A swing to the left in Britain is being offset by a swing to right in France while in the U.S. a last minute dash is underway to replace an ageing and infirm president.

Despite so much peripheral activity, the U.S. stock market, led by a handful of stars, pushed up to a record high before the Independence Day holiday, followed by gold which reveled in the uncertainty.

Australia started the new year in first gear, picking up speed over the week to be ever-so slightly ahead by yesterday (plus 0.3%) as local investors looked for guidance, which came in a mix of promising exploration and deal news.

Best discovery news came from Waratah Minerals which more than doubled in price from 13c to 31c before settling at 26c after reporting high grade gold and copper assays from drilling at its Spur project in the Lachlan Gold Belt of NSW.

Waratah’s results included 89 metres at 1.73 grams of gold and 9m at 9.33g/t with useful copper grades starting at 115m and getting better at depth.

Those promising results follow last month’s equally interesting assays from the same geological formation reported by Talisman Mining at its Durnings project.

WA1 continued to thrill its followers with an initial mineral resource estimate for its Luni niobium discovery in central WA with 200 million tonnes at 1% niobium, said to be the best discovery of that metal in 70 years. The stock added $1.52 over the week to reach $19.16. Bell Potter is sticking with a price target of $28.

Deal news was dominated by two funding moves which were initially well received before the gloss rubbed off.

Liontown struck a deal with Korea’s LG Energy Solutions over its Kathleen Valley lithium project in WA, a move which lifted the stock to a two-week high of $1.02 before fading to 92c, up 1c over the week.

Chalice Mining suffered a similar fate, rising at first to $1.58 on news of a non-binding memorandum with Japan’s Mitsubishi over its Gonneville polymetallic project before retreating to $1.26, down 16c over the week.

Gold, as mentioned earlier, staged a modest recovery with a rise of 3% to US$2358 an ounce, trumped by its little sister silver which gained 6% to US$30.40/oz.

Ongoing interest in the precious metals is both a sign of safe haven hunting and speculative positioning ahead of a keenly-awaited fall in official U.S. interest rates.

But what comes after the rate cuts is quite interesting because gold is starting to sail its own course with Citi, an investment bank, refreshing its tip of up to US$3000/oz next year, up another 25%.

What sparked Citi’s latest gold assessment was a new internal analysis which focused on demand from central banks and private investors, which has risen to absorb 85% of all newly mined metal – leaving little for jewellers and coin producers such as government mints.

“Looking ahead, we expect gold investment demand to rise to absorb almost all mine supply over the next 12-to-18 months, underpinning our base case of US$2700/oz to US$3000/oz during 2025,” Citi said.

A potential problem with the heavy-duty private sector and central bank buying is that much of it is emanating from China where the Shanghai market has displaced London as the epicentre of gold trading just as Chinese speculators have previously driven copper to new price highs before selling out, with nickel another example of hot metal trading. Up today, down tomorrow.

Corporate action was also a feature of the gold market this week, masking the price rise with the unexpected collapse of Calidus into receivership catching investors unawares.

Other gold news and price moves included:

  • Westgold adding 14c to $2.52 after announcing a second dividend for the year from bumper profits being generated at its WA mines. The latest 1.25c payout follows a 1c dividend in February – the first in three years.
  • West African shedding 22c to $1.40 after announcing it had raised $150 million at $1.37 a share to fund work on its Kiaka gold mine in Burkina Faso.
  • Ramelius falling by 3c to $1.91 after announcing a revamped $175 million debt facility while its takeover target, Spartan Resources, was steady at 94c.
  • Saturn losing 2c to 18c after raising $14 million at 16.5c a share to fund work at its Apollo Hill project in WA.
  • Ora Banda slipping 1c to 33c with CG Capital Market updating a speculative buy tip with a price target of 50c, and
  • Bellevue rose by 14c to $1.92. De Grey was up 10c to $1.22 and Evolution put on 15c to $3.63.

Uranium remained squarely in the target zone of investors despite the price barely moving at US$86 per pound over the week.

Boss led the way among uranium stocks rising by 6c to $4.14 after reporting the first shipment of the nuclear fuel from its Honeymoon project in South Australia.

Paladin also performed well as investors continue to digest news of its plan to acquire Canada’s Fission Uranium, rising this week by 96c to $13.32.

But star of the uranium sector was rarely mentioned Infini Resources which rose by 9c (36%) to 36c after reporting high grade (1.8% uranium) from soil samples at its Portland Creek project in Canada.

Iron ore emerged from a month in the sin bin to storm back up to US$113 a tonne, lifting all locally exposed miners of the material, led by Fenix Resources which added 7.5c to 39c after it reported plans to restate the Shine project in WA. The stock had drifted down to 24c earlier this year.

Shareholders in Red Hill Iron continue to harvest their reward from the sale of assets into the Mineral Resources run Onslow project rising by 25c to $7.60 after news of another dividend from the deal. Red Hill was trading at $4.10 nine months ago.

Mineral Resources, which had been sold down sharply because of its iron ore and lithium assets, bounced back this week with a rise of $2.93 to $58.11.

Morgan Stanley reckons iron ore has hit the bottom and should rise over the rest of the year to US$125/t.

After Liontown (mentioned earlier), Arcadium was the pick of the lithium sector, rising sharply from the middle of the week despite minimal movement in the lithium price.

From $4.72 on Tuesday, Arcadium jumped 52c (11%) higher to $5.22, possibly a sign of corporate action.

Other news and market moves of interest this week included:

  • Sovereign Metals rosing by 10c to 70c after Rio Tinto said it would invest an additional $18.5 million in the African-focused rutile and graphite explorer which would lift the big miners stake in Sovereign to 19.76%.
  • New Hope Corporation demonstrating that coal miners don’t need banks to fund their operations, raising $300 million via a convertible note, a deal which help lift the stock by 17c to $5.05.
  • Whitehaven was another coal stock on the move up, rising by $1.25 to $8.91 thanks to a rising price for its primary product, hard coking coal, which is in demand after a fire at the Grosvenor mine of Anglo American in Queensland.
  • Arafura Rare Earths rose by 2c to 20c after reporting a fresh debt financing arrangement with a German government credit agency.
  • AIC Mines added 3c to 45c after reporting high grade assays from drilling at its Swagman copper project in Queensland with a best hit of 3.9m assaying 1.77% copper from a depth of 453m.
  • Pivotal Metals rose by 1c (66%) to 2.5c after reporting encouraging downhole geophysical indications from drilling at its Hordern Lake copper project in Canada, and
  • Everest Metals added 1.5c to 14c after reporting encouraging grades of rubidium at its Mt Edon project in WA. The unusual metal, which melts at 40 degrees Celsius, has limited use but does provide the purple colour in fireworks.