GTI Energy (GTR:AU) has announced Positive Uranium Leach Test Results at Lo Herma
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Gold demand surged to a record high in 2024, driven by buying from central banks and individual investors.
Data from the World Gold Council’s (WGC) latest report on gold demand shows that in 2024, total annual demand for gold, including over-the-counter transactions, reached a record-breaking 4,974 metric tons (MT).
Annual demand was up by 1 percent year-on-year from 2023’s 4,945.9 MT.
Central banks added more than 1,000 MT of gold to their reserves for the third consecutive year, while investment demand hit a four year high, supported by a strong performance in gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Central banks lead gold demand
Central banks remained the largest drivers of gold demand in 2024. As a group, they made cumulative net purchases of 1,045 MT in 2024, with the fourth quarter alone accounting for 333 MT.
The National Bank of Poland led the upsurge, purchasing 90 MT of the yellow metal in 2024, while other emerging market central banks also contributed significantly to the overall total.
This heightened demand from central banks marks a continuous shift in the global monetary system, with central banks increasingly favoring gold as a hedge against currency volatility and geopolitical tensions.
2024 was the third year in a row in which central banks’ gold purchases exceeded 1,000 MT, marking a notable increase compared to the pre-2022 average of 473 MT.
Despite questions about future demand, central banks are expected to maintain their purchasing momentum into 2025, particularly as geopolitical risks continue to influence policy decisions.
Investor demand supports gold ETF growth
Gold’s appeal to individual investors also remained robust in 2024, particularly in gold ETFs.
Investment demand for the precious metal reached 1,180 MT for the year, a 25 percent increase from 2023, with ETFs drawing significant inflows, especially in the second half of the year. These inflows were driven by factors including lower interest rates, geopolitical instability and a strengthening gold price.
In contrast to the previous three years, during which gold ETFs experienced substantial outflows, 2024 saw near-stagnant holdings by the end of the year, showing a marked shift in investor sentiment.
Market participants increasingly turned to gold as a safe haven, and the US market in particular witnessed considerable ETF inflows, driven by the relative weakness of the US dollar and concerns over inflation.
Gold jewelry demand struggles as price climbs
While investment demand soared, the jewelry sector struggled in 2024, with global jewelry consumption falling by 11 percent to 1,877 MT. The significant gold price rise during the year led to lower volumes of gold jewelry being purchased, as consumers found it increasingly difficult to afford the yellow metal.
The weakness in jewelry demand was global, though India saw relatively smaller declines compared to China, which experienced a significant drop of 24 percent from 2023.
However, the value of gold jewelry consumption increased by 9 percent, reaching a record high of US$144 billion. This allowed jewelers to achieve higher sales figures, with a marked contrast between demand volume and value.
Technology and industrial demand increases
In the technology sector, demand for gold grew by 7 percent in 2024, which the WGC attributes largely to the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
Gold used in electronics rose by 9 percent year-on-year, contributing to the technology sector’s solid demand. Overall, total annual gold demand from the tech sector came to 326 MT.
While gold’s role in industrial applications is a smaller portion of overall demand, its usage in advanced technologies continues to grow, underlining its importance in cutting-edge sectors like AI, electronics and renewable energy.
Gold mine and recycling supply rise
Gold supply saw modest growth in 2024, rising by 1 percent to a record 4,974 MT, a new high for the data series. Both mine production and recycling were up compared to the prior year, with recycling climbing 11 percent.
The WGC states that the outlook for gold supply remains strong, with expectations for robust mine production and potential increases in recycling rates in the coming year.
The gold price reached an average of US$2,386 per ounce in 2024, a 23 percent increase from the previous year. In Q4, the average price peaked at US$2,663, contributing to a total value of US$111 billion for the quarter.
What’s driving gold’s record price highs?
‘I think many investors are seeing the benefits and the merits of having gold as a diversifying asset in their portfolio,’ he said. ‘I think they’re understanding that the risk shocks you might see to risk assets will continue to be something that will develop over the next two to three months at a minimum as we start to hear and see policies unpacked.’
Watch Cavatoni discuss the WGC’s latest report.
Cavatoni also pointed to expectations of lower interest rates as a motivating force for gold.
‘All of those factors are stacking up to continue to be a very strong performance driver for gold,’ he said.
Tariff uncertainty is also contributing to gold’s movement. The US has placed additional tariffs on China, and although it’s deferred tariffs on Canada and Mexico for the time being, much uncertainty remains.
In Cavatoni’s opinion, it will be key for sector participants to tune out distractions.
‘I think the key thing right now is that you can clearly see the benefits of gold in a portfolio that’s diversified. You can see the benefits of having it as a component of your allocation mentality, and I think overall what I’d say is that clients, investors and those who understand the gold market need to understand there’ll be a lot of noise,’ he noted.
Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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Graphene has the potential to spur advances in a variety of sectors, from transport to medicine to electronics. Unfortunately, the high cost of graphene production has slowed commercialization.
Graphene prices have come down substantially from its early days, when it reportedly cost tens of thousands of dollars to make a piece of high-quality graphene the size of a postage stamp.
However, the 21st century wonder material remains expensive. Specific graphene pricing data is hard to come by, but relatively recent estimates peg the commercial cost of graphene in a range of US$100 to US$10,000 per kilogram. The wide variance is mainly because the price of graphene is determined by a number of factors, such as production method, form, quality and quantity.
Graphene has many exciting applications. Notably, its properties have been applied to graphene-polymer composites. Together, these carbon-based materials are effective in energy, biomedicine, aerospace and electronics applications. In addition, graphene can be used for water purification due to its naturally occurring water-repellent properties.
Other key applications of graphene include graphene-conductive inks, which can be used for printed electronics in applications like logic circuits, inkjet printing, environmental sensors and smart clothing.
Here’s a look at how graphene is made, and why the production process plays a key role in graphene cost.
In this article
What is the origin of graphene?
Graphene’s origin story is by now well known. The 2D material was first produced in 2004, when two professors at the University of Manchester used Scotch tape to peel flakes of it off a chunk of graphite.
The story gives the impression that it’s easy to make graphene, but that’s not entirely true. The Scotch tape method, while a fun party trick, can only produce a very small amount of graphene — certainly not enough to use commercially.
