Is Inflation Coming to the US?

Many of the market forecasters are predicting that an aggressive inflationary cycle could be coming down the pike based on what can only be reasonably described as out of control spending by the current administration. Is the US headed down the path of hyperinflation the likes of which destroyed currencies in Yugoslavia and Zimbabwe?

Improbable? Impossible?  – - View this 3 part online video presentation and come to your own conclusions.  The scenario posed in this series, put forth by visionaries such as Marc Faber, Peter Schiff and Jim Rogers could dramatically move the markets for hard assets such as gold, silver, and energy . . . . and crush the purchasing power of the US dollar.  To view the full video, just click on the link below and then press play.

Victoria Gold to Fast Track Eagle Gold Project

Victoria Gold Corp. (TSX-V: VIT) is pleased to announce the commissioning of a Pre-feasibility Study and a comprehensive Project Proposal that satisfies the requirements of the Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment Act, and all associated permits necessary for the development of the Eagle Gold Project.

“Victoria aims to advance our two core projects – the Eagle Gold Project and the high-grade gold Cove Project in Nevada – to production in a timely manner”, said Chad Williams, CEO, President, and Director of Victoria Gold. “We have already made notable progress in the very short time that we have controlled the Eagle Gold Project.”

Victoria now aims to complete a National Instrument (NI) 43-101 pre-feasibility study on the Eagle Gold Project by year-end 2009 and submit the Project Proposal to the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board in Q2 2010.

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Triangle Petroleum Announces Shareholder Meeting

Triangle Petroleum Corporation (the “Company” or “Triangle”) (TSX-V:TPE – News) (OTC.BB:TPLM – News) is pleased to announce details of its Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be held in Calgary, Alberta.

The Annual Meeting of Stockholders will be held on Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 11:00am MST in the boardroom at the Company’s head office in Calgary, Alberta, located at Suite 1250, 521 3rd Avenue SW. Among several proposals to be considered and acted upon will be the election of directors, adoption of a stock option plan and an amendment to the Company’s Articles of Incorporation.

Registered stockholders can access the Company’s Proxy Statement and Form 10-K at www.cstproxy.com/trianglepetroleum/2009. Online voting can be completed using control numbers that have been furnished to each stockholder by mail along with written instructions.

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Geovic Reports Progress Toward Resolving Accounting Dispute

Per the press release below, Geovic has announced progress toward resolving its accounting dispute with SNI, the minority shareholder in its Geovic Cameroon joint venture.  While the dispute remains outstanding, this release indicates that progress has been made and that every attempt will likely be made to reach an amicable solution.

Geovic Mining Corp. (“Geovic” or “the Company”) (TSX:GMC – News)(OTC.BB:GVCM – News) announces that two of the legal actions initiated by Societe Nationale D’Investissement du Cameroon (“SNI”) against its majority-owned subsidiary, Geovic Cameroon Plc (“GeoCam”), were not acted upon by the Court of First Instance of Yaounde-Centre Administratif.

In summary, the Court declined to rule on two of the actions because it deemed itself to not be a competent authority to make such rulings. Consequently, SNI was not granted the emergency relief it sought, and therefore (a) Deloitte & Touche Afrique Centrale Sarl (“Deloitte”) was not removed as GeoCam’s statutory auditor, and (b) GeoCam’s Annual Shareholder Assembly (ASA) set for June 26th, 2009 was not cancelled.

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China Reiterates Call for New World Reserve Currency

June 26 (Bloomberg) — China’s central bank renewed its call for a new global currency and said the International Monetary Fund should manage more of members’ foreign-exchange reserves, triggering a decline in the U.S. dollar.

“To avoid the inherent deficiencies of using sovereign currencies for reserves, there’s a need to create an international reserve currency that’s delinked from sovereign nations,” the People’s Bank of China said in its 2008 review released today. The IMF should expand the functions of its unit of account, Special Drawing Rights, the report said.

The restatement of Governor Zhou Xiaochuan’s proposal in March added to speculation that China will diversify its currency reserves, the world’s largest at more than $1.95 trillion. Chinese investors, the biggest foreign owners of U.S. Treasuries, reduced holdings by $4.4 billion in April to $763.5 billion after Premier Wen Jiabao expressed concern about the value of dollar assets. That reduction came a month after China boosted its holdings by $23.7 billion to a record.

