A Weekly Recap of All Things Resources to Friday, April 8th

By Rod Blake

‘That’s a Wrap’

As more images of the Russian-Ukraine conflict appear, the European Union announced a phased in ban on Russian coal imports totaling 4-billion euros per year.

In addition – Canadian gold miner Kinross Gold Corp. ‘K-T’ & ‘KGC-N’ announced it was selling its Russian assets including the Kupol mine and Idinsk project to Russian domiciled Highland Gold Mining for staged cash payments totaling US$680 million.

And in a similar move, another Canadian miner Centerra Gold ‘CG-T’ & ‘CGAU-N’ announced it was giving up all of its interests in Kyrgyzstan or the Kyrgys Republic including the flagship Kumtor Gold Mine by giving the mineral interests to state owned partner Kyrgyzaltyn JSC in exchange for the 77.4 million Centerra shares held by the Kyrgyz entities for an estimated value of some C$972 million.

Canadian giant energy company Suncor Energy Inc. ‘SU-T’ & ‘SU-N’ announced that in order to accelerate its progress towards becoming a net-zero emissions company by 2050 – it will divest itself of less energy efficient wind and solar projects and focus on more efficient hydrogen and renewable fuel projects.

Going the other way – TransAlta Corporation ‘TA-T’ & ‘ TAC-N’ announced that Meta Platforms Inc. ‘FB-N’ (formaly Facebook) will purchase 100^% of Transalta’s 200 MW Horizon Hill Wind Power Project in Logan County. Oklahoma.

And in a move that probably wouldn’t have happened only a few months ago – the Canadian Government gave the approval for Norway’s Equinor ASA’s offshore US$12-billion Bay du Nord oil project off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.

While in a bit of a Catch 22 – the U.S Administration said that in order to help alleviate rising gasoline prices, it was seeking more oil from Canada – but without resurrecting the Keystone XL pipeline it effectively killed early last year.

And while the media focuses on the price of oil – natural gas rose to a 14-year closing high of US$6.37/mmbtus.

The Canadian Federal Government introduced its new budget that among many other things included $3.8 billion in subsidies, grants and tax credits to help the country’s miners search for lithium, copper and other strategic minerals that would help in the global electric supply chain.

The way I see it – Israel has lost any right to call itself a compassionate country. This country that was carved out of the Mediterranean desert some 70-years ago by a compassionate United Nations to be a home for the Jewish people. Now this Jewish state, with one of the world’s most modern militaries and no NATO affiliations to hinder its decisions – turns its back on Ukraine – a country the second or third largest Jewish populations. No military or economic help in a conflict that even officially neutral Switzerland is sanctioning Russia. Why is this so? It turns out that Israel has an unwritten understanding with Russia that Israel will not interfere with Russia’s aggressions as long as Russia does not interfere with Israel’s conflicts with its neighbouring Arabic states. This is not a compassionate state. This is a self centred nation telling the world that the only Jewish people that matter are those that live within Israel itself. This is totally unacceptable….

For the Week – The DJI fell by 0.28^% to 34,721, while the S&P 500 dropped 1.26^% to 4,488 and the NASDAQ lost 3.86^% to 13,711. To the north – the TSX fell by 0.36^% to 21,874 and the TSX Venture lost 1.00^% to 888.

Gold bullion gained 1.19^% to US$1,948, as silver rose by 0.65^% to US$24.78 and copper improved by 0.42^% to US$4.73. Meanwhile – crude oil  lost 1.02^% to US$98.26 while natural gas rose by 9.79^% to US$6.28. The Canadian dollar lost 0.61^% to US$0.7943. Overall – the CRB Commodities Index gained 0.63^% to 318.

And Finally – It seems that Canadian charities may not be too charitable after all – after a The Logic investigation found that according to Canada Revenue Agency ‘CRA’ requirements, charities are only required to disperse 3.5^% of their revenues in order to keep their charity status – resulting in over $400-million sitting in unspent charitable funds.

Good luck in the week ahead….