Per Jander of WMC shares his thoughts on uranium, touching on supply, demand and prices.
In his view, the uranium market is still ‘very early’ in the current cycle.
Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Jeffrey Christian, managing partner at CPM Group, outlines his latest thoughts on gold.
He also shares his outlook for silver, platinum and palladium.
Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Geoscience software company Seequent has grown from a small startup to a 750 employee operation over the past two decades. With the launch of its latest platform, Evo, at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention, it is introducing new technology that could significantly impact the mining sector.
Seequent is aiming to expedite exploration and enhance accuracy in mining by centralizing geoscience data, streamlining workflows and improving collaboration between industries.
Designed to integrate data from multiple sources, Evo enhances decision making, optimizes resource extraction and supports environmental management. With open APIs and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, it extends the functionality of existing tools like Leapfrog, while leveraging cloud computing for faster processing of large datasets.
“What this industry needs more than anything is innovation,” said Graham, noting that the Seequent team comes from an array of backgrounds, including medical science. “(The mining sector) has to change the way it works, and usually, when you look at the pattern of technology, the most dramatic innovations come from outside your industry, not inside.”
One of the issues Evo seeks to address is data fragmentation.
While today’s geologists and miners are privy to more data than ever, much of this data is distributed across different systems and locations, preventing companies from achieving full visibility and control.
To streamline the process for mining sector workers, Evo centralizes geoscience data from various sources, improving accessibility, collaboration and analysis. By integrating data that is spread across platforms, Evo helps users work with up-to-date information and draw insights from past projects.
Its geospatial search incorporates Cesium technology, and Seequent has introduced two related applications, Driver and BlockSync, to enhance functionality. Graham explained that to achieve this, Evo was designed to be open instead of siloing data and forcing mining companies to also be technology companies.
‘It’s enabling things to move quickly and easily across whatever the device,” he continued. “We saw this problem years ago, but we knew it would take cloud and cloud architecture to break this paradigm, and so what Evo is doing is it’s breaking that paradigm, and it’s approaching the world from the perspective of being open.”
The open platform design enables seamless connectivity and automation, even with competing software, according to Graham. This approach is key as even though mining companies are not tech firms, they often employ skilled professionals who can leverage automation and coding tools.
Additionally, the system allows users to develop custom solutions without relying solely on third-party vendors, marking a significant shift in how technology can be used in the industry.
With the search for critical minerals deposits intensifying on a global scale, Graham said that technologies like Evo can can be leveraged to analyze data and better pinpoint deposits.
“We know the discovery process and the development process now is just a whole lot more complex,’ he said during the interview. ‘(Deposits are) harder to find, they’re deeper, the grades are lower, the easy stuff is gone. So the way to deal with that is to use the best science you can find.
The Seequent CEO also acknowledged the geopolitical challenges facing mining executives.
“Being a mining CEO and a mining executive right now has got to be one of the most complex tasks in the world,” said Graham, pointing to trade restrictions, tariffs, inflation, permitting challenges, community expectations and unpredictable geopolitical shifts as some of the reasons why the job is difficult.
“As an executive, the one thing you have to do is build a resilient and adaptable organization that can see its way through these kinds of changes,” he said. “Adaptability is the key, and this is what we can bring to a mining company — a flexible, adaptable technology framework that enables you to flex your organization fast, revisit scenarios and recalculate.”
Securities Disclosure: I, Georgia Williams, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
(TheNewswire)
March 14 th 2025 TheNewswire – Vancouver, Canada – Opawica Explorations Inc. (the ‘Company’ or ‘Opawica’) (TSXV: OPW) (OTCQB: OPWEF), a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on precious and base metal projects, is pleased to announce that it intends to complete a non-brokered Private Placement (the ‘Private Placement’) of up to 1,500,000 units of the Company (‘Units’) at a price of $0.20 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $300,000.
Each Unit will consist of one common share of the Company and one Common Share purchase Warrant, with each Warrant exercisable into one Common Share at an exercise price of $0.30 per share at any time up to 24 months following the closing date of the Private Placement. The Company also maintains a Warrant Acceleration option allowing Opawica to accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants if the daily trading price of the Common Shares on the TSX Venture Exchange is greater than $0.42 per Common Share for the preceding 10 consecutive trading days. All securities issued under the Offering and including Warrants will be subject to a four (4) month holding period.
