ACA Howe Newsletter - April 2016

Welcome to the first edition of the ACA Howe UK office newsletter to outline the company's activities in 2016.

It was a positive first quarter of 2016 (see Industry News for more) and our Senior Associates have been working on technical reports for projects in Turkey and South Africa. Our UK based staff have been focused on digitising a large number of historical mine plans and sections in preparation for 3D modelling.

We are hopeful that the positive start to 2016 will continue and we look forward to the months ahead.

Industry News

Q1 2016 saw signs of life and a generally more positive feel appearing in the mining industry, which is a very welcome change after recent years of doom and gloom! Based on data from January and February 2016, Barclays reports that commodity indices had their strongest start to a year since 2011.

Reports of optimism at the PDAC Convention also suggest that investor confidence has been lifted and we can only hope that this continues through the remainder of 2016 and into 2017!

Commodity Highlights

The gold price closed Q1 2016 at US$1,233/oz - approximately 15% above a low of around $1,050/oz in December 2015 and the largest quarterly rise in 30 years! At the time of writing, the gold price is currently at around $1,245/oz.

The copper price rose 12% in Q1 2016! Prices fell slightly at the beginning of Q2, but have now risen back to $4,827/ton on the London Metal Exchange after a 3% rise last week.

The zinc price is currently at its highest level since early August and is up around 18% this year!

The iron ore price is up 62% from mid-December lows and last week saw gains of almost 10% in the space of 3 days!

Associate Profile

In February we welcomed Pat O’Sullivan back to the team as Senior Associate Geologist. He has excellent knowledge of mineral exploration, including geochemical and geophysical interpretation.

Pat was part of the ACA Howe team that discovered SEMAFO’s 2.8 Moz Mana gold deposit in Burkina Faso and also worked on several diamond projects in Guinea, Lesotho and Russia, and uranium and nickel sulphide deposits in Australia. Most recently, Pat was the Exploration Manager for a gold exploration junior that is now in production near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

He also has experience in carbonate- and skarn-hosted silver and base metal deposits.

We are delighted to have Pat on board and look forward to utilising his wealth of expertise and multi-commodity experience.