US markets rise, Oct. 25-29 trading week

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 142.54 points or 0.40% to 35,819.56 and the S&P 500 climbed 60.48 points or 1.33% to 4,605.38 during the October 25-29 trading week. Spot gold increased US$8.50 per oz. or 0.47% to US$1,784.30 per ounce.

Shares of Nouveau Monde Graphite, which is advancing its 100%-owned Matawinie graphite project in Quebec, jumped US59¢ to US$8.22. The junior announced it was awarded ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ by the Quebec Mineral Association in recognition of its momentum in developing its ‘ore-to-battery’ value chain. The company aims to be the largest and most advanced natural graphite operation in North America. Over the last year, the company has received authorization for the project from the provincial government and construction has begun at the Matawinie project in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, about 150 km north of Montreal. It has also built the Phase 1 facility for its proprietary purification technologies for anode material; listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and raised additional capital.

Cleveland Cliffs gained US26¢ to US$24.11. The company reported its third quarter results. The company reported consolidated revenues of US$6 billion, up from the US$1.6 billion recorded in the third quarter of 2020. Net income in the three months ended September 30 reached a record US$1.3 billion, or US$2.33 per diluted share, up from the year-earlier third quarter’s US$2 million. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) came in at US$1.9 billion in the third quarter, compared to US$126 million in the third quarter of 2020. For the first nine months of 2021, Cleveland Cliffs recorded revenues of US$15.1 billion and net income of US$2.1 billion, or US$3.69 per diluted share, up from revenues of US$3.1 billion and a net loss of US$155 million (US51¢ per diluted share) in the first nine months of 2020. As of October, 19, the company had total liquidity of about US$2.2 billion.

Shares of Osisko Gold Royalties went up US19¢ to US$12.63. The company announced that it has concluded a transaction with Barrick TZ Ltd., a subsidiary of Barrick Gold, to acquire three royalties for a total cash consideration of US$11.75 million. The royalies are a 2% net smelter return (NSR) royalty on the AfriOre and Gold Rim licences making up the West Kenya project in Kenya operated by Shanta Gold Ltd; a 1% NSR on the Frontier project, operated by private company Metalor SA in Burkina Faso; and a 1% NSR on the Central Hounde project operated by Thor Explorations Ltd, also in Burkina Faso. The West Kenya project is a development stage, high-grade gold project in the Lake Victoria gold field, and a scoping study published in October 2020 outlined a nine year mine life producing about 105,000 oz. gold a year from an inferred resource base of 2.9 million tonnes grading 12.6 grams gold per tonne for 1.8 million oz. of contained gold. The project is envisioned as a combined open pit and underground mining operation focused on the Isulu and Bushiangala deposits. Osisko Gold Royalties said Shanta Gold is currently infill drilling to advance the project to a prefeasibility study and if a decision is made to build the mine, initial production could start in 2025.