The Company intends to use the net proceeds to define and drill new exploration targets at its Arrowhead and Bazooka properties, general working capital and market awareness. The Private Placement remains subject to receipt of all required approvals, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange, as well as execution of formal documentation.
The qualified person has not verified the information on the adjacent properties and the information disclosed is not necessarily indicative of mineralization on the Opawica Projects.
About Opawica Explorations Inc.
Opawica Explorations Inc. is a junior Canadian exploration company with a strong portfolio of precious and base metal properties within the Rouyn-Noranda region of the Abitibi Gold Belt in Québec. The Company’s management has a great track record in discovering and developing successful exploration projects. The Company’s objective is to increase shareholder value through the development of exploration properties using cost effective exploration practices, acquiring further exploration properties, and seeking partnerships by either joint venture or sale with industry leaders.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Blake Morgan
President and Chief Executive Officer
Opawica Explorations Inc.
Telephone: 236-878-4938
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of accuracy of this news release.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management’s current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management’s current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected including, but not limited to, market conditions, availability of financing, actual results of the Company’s exploration and other activities, environmental risks, future metal prices, operating risks, accidents, labor issues, delays in obtaining governmental approvals and permits, and other risks in the mining industry. All the forward-looking statements made in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements and those in our continuous disclosure filings available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances save as required by applicable law.
Copyright (c) 2025 TheNewswire – All rights reserved.
News Provided by TheNewsWire via QuoteMedia
Iran is using aerial drones, facial recognition systems, and a citizen-reporting app to enforce mandatory hijab laws on women, according to a United Nations report released Friday.
The report highlights Iran’s escalating reliance on technology to monitor and punish women defying the mandatory dress code. Central to this crackdown is the “Nazer” mobile application, a government-backed tool that allows citizens and police to report women for alleged violations.
Investigators involved in a two-year fact-finding mission accuse Iran of systemic human rights violations and crimes against humanity in its repression of dissent, particularly targeting women and girls.
According to the report, the “Nazer” mobile application enables users to upload the license plate, location, and time of a vehicle where a woman is not wearing a hijab. The app then “flags” the vehicle online, alerting the police,” the report reads.
The app also “triggers a text message (in real-time) to the registered owner of the vehicle, warning them that they had been found in violation of the mandatory hijab laws, and that their vehicles would be impounded for ignoring these warnings,” per the report.
The app, accessible via Iran’s police, abbreviated as (FARAJA) website, was expanded in September 2024 to target women in ambulances, taxis, and public transport.
Authorities have also deployed “aerial drones” in the capital Tehran and southern Iran to surveil public spaces and “to monitor hijab compliance in public spaces,” researchers found, in addition to new facial recognition software reportedly installed in early 2024 “at the entrance gate of the Amirkabir University in Tehran, to monitor such compliance by women students.”
Though suspended in December 2024 after an internal debate, Iran’s draft law “Hijab and Chastity” looms as a severe threat for women and girls in the country.
If enacted, the law would impose penalties of up to 10 years in prison and fines equivalent to $12,000 for non-compliance, the report says. Under Article 286 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, women could face the “death penalty” if accused of “corruption on earth.”
The law would further delegate enhanced enforcement powers to Iran’s security apparatus while also increasing the use of technology and surveillance, the report says.
Hundreds of people were killed in protests, the UN said in 2022, against Iran’s mandatory hijab law and political and social issues following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police in September of that year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on Ukrainian troops in the Russian region of Kursk to surrender, as diplomatic back-and-forth continues over a potential US-brokered ceasefire with Ukraine.
At a meeting with members of Russia’s security council on Friday, Putin accused Ukrainian troops in the region of committing crimes against civilians, but acknowledged US President Donald Trump’s wish to spare the soldiers’ lives as Russian forces retake the area and claimed surrendering soldiers’ lives would be guaranteed.
He also said that his country is working at restoring relations with the US, after they were “practically reduced to zero, destroyed by the previous American administration.”
“Overall, the situation is starting to move,” he said on relations with the Trump administration. “Let’s see what comes out of this.”
