Gold prices may dropped to $US1,838.15 ($2,414.84) per ounce after a brief spike to $US1,874 per ounce sparked by the shortlived (and possibly phoney) #silversqueeze movement, but the outlook remains positive.
Standard Chartered Bank maintains that the precious metal will hit new all-time highs in the second quarter of this year.
Kitco News reported precious metals analyst Suki Cooper as saying the macro-environment remains supportive of higher prices in light of the weaker US dollar projections, negative real yields, more stimulus, dovish monetary policies, and rising inflation expectations.
The US Federal Reserve continues to maintain near-zero interest rates and quantitative easing while President Joe Biden has flagged another round of stimulus that could add $US1.9 trillion to America’s national debt.
Australian juniors hit more high-grade gold
While gold prices continue to trade in a narrow band, it has not stopped Australian explorers from returning some high-grade results from drilling, which could pay off if the positive outlook proves to be true.
Rumble Resources (ASX:RTR) has intersected multiple high-grade gold shoots below the current Western Queen South open pit that highlights the potential for an underground operation.
Drilling returned assays such as 5m at 38.76 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from a depth of 193m, 3m at 5.68g/t gold from 210m and 17m at 5.7g/t gold from 221m.
Grades of more than 5g/t gold are generally considered to be high-grade.
Resource drilling to confirm and extend the current resource of 823,000t grading 3.1g/t for 83,000oz of contained gold also intersected broad zones of gold mineralisation within the current resource and open zones of mineralisation below the deposit.
A potential strike extension to the south has also been identified with drilling returning results of up to 6m at 4.3g/t gold from 108m.
Meanwhile, Odyssey Gold (ASX:ODY) has uncovered a hint of what’s lurking within the Tuckanarra gold project in Western Australia’s Murchison Goldfields region after assays on previously un-assayed historical drill core returned high-grade results.
The assays from the cores drilled at the Cable West deposit in 2015 by previous owners of the project returned 6m at 22.4g/t gold from 34m and 1.7m at 13.4g/t gold from 59.
Assays from Cable East and Maybelle North also confirm the tenor of high-grade gold mineralisation and highlight potential for down-dip extensions in both deposits.
RTR and ODY share price charts
Increased interest
In Côte d’Ivoire, Tietto Minerals (ASX:TIE) has increased its interest in the Abujar gold project mining licence to 88 per cent.
The 120.36sqkm mining licence hosts the 3.02 million oz Abujar gold resource.
Tietto has already approved $US2.5m of early site works at the project that include site access, camp improvement and purchase of long lead items in anticipation of the final approval of the Abujar Gold Project Mining Convention and completion of the pre-feasibility study.