Buy when there is blood in the streets – Baron Rothschild – Ed Note: This is contrarian investing at its heart – the strongly-held belief that the worse things seem in the market, the better the opportunities are for profit. Fortunately in the Uranium market there are a broad variety of investments you can make from dividend paying blue chip stocks like Cameco Corporation which is the world’s largest publicly traded uranium company right through to a large number of higher risk Junior Mining companies buying properties and striving to find the next big Uranium mine while the price of Uranium is trading at a mere 25% of what it was in 2007.

Fundamentally driven

As outlined in our previous articles in November and December, we anticipate uranium prices to improve significantly in 2014 for a number of reasons. Today, the fundamentals for uranium and nuclear power generation are stronger than ever. More reactors are under construction, planned and proposed than before the Fukushima incident. 

For uranium prices to appreciate in the foreseeable future, one must look not only at the reactors under construction worldwide, but the ones coming online soon. China has 28 reactors under construction, yet 5 are ready to be connected to the grid this year. Japan has submitted applications for 17 reactors to be restarted, whereas analysts are expecting at least 6-8 reactors to be granted permission for restart in 2014. Both China and Japan are set to add vast amounts of demand back into the uranium market.

….continue reading & viewing charts HERE

“The trade has been profitable in 16 of the past 18 periods including nine of the last ten periods” – Don Vialoux

Gasoline prices are hitting their ‘sweet spot’. Boost your exposure with this ETF

Gasoline prices traditionally move higher from the end of January to the end of May. What are prospects this year?

Gasoline prices move higher during their period of seasonal strength mainly because of two annual recurring events. North American refiners switch their production from heating oil into gasoline for the summer driving season. During this period, production temporarily is shut down and inventories drop. In addition, refiners normally complete their annual maintenance during the conversion period. If something is going to go wrong, it usually happens during the annual maintenance period. North American refineries are old and require an increasing amount of maintenance.

The “sweet spot” for wholesale U.S. gasoline prices is from the end of January to the end of April. The trade has been profitable in 16 of the past 18 periods including nine of the last ten periods. Average gain per period during the past 18 “sweet spots” was 16.8 per cent.

Tip off for timing of the start of “sweet spot” is a seasonal peak in gasoline inventories normally between the last week in January and the second week in February. This year, gasoline inventories peaked in the last week in January.

Prospects for an upside move in gasoline prices this year are above average despite a decline in demand due to the improving fuel efficiency of North American autos. Feedstock for gasoline is crude oil. Crude oil prices already have increased by almost 5 percent since the end of January and established an intermediate uptrend earlier this week. On average, crude oil prices during the past 20 periods from the end of January to the end of April have increased 10 per cent. In addition, a colder-than-average winter will prompt refiners to postpone timing for conversion from heating oil production to gasoline, thereby increasing the possibility of a gasoline shortage this spring.

Look for the average retail price of gasoline in the U.S. to advance from $3.35 (U.S.) to over $3.75 per gallon by the official start of the U.S. driving season on the U.S. Memorial Day holiday near the end of May. An equivalent change in the price of gasoline in Canada is also anticipated. Assuming no change in the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar, the price of gasoline in the Greater Toronto Area is expected to rise from $1.31 (Cdn) to $1.45 per litre.

On the charts, wholesale gasoline prices at $2.85 (U.S.) per gallon and their related ETF have a positive technical profile.  Yesterday, the ETF broke above resistance on higher than average volume to reach a six month high. Last week, gasoline moved above its 20, 50 and 200-day moving average. Strength relative to the S&P 500 index turned positive at the beginning of February.

A direct way to invest is through the United States Gasoline Fund, LP (UGA), an exchange-traded note based on gasoline futures and short term notes. 

Ed Note: Don’s Monday report is highly recommended to read/scan, as it lays out all of the economic news for the week and analyses 45 different markets and charts. 

Don and Jon Vialoux are the authors of free daily reports on equity markets, sectors, commodities and Exchange Traded Funds. They are also research analysts at Horizons Investment Management, offering research for the Horizons Seasonal Rotation ETF (HAC-T). All of the views expressed herein are their personal views, although they may be reflected in positions or transactions in the various funds managed by Horizons Investment. Horizons Investment is the investment manager for the Horizons family of ETFs. Daily reports are available at http://TimingTheMarket.ca/ andhttp://EquityClock.com.