How is graphene made?
The Scotch tape method of making graphene is known as exfoliation, and there are other ways to create graphene via exfoliated graphite as well. For instance, a diamond wedge can cleave graphene layers.
But what are some other ways of making graphene? Currently, the most popular method is chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The deposition process involves a mix of gases reacting with a surface to create a graphene layer. The process creates high-quality graphene, but the graphene is often damaged when it comes time to detach it from its substrate.
Looking at the process in greater depth, Graphenea states that another problem with CVD is that it’s difficult to create a totally uniform layer of graphene on a substrate. Graphenea also notes that much work is being put into reducing problems with CVD. For example, scientists are experimenting with treating the substrate before the reaction that creates graphene takes place. Even so, it’s expected to take a long time for the wrinkles to be smoothed out.
The Graphene Flagship identifies a number of other ways of making graphene, including direct chemical synthesis; the material can also be made by putting natural graphite in a solution.
Some of the latest innovations in graphene creation don’t involve the use of chemicals and can be conducted in the open air, as opposed to in vacuums. One method that was patented in 2017 is able to create larger quantities of graphene using acetylene, oxygen and a spark plug. Unfortunately, this process creates unrefined chunks of material and not sheets, meaning more money must be spent to make the graphene chunks useable.
In 2021, the Indian Institute of Technology Patna developed a way to produce graphene using a plasma gun; it’s possible it will prove to be a cheaper, yet scalable route to producing high-quality graphene material. The method has been shown to produce single-layer graphene 85 percent of the time without hazardous chemicals or expensive solvents, and estimates show that doing so only costs about US$1.12 per gram of graphene.
In mid-2022, chemical manufacturing company CleanGraph announced its proprietary process for transforming graphite into graphene, saying it had been developed over the past four years with the help of partnerships with market leaders in the construction industry and prominent universities. This method of producing graphene reportedly reduces the environmental impact by 99 percent compared to traditional graphene production.
‘Expanded graphite is a layered nanocarbon material, which is produced at industrial scale by oxidative intercalation and high-temperature expansion of natural graphite. CleanGraph is a novel proprietary process to chemically modify graphite into various forms of graphene in a faster, more productive and ecologically friendly way,’ as per the company.
Along with construction materials, the graphene produced by this method can also be used for heating, battery technology and as a sorbent.
More recently, in late 2023 NanoXplore (TSX:GRA,OTCQX:NNXPF) unveiled a new proprietary large-scale dry process for manufacturing graphene based on advanced exfoliation technology. It has a lower CAPEX compared to liquid-based exfoliation methods.
‘The technology finds potential applications in batteries and lightweight composites, enhancing its appeal in cutting-edge industries,’ states the company. ‘This new manufacturing process also opens doors to a myriad of applications, including plastic pipes, geosynthetics, recycled plastics, concrete, drilling fluids, and insulation foams, among others.’
Click here for a deeper dive on companies developing graphene and graphene products.
What factors impact graphene cost?
Getting an understanding of how graphene is produced is crucial to understanding graphene cost. That’s because the way in which graphene is made has a major impact on how much it ultimately costs.
Echo Zhang, founder of China-based graphene technology company GrapheneRich, explains that CVD and liquid-phase exfoliation are the most expensive methods due to the ‘advanced equipment and high energy consumption required.’ Meanwhile, the chemical reduction of graphene oxide is cheaper but may produce lower quality material.
Graphene oxide, which has advanced composite, biotechnology and water filtration applications, can cost between US$100 and US$500 per kilogram. ‘The price can vary depending on the oxidation level, production method, and supplier,’ Zhang states.
Graphenea also highlights that while graphene oxide is relatively inexpensive to produce, its lower quality means it can’t be used in batteries, flexible touch screens and ‘other advanced opto-electronic applications.’
In contrast, CVD graphene, which Zhang calls ‘top-tier graphene’ resulting in a ‘high-performance material with excellent properties,’ fetches upwards of US$10,000 or more per kilogram. Its often used in advanced electronics and energy-storage systems.
‘Methods like CVD, which produce high-quality, high-purity graphene, are generally more expensive than liquid-phase exfoliation or reduction of graphene oxide,’ Zhang explains. ‘The production method affects both the quality and the cost of the final product.’
Commercial-grade graphene can be produced in larger quantities, resulting in a price range of US$100 to US$1,000 per kilogram. This grade of graphene is used in energy storage, sensors and composites. ‘These prices depend on the production scale and the quality of the graphene being produced,’ Zhang states.
The issue, of course, is that with few commercial applications for graphene yet available, few end-users are looking to buy the material in large quantities.
What is the future of graphene research?
Those involved in graphene research hope that ultimately more commercial applications for the material will be developed, spurring advances that will make cost-effective mass production of the material a reality.
Graphene products are making their way into next-generation electronics such as flexible and foldable screens, enhanced batteries and ‘lightning-speed’ computers.
Graphene can also be used to create more fuel-efficient cars, faster and lighter aircraft and paint that could end deterioration of ships and cars. Overall, there’s no shortage of applications for graphene products.
Graphene’s impressive properties and the fact that it’s made from carbon, much like human bodies, makes it well suited to biotechnologies, including tools that can help healthcare professionals scan a patient’s biosignals quickly, accurately and safely.
“Graphene is a single layer of carbon molecules,” explained Dr. Kiana Aran, chief scientific officer at Cardea Bio, and Keck Graduate Institute associate professor of bioengineering. “Everything in our body is made of carbon. It’s the most compatible material we can find that has amazing electronic properties. You can build electronics and conjugate with biology, without impacting … biology and without biology impacting it.”
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created the first functional semiconductor made from graphene. As an alternative to silicon, the breakthrough has the potential to allow for smaller and faster electronic devices, which may have applications for quantum computing.
In terms of market growth, Grand View Research notes, ‘Market growth stage is high, and pace of the market growth is accelerating. Graphene market is characterized by a high degree of innovation owing to rising advancements driven by factors including research and development. Subsequently, innovative applications are constantly emerging, disrupting existing industries and creating new ones.’
