company owns and operates 14 mines in nine countries in Africa, the Americas, and Australia.
AngloGold has been recording highly impressive bottom-line expansion.
AngloGold has announced that it expects FY 2020 headline earnings at $962M-$1.03B with headline EPS at $2.29-$2.47, well above 2019 headline earnings of $379M and $0.91, respectively.
Those earnings appear even more impressive when you consider that they will come on anticipated production decline of 7% Y/Y to 3.05M oz. from 3.28M oz. in 2019, after the company sold its remaining South African operations including the Mponeng mine but also due to the pandemic.
The miner’s performance has been underpinned by a record year at Geita as well as remarkable performances at the Kibali, Sunrise Dam, Iduapriem, Siguiri, and AGA Mineração operations.
The expected earnings increase is partly due to a 27% average increase in gold price and weaker local currencies offsetting inflationary increases across operating jurisdictions.
Junior Miners
Most successful investors understand that if you are able to invest in a company before it hits the mother lode, you could be rewarded very handsomely.
The leverage increases if it’s a junior gold miner during a bull market because juniors are typically very sensitive to the price of gold.
Starr Peak Mining (STE; STRPF) is very well positioned to leverage both advantages to the fullest.
Starr Peak’s project is very close in proximity to the property of Amex Exploration (AMX). Amex hit high-grade gold in three distinct zones, including its 100% owned Perron Gold Project located in Quebec.
Just Last year, Starr Peak Mining (STE; STRPF) was merely a very good speculative play, but now it has something very solid going on.
That’s because the miner commenced drilling on what could turn out to be a premium-grade gold asset in January with a real proven pedigree. In early March, the Company announced they were bringing a second drill rig on property to join in on the program. In our view, this sort of move is only done if the drilling is going very well. Markets expect to see the highly-anticipated drill results any day/week with results continuing throughout the summer.
Starr Peak (STE; STRPF) has commenced drilling on the Main bloc of its NewMétal property, covering the past-producing Normétal Mine, from which ~10.1M tonnes of 2.15% Cu, 5.12% Zn, 0.549 g/t Au, and 45.25 g/t Ag were produced. In our view, this greatly reduces the risk of disappointing investors with its plans, given that Starr Peak has confirmed grades and favorable historic results for the area about to be drilled.
The anticipation of positive results for Starr Peak stems from the neighboring Perron Property, which was acquired in 1996 by Amex Exploration. Meanwhile, the Eastern Gold Zone was only discovered in December of 2017 during a regional exploration drilling campaign. At the time AMEX stock was trading at about $0.35. Following the discovery, AMEX stock traded well north of $3.00 with a 52-week high of $4.19, or a 1,000%+ increase–a formidable increase from a neighboring mining company.
What is thought to have originally brought AMEX to the Abitibi greenstone belt area of Quebec, Canada was that of a past-producing mine referred to as the ‘Normetal Mine’. The mine is located just 8+ kilometers to the NW of the village of Normetal, and approximately 110 kilometers North of the town of Rouyn-Noranda. With the announcement that Starr Peak secured a diamond drill rig for its drilling program, Starr Peak identified that it is targeting drilling in the area of the Main Bloc which consists of the areas surrounding the Normetal Mine.
In our view, it’s not much of a stretch for investors to anticipate such interest rubbing off positively to that of Starr Peak.
Investors can expect announcements for these drilled holes to be released in the coming days and weeks, with Starr Peak now ready to take advantage of their close proximity to that of the neighboring Amex Exploration.
Consistent Profits
Kinross Gold is a profitable company–consistently. It’s a safer bet, if not one that will deliver you stunning upside. This is for the more cautious gold investor.
Kinross has grown earnings per share (EPS) annually by 44%, compound, for the past three years. It’s a diversified gold company that engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of gold properties in Canada, the United States, Russia, Chile, Brazil, Ghana, and Mauritania.
Just like AngloGold, Kinross has been enjoying dramatic improvements in profit margins and cash flow thanks to the surge in gold prices–and this trend appears set to continue with the gold outlook remaining decidedly bullish.
For the fourth quarter, Kinross reported revenue of $1.19B, good for +19.5% Y/Y increase while attributable margin per Au eq. oz. sold increased by 61% to $1,193 for compared to a margin of $741 during the previous year’s comparable period. Meanwhile, Q4 Adjusted operating cash flow increased by 36% to $527.6M, compared with $387.6M for 4Q19.
Q4 production fell 3.3% Y/Y to 624K gold equiv. oz., which the company expects to stay flat in 2021 so no nasty surprises expected here. Meanwhile, the miner says its FY 2021 spending budget will remain unchanged at $900M while annual AISC has been forecast to rise to $1,025 per gold equiv. oz. from $970/oz. in 2020.
Bonus: Commodites Set To Win Big, As Well
Teck Resources Limited (TECK) is one of Canada’s largest and most diversified resource companies, with operations across the globe. While its primary mining and mineral development plays focus on steelmaking coal, copper and zinc, Teck also has a major stake in renewable energy ventures.
In a release on Teck’s website, the company explains why this investment is so important: “Flow batteries – such as the zinc-air battery developed by ZincNyx, with its flexible and low-cost scaling, long-term storage properties and the ability to separate the energy storage function from the power generation source – could provide a more efficient alternative for large-scale energy storage.”
Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. (TRQ) is another key player in Canada’s resource and mineral industry. Like Teck Resources, Turquoise Hill is a major producer of coal and zinc, two resources with distinctly different futures. While headlines are already touting the end of coal, zinc is a mineral that will play a key role in the future of energy for years and years to come.
In addition to its zinc operations, Turquoise Hill is also a significant producer of Uranium. Uranium is a key material in the production of nuclear energy, which many analysts are suggesting could be a major component in the global transition to cleaner energy. While the mineral has not seen significant price action in recent years, there are a number of new projects set to come online across the globe in the medium-term, which could be a boon to Turquoise Hill.
Lithium Americas Corp. (LAC) is one of North America’s most important and successful pure-play lithium companies. With two world-class lithium projects in Argentina and Nevada, Lithium Americas is well-positioned to ride the wave of growing lithium demand in the years to come. It’s already raised nearly a billion dollars in equity and debt, showing that investors have a ton of interest in the company’s ambitious plans, and it will likely continue its promising growth and expansion for years to come.
It’s not ignoring the growing demand from investors for responsible and sustainable mining, either. In fact, one of its primary goals is to create a positive impact on society and the environment through its projects. This includes cleaner mining tech, strong workplace safety practices, a range of opportunities for employees, and strong relationships with local governments to ensure that not only are its employees being taken care of, but locals as well.
Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM) has seen its stock price nearly double from $30 in mid-February 2020 to its current price of $52. Sociedad Química y Minera, for example, signed in December a long-term supply deal with LG Energy Solution, which in turn supplies batteries to carmakers such as Tesla and GM. Under the deal, SQM will supply battery-grade lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide to LG Energy Solution between 2021 and 2029.
The Chilean firm also announced a capital increase of up to US$1.1 billion, most of which will be used for lithium carbonate expansion in Chile, where SQM plans to more than double its production.
By. Ben Granger
**IMPORTANT! BY READING OUR CONTENT YOU EXPLICITLY AGREE TO THE FOLLOWING. PLEASE READ
CAREFULLY**
Forward-Looking Statements
This publication contains forward-looking information which is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements in this publication include that prices for gold will retain value in future as currently expected, or could rise based on political considerations; that Starr Peak can fulfill all its obligations to acquire its Quebec properties; that Starr Peak’s property can achieve drilling and mining success for gold; that historical geological information and estimations will prove to be accurate or at least very indicative; that high-grade targets exist; and that Starr Peak will be able to carry out its business plans, including timing for drilling and putting into place a second drill. These forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. Risks that could change or prevent these statements from coming to fruition include that politics don’t have nearly the strong effect on gold prices as expected; the Company may not complete all its announced mineral property purchases for various reasons; it may not be able to finance its intended drilling programs; Starr Peak may not raise sufficient funds to carry out its plans; geological interpretations and technological results based on current data that may change with more detailed information or testing; and despite promise, there may be no commercially viable minerals or ore on Starr Peak’s property. The forward-looking information contained herein is given as of the date hereof and we assume no responsibility to update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law.
DISCLAIMERS
This communication is for entertainment purposes only. Never invest purely based on our communication. We have not been compensated by Starr Peak but may in the future be compensated to conduct investor awareness advertising and marketing for STE. The information in our communications and on our website has not been independently verified and is not guaranteed to be correct.
SHARE OWNERSHIP. The owner of Oilprice.com owns shares of Starr Peak and therefore has an additional incentive to see the featured company’s stock perform well. The owner of Oilprice.com will not notify the market when it decides to buy more or sell shares of this issuer in the market. The owner of Oilprice.com will be buying and selling shares of this issuer for its own profit. This is why we stress that you conduct extensive due diligence as well as seek the advice of your financial advisor or a registered broker-dealer before investing in any securities.
NOT AN INVESTMENT ADVISOR. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation.
ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH and consult with a licensed investment professional before making an investment. This communication should not be used as a basis for making any investment.
RISK OF INVESTING. Investing is inherently risky. Don’t trade with money you can’t afford to lose. This is neither a solicitation nor an offer to Buy/Sell securities. No representation is being made that any stock acquisition will or is likely to achieve profits.
DISCLAIMER: OilPrice.com is Source of all content listed above. FN Media Group, LLC (FNM), is a third party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels. FNM is NOT affiliated in any manner with OilPrice.com or any company mentioned herein. The commentary, views and opinions expressed in this release by OilPrice.com are solely those of OilPrice.com and are not shared by and do not reflect in any manner the views or opinions of FNM. FNM is not liable for any investment decisions by its readers or subscribers. FNM and its affiliated companies are a news dissemination and financial marketing solutions provider and are NOT a registered broker/dealer/analyst/adviser, holds no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security. FNM was not compensated by any public company mentioned herein to disseminate this press release.
FNM HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE.
This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. “Forward-looking statements” describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as “may”, “future”, “plan” or “planned”, “will” or “should”, “expected,” “anticipates”, “draft”, “eventually” or “projected”. You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company’s annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and FNM undertakes no obligation to update such statements.
Contact Information:
Media Contact e-mail: editor@financialnewsmedia.com U.S. Phone: +1(954)345-0611
SOURCE: Oilprice.com
