US equities edge higher, Sept. 12-16

U.S. markets remained buoyant despite uncertainty ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve meetings scheduled for Sept. 20–21. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% to 18,123.80 and the S&P 500 Index advanced 0.5% to 2,139.16. Spot gold lost US$17.80 per oz., falling 1.3% to US$1,310 per oz., while the Philadelphia Gold & Silver Index dropped 2.1% to 91.50. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 5% to US$43.21 per barrel. In other news, U.S. retail sales fell 0.3% in August — the first decline since March — while in the week ended Sept. 10, initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased by 1,000 to 260,000.

Shares of Agnico Eagle Mines were up US47¢ to US$51.44, with news of an updated resource estimate for its wholly owned Amaruq project in Nunavut, 50 km northwest of its Meadowbank mine. The updated resource is based on drilling up to June 30, 2016, in Amaruq’s Whale Tail and IVR deposits. The project’s inferred resource increased 13% to 3.71 million oz. gold (19.4 million tonnes grading 5.97 grams gold per tonne) — an increase of 432,000 contained oz. gold basis, compared to the estimate on Dec. 31, 2015. The 2016 exploration program also delineated a potential second source of open-pit “ore” at the V Zone. The company will release another updated resource estimate in February 2017, and management expects Amaruq will provide a new source of feed for the company’s Meadowbank mill starting in 2019.

Diamond drill results at the Malikoundi deposit at Iamgold’s Boto project in eastern Senegal lifted the company’s shares US8¢ to US$3.99. Highlights include 9 metres grading 4.76 grams gold per tonne, 12 metres grading 6.39 grams gold, 22 metres grading 4.04 grams gold, 32 metres grading 5.19 grams gold and 42 metres grading 3.60 grams gold. The company reported that the program delineated near-surface, shallow mineralization extending 500 metres along strike, north of the Malikoundi deposit, and that the 23-hole (2,217-metre) program confirmed wide intervals of high-grade mineralization in the footwall to the main deposit, which had not been fully tested previously. Iamgold’s wholly owned, 236 sq. km project is near the Senegal-Mali border.