Saskatchewan Juniors In A Most Excellent Adventure

In the history of mineral exploration, the quest for uranium is really in its infancy. Gold, silver, copper, iron and tin exploration, mining and refining can be traced back almost 10,000 years in some form.

Uranium wasn’t identified until 1789 and not isolated until 1841. Work done by Madame Currie lead to the first practical use of radioactivity, the common X-Ray machine. In WWI over a million patients had X-Rays taken and at the same time radiation treatment of cancer was born using radium.

Uranium ore was found in 1900 by the Geological Survey of Canada near the present Port Radium in Saskatchewan. The first Canadian commercial mine was called Eldorado and began production in 1930 – the principal uses of uranium being pigments, ceramic glazes, and a yellow-green fluorescent glass and as a source of radium for medical purposes.

Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann discovered nuclear fission in 1939. The Eldorado mine was taken over by the Canadian government in 1943 and produced the uranium for the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Eldorado Mining and Refining remained owned by the Canadian government until 1988 when it merged with SMDC the predecessor company of Cameco.

“Exploration for uranium ore began in earnest in 1942 under direction of the government for military purposes. A wartime ban on private prospecting was lifted in 1947, which led in the early 1950s to the discovery of major deposits near Elliot Lake, Ontario, and northern Saskatchewan. By 1959, 23 mines and 19 treatment plants were in operation, and Canada’s C$330 million in uranium exports exceeded the value for every other mineral.

A second burst of exploration in the 1970s resulted in major discoveries in the Athabasca Basin in northern Saskatchewan. Mines at Rabbit Lake, Cluff Lake and Key Lake started up in 1975, 1980 and 1983, which up until 2000 accounted for most of Canada’s uranium production (14,223 tonnes of U3O8 in 1998).” World Nuclear Association

Athabasca Basin

Uranium prices were weak after the early post war demand subsided. It wasn’t until the mid 1960’s prices improved and exploration increased.

The Athabasca Basin is an ancient sedimentary basin located along the Northern Alberta-Saskatchewan border south of Lake Athabasca. The Basin covers approximately 100,000 square kilometers in Saskatchewan and a small portion of Alberta. With the Port Radium area thoroughly explored a consortium flew an airborne radiometric survey over the sandstones of the Basin in 1967.

Follow up on the survey resulted in the discovery of the Rabbit Lake mine in 1968.

The “Athabasca Basin” legend was born resulting in a huge staking rush by juniors and in particular large multinational oil companies.  This was the beginning of a prolific period of ongoing uranium discoveries incomparable to any other domain in the world.

When the Cluff Lake D Zone was found in 1969, the Athabasca Basin become host of the highest grade uranium deposit ever found up that time.

In 1975, the richest open-pit deposit in the world was discovered at Key Lake.

More than 15 uranium deposits totaling over 1.4 billion pounds of uranium have been discovered in the region since the Rabbit Lake mine discovery back in 1968

Today the Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan hosts the world’s largest and richest high-grade uranium deposits accounting for approximately 15 percent of global primary uranium supply.

Athabasca uranium deposits have grades substantially higher than the world average grade of about 0.1% U3O8. The two dozen or so known uranium deposits within the Athabasca Basin have average grades of more than 3.0% U3O8.

Unconformity-related deposits

One thing almost all economic uranium deposits have in common is that the uranium is remobilized from one area and re-precipitated in a host rock where chemical conditions are conducive to concentrating the uranium in higher concentrations.

An unconformity is a time gap in the rock record between two rock units. The lower unit may be deformed, brecciated or altered while the overlying units are less deformed. Uranium deposits occur in both the underlying and overlying units.

In the underlying units, there may be a weathering zone, fault zone or some other feature that increases the rocks porosity and permeability. In the overlying units, it may be the sandstones or some other features that allows the concentration of uranium. 

The deposits in the Athabasca Basin can occur below, across and immediately above the unconformity, with the highest grade deposits situated at or just above the unconformity (eg Cigar Lake and McArthur River).