“Zhou Xiaochuan sees the current international financial system is flawed, putting too much emphasis on the dollar as a reserve currency,” said Kevin Lai, an economist with Daiwa Institute of Research in Hong Kong.

To view the complete article, click here.

China Should Buy More Gold

BEIJING, June 25 (Reuters) – China should buy more gold because the dollar is poised for a fall and the metal is needed to support the greater international role envisaged for the yuan, a senior researcher with the ruling Communist Party said on Thursday.  

Li Lianzhong, who heads the economic department of the Party’s policy research office, said China should use more of its $1.95 trillion in foreign exchange reserves to buy energy and natural resource assets.  Speaking at a foreign exchange and gold forum, Li also said that buying land in the United States was a better option for China than buying U.S. Treasury securities.

“Should we buy gold or U.S. Treasuries?” Li asked. “The U.S. is printing dollars on a massive scale, and in view of that trend, according to the laws of economics, there is no doubt that the dollar will fall. So gold should be a better choice.”

There is no suggestion that Li, even though he is a senior researcher, was enunciating an agreed party line.  However, a debate is swirling in China about how the country can reduce its exposure to the dollar and to U.S. assets in case America’s ultra-loose fiscal and monetary policy rekindles inflation and erodes the value of the dollar and U.S. Treasuries.

To view the complete article, click here.

Dejour Retains Key Strategist for Company’s Piceance Basin Development

Dejour Enterprises Ltd. (NYSE AMEX: DEJ/TSX: DEJ) announced on June 25, 2009 the appointment of Stephen R. Mut to serve as the Special Assistant to the CEO/COO. Mr. Mutt will provide expertise for key financing and asset strategies targeting the Company’s Piceance Basin projects.

Mr. Mut brings valuable oil and gas experience to Dejour including most recently as chief executive officer of a unit of Shell Exploration and a long career with ARCO (Atlantic Richfield Company), where he served in various internationally based executive roles in both upstream and downstream businesses.

Commenting on the news, Dejour’s CEO, Mr. Robert Hodgkinson stated: “Mr. Mut’s industry experience and leadership compliments Dejour’s in house expertise to seize and realize the opportunity in the Piceance Basin. We look forward to his strong skill set assisting us to realize the value that exists in our premium projects”.

We continue to see positive developments coming from the Dejour camp that include: cleaning up their balance sheet, streamlining their business strategy, and putting key people with “big oil” industry experience in roles that can make a difference. With many of Dejour’s primary project areas gearing up again to get the drills turning on both proven prospects and highly prospective targets, we expect the latter half of 2009 to be a catalyst period for the Company’s production and reserve growth – and anticipate a steady stream of news from this highly active junior E & P group.

To read the full press release click here.

Dejour Further Strengthens Balance Sheet with Three Strategic Transactions

 

 

On June 23, 2009, Dejour Enterprises Ltd. (NYSE AMEX: DEJ/TSX: DEJ) announced three transactions that significantly raised cash and diminished outstanding debt obligations – all designed to allow the Company to focus on its high growth development and exploration priorities. In the release, Mr. Robert L. Hodgkinson, Chairman & CEO stated: “We’re aligning our strategy with our greatest opportunities for growth. To date in 2009, with the closing of these transactions, we have eliminated over $9M of debt. These transactions will enable us more rapidly to realize the strength of our valuable oil and gas assets in Colorado, and British Columbia.”

The three announced transaction’s were as follows:

1) the Company has Letters of Intent in place with deposits to close the sale of a further $2.1M in minority property interests raising total property sales to C$6M.

2) Dejour has finalized an agreement with Brownstone Ventures Ltd. (TSX-V: BWN) to convert US $3.7 M of debt obigations into shares of stock with warrants and 12% notes.  

3) Independent members of Dejour’s Board of Directors have negotiated an agreement with Hodgkinson Equities Corporation (HEC) to convert C$1.8 million of its debt obligation into a combination of notes and minority property interests.

