Local goldminers joined the rush, shaking off some of the reticence which has seen them lag the bullion price, which has risen by US$380/oz (20%) over the last five months.

Bellevue Gold was one of the top performers over the week, adding 36c (21%) to trade at a 12-month high of $2.

Sector leaders Northern Star and Evolution joined the rush, but without the same enthusiasm, adding 14c (1%) and 20c (6%) to $13.78 and $3.49 respectively, perhaps burdened by the heavy rainfall in WA’s goldfields which could limit production this year.

Gold Road, which announced last week that it had suspended mining operations because of flood damage to regional roads, managed a 1c rise yesterday but was still down 4c over the week at $1.52.

The global big boys of gold reacted immediately after Powell, chairman of the U.S. central bank spoke about cutting interest rates, which traders took to mean that there could be three cuts this year for a total of 0.75% before Christmas.

Powell’s ambiguous rate hint came after the latest meeting of bank governors which held official rates unchanged but the prospect of a future fall played perfectly into a belief that gold is poised for a break-out year, driven by cheaper money and geopolitical uncertainty.

Morgan Stanley, an investment bank, said there was room for gold to move higher if yields on other forms of investment continued to fall.

The bank said the gold price would probably be volatile for the rest of the year but with strong physical buying combined with the promise of rate cuts, the bank said its price target of US$2300/oz was in view.

Powell’s optimistic rate comments flowed through the entire market late this week as hopes of a soft economic landing followed by stronger growth next year lifted most share prices.

Overall, the key measures of the Australian market were all in the black when looked at over the week with the all ordinaries up 2.25% despite a slow down late on Thursday as investors digested news of sharp fall in the unemployment rate from 4.1% to 3.7%.

Welcome as more people in work might be, the rapid creation of jobs will weigh on the thinking of the Reserve bank when it comes to setting Australian rates.

If the return of the jobless rate to a 50-year low is one point of confusion for investors, the rise in corporate insolvencies to a 10-year high is another.

Whatever Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock is paid, she’s going to earn every dollar as she tries to pick the correct course through a remarkable tangle of good and bad news.

In the resources sector, which is close to many investors, there was an equal dose of conflicting data as commodity price falls of last week were reversed.

Iron ore, the big profit generator for BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue, shook off its negative image to deliver a US$10 per tonne rise to US$109/t, dragging Fortescue up by 4% to $24.77 with Rio Tinto performing the same 4% trick to trade at $120 while BHP lagged slightly with a 3% rise to $43.65.

Weighing on the BHP share price was a warning from its management team that iron ore competition was rising, compounding a similar set of problems in its nickel division which has started a division-wide process of retrenching contractors and non-essential workers.

Copper, the bellwether metal which often “reads” the market mood better than bank analysts, had a solid week, trading up to US$4.11 a pound, the highest in 11 months before easing slightly.

Citi repeated its upbeat view on copper which the bank reckons is heading up to US$4.50/lb, aided by a looming shortage of the most critical of the metal with its twin markets in industry and electrification.

Macquarie Bank joined the copper cheer squad but was immediately trampled in a copper stampede which left the bank’s copper price forecast of US$4.09/lb looking off the pace.

Best of the local gold-exposed stocks was FireFly Metals which jumped 14c higher (23%) to 71c after reporting more wide zones of copper mineralisation from drilling at its Green Bay project in Canada.

Best hit at Green Bay was 9-metres at 4% copper equivalent and 2.2% copper over an attractively thick 63.1m.

Other copper news and share price moves included:

  • Metals Acquisition, up 90c to $20.92 after reporting drill results that included 19.2m at 10.4% copper from a depth of 114.8m at its CSA mine in NSW.
  • Sandfire trading up to a 12-month high of $8.74 before easing to $8.70.
  • True North Copper slipping 1c lower to 6.9c while remaining on the buy list of Morgans which reckons the company, which owns the Cloncurry Copper Project in Queensland, could be heading up to 19.7c, and
  • 29Metals, up 6c to 52c as investors re-embrace the miner after its hefty fall over the last 12-months, which saw it dive to 19c just last month.

Uranium stocks defied another fall in the underlying price of their metal to post a series of impressive price rises.

Pick of the U-pack was Bannerman Energy which unveiled a planned expansion of its Etango project in Namibia to achieve a 56c share price rise to $3.44.

Boss Energy shared in the optimism after encouraging drill results from its 30% owned Alta Mesa investment in the U.S. On the Australian market, Boss rose by 37c to $4.98 while Macquarie refreshed a buy tip and price target of $6.

Deep Yellow was also in favour with the brokers, especially Bell Potter which said the stock now had “deep pockets” to fund growth. The stock added 16c this week to $1.37 while the broker upgraded a price target from $1.81 to $1.90.

Lithium stocks were mixed as investors stuck to the sidelines while thinking about returning to a heavily sold sector which is yet to recover from last year’s 80% crash.

Best of the lithium-exposed companies was Mineral Resources, which continues to buy assets which its chief executive, Chris Ellison, reckons are undervalued, a plan which seems to be working as the MinRes share price rose this week by $4 to $69.35.

Ellison’s latest deal is to buy the nickel concentrator of Poseidon at Lake Johnston in WA with a view to converting it into a lithium processing hub. RBC Capital Markets liked the deal, refreshing a positive report on MinRes with a price target of $76.

Most other lithium news was negative to neutral. Liontown slipped 2c lower to $1.25. Lord Resources, which has struck a farm-in deal with MinRes over its Horse Rock project, rose by 1.5c to 6.6c.

Global Lithium lost 6c to 55c even as Shaw and Partners tipped it as a buy with a price target of $2.20, and Loyal Lithium added 3c to 32c as after reporting encouraging grades of lithium and tantalum from drilling at its Dyke 5 project in Canada.

Other news and market moves of interest this week included:

  • Australian Strategic Materials rocketed up by 50c (48%) to $1.53 after receiving a letter of interest from the U.S. Government’s EXIM bank to help fund ASM’s Dubbo critical metals project at Dubbo in NSW.
  • Iluka Resources bounced back by 69c to $7.37 in a sign that the mineral sands market is bottoming out.
  • Sierra Rutile, an Iluka spin-off which owns a troubled sand mining project in Sierra Leone, added 3c to 11c after receiving a low-ball (9.5c) takeover bid from Gerald Group, a commodity trader.
  • Jupiter Mines added a sharp 4.5c to 22c thanks to its South African manganese operations benefiting from an outage at South32’s Gemco project in the Northern Territory.
  • BCI Minerals rose by 1.5c to 24c after signing an offtake agreement with an Indonesia buyer for salt from its Mardie project in WA, and
  • Burgundy Diamond Mines added 1c to 22c as interest grows in its Ekati mine in Canada while Lucapa suffered a 1c fall to 11c despite reporting the discovery of a whopping 203 carat, near-perfect gem, at its part owned Lulo alluvial mine in Angola.