The initial discoveries were found through surface indicators – radioactive boulders, geochemical anomalies in the surrounding lakes and swamps and geophysical signatures. Hydrothermal fluids associated with high grade uranium deposits will cause extensive alteration of the host rock, resulting in displacement and removal of minerals/elements, creating porosity and subsequent density contrast. This density contrast will be expressed as a gravity low anomaly and is a prime drill target when qualified by other coincident indicators of uranium mineralization such as geochemistry and radon.

Today, all of Canada’s uranium production is from unconformity-related deposits – Key Lake, Cluff Lake, Rabbit Lake (Cluff Lake, Key Lake and the original open pit at Rabbit Lake have now been mined out, underground mining continues at Rabbit Lake), and McClean Lake and McArthur River deposits. Other large, exceptionally high grade unconformity-related deposits currently being developed include Cigar Lake (averaging almost 20% U3O8, some zones over 50% U3O8).

Patterson Lake South

In 2013 seemingly not a single day went by without a news release about another company staking claims in the area surrounding Patterson Lake South (PLS) and citing recent drill assay results from Fission Uranium Corp. TSX.V:FCU as the reason why.

Fission’s exploration success, that sweet smell of discovery (seven zones on trend along a strike length of 1.78km with all seven zones remaining open in all directions), has created renewed exploration interest in Canada’s province of Saskatchewan, uranium and in the junior resource market.

The importance of Fission’s discovery cannot be overstated in the context of Saskatchewan exploration and the markets in general. This kind of good news can excite the market for the entire junior exploration sector. Also area plays, where one company makes a discovery, then dozens of other companies rush in to stake all around them, are one of the very foundations of our junior markets.

Fission’s assays are spectacular, here’s two:

• Hole PLS14-129: intersected 36.72m of total composite off-scale (>9999 cps) mineralization at shallow depth.
• Hole PLS13-075: intersected 21.65m total composite off-scale and assayed at 21.76% U3O8 over 21.5m.

Area Play

Located at the southwestern edge of the Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan, Canada the Patterson Lake South uranium play has the potential to go for several years as field crews are mobilized to the area and news flow will be constant from almost all the companies involved.

Fission’s discovery has sparked a land rush, there are an increasing number of savvy explorers and market players staking whatever land they can get surrounding the discovery area. A select few companies will be buy and hold for drill results and many others will present trading opportunities.

Given very legitimate, and increasing daily, concerns about growing country risk, and a very real looming uranium supply crunch, this is an extremely timely article about what is a truly exciting uranium area play. And it certainly doesn’t hurt investor’s prospects that Canada’s Province of Saskatchewan is one of the most geologically prospective and pro-mining jurisdictions in the world today.

All the elements of a new area play are here:

1) A spectacular new discovery, with new geology or a twist on old geology.
2) A jurisdiction with safe and reasonable tenure.
3) An area amenable to mineral exploration and development.

The Patterson Lake South area play juniors (and a couple of majors – Cameco & Areva) are gathering for what could be one of Canada’s most important uranium discoveries. There is huge upside potential in any of these juniors if they make another discovery. One drill hole could send their (and their neighbors) share price soaring.

In alphabetical order here are a few companies that I found very interesting, (most are running drill/exploration programs right now), and have singled out.

Azincourt Uranium TSX.V:AAZ – On January 20th Azincourt and JV partner Fission 3.0 TSX.V:FUU announced a $1mm 8-10 hole drill program including radon surveying and ground geo-physicals had commenced on their Patterson Lake North (PLN) property.

Aldrin Resource Corp. TSX.V:ALN – Plans a 3,000 m winter drilling program to test priority basement conductors on its 12,000 hectare Triple M Uranium Property. These basement conductor targets are located within the 1984 hectare southeast block of the Triple M Property. Aldrin’s SE block is located adjacent to the south boundary of Fission Uranium’s PLS discovery property at Patterson Lake.

Canadian International Minerals TSX.V:CIN – CIN has exposure to 59,987.177 hectares of mining claims proximate to PLS. On Monday, February 10, 2014, the Company’s common shares began trading on a consolidated basis – ten (10) old shares for one (1) new share. As a result of the consolidation, there will be approximately 8,313,350 common shares issued and outstanding.

