Gold rallies as US Federal Reserve moves to address market chaos

Gold prices have rallied with April gold futures last trading at $US1,572.70 per ounce after the US Federal Reserve announced its quantitative easing plan.

And here is where currency exchange works in favour of Australian gold companies (well the producers at least) with one of our dollars buying just 58 US cents. That means for us, gold is selling at a tidy $2,696.22 per ounce.

Read: Gold Digger: This is how a feeble Aussie dollar benefits our local producers

While gold is still down from a seven-year high, World Gold Council director of investment research Juan Carlos Artigas says that despite ongoing sensitivity to market volatility, gold investment demand remains strong with interest growing for physical bars and coins.

ASX small cap gold news

Xanadu Mines (ASX:XAM) received a vote of confidence after Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) agreed to sole fund up to $US7.2m of exploration to earn a 51 per cent interest in the Red Mountain porphyry copper-gold project in Mongolia.

Previous drilling at Red Mountain has returned numerous high-grade copper-gold intercepts from a broad range of mineralisation styles.

JOGMEC plans to refine and test several large targets in the second quarter of 2020.

Meanwhile, Oklo Resources (ASX:OKU) has intersected further zones of moderate to high-grade gold from resource drilling at its flagship Dandoko project in Mali.

Notable results are 36m at 3.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from a depth of 124m including a 13m intersection grading 7.32g/t gold from 147m, 43m at 2.77g/t gold from 174m including 20m at 4.25g/t gold from 174m and 27m at 3.95g/t gold from 110m that ended in mineralisation including a high-grade interval of 3m at 28.73g/t gold from 112m.

The company said the results highlighted the potential for high-grade shoot development below the SK2 target.

An expanded drilling program is also underway at SK1 North to accelerate the evaluation of the discovery for incorporation into the maiden resource estimate, which is scheduled for completion in the second quarter 2020.

Operations at Dandoko are proceeding with enhanced health monitoring and sanitary procedures based on the company’s existing protocols for Ebola – a far more deadly virus than the COVID-19 coronavirus.

In Australia, Artemis Resources (ASX:ARV) has completed the sale of its non-core 47 Patch and Purdy’s Reward conglomerate gold projects in the Pilbara to Canada’s Novo Resources Corp for $820,000 in cash and 1.64 million Novo shares.

The company will focus on its Carlow Castle and Paterson Central projects in the intriguing Paterson Province of Western Australia. Drilling is currently underway at Carlow Castle while initial drill planning is being carried out for a program at Paterson Central.