With Kyiv is losing its grip on Kursk, its sole territorial bargaining chip, many believe that Putin may be delaying talks on a US-Ukraine ceasefire proposal until the region is back under Russian control. Earlier this week, Ukrainian officials accepted a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire covering the entire front line after holding talks with US counterparts in Saudi Arabia.
Putin’s remarks came after meeting with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday in Moscow – a visit that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said gave “reason to be cautiously optimistic.” Trump earlier in the day had struck a similar note, calling the discussions “good and productive” in a post on Truth Social, adding that “there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end.”
Trump also said that he has “strongly requested” for Putin to spare the lives of Ukrainian troops in Kursk.
“We understand President Trump’s call to be guided by humanitarian considerations with regard to these servicemen,” Putin said on Friday. “In this regard, I would like to emphasize that if they lay down their arms and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and decent treatment in accordance with international law and the laws of the Russian Federation.”
Ukraine’s military would first have to order troops in Kursk to surrender, however, he added.
In February, the United Nation’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said it was alarmed at reports that dozens of Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered to Russia since the end of August 2024 had been “shot dead on the spot.”
“All allegations of execution of captured Ukrainian military personnel and public statements calling for, or condoning, such actions must be investigated,” Danielle Bell, head of the mission, said at the time.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile on Friday expressed skepticism about Putin’s motives and urged the US to take “strong steps” to pressure Russia into ending its war against Kyiv.
In a series of posts on X, the Ukrainian leader said his country wants peace, writing that “from the very first minutes of this war, we have wanted only one thing – for Russia to leave our people in peace and for Russian occupiers to get off our land.”
“Every day of war means losing the lives of our people – the most valuable thing we have,” he said.
Zelensky also accused Putin of attempting to sabotage peace negotiations and lying about the “real situation” on the battlefield. The Russian leader on Thursday had suggested a number of conditions for truce, including that any deal address what the Kremlin sees as “root causes” of the conflict.
Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014 and launched a full-scale invasion in 2022. At the time, Putin demanded that Ukraine never be allowed into NATO, and that the bloc roll back its military footprint in Eastern and Central Europe – which the US and its allies dismissed as non-starters, condemning the invasion as a blatant land grab.
“Putin cannot exit this war because that would leave him with nothing,” Zelensky said. “That is why he is now doing everything he can to sabotage diplomacy by setting extremely difficult and unacceptable conditions right from the start even before a ceasefire.”
Zelensky said that he “strongly urges” countries who can influence Russia, especially the US, to take steps to help end the war.
“Pressure must be applied to the one who does not want to stop the war. Pressure must be put on Russia. Only decisive actions can end this war, which has already lasted for years,” he said.
The Ukrainian leader is expected to take part in a virtual meeting with European and NATO leaders on support for Ukraine on Saturday, hosted by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The head of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has been killed in Iraq in an operation by members of the Iraqi national intelligence service along with US-led coalition forces, the Iraqi prime minister announced Friday.
“The Iraqis continue their impressive victories over the forces of darkness and terrorism,” Prime Minister Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement posted on X.
Abdallah Maki Mosleh al-Rifai, or “Abu Khadija,” was “deputy caliph” of the militant group and “one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world,” the statement said.
On his Truth Social platform Friday night, US President Donald Trump said: “Today the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed. He was relentlessly hunted down by our intrepid warfighters” in coordination with the Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional government.
“PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!” Trump posted.
A security official said the operation was carried out by an airstrike in Anbar province, in western Iraq. A second official said the operation took place Thursday night but that al-Rifai’s death was confirmed Friday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
The announcement came on the same day as the first visit by Syria’s top diplomat to Iraq, during which the two countries pledged to work together to combat IS.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein said at a news conference that “there are common challenges facing Syrian and Iraqi society, and especially the terrorists of IS.” He said the officials had spoken “in detail about the movements of ISIS, whether on the Syrian-Iraqi border, inside Syria or inside Iraq” during the visit.
Hussein referred to an operations room formed by Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon at a recent meeting in Amman to confront IS, and said it would soon begin work.