Forum TSX.V:FDC – Forums Clearwater Project is located adjacent to Fissions Patterson Lake South discovery. Forum’s northernmost claim, staked immediately southwest of Fissions ground is interpreted to be on strike with the conductive trend that hosts the high-grade uranium mineralization on the Patterson Lake South project. Forum is conducting a $900,000 winter drill and ground EM survey program with 3,000 meters (12 holes) of drilling planned. Drilling should start by mid-February.

NexGen Energy Ltd. TSX-V:NXE – Announced that it has commenced a two drill, 6,000 meter program on the Rook I project. On February 19th NexGen announced it has discovered a new zone of uranium mineralization on the Rook 1 project. The Arrow prospect represents a totally new zone of uranium mineralization in the SW Athabasca basin and is completely unrelated to any other known occurrence in the region. The Rook I project is immediately adjacent to, and on trend, northeast from Fission Uranium’s high-grade uranium discovery, Patterson Lake South (“PLS”) project.

Purepoint Uranium Group TSX.V:PTU – Announced the commencement of its winter drill program at its Hook Lake Project. This project is a joint venture with AREVA Resources Canada Inc. and Cameco Corporation and is located immediately north of Patterson Lake. The 2014 diamond drill program will focus on the highly prospective “Patterson Lake Corridor”, the same electromagnetic conductive trend that hosts the Patterson Lake South uranium discovery.

Conclusion

As the story at Fission’s Patterson Lake South project unfolds (Fission is undertaking a $20mm 2014 work program) I believe we can expect exciting times for those investors who get involved with the various companies participating in, what still are, very early days of this developing area play.

Canada’s Province of Saskatchewan has a stable geopolitical environment and a tremendous wealth of mineralization. History has proven time and time again that junior exploration stocks can write a very exciting discovery story and reward investors with multiple returns on their capital. It is still very early days in the Patterson Lake South area play and the greatest rewards lie ahead of us.

Is the Patterson Lake South uranium area play on your radar screen?

If not, it should be.

Richard (Rick) Mills

Richard lives with his family on a 160 acre ranch in northern British Columbia. He invests in the resource and biotechnology/pharmaceutical sectors and is the owner of Aheadoftheherd.com. His articles have been published on over 400 websites, including:

WallStreetJournal, USAToday, NationalPost, Lewrockwell, MontrealGazette, VancouverSun, CBSnews, HuffingtonPost, Beforeitsnews, Londonthenews, Wealthwire, CalgaryHerald, Forbes, Dallasnews, SGTreport, Vantagewire, Indiatimes, Ninemsn, Ibtimes, Businessweek, HongKongHerald, Moneytalks, SeekingAlpha, BusinessInsider, Investing.com and the Association of Mining Analysts.

Please visit  www.aheadoftheherd.com

If you are interested in advertising on Richard’s site please contact him for more information,rick@aheadoftheherd.com

 ***

Legal Notice / Disclaimer

This document is not and should not be construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe for any investment.

Richard Mills has based this document on information obtained from sources he believes to be reliable but which has not been independently verified.

Richard Mills makes no guarantee, representation or warranty and accepts no responsibility or liability as to its accuracy or completeness. Expressions of opinion are those of Richard Mills only and are subject to change without notice. Richard Mills assumes no warranty, liability or guarantee for the current relevance, correctness or completeness of any information provided within this Report and will not be held liable for the consequence of reliance upon any opinion or statement contained herein or any omission.

Furthermore, I, Richard Mills, assume no liability for any direct or indirect loss or damage or, in particular, for lost profit, which you may incur as a result of the use and existence of the information provided within this Report.

It’s one atom thick, lighter than paper, 300 times stronger than steel, harder than a diamond, 1000 times more conductive than silicon & can stretch more than 20% of its original length. Something that will doubtless find a market making bullet proof evening gowns & tuxes for inner city dwellers.

You may never have heard of graphene, most people haven’t. You will soon though as this high-tech medium will shape virtually every part of our daily lives by the end of this decade. As you read this, researchers and scientists are working furiously for ways to transform this discovery into the Next Big Thing. 

A radical new material made from a single carbon atom will soon have a pervasive impact on the U.S. economy – and the entire human race.

