US equities climb, April 11–15

The Dow Jones Industrial Average registered a 1.8% gain to close at 17,897.46, in its best week since March 18. The S&P 500 Index rose 1.6% to finish at 2,080.73, while the Nasdaq Composite increased 1.8% to 4,938.22. Spot gold slipped US$4.30 per oz. to US$1,234.10. Crude oil futures climbed 1.6% to US$40.36 per barrel.

Fortuna Silver Mines got a boost on the back of first-quarter production results from its San Jose mine in Mexico and Caylloma mine in Peru. Quarterly production came in at 1.6 million oz. silver and 9,264 oz. gold, plus zinc and lead by-products. While silver and gold output was slightly below the same period last year, lead and zinc production improved. Fortuna expanded  Caylloma’s mill from 1,300 to 1,430 tonnes per day at the end of March. It expects to grow the San Jose mill from 2,000 to 3,000 tonnes per day by July. Fortuna is guiding annual production of 7 million oz. silver and 42,600 oz. gold, or 9.6 million equivalent oz. silver. Its shares rose 15.5% to US$4.93.

Harmony Gold Mining had a hard time. Early in the week, it announced two fatalities that occurred a day apart at its Kusasalethu and Phakisa gold mines in South Africa. Investigations into the accidents are underway. On April 13, it reported exploration success at its Kili Teke copper-gold prospect in Papua New Guinea. The latest drilling has identified zones of near-surface, stockwork-related copper-gold mineralization and depth extensions of porphyry-related quartz vein stockwork mineralization, as well as high-grade massive sulphides at depth. A revised resource estimate should be out before October.

A day later, Harmony said it is on track to produce 1.1 million oz. gold for its 2016 fiscal year and pay off all its debt. Shares lost 9% to finish at US$3.59 per share.

Dominion Diamond shares fell after the company swung into a loss during fiscal 2016. The net loss by January 2016 was US$11.6 million, or US40¢ per share, compared to a profit of US$170.3 million, or US79¢ per share, the year before. The fiscal loss included a US$19.8-million inventory impairment at the Ekati mine; US$9.8 million in one-time charges, due to the departure of Robert Gannicott as CEO; a weaker diamond market; and lower diamond prices.