The relationship between Iraq and Syria is somewhat fraught after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Al-Sudani came to power with the support of a coalition of Iran-backed factions, and Tehran was a major backer of Assad. The current interim president of Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa, was previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani and fought as an al-Qaida militant in Iraq after the US invasion of 2003, and later fought against Assad’s government in Syria.
But Syrian interim Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani focused on the historic ties between the two countries.
“Throughout history, Baghdad and Damascus have been the capitals of the Arab and Islamic world, sharing knowledge, culture and economy,” he said.
Strengthening the partnership between the two countries “will not only benefit our peoples, but will also contribute to the stability of the region, making us less dependent on external powers and better able to determine our own destiny,” he said.
The operation and the visit come at a time when Iraqi officials are anxious about an IS resurgence in the wake of the fall of Assad in Syria.
While Syria’s new rulers – led by the Islamist former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – have pursued IS cells since taking power, some fear a breakdown in overall security that could allow the group to stage a resurgence.
The US and Iraq announced an agreement last year to wind down the military mission in Iraq of an American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group by September 2025, with US forces departing some bases where they have stationed troops during a two-decade-long military presence in the country.
When the agreement was reached to end the coalition’s mission in Iraq, Iraqi political leaders said the threat of IS was under control and they no longer needed Washington’s help to beat back the remaining cells.
But the fall of Assad in December led some to reassess that stance, including members of the Coordination Framework, a coalition of mainly Shiite, Iran-allied political parties that brought current Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani to power in late 2022.
Cuba’s power grid collapsed Friday night, triggering a nationwide power outage and plunging its more than 10 million people into darkness.
“At around 8:15 p.m. tonight, a failure at the Diezmero substation caused a significant loss of generation in the west of #Cuba and with it the failure of the National Electric System,” Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines said in a statement.
Efforts to restore service are underway, the ministry added.
It marks the latest in a series of failures on the Caribbean island struggling with creaking infrastructure, natural disasters and economic turmoil.
Cuban officials have previously blamed US economic sanctions, which increased under the previous administration of President Donald Trump, for further crippling an already ailing energy sector.
Critics also fault a lack of investment in infrastructure by the communist government.
For nearly a week in October, most of Cuba suffered near-total blackouts, the worst energy outages in decades.
Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be allowed to “play games” over the US-backed ceasefire proposal in Ukraine, Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer said ahead of a key summit of European leaders.
Starmer is hosting a meeting on Saturday of the “coalition of the willing,” a group of Western nations who have pledged to help defend Ukraine from Russian aggression in the face of dwindling and uncertain support from Washington.
After Kyiv this week accepted the terms of a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine – endorsed by US President Donald Trump – Moscow’s response was ambiguous, with Putin saying that “we agree with the proposal” but also that the deal “wasn’t complete.”
Ahead of Saturday’s virtual summit, Starmer accused Putin of “trying to delay” the ceasefire deal, saying that “the world needs to see action, not a study or empty words and pointless conditions.”
“We can’t allow President Putin to play games with President Trump’s deal. The Kremlin’s complete disregard for President Trump’s ceasefire proposal only serves to demonstrate that Putin is not serious about peace,” he said.
Starmer is expected to press European and NATO allies during Saturday’s talks to “ratchet up economic pressure on Russia” and “to force” Putin into negotiations, according to a Downing Street statement.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to attend the meeting of the “coalition of the willing” – an umbrella term Starmer has used for countries that want to defend a deal in Ukraine and guarantee peace after three years of war.
The coalition spans 25 countries, including European nations, the EU Commission, NATO, Canada, Ukraine, Australia and New Zealand.
Starmer will call on allies to “be prepared to support a just and enduring peace in Ukraine over the long term and continue to ramp up our military support to Ukraine to defend themselves against increasing Russian attacks,” Downing Street said.
To achieve this, European nations must “be ready to monitor a ceasefire to ensure” peace lasts, Starmer said.
Although Europe has shown considerable unity amid the blows the Trump administration has dealt to the transatlantic alliance, significant divisions remain over whether individual European countries are willing to deploy troops to Ukraine to keep the peace.
Trump said Friday that he got “pretty good news” on a potential ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, without elaborating, and that his administration had “very good calls” with both countries earlier in the day.