Following these transactions, the Company turns its focus to its growth development and exploration priorities, which include:

– Continued concentration on strategic acquisitions and joint ventures to lever the Company’s existing US natural gas reserve/land base.

– Commencement of drilling by Laramie II LLC, Joint Venture partner of the North Rangely Piceance Basin oil project in Q3.

– High resolution 3D seismic and development drilling at the Woodrush oil project, Peace River Arch, NE British Columbia beginning in Q4.

We see the recent debt reduction and upcoming operational work plan as very positive developments for Dejour. The Company has  cleaned up it’s balance sheet dramatically by converting some of its debt to equity and by replacing non-core and underperforming assets with cash and credit availability in order to develop their higher potential properties going forward.

To read the full press release click here.

Victoria Gold Corp. Announces Additional High-Grade Gold Assays From the Helen Zone, Cove Project, Nevada

 

In a press release out this morning, Victoria Gold Corp. (TSX-V: VIT) and (OTCBB:VITFF) announced that diamond drill hole NW-15 from their Helen Zone at the Cove Project located in north-central Nevada intersected a wide gold-mineralized interval of 274.3 m that returned 2.50 grams per tonne (g/t) gold. The intercept contains two separate zones at both the top and base of this interval that had some of the highest grades of gold mineralization intersected by Victoria in the Helen Zone thus far.  Intercepts from NW-15 include 12.7 meters of 9.18 gram per tonne gold and 4.3 meters of 39.67 grams per tonne gold.

 

Commenting on the news in the release,  Chad Williams, President, CEO, and Director of Victoria Gold stated:  “NW-15 returned very high gold grades over meaningful widths within a much larger, anomalous gold zone. This is especially encouraging since NW-15 intersected gold mineralization a substantial distance away from what is believed to be the core of the Helen Zone system – we have once again succeeded in demonstrating that the Helen Zone can return high grades of gold over a wide area.”

 

This is a very rich intercept and terrific news for Victoria Gold. The stock is reacting quickly and has already traded 2.47 million shares (on the TSX Venture exchange) and up 15% from yesterday’s close. As the Company has stated in past corporate presentations, the Helen Zone discovery could be the most significant gold discovery by a junior in Nevada over the past 20 years. Today’s news certainly helps Victoria continue to build this case.

 

The release further states the Company’s next step is to move the drill head down to the deposit area at depth by completing the horizontal adit (tunnel) over to the discovery area from the sidewall of Newmont’s Cove Pit. This will allow Victoria to drill the zone much more efficiently as they will not have to go thru the first several hundred meters to get to the zone, which causes the drills to “walk” away from the target area. It will also save Victoria a lot of money on drilling expenses as the holes will only be in the 200-300 meter range vs. the 800 meter range.

 

A complete copy of today’s press release is available here.

 

Great Panther Resources (TSX: GPR) Signs Contract for Lead and Zinc Concentrates

Great Panther Resources continues to enhance operations at every opportunity, in this case as a result of the sale of lead and zinc concentrates from the Company’s wholly owned Topia silver-lead-zinc mine in Durango, Mexico.  The sale of lead and zinc concentrates will enable Great Panther to achieve further reductions in unit costs from its Topia operations, which should result in higher gross and net margins for the Company. 

Vancouver, June 18, 2009  – GREAT PANTHER RESOURCES LIMITED (TSX:GPR; the “Company”) is pleased to announce it has signed contracts with Louis Dreyfus Commodities Metals Suisse SA (LDC), part of one of the world’s largest commodities trading companies, for the sale of lead and zinc concentrates from the Company’s wholly owned Topia silver-lead-zinc mine in Durango State, Mexico. The contracts are effective through to December 31, 2010 and will enable Great Panther to achieve further reductions in unit costs from its Topia operations. Including other cost-cutting measures, Topia’s unit costs for 2009 are now forecast to be in the range of US$8.50 to US$9.00 per ounce of silver, net of by-products, down from the initial estimate of US$11.00 to US$11.50 per ounce (see news release dated Feb. 18, 2009). Topia’s costs in the first quarter of 2009 had already started to come down, to US$9.18, due to higher base metal prices and to spot sales of lead concentrate to LDC while the silver refinery in Torreon was on strike.

To view the complete press release, click here.