On the passing of Edward Flood, RIP, a friend of the #MasterMetals Blog

From Km. 88 in Venezuela to Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia, passing through Canada's Voisey's Bay, Ed was present at every major mineral find in the last 20+ years. His recent debilitating illness took nothing away from his great humor and the distinguished person that he was. He was taken away from us all too soon. He will be dearly missed. Our sincere condolences go out to his family.  

	MasterMetals (@MasterMetals)
19/10/15 00:17 Great comment from @thomcalandra on the passing of our dear friend #EdFlood, mining entrepreneur, you will be missed twitter.com/thomcalandra/s…

Now that #Gold has broken through its 200 day MA, will it Soar? Or is it Just Another False Start?

Gold: Off to the Races, or Just Another False Start? 

The Visual Capitalist 

The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.

Commodity traders know that gold is highly cyclical, and that it takes significant changes in the fundamentals and sentiment to change the long-term price trend. That said, the latest news on gold is cautiously optimistic for those waiting for a rebound in the precious metal. Over the last few days, gold has broken through its 200-day moving average to reach its highest price in three months at just short of $1,200 per oz.

This type of technical breakthrough is rare: over the last six years, gold has touched its 200-day moving average on the upswing six different times. Each time gold emerged from these technical circumstances, the downward momentum of the gold price would remain unaffected.

The most recent breakthrough was in early 2015, but gold subsequently fell back through its moving average to finish off -14% lower than it started six months earlier. In 2012 and 2014, similar technical breakthroughs also occurred, ending in similar bearish fates.

The subsequent trading was particularly nasty in 2012. After the technical event happened that year, the gold price continued to fall over the course of 16 months by a whopping -28%.

That said, crossing the 200-day moving average is still regarded as an important technical event to traders. If you need proof, look back to gold's largest run in recent memory, which occurred in the aftermath of the Financial Crisis. Gold crossed its 200-day moving average while it was worth a measly $860/oz and soared 124% in value over the next 32 months. It would reach roughly $1,900 per oz, its highest price (in absolute terms) of all time.

So will crossing the 200-day moving average mean anything this time around? It's impossible to say, but there is certainly no shortage of other indicators that may suggest that it is time for investors to pile back into gold stocks.

Read the article online here: http://www.visualcapitalist.com/gold-off-to-the-races-or-just-another-false-start-chart/

Investors pile into Freeport on restructure hopes @MINING

Freeport
McMoRan has been mining copper, silver and gold at Grasberg in remote
Indonesia since the 1970s. In terms of reserves, Grasberg is still the
richest deposit on the planet

Investors pile into Freeport on restructure hopes | MINING.com

Frik Els | October 6, 2015

Copper and
gold giant Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) was trading higher as much as
6.7% on Tuesday with already more than 28 million shares in the owner of
the iconic Grasberg exchanging hands by midday.

At the time of the oil and gas acquisitions in December 2012 Freeport was worth more than $30 billion

The Phoenix-based company announced on Tuesday that it's trimming its board and is reviewing its oil and gas business in a return to its roots as a copper-focused miner.



The announcement of "alternative courses" for the oil division which
could include an outright sale comes less than three years after Freeport acquired   Plains Exploration Production for $6.9bn and bought back for $3.4bn in cash McMoRan Exploration, a deep sea drilling company, which it spun off 18 years ago.

The
news comes not longer after it was revealed that activist investor Carl
Icahn has taken up a substantial stake in the business.

Last
month Freeport, which vies with Chile's state-owned Codelco as the world
number copper miner in terms of output, became the first major copper
miner to announce its slashing capex and production to cope with the
depressed copper price.

That led to a huge surge in the stock
which after today's rally is worth $13.2 billion, but year to date
Freeport has been decimated with shares down by half.

At the time of the oil and gas investment in December 2012 Freeport was worth more than $30 billion.

Investors pile into Freeport on restructure hopes | MINING.com