In a separate post on Truth Social, Trump said “there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end.”
He said in an interview taped Thursday that his administration would know a “little bit more on Monday” about the US-proposed temporary ceasefire.
Putin met with US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday in Moscow – a visit that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said gave “reason to be cautiously optimistic.”
With Kyiv losing its grip on the western Russian region of Kursk, its sole territorial bargaining chip, many believe that Putin may be delaying talks on the ceasefire proposal until the region is firmly back under Russian control.
Meanwhile the aerial assaults continued.
Russia fired 178 drones and two ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, killing at least two people and injuring 44, according to Ukrainian officials. The two were killed in Kherson region, the head of its military administration said, after Russia targeted critical infrastructure and residential buildings, damaging seven high-rise buildings and 27 houses.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses had shot down 126 Ukrainian drones overnight, without saying how many drones bypassed its defenses.
Where can investors find a safe haven during a period of market uncertainty? Personally, I think it’s as simple as focusing on the stocks managing to display bullish technical structures at a time when they are becoming remarkably rare! Today we’ll use the StockCharts scan engine to identify charts showing strength despite broader market weakness.
The first chart on my list from this week’s scan, CME Group (CME), was featured in my recent podcast interview with Jay Woods, CMT. We talked about how the financial sector had been quite strong so far in 2025, but that the really impressive charts were the exchanges.
The simple fact that CME currently sits above two upward-sloping moving averages means this name is in a small subset of the S&P 500 that can still make that claim. The momentum picture has remained quite strong, with recent pullbacks bringing the RSI no lower than the 40 level. The improving relative strength at the bottom tells perhaps the most important story, showing how this stock has consistently outperformed the S&P 500 in 2025.
As long as the trend continues to form a pattern of higher highs and higher lows, and the moving averages continue to slope higher, I would consider this chart “innocent until proven guilty.”
While I’ve found numerous ideas in the Consumer Staples sector in 2025, given the renewed strength in this previously beaten down sector, this next chart is actually in the Consumer Discretionary sector. Auto parts names like Autozone Inc. Nevada (AZO) have pulled back this week from an overbought condition, but the chart remains in a primary uptrend of higher highs and higher lows.
Similar to CME, we can observe a classic uptrend pattern over the last 18 months. We can also see an ascending triangle pattern through much of 2024, with a fairly consistent resistance level and an upward-sloping trendline connecting the swing lows. The upside breakout in December 2024, followed by a retest of that previous resistance level into mid-January, seems to confirm the long-term bullish technical structure.
What strikes me about both of these charts is that they show no real signs of market instability. At a time when it feels like pretty much everything is rotating lower amidst growing market turmoil, stocks that indicate they are somehow immune to bearish market forces deserve our respect and attention.
How did I identify these winning names at a time when they seem very difficult to find? I simply used the StockCharts scan engine to identify stocks making a new 13-week high. You can copy and paste the text below into the Scan Workbench to run this scan using your own login.
[type = stock]
and [group is not ETF]
and [[exchange = NYSE] or [exchange = NASD]]
and [market cap > 5,000]
//and [group is SP500]
and [Weekly Close > Last Week’s MAX(13,Close)]
Those last two lines are the most important, as the rest is basically filtering the universe down to stocks traded on the major US exchanges with a market cap over $5 billion. The fifth line has two slashes before the parameter “group is SP500”, which tells the scan engine to ignore that line. I like to include that line in every scan I run, as I often toggle between a larger equity universe and then just to the S&P 500 members.
The final line looks for stocks where the current weekly closing price is higher than the previous 13 weekly closing prices. And while this particular scan would certainly include stocks that have been in long-term uptrends for well over three months, I’ve found new three-month highs can be a great place to start to look for charts just beginning to emerge from a basing pattern.
For the other three stocks I found earlier this week using this scan, and much further detail on the technical implications of these charts, check out my latest video on the StockCharts TV YouTube channel!
RR#6,
Dave
PS- Ready to upgrade your investment process? Check out my free behavioral investing course!
David Keller, CMT
President and Chief Strategist
Sierra Alpha Research LLC
Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional.
The author does not have a position in mentioned securities at the time of publication. Any opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views or opinions of any other person or entity.
