Gold closed at US$1,291.9, down 2% over the previous trading week, as U.S. markets slipped. The Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index fell 2.14% to 82.06, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.46% to 24,715.09. The S&P 500 Index fell 0.54% to 2,712.97.
Lithium Americas shares rose 17.9% to US$6.45. In April, the company updated its resource estimate for its Thacker Pass lithium deposit, which is part of the company’s Lithium Nevada project in McDermitt Caldera, Nevada. The company increased its measured and indicated resource by 80% compared to the previous 2016 estimate. The project now has 385 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 2,917 ppm lithium for 5.9 million tonnes lithium carbonate equivalent. The company is on track to release a preliminary feasibility study on the project by the end of June.
Shares of Peabody Energy rose 7.5% to US$41.64. The company has rebounded back onto the Fortune 500, coming in at 491, after falling off the list last year. The company reported that first-quarter 2018 coal sales rose 4.8% year-over-year to 37 million tonnes, with most of its sales from the Powder River basin, where Peabody has three mines. Together, those mines produced 29.4 million tonnes, up from 28.1 million tonnes a year ago.
Peabody and the Hopi Tribe are suing the Central Arizona Water District (CAWD) for its plans to stop buying power from the coal-burning Navajo Generating Station, which would in turn force the closure of Peabody’s Kayenta coal mine, located on Hopi land, 128 km away. The CAWD has said it wants to switch to natural gas and renewable energy.
Shares of AngloGold Ashanti fell 8.8% to US$8.23. The company is mired in discussions with Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo over changes to the countries’ mining codes. Tanzania recently passed laws that allow the state to renegotiate old agreements for higher royalties. Congo is in the process of boosting taxes. In March, Anglo proposed new mining code legislation to the Congo, including a sliding scale of royalty rates to replace what it calls the “windfall tax.”
The company still reported strong first-quarter financials, including production of 824,000 oz. gold at a US$1,029 per oz. all-in sustaining cost, almost on par with the first quarter of 2017. TNM
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