The British Columbia government has good news for its local mining industry…
At the opening of the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia’s Roundup Conference in Vancouver this week, Premier Christy Clark said, “We are working on a plan so that mines can defer some of their very considerable power costs until commodity prices bounce back.”
Clark also announced the extensions or two additional tax-credit programs for mineral firms: The Mining Exploration Tax Credit and the Mining Flow-Through Share Tax Credit, designed to help both companies and their investors.
“It has been a rough year for mining in Canada,” Clark was quoted while speaking at the conference, “We know when a mine goes to waste all those mines and all those communities that have been founded on a mine disappear over night.”
The overall drop in the commodities market has made it extremely difficult for many junior explorers to survive.
In its 2014 annual review of world mineral exploration, the USGS reported:
The lack of available capital targeted for preproduction assets has made it difficult for junior companies to obtain sufficient capital to sustain exploration activities. One study suggests that one in 10 junior miners may go into administration, and a further 16 percent are likely to halt operations temporarily.
Canada’s TSX Venture Exchange, which heavily weighted in mineral exploration and mining, has shed roughly 80% of its value since the top of the gold market in 2011 – and even more since the index topped off in 2007.
Nevertheless, precious metal bulls have new hope as gold demand in China soars and U.S. investors begin to have stronger doubts over another interest rate hike in March.
Gold prices have almost 2% for the week already – while silver has posted gains of nearly 3%.
Rising gold and silver prices are heavily contributing to a price surge in shares of mineral and mining stocks. In just the first two day of this week shares of major companies, such as Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) and Endeavour Silver (NYSE: EXK) have seen double-digit gains.
I remain very bullish on gold and silver and now expect to see gold prices break through $1,200 within the next several weeks.
Good Investing,
Luke Burgess
Energy and Captial
