The News
What “news” moves juniors?
On May 15, I published an article on uranium. I mentioned three companies, Cameco, Nexgen and Encore. On the 15th you could have bought CCO for $72, NXE for $7.84 and EU for $2.38, today CCO is $83.16, NXE $8.79 and EU is $2.83. What changed?
Last Friday, President Trump signed Executive Orders to boost the nuclear energy industry, including measures to revitalise the domestic production of uranium. The specifics of the Orders are far less important than the indication that the Trump administration is embracing nuclear power. It was news that could and did “move markets”.
I don’t discuss politics on “Talking My Book” largely because my focus is on junior resource companies, and while they operate in a political climate, almost no political news has much effect on their performance. There are specific events in specific countries which may affect specific companies. Eloro (ELO.T) sells at something of a “Bolivian” discount simply because of a perception that Bolivia is politically somewhat unstable. My pal Graeme O’Neill’s Bayhorse Silver (BHS.V) suffers from being located in Oregon - a mining unfriendly jurisdiction - rather than 200 yards to the East across the Snake River in Idaho, which embraces mining.
The point is grand geo-political news pales in significance to very local, very specific news. Yes, it is very exciting that gold broke its all-time high. And why it did, the ins and outs of the gold market, increased central bank demand, the Chinese stockpiling, Indian jewellery and the fall of the US dollar can make for miles of seemingly informed commentary, but the price of gold only matters to junior explorers when there is a full-blown mania.
Silver, copper, tin, zinc, lithium, antimony, uranium are all a bit different in that there is a genuine need for the products and a real element of supply and demand. It makes sense to pay attention to the demand for EVs if you are investing in lithium or the divergence of demand and supply for copper.
Trying to follow the Trump tariffs and incentives for domestic mining activity as a background for emerging copper stories like Intrepid Metals INTR.V, Hercules Metals BIG.V and United States Copper USCU.V is useful, but far less important than actual results and permitting news.
Paying close attention to the calendar may make an investor in junior resource companies more money than reading news sites. Most junior explorers will announce the commencement of their drilling season by way of press release. Drilling results are the news which moves the juniors and investors can make fairly educated guesses as to how long from the commencement of drilling it will be until assayed results are released.
For example, Cartier Resources (ECR.V) is planning a 500 hole campaign on its Quebec based Cadillac Project. I expect Phillipe Cloutier, to announce the drills are turning pretty much any day. I wrote about Cartier’s big plans at motherlodetv.net a month ago. The key thing here is that the holes will be pretty short, 200 meters at most, and the company has labs lined up for its business. Once the drills are turning there should be hard news every two or three weeks. ECR shares have not moved in the month since I wrote the article but once the news starts to flow there is every chance they will break out of their $0.10-0.12 range.
Banyan Gold, (BYN.V) updated its 2025 drilling on April 30 reporting that 4500 meters of its planned 30,000 meters of diamond drilling at its Yukon Aurmac project had been completed. Teaser pictures of visible gold, the first time BYN has hit VG, accompany the release. I would expect assays in the next week or two. Will they move the market? Possibly, Banyan already has 7 million inferred gold ounces. Part of the 2025 program is to add more inferred ounces but another part is to move inferred ounces to indicated. High grade and visible gold are great, but moving ounces into indicated may move the share price more effectively.
Different companies are drilling different deposits with different timelines, 100 meter holes make sense for Cartier, Hercules will have to drill several 600-1000 meter holes as it tries to find its copper porphyry at the suture of the Izee/Olds Ferry terranes in Idaho.
The key thing for junior explorers is a steady news “flow”. Something which attracts the market’s attention. Knowing that a company will have regular drilling results to report is an important part of any assessment of that company’s prospects and investment potential.
(Disclaimer: I hold shares in Eloro, Bayhorse, Intrepid Metals, Hercules Metals, United States Copper, Cartier Resources and Banyan Gold. I may buy or sell at anytime. This is not investment advice. Do your own due diligence. Call the CEO.)