Tag: streetwise interviews

Three Reasons Why Gold and Gold Stocks Will Rise

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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" →

Miners Must Control Costs to Improve Share Prices: Byron King

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The Gold Report: Byron, gold is above $1,300/ounce ($1,300/oz)although not by much and silver topped $20/oz. What was holding their prices down, and what are the fundamentals that will move the prices going forward?

Byron King: The short answer is that, for all its faults, the dollar has strengthened, which holds down gold and silver prices. The longer answer is that gold and silver are manipulated metals. That is, the world's central banks have an aversion to things they can't control, and one of the things that they can't control is elemental metals like gold and silver.

Let's ask why the dollar has strengthened. The U.S. is probably in its weakest geopolitical situation in decades. The Wall Street Journal on July 17 had a front-page story about the confluence of crises across the world Ukraine, Middle East, Southeast Asiaall of which are profound challenges to American power militarily, diplomatically and economically. But the dollar is still holding up. Why?

I believe the dramatic recent increase in U.S. energy production is what's behind the stronger dollar. With more oil and natural gas from fracking, the U.S. is the world's largest energy producer. In addition, we're importing far less oil and exporting a lot more refined product. It helps the dollar.

Still, when I look at the big picture for gold, I see a resource whose production is challenged on the best of days. Output is declining in the major traditional sources: South Africa is in decline; Australia is challenged; some of the big plays in Nevada are getting long in the tooth. Continue reading "Miners Must Control Costs to Improve Share Prices: Byron King" →

Sean Rakhimov: Upward Trend a Silver Investor's Friend

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The Gold Report: The Washington D.C.-based Silver Institute reports that net silver demand has exceeded net silver supply each year since 2004, with a supply deficit of 113 million ounces (113 Moz) reported in 2013. Why hasn't that trend translated into dramatically higher silver prices?

Sean Rakhimov: First, I don't put much faith in these numbers. For instance, CPM Group has somewhat different numbers. Either way, silver supply and demand have been roughly in equilibrium, in my opinion, over the past decade or so. Second, silver manifests itself as a precious metal in times of crisis or uncertainty. When it's business as usual, silver acts more like a base metal and trades more on supply and demand numbers. Silver prices will respond during a crisis as its perception changes from an industrial to precious metal. That's when you will see more of what we saw in 2011 when in the space of about six months silver went up three times. Another period like that is coming.

"Excellon Resources Inc. has a handle on its deposit's cost structure and grade."

TGR: In early June we started to see stronger precious metals prices and that has carried through. Is this a trend?

SR: It is the beginning of a trend. Precious metals characteristically start going up after a prolonged decline, yet early in the reversal they rarely inspire any confidence because the last dozen or so similar moves fizzled after a 1020% move. This could be one of those. Silver is at $21 per ounce ($21/oz) now, maybe next week it will test $18/oz again. It's anybody's guess but I believe that toward the end of the year we'll probably see higher numbersmaybe substantially higher.

TGR: Is there a telltale sign that shows investors that this upturn is real? Continue reading "Sean Rakhimov: Upward Trend a Silver Investor's Friend" →

Tesla Gigafactory Could Be Boon for Graphite, Lithium, Cobalt: Simon Moores

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The Gold Report: Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA:NASDAQ) is planning to build a $5-billion "Gigafactory" in the southwestern U.S. that would produce batteries for its high-end electric cars. You seem excited about it. Tell investors why they should be.

Simon Moores: This one plant would essentially double the world's output of electric vehicle (EV) batteries. That's 500,000 batteries a year at capacity. The idea is to drive down the cost of EV batteries by 30% or more. Tesla is focusing on the supply chain to build the lowest-cost batteries possible. If it can make the cost of its cars much cheaper, it should spark mass uptake of electric vehicles. It's a plan to turn the world electric, in a sense, and Tesla begins in 2017 with the Gigafactory and the launch of its third generation and first mass-market model.

"Syrah Resources Ltd. has been active in 2014, announcing two MOUs for offtakes with China and Europe."

TGR: Would Tesla be building batteries solely for Tesla or would it be leasing its technology to other vehicle manufacturers? Continue reading "Tesla Gigafactory Could Be Boon for Graphite, Lithium, Cobalt: Simon Moores" →

Van Eck Fund Manager Joe Foster Is Building for the Upswing

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The Gold Report: Gold has been hovering between $1,250 and $1,300/ounce ($1,300/oz). How have supply-and-demand factors shifted since earlier in the year, when things seemed more bullish?

Joe Foster: At the beginning of the year, gold was being driven by risk concerns. Investors started worrying about risk when we saw problems in emerging markets like Thailand, Turkey and, eventually, Ukraine. The Chinese economy seemed to be slowing down.

It was less of a supply-demand story and more one of people looking at gold as a safe haven and a hedge against some of the risks in the world.

TGR: Is the world less risky now than it was three months ago? Continue reading "Van Eck Fund Manager Joe Foster Is Building for the Upswing" →