The market research firm projects that the graphene market will see revenues grow at a compound annual growth rate of 35.1 percent between 2024 and 2030 to reach US$1.61 billion. The automotive, aerospace and medical industries are the core drivers of demand for the material. Graphene’s role as a powerful catalyst in the chemical industry is also expected to contribute to increased demand for the wonder material on a global scale.
Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Pistilli, currently hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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Skyharbour Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: SYH ) (OTCQX: SYHBF ) (Frankfurt: SC1P ) (‘Skyharbour’ or the ‘Company’), is pleased to announce that, further to its news release dated November 4 th 2024, closing has occurred on the option agreement (the ‘Agreement’) with Hatchet, whereby Hatchet Uranium Corp. (‘Hatchet’) may acquire an 80% interest in the Company’s 17,606 ha Highway Uranium Property (the ‘Optioned Property’) and a 100% interest, subject to a claw-back provision for Skyharbour, in the Company’s Genie, Usam and CBXShoe Uranium Projects (the ‘Purchased Property’). The properties total 66,358 ha and are all located in the Athabasca Basin of Northern Saskatchewan, Canada. The Agreement on the Optioned Property provides Hatchet an opportunity to earn an 80% interest in the claims over a three-year period by fulfilling combined cash, share issuance and exploration expenditure commitments of CAD $3,345,000. For the Purchased Property, Skyharbour will also receive units in the capital of Hatchet consisting of a share and a warrant (‘Hatchet Units’) equal to 9.9% of the issued and outstanding shares of Hatchet.
Highway, Genie, Usam, CBX and Shoe Project Map:
https://skyharbourltd.com/_resources/images/Sky_Highway.jpg
Terms of the Optioned Property:
The Optioned Property, Highway, consists of nine (9) mineral claims comprising approximately 17,606 hectares. Hatchet may acquire an 80% interest in the Optioned Property by (i) issuing common shares in the capital of Hatchet (‘Shares’) having an aggregate value of CAD $1,050,000; (ii) making aggregate cash payments of CAD $245,000; and (iii) incurring an aggregate of CAD $2,050,000 in exploration expenditures on the Optioned Property over a three-year period, as follows:
| Date | Cash Payments | Exploration Expenditures | Value of Shares Issued |
| On or before the first anniversary of Closing | $25,000 | $250,000 | $25,000 (1) |
| On or before the second anniversary of Closing | $20,000 | $300,000 | $25,000 (1) |
| On or before the third anniversary of Closing | $200,000 | $1,500,000 | $1,000,000 (1) |
| TOTAL | $245,000 | $2,050,000 | $1,050,000 |
(1) Deemed pricing of Shares is based on the twenty (20) day volume weighted average price on the stock exchange in which Hatchet shall list its Shares for trading, being either the TSX Venture Exchange or the Canadian Securities Exchange (‘Deemed Price’) or the last sale price, if not listed on a stock exchange at the time of issuance.
In the event that the issuance of any Shares pursuant to the above would result in the Company holding 10% or more of the outstanding Shares of Hatchet, Hatchet will issue that number of Shares which would result in the Company receiving 9.9% of the issued and outstanding Shares post-issuance and will pay cash in lieu of the Shares for the difference.
The Company shall retain a 2% net smelter returns royalty from minerals mined and removed from the Optioned Property, of which Hatchet may purchase one-half, being 1%, at any time for $1,000,000.
Terms of the Purchased Property:
The Purchased Property consists of twenty-five (25) mineral claims comprising approximately 66,358 hectares across the Genie, Usam and CBX/Shoe projects. Hatchet has acquired a 100% interest in the Purchased Property by, on the date of closing (the ‘Closing Date’), paying the Company $25,000 and issuing to the Company such number of Units in the capital of Hatchet equal to 9.9% of the issued and outstanding shares immediately following the issuance. Each Hatchet Unit shall be comprised of one Share and one share purchase warrant, entitling Skyharbour to purchase one additional Share for a period of three years at a price that is a 25% premium to the deemed value of the Shares in both years 1 and 2, and then increases to a 50% premium to the issuance value of the Shares in year 3.
The Company shall retain a claw-back provision whereby, within 90 days after the 3 rd anniversary of the Closing Date, the Company may elect by written notice to Hatchet of its intention to purchase back a twenty-five percent (25%) interest in the Purchased Property by, within 90 days of delivery of such notice, incurring exploration expenditures or paying cash in lieu of to fund future exploration, equivalent to fifty percent (50%) of the total amount that Hatchet had spent during the term that is three years from the Closing Date in exploration expenditures on the Purchased Property. If Hatchet has not incurred any exploration expenditures during the three years following the closing date, then Skyharbour shall automatically receive the 25% interest in the Property.
The Company shall also retain a 2% net smelter returns royalty from minerals mined and removed from the Purchased Property, of which Hatchet may purchase one-half, being 1%, at any time for $2,000,000.
One of the conditions precedent for Hatchet prior to closing on both agreements was to close a financing for minimum gross proceeds of $1,500,000 which is now complete. Furthermore, Hatchet will proceed to list on the TSX Venture Exchange or the Canadian Securities Exchange or will have sold its interest to or combined with a similarly listed issuer. If this is not complete within 18 months, Hatchet’s right to acquire the Purchased Property will terminate. If after 12 months Hatchet has not listed then it shall pay Skyharbour a monthly fee of $10,000 until such conditions are satisfied or an aggregate of $60,000 has been paid, whichever occurs first.
Highway Property Summary:
The Highway Uranium Project consists of nine claims covering 17,606 hectares, approximately 41 km south of the Rabbit Lake Mine and 11 km southwest of Uranium Energy Corp.’s (UEC, formerly UEX) West Bear U and Co-Ni Deposits. Highway 905 runs through the property, providing excellent access for exploration and the project is in close proximity to regional infrastructure. There has been limited modern exploration carried out on the project but there is the potential for high-grade basement-hosted and unconformity-related uranium mineralization.
Highway Property Map:
https://skyharbourltd.com/_resources/images/Sky_Highway.jpg
The project is underlain by Wollaston Supergroup metasedimentary gneisses (pelitic to psammopelitic and psammitic to meta-arkosic) folded around and overlying an Archean felsic gneiss dome which outcrops in the southwestern portion of the property and cores a northeast trending antiformal fold nose. The Highway Project is located approximately 7 km east of the present-day margin of the Athabasca Basin but is believed to have been covered by Athabasca sandstone in the past.