Stronger than steel and lighter than a feather, this high-tech medium will shape virtually every part of our daily lives by the end of this decade.

The possible uses are limitless.

No wonder the two scientists who discovered this substance won the Nobel Prize in physics last year. That alone should tell you something.

It often takes decades for scientific breakthroughs like this to bag the world’s biggest award. But these two Russians won it for a substance discovered just seven years ago.

The material that I’m talking about is called “graphene.” And you might have guessed, graphene is related to the graphite used in pencils.

Graphene: The Miracle Material

If you’ve never before heard of graphene, don’t worry – most investors haven’t.

In fact, most investors have never seen anything quite like this new miracle material.

But it won’t be long before you’re benefiting from its potential.

Even as you read this, researchers and scientists are looking for ways to transform this discovery into the Next Big Thing.

Indeed, my Pentagon sources say military leaders want to learn how graphene will lead to victory on the battlefields of the future.

Tech leaders such as IBM, Intel and Samsung Electronics hope graphene will be the foundation of the next generation of cutting-edge products.

And we can already see how graphene will spawn a true revolution in wireless communications.

We’ll soon be able to launch satellites that are the size of skyscrapers – but that weigh less than your patio barbecue grill.

You’ll download hi-def video to your smartphone in nanoseconds. If you want to know who’ll win the current marketplace smartphone brawl, watch who makes the best use of graphene.

Then there’s biotech.

Thanks to graphene, doctors will be able to use high doses of new drugs that are lethal to cancer cells – without getting you sick or harming healthy cells.

They’ll use the substance to make synthetic blood. We’ll no longer have to fret about whether supplies are infected by a deadly virus, or waste precious minutes matching rare blood types.

Graphene could serve as a miracle panacea for an aging America.

Though we’re already living longer and fuller lives, the reality is that millions of us still face age-related health problems. But thanks to a scientist at Wayne State University, doctors may someday be able to combat Alzheimer’s by inserting graphene electrodes into a patient’s brain.

While current devices last only a few months, the Wayne State researcher believes his implants will last as long as five years – improving the quality of life for millions.

Other graphene implants will target spinal cord injuries, and even blindness.

Researchers at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in Ohio said a form of graphene could be used to grow human tissue.

The ramifications are huge: Lab-grown human hearts that can last, disease-free, for a hundred years may one day help children with birth defects or adults with heart disease.

The Air Force team at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base listed a wide range of other uses. These include making a new class of drugs, as well as growing organisms that can yield bio-green energy.

Meantime, graphene will make the U.S. military even more effective. Our soldiers will use “invisibility cloaks” to make tanks and jeeps “disappear” from enemy view.

At the University of Texas at Dallas researchers used carbon nanotubes to hide objects in plain sight. Funded by the Pentagon, the scientists found that bending light in certain ways created the “mirage” that objects weren’t really there.

Given those insights, just think what graphene can do for computing. By the end of this decade you’ll have the power of 10,000 mainframes in the palm of your hand.

Last year, scientists at the Rensselaer Institute in Troy, NY, cleared a big hurdle in nanoelectronics.

The researchers proved they could transform ultra-thin sheets of graphene into tiny transistors, forming the basis of the computers and solid-state nanocircuits of the future.

Even your revolutionary flat-screen TV could become obsolete – thanks to a graphene-based LED screen that’s as thin as Saran Wrap. But think of the benefits: You’ll be able to roll up your giant TV, take it to a friend’s house, and hang it on the wall to watch the Super Bowl.

More Graphene Miracles

Let’s start with the two breakthroughs …

The first – a recent discovery at the University of California at Los Angeles — is a double win for the new material … and for the entire electronics sector. You see, a research team there devised tiny devices that can charge and discharge power up to 1,000 times faster than standard batteries.

Because of the proliferation of batteries in portable electronics, this breakthrough could have a huge impact: It could affect everything from smartphones to cardiology pacemakers.

The technical term for this new gadget is “micro super-capacitor.”  And the name says it all: The devices are small, but extremely powerful.

Capacitors have been in widespread use in electronic devices for a long time – and, in fact, have been integral to the electronics revolution. Their job is to store and release current in very controlled amounts. Without this circuit-board traffic cop, your gear would break down on a regular basis … or simply crash.

