The market giveth and the market taketh. Truer words have never been spoken with gold prices diving nearly US$100 in less than a day after the US Federal Reserve signalled higher inflation and that interest rates could rise twice by 2023.
Gold is currently trading at about US$1,783.27 per ounce, a reversal from weeks of trading above US$1,800/oz that had analysts forecasting that US$2,000/oz gold was within reach.
The Fed’s forecast sent both the US dollar and 10-year US treasury yield up, which rather predictably led to an exodus away from gold.
USD gold price over the past 2 years
All this despite Fed Chair Jerome Powell noting that the risk of two rate hikes should be taken with a “big grain of salt”, as the Reserve did view the spike in inflation as transitory.
“Unfortunately for gold bugs, underlying inflation trends will remain distorted for months — which removes the immediate impetus for buying the yellow metal.”
Others considered the drop in gold prices to be excessive with Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch saying that rate hikes in two years’ time are “too far off to warrant any such slump in price”.
Winners & Losers
Here’s how ASX-listed gold & silver stocks are performing:
Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort. Best viewed on a laptop
Truscott was up on no news with the company telling the ASX that it was unaware of any reason for the increase in its share price or the volume of stocks traded.
It is not every day that one pulls out a gold intersection grading more than 200 grams per tonne (g/t), so when Mithril Resources reported a bonanza intersection of 2.1m at 235g/t gold and 2,554g/t silver within a broader 6.8m zone at 74g/t gold and 841g/t silver, punters reacted accordingly.
The result confirms bonanza grades in historical drilling at its Copalquin project in Mexico
Drilling at the equally exciting El Refugio discovery has also extended the structure to 650m long and 300m down-dip with drilling returning results such as 7.6m at 2.34g/t gold and 143.6g/t silver from 253.25m.
The grant of two new tenements that contain large-scale intrusive granites and diorites that have the potential to host intrusive-related gold mineralisation increased the size of North Stawell’s granted exploration tenure in Victoria up from 552.9sqkm to 601.9sqkm.
West Barrabool contains coincident magnetic and gravity anomalies situated around a diorite that cut through into the company’s neighbouring EL5443 and has the potential to host Wonga-style deposits.
The other tenement, Wimmera Park Granite, hosts another significant intrusive that cuts through the southern extension of the Wildwood basalt and may host significant remobilised gold targets around the alteration rim.
Exceptional copper, lead and vanadium intersections were intersected at the first eight of 15 reverse circulation wells at Golden Deeps’ Nosib Block prospect in Namibia.
This featured a top hit of 24m grading 1.33% copper, 4.77% lead, 1.37 per cent vanadium oxide and 3.67g/t silver from just 3m including a 6m zone grading 3.67% copper, 14.9% lead, 4.4% vanadium oxide and 12.16g/t silver from 6m.
Nosib Block was a high-grade copper-vanadium mine located west of Khusib Springs and 20km along strike from the company’s Abenab high-grade vanadium project.
Grade control drilling at Bellevue’s namesake project has returned results of up to 176.6g/t gold and demonstrated the excellent continuity of the orebody.
This drilling is key to the company’s strategy of development and further resource at the project.
Step-out and infill drilling is also continuing at the Marceline and Deacon North lodes with four surface rigs and two underground rigs targeting further resource growth.
At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Mithril Resources is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.
Get the latest Stockhead news delivered free to your inbox
For investors, getting access to the right information is critical.
Stockhead’s daily newsletters make things simple: Markets coverage, company profiles and industry insights from Australia’s best business journalists – all collated and delivered straight to your inbox every day.
Markets coverage, company profiles and industry insights from Australia’s best business journalists – all collated and delivered straight to your inbox every day.
It’s free. Unsubscribe anytime.
By proceeding, you confirm you understand that we handle personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
I want the news:
"*" indicates required fields
Hear it first
Get the latest Stockhead news delivered free to your inbox.
Thanks! You’re subscribed, Stockhead news is coming your way soon.