Genie Property Summary:
The Genie property consists of five claims totalling 16,930 ha, and is located approximately 48 km northeast of Cameco’s Eagle Point Uranium Mine (Rabbit Lake Operation) and 40 km north of Wollaston Lake Post. The project is underlain by Wollaston Superground metasedimentary gneisses and Archean granitoids, with highly prospective pelitic to psammopelitic gneisses (including graphitic varieties) and several north-trending faults related to the Tabbernor fault system being mapped on the property. The project lies outside the current extent of the Athabasca Basin, but is believed to have been overlain by now-eroded Athabasca sandstones in the past and has the potential for high-grade basement-hosted and unconformity-related uranium mineralization. The property is underlain by a series of linear magnetic highs (interpreted as granitoids) and magnetic lows (interpreted as metasedimentary gneisses), cross-cut by a highly magnetic northwest-trending Mackenzie Diabase dyke.
Genie Property Map:
https://skyharbourltd.com/_resources/images/Sky_Genie.jpg
Previous work on the Genie project includes limited diamond drilling (three historical drill holes, of which one was abandoned in overburden) and a variety of airborne and ground geophysical surveys, prospecting, geological mapping, lake sediment and overburden sampling, and soil sampling. Most of this exploration work took place between 1966 to 1980, prior to the advent of modern geophysical methods and geological models, but in 2014 part of the Genie property was covered by a helicopter-borne DIGHEM magnetic, electromagnetic, and radiometric survey. The survey showed a strong central EM conductor following a magnetically inferred contact on the two northeastern most claims, which is locally disrupted by several moderately conductive N-S trending structural breaks, inferred to be faults. This strong conductor is highly prospective for uranium mineralization, and drilling done in 1969 and 1971 has confirmed the presence of graphitic and sulfide-containing pelitic gneisses on the property. Lake sediment samples also collected at Genie during the 2014 exploration program, contained up to 63.3 ppm U, further showcasing the prospectivity of the property.
Usam Property Summary:
The Usam Project consists of twelve claims totalling 40,041 ha and is located approximately 16 km northeast of Cameco’s Eagle Point Mine (Rabbit Lake Operation). The project has numerous EM conductors that are associated with significant magnetic lows of the Wollaston Domain. While the project is outside the current confines of the Athabasca Basin, the area was overlain by Athabasca sandstones historically. Basement rocks on the property include Wollaston Supergroup metasediments and Archean granitoid gneisses, with highly prospective pelitic to psammopelitic gneisses (including graphitic varieties) making up the largest proportion of the basement rocks. Several north-trending faults related to the Tabbernor fault system cross-cut the property.
Usam Property Map:
https://skyharbourltd.com/_resources/images/Sky_Usam.jpg
Previous work on the project includes diamond drilling (12 holes), lake sediment sampling, soil sampling, geological mapping, ground and airborne geophysics, marine seismic, prospecting, and other geochemical sampling, the majority of which was done in the 1980’s and 1970’s. Modern exploration of the property has been limited to geophysics and ground prospecting. As such there is a significant untested potential on the project. Trenching on Cleveland Island uncovered up to 0.31% U 3 O 8 in mineralized pegmatite, and diamond drilling on Gilles Island intersected anomalous uranium, indicating that the basement rocks underling the Usam property are fertile sources of uranium in addition to containing pegmatite- and granite-hosted U-Th-REE mineralization. There are also several sedimentary-hosted base metals (i.e. Cu and Zn) showings on the project and in the surrounding area, which show similarities to the sedimentary-hosted Cu mineralization previously discovered by Rio Tinto and its partners at the Janice Lake Project further southwest in the Wollaston Domain.
CBX/Shoe Property Summary:
The CBX property has been recently expanded through staking to include five additional claims adjoining the previously staked CBX and Shoe properties, which have been combined to include a total of seven claims covering 8,777 hectares. The 609 ha Shoe property has remained unchanged, with both CBX and Shoe now consisting of eight non-contiguous claims totalling 9,386 hectares.
CBX/Shoe Property Map:
https://skyharbourltd.com/_resources/images/Sky_Shoe.jpg
The new claims lie approximately 6.5 km to 25 km northeast of the Eagle Point uranium mine and cover the northern shore of Wollaston Lake including parts of Cunning Bay. Outcrop exposure on the property is poor, but historical mapping and drilling shows that the newly expanded CBX project is underlain by a mixture of Wollaston Supergroup metasedimentary gneisses, Hudsonian intrusives, and Archean felsic gneisses of the Western Wollaston Domain. Similar lithologies host uranium mineralization at the Rabbit Lake operation, including the Eagle Point deposit, and other uranium deposits in the Athabasca Basin and surrounding regions. The CBX and Shoe properties have had historical exploration, including airborne and ground geophysical surveys, lake sediment, soil, and spruce geochemical surveys, till sampling, prospecting, geological mapping, and a marine seismic survey, but the majority of this work took place in the 1960’s to 1980’s, with limited modern exploration work being carried out on a small portion of the CBX and Shoe properties.
Grant of Incentive Stock Options:
Skyharbour also announces that the Company has granted 3,500,000 incentive stock options (the ‘Options’) to officers, directors and consultants of the Company. The Options are exercisable at $0.40 per share for a period of five years from the date of grant. The Options have been granted under and are governed by the terms of the Company’s Incentive Stock Option Plan.
Qualified Person:
The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 and reviewed and approved by Serdar Donmez, P.Geo., VP of Exploration for Skyharbour as well as a Qualified Person.
About Skyharbour Resources Ltd.:
Skyharbour holds an extensive portfolio of uranium exploration projects in Canada’s Athabasca Basin and is well positioned to benefit from improving uranium market fundamentals with interest in thirty-six projects covering over 614,000 hectares (over 1.5 million acres) of land. Skyharbour has acquired from Denison Mines, a large strategic shareholder of the Company, a 100% interest in the Moore Uranium Project, which is located 15 kilometres east of Denison’s Wheeler River project and 39 kilometres south of Cameco’s McArthur River uranium mine. Moore is an advanced-stage uranium exploration property with high-grade uranium mineralization in several zones at the Maverick Corridor. Adjacent to the Moore Project is the Russell Lake Uranium Project, in which Skyharbour is operator with joint-venture partner RTEC. The project hosts widespread uranium mineralization in drill intercepts over a large property area with exploration upside potential. The Company is actively advancing these projects through exploration and drilling programs.