But the electrical engineers who design all this stuff haven’t been able to make the devices any smaller on a cost-effective basis because they can’t figure out how to further shrink the capacitors that have to go inside them.

But that may be about to change – thanks to graphene and an innovative new production process.

The UCLA research team used a consumer-grade DVD burner to produce these super-small super-capacitors from graphene at a fraction of the cost of standard techniques.

Team members simply glued a layer of plastic onto the surface of a DVD. Then they coated it with a layer of a substance known as graphite oxide that is used to synthesize graphene.

The new devices offer another big advantage: They’re easy to bend and twist. Ultimately, that means they could work for energy storage in flexible electronics like roll-up TV screens and e-readers. 

Even “wearable” electronic devices become possible.

In the second breakthrough, a British research team says it’s found a way to overcome one of the key obstacles that right now limit graphene’s use in electronics.

I’m talking about defects.

With current methods, small flakes of graphene form in random ways. That process leaves defects, or “seams,” between flakes when they join together.

The seams prevent electrons from flowing freely in graphene, which so far has limited its use in electronics.

But a team at Oxford University devised a way to align the graphene’s carbon atoms using a cheap piece of copper foil. Team members said the copper surface’s atomic structure acts as a “guide” that controls how the carbon atoms grow on top.

“Our discovery shows that it is possible to produce large sheets of graphene where these flakes, called ‘domains,’ are well-aligned,” said team leader Nicole Grobert. This, she said “will create a neater, stronger, and more ‘electron-friendly’ material.”

What this means is that, in theory, the only thing now limiting the size of the graphene sheet that engineers will be able to create will be the size of the copper sheet itself.

This advance is “an important step towards finding a way of manufacturing graphene in a controlled fashion at an industrial scale,” Grobert said. And this “is essential if we are to bridge the gap between fundamental research and building useful graphene-based technologies.”

Once you factor in these new developments, there’s only one conclusion you can reach: Graphene is more likely than ever to become a commercially viable material that will help transform the world around us in profound ways.

And that means that we have an opportunity to invest in a product that’s going to become a ubiquitous part of our lives.

How to Invest in Graphene Stock

By now, you’re probably champing at the bit for ways in which to invest in this “miracle material.” So here’s the deal.

As far as retail investors are concerned, graphene is a very limited market – at least for now.

First, there’s no good way to invest in graphene – or the graphite carbon it’s made from – as a commodity.

That’s because China controls roughly 70% of the market, much as it dominates more than 95% of the world’s “rare earths” market, and Beijing is both limiting exports and charging a 20% export duty on graphene. That’s one reason its price has more than tripled in the past five years.

Now, there are a couple publicly traded Western graphite miners that are on track to produce graphene. But investing in any is an ultra-speculative proposition at this point.

Most of them either haven’t shown a profit at any time over the past five years, and trading volume on these stocks is thin, with notoriously large bid-ask spreads.

Second, there are some graphene-related companies, like Michigan-based XG Sciences Inc., one of the largest U.S. graphene suppliers. It manufactures and sells “nanoplatelets” and develops specialized graphene products using them. But it’s privately held and shows no sign of going public.

Third, there’s no real pure play in graphene research, development or manufacturing, either – but there are certainly opportunities coming down the pipeline.

Around the world, governments, universities, energy companies and major corporations are pouring huge dollar amounts into graphene research and product development.

Great Britain, for example, just dedicated $120 million to further graphene work at the University of Manchester; South Korea has announced $300 million in graphene projects; and the U.S. military is studying potential applications in aircraft, missiles and other high-speed, light-weight equipment.

On the corporate front, several big companies are working on graphene research and applications.

We’re particularly interested by one large international player that’s already working to bring graphene products to market in everyday products and truly commercialize this material for the first time.

We’re tracking that story every day. It’s not quite ripe for investment, but when it is, you’ll be the first to hear it.

No doubt, graphene offers remarkable possibilities. It also offers substantial profits for investors, but finding the right vehicle to catch the graphene wave will be a challenge – requiring both patience and close attention.

We’ll bring you the latest research and investment opportunities as they emerge.

Stay tuned…