A Weekly Recap of All Things Resources to Thursday, April 25th, 2025

‘That’s a Wrap’

By Rod Blake

As the major North American equity market focused brokers, investors, traders and portfolio managers collectively licked their wounds ahead of the new trading week – one group off by themselves seem to strangely upbeat. On closer look – these cheerful players were the mostly unnoticed few who were mainly exposed to the junior markets and in particularly – the TSX Venture Exchange ‘TSXV’. Going into the last full trading week of April – The major North American markets are all down on the year – TSX -2.25%, Dow 30 -8.00%, S&P 500 -10.18%, and NASDAQ -15.66%. Now compare this to the wallflower Venture Exchange if up by 6.02% year to date and one can see why junior investors are smiling.

The way I see it – There are very few times that the junior Venture Exchange outperforms its much larger cousins. It is usually when the market is focused on a new mineral discovery such as Hemlo in Ontario, or diamonds in Canada’s arctic, or when the price of one or more commodities reaches record heights that attracts investor attention to the junior board. The current all-time high price of gold bullion above US$3,300 seems to be a catalyst for most of this investor attention. Venture trading volumes that are now consistently bumping up against 40-million shares traded a day as opposed to just over 20-million a day traded last summer. While the Venture itself is up on the year – the new 52-week trading highs are mostly gold stocks. Being the only issue of focus in a bull market can be a good thing if it keeps going but can be very bad when it turns. Think of the great run the Magnificent Seven tech stocks had earlier this year and how quickly they fell to where they are now. For now, the Venture Exchange investors are smiling, and the Gold Bugs are dancing. This gold market may still have legs but as any good card player will tell you – one has to know when to cash in and walk away from the table…

The gold bullion bull market continued into the new week with the price of the world’s true currency reaching a new all-time closing high of US$3,423 a troy ounce (t oz).

Which no doubt helped to drive the closing price of Imperial Metals Corp. ‘III-T’ up to a new 3-year high of $3.50 and Franco-Nevada Corp. ‘FNV-T & N’ to reach a new all-time closing high of $239.73.

I wondered, when adjusted for inflation, if the current new high in gold has surpassed the US$850 high mark set in January, 1980. So I asked my new artificial intelligence (AI) app Gemini. Gemini said that based on whose inflation figures were used, the 1980 US$850 high would today be in a range of US$3,420 – US$3,800 per troy ounce. So, based on Gemini, one could safely say that gold bullion at US$3,423, has officially reached a new inflation adjusted all-time closing high.

The U.S Dollar Index ‘DXY’ fell to a new 3-year closing low of 98.37.

Which helped the Canadian Loonie to close at a new 5½-month high of US$0.7236.

Lumina Gold Corp. ‘LUM-V’ shares’ surged up by $0.26 or 28.89% to close at a new 5-year high of $1.16 after the Vancouver, BC based mineral developer agreed to a $581-million all-cash take over from Singapore based CMOC Group Ltd.

Sitka Gold Corp. ‘SIG-V’ reported its drill hole DDRCC-25-075 at the company’s RC Gold Project east of Dawson City, Yukon returned 352.8 metres (m) of 1.55 grams per tonne gold (g/t Au).

NOVAGOLD Recourses Inc. ‘NG-T & N.A’ shares’ surged up by $1.69 or 39.21% to close at a new 7-month high of $6.00 on word that the company and Paulson Advisers LLC were buying Barrick Gold Corps. ‘ABX-T’ & ‘GOLD-N’ 50% interest in the NOVAGOLD’s flagship Donlin Gold project in Alaska in an all-cash deal valued at US$1.0-billion. NOVAGOLD’s interest will now rise from 50% to 60% of the new joint venture.

The key Baker Hughes Petroleum Rig Count reported the number of active American drilling rigs rose by 2-rigs over the week to 587, down by 26-rigs from this time last year. Up north – the number of Canadian active rigs fell by 6-rigs during the week to 128, up by 10-rigs from one year ago.  

Lithium continued to struggle – falling to close at a new 4-year low of US$9,577 a tonne (t).

Forestry stocks struggled with Canfor Corporation ‘CFP-T’ dropping to close at a new 5-year low of $12.76 and Western Forest Products Inc. ‘WEF-T’ falling to a new 14½-year closing low of $0.37.

Hecla Mining Co. ‘HL-N’ and Standard Lithium Ltd. ‘SLI-V & N.A’ both had projects recognized to be advanced under the recent Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production Act.

Copper and uranium pulled commodities higher on the week, while once again natural gas and lithium were the greatest drag.

The junior TSX Venture Exchange rose to a new 2½-year closing high of 654.

After a mostly give and take week of trading – all of the North American markets rallied going into the weekend.

For the Week – the DJI gained 2.48% to 40,114, with the S&P 500 up 4.58% to 5,525, and the NASDAQ ahead 6.74% to 17,383. In Canada – the TSX rose 2.14% to 24,711 and the TSX Venture gained 3.15% to 654.

The CBOE Volatility Index or VIX fell 16.22% to 24.84.

With currencies – the Canadian dollar lost 0.14% to US$0.7215, while the U.S. Dollar Index ‘DXY’ rose 0.21% to 99.61. 

With commodities – gold bullion fell 0.48% to US$3,308, as silver rose 1.66% to US$33.06, and copper gained 2.98% to US$4.84, while lithium lost 2.27% to US$9,577. Crude oil lost 1.71% to US$63.19, and natural gas lost 8.92% to US$2.96, while uranium rose 1.69% to US$66.15. With soft commodities – lumber was unchanged at US$572.

Overall – the CRB Commodities Index gained 1.97% to 363.