Skyharbour also has joint ventures with industry leader Orano Canada Inc., Azincourt Energy, and Thunderbird Resources at the Preston, East Preston, and Hook Lake Projects, respectively. The Company also has several active earn-in option partners, including CSE-listed Basin Uranium Corp. at the Mann Lake Uranium Project; TSX-V listed North Shore Uranium at the Falcon Project; UraEx Resources at the South Dufferin and Bolt Projects; Hatchet Uranium at the Highway Project; CSE-listed Mustang Energy at the 914W Project; and TSX-V listed Terra Clean Energy at the South Falcon East Project. In aggregate, Skyharbour has now signed earn-in option agreements with partners that total to over $36 million in partner-funded exploration expenditures, over $20 million worth of shares being issued, and $14 million in cash payments coming into Skyharbour, assuming that these partner companies complete their entire earn-ins at the respective projects.
Skyharbour’s goal is to maximize shareholder value through new mineral discoveries, committed long-term partnerships, and the advancement of exploration projects in geopolitically favourable jurisdictions.
Skyharbour’s Uranium Project Map in the Athabasca Basin:
https://www.skyharbourltd.com/_resources/images/SKY_SaskProject_Locator_2024-11-21_v1.jpg
To find out more about Skyharbour Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: SYH) visit the Company’s website at www.skyharbourltd.com .
Skyharbour Resources Ltd.
‘Jordan Trimble’
__________________________________
Jordan Trimble
President and CEO
For further information contact myself or:
Nicholas Coltura
Investor Relations Manager
Skyharbour Resources Ltd.
Telephone: 604-558-5847
Toll Free: 800-567-8181
Facsimile: 604-687-3119
Email: info@skyharbourltd.com
NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THE CONTENT OF THIS NEWS RELEASE.
Forward-Looking Information
This news release contains ‘forward‐looking information or statements’ within the meaning of applicable securities laws, which may include, without limitation, completing ongoing and planned work on its projects including drilling and the expected timing of such work programs, other statements relating to the technical, financial and business prospects of the Company, its projects and other matters. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the price of uranium, the ability to achieve its goals, that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms. Such forward-looking information reflects the Company’s views with respect to future events and is subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including the risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of exploration results, risks related to the inherent uncertainty of exploration and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, and those filed under the Company’s profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions, adverse weather or climate conditions, failure to obtain or maintain all necessary government permits, approvals and authorizations, failure to obtain or maintain community acceptance (including First Nations), decrease in the price of uranium and other metals, increase in costs, litigation, and failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations. The Company does not undertake to update forward‐looking statements or forward‐looking information, except as required by law.
News Provided by GlobeNewswire via QuoteMedia
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Here’s a recap of the crypto landscape for Monday (February 10) as of 9:00 p.m. UTC.
Bitcoin and Ethereum price update
Bitcoin is trading at US$97,304, reflecting a 1.1 percent increase over the past 24 hours.
The day’s trading range has reached a high of US$97,896 and a low of US$96,882.
Meanwhile, Ethereum is priced at US$2,679.41, up 1.6 percent over the same period. The cryptocurrency reached an intraday high of US$2,689 and a low of US$2,645.
Altcoin price update
- Solana (SOL) is currently valued at US$200.82, marking a 0.6 percent increase over the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency hit a daily high of US$207.25 and a low of US$201.15.
- XRP is at US$2.43, up 0.8 percent. It reached an intraday high of US$2.45 and a low of US$2.41.
- Sui (SUI) is trading at US$3.24, up 5.6 percent. It achieved a daily high of US$3.28 and a low of US$3.23.
- Cardano (ADA) is priced at US$0.7045, reflecting a 3.3 percent increase over 24 hours. Its highest price on Monday was US$0.7104 and its lowest was US$0.6969.
Crypto news to know
Japan-based Bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet (OTCQX:MTPLF,TSE:3350) released its full-year 2024 earnings on Monday, revealing roughly US$36 million in unrealized gains from the purchase of 1,761 Bitcoin.
The company said it acquired the coins for roughly US$137 million.
Metaplanet’s shareholder base grew by 500 percent last year, primarily due to the issuance of new shares to fund its Bitcoin acquisition strategy. This growth was facilitated by both debt and equity financing.
Metaplanet said it will increase its Bitcoin holdings to 10,000 Bitcoin by the end of 2025, and 21,000 Bitcoin by the end of 2026. The company’s shares closed up 17.37 percent on Monday afternoon.
CoinShares data shows Ether exchange-traded product (ETPs) inflows outpaced inflows to Bitcoin ETPs during last week’s market decline. Ether ETPs recorded US$793 million in inflows, 95 percent more than Bitcoin’s recorded inflows of US$407 million. Total year-to-date inflows to digital asset investment products have reached US$7.3 billion.
According to CoinShares’ James Butterfill, last week’s price fall resulted in significant buying on weakness.
Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) resumed buying Bitcoin last week, acquiring 7,633 Bitcoin for approximately US$742.4 million in cash at an average price of roughly US$97,255 per coin, as per US Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Strategy’s Michael Saylor hinted at another impending Bitcoin acquisition on Sunday (February 9) morning, posting a screenshot of the Saylor Tracker, a tool that monitors and tracks Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings.
“Death to the blue lines. Long live the green dots,’ he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Market watchers have come to recognize these posts as indicators of the company’s upcoming Bitcoin purchases.
Meanwhile, fraud allegations have resulted in a rapid pullback for $CAR, a meme coin launched on Sunday by the Central African Republic. President Faustin-Archange Touadera described the coin as an ‘experiment’ to raise the country’s global profile and showcase how a meme-based token can support national development.
However, shortly after $CAR’s launch, the coin’s X account was suspended, and allegations of fraud soon surfaced, with deepfake checker tool Deepware flagging a video statement from Touadera as suspicious. The news has caused $CAR’s price to pull back over 92 percent, from US$0.79 to US$0.05 as of Monday afternoon.
Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Securities Disclosure: I, Meagen Seatter, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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Sarama Resources (SRR:AU) has announced Sarama Completes Tranche 2 Options Placement
Download the PDF here.
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There’s been a great deal of speculation surrounding a potential Starlink initial public offering (IPO), and the idea of an impending Starlink stock release date has investors excited.
Elon Musk’s satellite internet business been referred to by many as the future of global connectivity, offering low latency and high speed in even the most remote locations. The company controls roughly 7,000 satellites and recently surpassed over 4 million subscribers.
One reason for this interest is Musk’s reputation in the investment space, as he has been involved in multiple highly successful and high-profile tech companies. Starlink itself is an offshoot of one of his other companies, SpaceX.
Even without Musk’s involvement, Starlink has immense market potential. A lack of connectivity is one of the most significant bugbears facing the proliferation of technology like autonomous vehicles and the internet of things. By removing this restriction, Starlink could cultivate a flood of invention and innovation and allow edge computing to thrive.
The company’s satellites have been deployed in countries around the world in recent years. In June 2023, parent company SpaceX was awarded a contract by the Pentagon in the US to provide internet terminals for use in Ukraine. A few months later, following the launch of its war on Hamas, Israel entered into talks with SpaceX to secure the use of Starlink satellites as a backup communications system.
Additionally, the company launched a US$90 million deal with Mexico in November 2023 to provide free internet to remote regions, and Telstra Group (ASX:TLS,OTC Pink:TTRAF) became one of the first service providers to offer Starlink connectivity to rural Australians in July of that year.
More recently, the company has been making significant inroads into African countries, including Zimbabwe, Niger, Liberia, and Musk’s native country of South Africa.
In September 2024, Starlink inked a contract with United Airlines to provide in-flight wifi. A few months later, Starlink secured a deal with the Canadian province of Ontario to bring high-speed satellite internet access to homes and businesses in rural, remote and northern communities beginning in June 2025.
Will Starlink go public? Although a Starlink IPO has yet to be officially announced, there has been a great deal of speculation, and some experts have suggested that the occasion may be closer than many realize. That speculation has increased with US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, and the possibility of more lucrative contracts for the satellite technology company. With that in mind, those considering a Starlink investment must ensure they understand the company and its technology as soon as possible.
In this article
What is satellite internet?
A satellite internet connection transmits and receives data via a network of near-Earth satellites. Though this technology isn’t new, it has evolved considerably over the past several years. At the time of its inception, it was generally only used by subscribers in remote areas who had few other options for connectivity.
The history of satellite internet traces back to 1962, with the world’s first commercial communication satellite. Known as Telstar 1, the satellite was launched by NASA in response to Russia’s successful launch of the satellite Sputnik 1. It had a short life, however; Telstar launched one day after high-altitude nuclear weapons testing, and radiation from the tests damaged electronics on the satellite. It was only operational for seven months before it was rendered inoperable.
Interestingly, the idea of transmitting information via satellite wasn’t new at the time of Telstar’s launch. Decades earlier, astronautics theorist Herman Potočnik first proposed the concept of geostationary orbital satellites in his 1929 book ‘Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums: der Raketen-Motor,’ which translates to ‘The Problem with Space Travel: the Rocket Motor.’ Renowned futurist Arthur C. Clarke would later cite Potočnik’s work in a 1945 paper envisioning satellite communication.
The first real use of satellite internet would not occur until the late 20th century via the Teledisc project, funded by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). First proposed in 1994, Teledisc planned to establish a network of low-orbit broadband satellites. Unfortunately, the project was rendered defunct in 2002 shortly after the failure of two similar ventures, Iridium and Globalstar.
One year later, in 2003, French satellite operator Eutelsat became the first company in the world to launch a successful satellite internet project. Since then, multiple service providers and telecommunications companies have dabbled in satellite connectivity. However, it has largely lagged behind its technological peers, primarily only seeing use in particularly isolated regions.
To explain why, we need to first explain the different types of internet. The two most common are land-based connections and cellular or mobile connections.
Landline internet uses telephone lines, coaxial cables or dedicated fiber-optic cables to send and receive data from a modem or router. This device then serves as an access point, allowing everything from computers to smart home appliances to connect to the internet. Mobile internet, meanwhile, leverages nearby cell phone towers to beam data directly to and from connected devices.
Traditional satellite internet is something of a fusion between mobile and landline, albeit over a vastly larger distance. It leverages a satellite dish connected to two modems. One modem is used for sending data and the other for receiving.
Historically, speed and capacity represent the two most significant drawbacks to satellite internet. Most satellite internet service providers only support speeds between 25 and 300 megabits per second (mbps). By contrast, landline fiber internet is capable of speeds up to 5 gigabits per second (gbps). Satellite internet also tends to be far costlier than a comparable landline connection, with higher latency and lower caps on data usage. It may also suffer from issues with reliability. Lastly, satellite internet may suffer from interference due to factors such as terrain or canopy coverage.
That brings us around to what makes Starlink exciting. Although not yet competitive with landline internet in terms of cost, the company offers considerably higher data caps and speeds than any other provider on the market — up to 500 mbps with a 1 terabyte cap. Starlink’s low-orbit satellites are also less vulnerable to geographic interference while offering more consistent and reliable coverage.
Does Starlink have an IPO date?
At the time of this writing, Starlink is not publicly traded, and there is no concrete date for a Starlink IPO. Hints of a possible Starlink IPO originally came from several tweets made by Musk in 2021.
‘Once we can predict cash flow reasonably well, Starlink will IPO,’ he explained at the time. ‘(It will be) at least a few years before Starlink revenue is reasonably predictable. Going public sooner than that would be very painful.’
Musk added later that year that Starlink’s parent company SpaceX ‘needs to pass through a deep chasm of negative cashflow over the next year or so to make Starlink financially viable.’
At the time, Musk said a Starlink IPO wasn’t likely until at least 2025 or later.
It’s no surprise then that market watchers’ eyebrows rose when listening to SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell speak at the February 2023 Commercial Space Transportation Conference. While discussing a planned testing milestone for SpaceX’s rockets, Shotwell claimed that 2023 was the year Starlink would make money.
