Three Reasons Why Gold and Gold Stocks Will Rise

The Gold Report: Over two days, July 14 and 15, the price of gold fell over $40 per ounce ($40/oz), more than 3% of its value. To what do you attribute this drop?

Jeffrey Mosseri: I don't think it was a very extraordinary event. Gold has been trading around $1,300/oz. We see sharp upward and downward movements triggered by, for instance, something Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said or a negative report by Goldman Sachs. It looks as if gold will stay in the $1,300/oz range for a little while. We'll see which way it breaks out. We believe it's going to break out on the upside.

Douglass Loud: Gold had been running up for a while, and every so often investors want to take some money off the table.

TGR: How high do you believe gold will go?

"We like North American Nickel Inc.'s Maniitsoq nickel sulfide project in Greenland."

JM: The average sustaining cost of production for gold is about $1,500/oz. If gold continues to trade below that level, at some point no new mines will be brought on. Supply and demand indicates higher prices for gold. At the same time, we're dealing with a seasonal trading pattern. Usually the position for those commodities tightens up around September/October. We think this will happen again this year. Higher prices? Yes. How much higher? We don't know.

TGR: Given that the financing for junior gold companies collapsed years ago, shouldn't the concomitant shortage of new supply have led already to higher prices? Continue reading "Three Reasons Why Gold and Gold Stocks Will Rise"

Zinc or Swim: Do Base Metals Have a Future?

The Mining Report: How are the fundamental challenges facing the global base metals markets likely to play out in 2014?

Joseph Gallucci: There are several long-term issues that impacted copper and the other base metal spaces in 2013, and those long-term issues will persist for the foreseeable future. Allow me to explain the basics via a few examples:

Indonesia recently stopped the export of intermediary products, such as pig iron nickel. The country's leadership is increasingly practicing resource nationalism by restricting mining firms to in-house processing and to shipping only finished products. It is also unsettling that Intrepid Mines Ltd. (IAU:TSX; IAU:ASX) lost control of its project this year to an Indonesian partner!

In terms of supply chain disruptions in 2013, Grasberg and Bingham Canyon were two of the biggest issues, but we are still well below the annual average of a 5% supply disruption. This year has been an anomaly and quite low in that regard. Supply chain disruptions will definitely pick up going forward and they are impossible to predict.

For problems with mining infrastructure, Chile was the hot button. It has port access and infrastructure issues, and there are still no power agreements in place for many of Chile's mining development projects. These types of long-term issues will continue to impact the base metals sector into the future.

TMR: Were declining ore grades an issue in 2013? Continue reading "Zinc or Swim: Do Base Metals Have a Future?"