GOLD STOCKS NEWS – Gold stocks slid Monday as the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) dropped $0.58, or 0.9%, to $65.22 per share. The sell-off in gold stocks and the GDX came as gold futures tumbled $23.00 to $1,836.50 per ounce amid widespread liquidation in the precious metals space. The S&P/TSX Global Gold Index, Canada’s leading basket of gold stocks, retreated 0.8% alongside the GDX.
With today’s weakness in gold stocks, the GDX cut its year-to-date gain to 5.8%. This compares quite unfavorably to the 29.0% rise in the yellow metal this year. Large-cap gold stocks, which make up the large majority of the GDX’s components, have not provided investors with the gold price leverage seen during previous gold bull markets.
Due to the underperformance of many large-cap gold stocks included in the GDX, some investors are looking at small-cap companies in the sector. In prior gold bull markets, many small- and mid-cap gold stocks provided enhanced leverage to the yellow metal due to their superior growth potential. One small-cap name looking to deliver this type of leverage is West Kirkland Mining (WKM.TSXV) – an emerging North American gold company with significant mineral rights positions in Kirkland Lake Ontario, Canada and in the major mine trends in northeastern Nevada.
This morning West Kirkland Mining announced assay results from hole WT11-004 drilled into the TUG deposit, located within the Long Canyon Trend in Nevada. The Company reported that the hinge of the interpreted TUG anticline continues to yield impressive intercepts – including 1.55 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 58.52 g/t silver over 22.6 meters.
Michael G. Allen, West Kirkland’s VP of Exploration, commented that “Our TUG drilling to date has confirmed and expanded the existing deposit. We are continuing to explore for extensions of the deposit both along strike and at depth and are impressed with our results so far.”
Due in large part to the substantial progress West Kirkland has made in recent years, the Company has attracted the attention of several large institutional investors. The K2 Principal Fund, RBC Asset Management, and Front Street Investment Management each hold considerable positions in shares of WKM.TSXV.
In morning trading on Monday, notable gold stocks moving lower in concert with the GDX included Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM), Goldcorp (GG), and Newmont Mining (NEM). AEM, GG, and NEM – three large-cap gold stocks included in the GDX – dropped -0.5%, 1.5%, and 1.4%, respectively.
Premier Gold Added to S&P/TSX Composite Index
- Premier recently appointed Paul Andre Huet as Chief Operating Officer, where he will lead the advancement of the Company’s key properties in Ontario, Canada and in Nevada.
- Ongoing drilling at Premier’s Saddle Deposit in Nevada continues to intersect significant intervals of mineralized breccia (assays pending) and confirm the Company’s belief that Saddle represents one of the most prospective undeveloped high-grade gold deposits in North America.
- In August 2011, Premier completed its acquisition of Goldstone Resources, which will consolidate 100% ownership of the Hardrock Project and provide Premier with prime geological structures in the Geraldton-Beardmore Greenstone belt in Canada.