She added that the company had a cashflow-positive quarter in 2022. There was also SpaceX’s reported revenue for 2022 — just over US$3.3 billion, US$1 billion of which originated from Starlink.
In early November 2023, Musk reported that Starlink had once again “achieved breakeven cashflow.’
Shortly after, an anonymous source told Bloomberg that a Starlink IPO could be on the table for 2024. But Musk quickly fired back in a post on X that the report was “false.”
It seems fairly clear based on Musk’s comments that we shouldn’t expect a Starlink IPO anytime soon. So why is there so much speculation that one is just around the corner?
Well, for one thing Starlink sales dominated SpaceX’s 2023 revenues, meaning the company made more money as an internet provider than as a space rocket company. Starlink revenues topped a massive US$4.2 billion that year, compared to US$3.5 billion for the firm’s core rocket launch business.
Of course, these figures should be taken with a very large grain of salt. As is too often the case in technology investing, there is no shortage of hype surrounding Starlink, much of it drummed up by Musk himself. An April 2024 BNN Bloomberg article points out that even with all that revenue, Starlink “is still burning through more cash than it brings in.” Based on anonymous inside sources, Starlink accounting is “more of an art than a science.’
Even if those numbers are inflated, the company does show promise, and analysts are still optimistic that a Starlink IPO is on the horizon. Justus Parmar, founder and CEO of venture capital firm Fortuna Investments, told Reuters he’s eyeing 2025 or 2026. “(Musk’s) waiting for a level of stability or predictability in revenue,” he said. Once the IPO is official, Parmar believes it will “be an extremely strong catalyst for everything space related.”
How can you get exposure before the Starlink IPO date?
While it’s impossible to invest directly in Starlink, you may be able to get a head start by investing in Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), as Musk stated he’ll ‘do his best’ to give preference to long-term Tesla shareholders. Additionally, there are platforms such as Hiive that enable accredited investors to purchase shares of pre-IPO companies, including SpaceX.
Fortunately, you have several options if you simply want to invest in satellite internet and aren’t particularly attached to the idea of Starlink. In spite of their failed efforts in the early 2000s, both Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) and Globalstar (NYSEAMERICAN:GSAT) are currently going strong. Globalstar’s performance is especially promising, as the company’s share price has increased in value by almost 300 percent over the past five years as of mid-January 2025.
EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) is another satellite provider that’s performed strongly in recent years. Other potential satellite internet investments include ViaSat (NASDAQ:VSAT) and Gilat Satellite Networks (NASDAQ:GILT).
As with any investment, it’s important to do your research and speak to an accredited brokerage or investment advisor before you commit any capital.
Investor takeaway
From an investment perspective, Starlink displays incredible promise. The company’s ties to Musk, a man with an established track record of successful technology startups, has generated considerable interest out of the gate. Yet even ignoring the connection to Musk, Starlink has a massive potential addressable market thanks to ongoing demand for better connectivity and a relative dearth of viable options for edge computing.
Trends such as distributed work and the proliferation of internet of things devices will only further drive this demand.
With that said, it’s best to exercise a degree of restraint where Starlink is concerned. Although the company will very likely be a sound investment once it or SpaceX goes public, there is currently a great deal of exaggerated hype and speculation surrounding it. Anyone who chooses to add Starlink shares to their portfolio if the company does go public should first ensure they understand what to expect — something they cannot do by listening to hype alone.
Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Pistilli, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
This post appeared first on investingnews.com
Gold has long served as a tool for investors to enhance their portfolios and protect against volatility.
At the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference, CEO Jay Martin engaged with industry experts Frank Giustra, Grant Williams, Alastair Still and David Garofalo to explore trends currently affecting the sector.
The group illustrated a market at a crucial juncture, with changing investor sentiment, geopolitical tensions and impending financial instability converging to potentially create the perfect storm.
Eastern vs. western perspectives on gold
Martin kicked the panel off by reviewing the last several years in the gold market. Looking back at 2019 and 2020, he noted that an influx of western investors helped pushed the metal’s price to phenomenal levels.
However, as the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic drove inflation and interest rates, these investors became sellers, and gold started to sink. Capitalizing on these lower price points, central banks moved into the market and not only stabilized the price, but caused it to surge to all-time highs. By mid-2024, gold was 70 percent above its 2022 low.
Frank Giustra, CEO of the Fiore Group, largely agreed with Martin’s summary of gold’s activity, but added that while he thinks central bank buying will continue, there is more going on than meets the eye.
“What most people don’t understand about gold is that it’s not that the gold price is going up — it’s the fact that the fiat currencies that are measured against it are going down in value for a whole host of reasons,’ he said.
Giustra sees the US fiscal situation as a factor pushing the gold price up, and suggested that the situation is not only beyond repair, but also on the precipice of a crisis. “At some point there will be a US dollar crisis. It’s going to happen in our lifetimes, probably sooner rather than later, and when that happens, gold will go through the roof,’ he noted.
Grant Williams, author at Things That Make You Go Hmmm, expanded on Giustra’s point, outlining a critical difference between the east and west. “In the east, people don’t buy gold to sell it because the price has gone up. They buy gold to own it, and when they do sell it, it’s because they need to raise money for something important,” he said.
Williams also suggested that the west is at the end of a cycle. In his view, investors are attempting to maximize their returns in any way possible, and the system is corrupt and lacks consequences.
“This is going to come to a head. We’re in the middle of that process now, and at the end of that process, when these cycles fall over, the one thing you want to own is gold,’ he explained at the conference.
‘We are moving into the part of this where it’s not just a good idea to own gold anymore — it’s essential to own gold. And I think the price is going to reflect that in the coming 12 to 18 months.’
Tech stocks, Bitcoin distracting investors from gold
The panelists agreed that today’s investors are distracted as tech and Bitcoin dominate headlines.
While technology stocks still follow the typical market ebbs and flows, cryptocurrencies are a different story.
Giustra even compared the crypto space to a Ponzi scheme, pointing to one influential commenter who has suggested that Bitcoin will reach a value of US$13 million and gold will reach zero.
“These are ridiculous statements, but he needs to make those kinds of statements to keep the greed factor going. In any pyramid scheme, you need to have new buyers all the time to keep the game going,” he said.
Giustra also outlined how the cryptocurrency space has influenced the recent US election, spending US$245 million to influence Congress and the incoming president to ease regulations. This comes from a shifting narrative that implies crypto is a store of value. Giustra believes it’s an asset class in search of a purpose.
GoldMining (TSX:GOLD,NYSEAMERICAN:GLDG) CEO Alastair Still backed Giustra, saying that unlike gold, Bitcoins can be created every day, while gold’s limited supply is inherently connected to its store of value.
Still described how resource scarcity has been tested, outlining how geopolitically stable jurisdictions are diminishing. At the same time, mining companies have underinvested in exploration and been slow to find new assets.
“So while I think many investors are a little behind the curve,’ he explained at VRIC.
‘What we have seen is the major operating companies, they’re running deficits in their reserves, so they’re not replacing what they’re mining, and that’s because they’ve been underfunding exploration for years.’
Gold majors dealing with low grades, declining reserves
The systemic underfunding of exploration could be an opportunity for explorers and developers to start acquiring projects that will be sought by majors in the future. As it stands, miners are having to maximize extraction efforts.
“The operators are mining lower grades. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re making more gold. They might make more profit, but they are actually potentially mining less gold,” Still commented.
David Garofalo, CEO, president, chairman and director at Gold Royalty (NYSEAMERICAN:GROY), agreed that operators are facing a challenge. “They’re facing a squeeze from tiny reserves, and reserves are down 40 percent. That’s demonstrated because the juniors haven’t had access to capital for over a dozen years,” he said.
He went on to explain that the entire industry is facing cost pressures.
All-in-sustaining costs have risen along with the price of gold, leading to a squeeze among producers. Much of this is due to inflation, which has resonated throughout the general economy.
“That’s why when you look at the leaders in our industry, their share prices are lower today than they were 30 years ago, when the gold price was a 10th of what it is today,” Garofalo said.
Rising costs and chronic underfunding are causing a dual squeeze. No new projects are in the pipeline, and he doesn’t expect the situation to reverse any time soon. Instead, he sees sees major companies like Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX,NYSE:GOLD) and Newmont (TSX:NGT,NYSE:NEM) with stagnating reserves and stalled output.
They can grow their share count, but not the gold they have access to, they’re not creating share value.
Which gold stocks to focus on now?
Garofalo suggested that the right space to be in now is the development stage. He thinks the majors are approaching a point where they need to add assets to their portfolios to continue to grow.
“The industry has basically been giving money back to investors for the last dozen years in dividends and share buybacks and whatnot, and not meaningfully back into the grassroots exploration to replace depleting reserves,” he said.
Likewise, Giustra backed the idea that the gold sector needs more consolidation.
“There are far too many companies burning a lot of overhead. The industry needs to consolidate. We need to deliver performance. And so it’s partially the industry’s fault; for a long time, it hasn’t performed. You need to perform economically with your deposits to qualify as an investment sector,” he said.
Williams added that it’s important for investors to understand what they are looking for. He said that gold can be “a get rich quick scheme, a get rich slow scheme and a stay rich scheme,” depending on where you are in the cycle.
“That shouldn’t be your only focus. You shouldn’t only be thinking about, ‘Where can I find the 10 baggers?’ If that’s really your mindset, crypto is the perfect vehicle for that, because there’s a 10 bagger produced every minute if you’re lucky enough to get in and get out. This industry is tangible,’ Williams said.
‘It’s things you pull out of the ground that are valuable.’
Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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McDonald’s on Monday reported disappointing quarterly revenue, dragged down by weaker-than-expected sales at its U.S. restaurants following an E. coli outbreak just weeks into the quarter.
But shares of the company rose more than 4% in morning trading as executives predicted sales would improve in 2025.
Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
Net sales of $6.39 billion were roughly flat compared with the year-ago period. The company’s overall same-store sales growth of 0.4% outperformed Wall Street’s expectations of same-store sales declines of 1%, according to StreetAccount estimates.
But McDonald’s U.S. business reported a steeper-than-expected drop in its same-store sales. Same-store sales at the company’s domestic restaurants fell 1.4% in the quarter; Wall Street was projecting same-store sales declines of 0.6%.
McDonald’s said traffic was slightly positive, but customers spent less than usual during the quarter. Over the summer, the chain rolled out a $5 combo meal to bring back price-conscious diners and reverse sluggish sales. The strategy worked, helping McDonald’s U.S. same-store sales tick up in the third quarter.
However, analysts have warned that value meals only work if customers also add menu items that aren’t discounted to their orders. McDonald’s executives downplayed those concerns Monday, saying the average check on the $5 meal deal is more than $10.
The biggest hit to McDonald’s U.S. sales came in late October, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked a fatal E. coli outbreak to its Quarter Pounder burgers. McDonald’s switched suppliers for its slivered onions, the ingredient fingered as the likely culprit for the outbreak. In early December, the CDC declared the outbreak officially over.
However, in the days following the news of the outbreak, traffic at McDonald’s U.S. restaurants fell steeply, particularly in the states affected.
U.S. sales hit their nadir in early November, but began rising again after that. In particular, demand for the Quarter Pounder, a popular core menu item with high margins, fell quickly in the wake of the crisis.
McDonald’s expects its U.S. sales to recover by the beginning of the second quarter, executives said.
“I think right now what we’re seeing is that the E. coli impact is now just localized to the areas that had the biggest impact,” CEO Chris Kempczinski said on the company’s conference call. “So think about that as sort of the Rocky Mountain region that was really the epicenter of the issue.”
The company hopes value deals, along with key menu additions, will help to fuel the recovery this year. In 2025, the burger chain plans to bring back its popular snack wraps, which vanished from menus during pandemic lockdowns, and to introduce a new chicken strip menu item.
Outside the U.S., sales were stronger. Both of McDonald’s international divisions reported same-store sales increases, bolstering the company’s overall performance.
The company’s international developmental licensed markets segment, which includes the Middle East and Japan, reported same-store sales growth of 4.1%.
McDonald’s international operated markets division, which includes some of its biggest markets, reported same-store sales growth of 0.1%. The company said most markets reported same-store sales increases, but the United Kingdom and some other markets saw same-store sales shrink in the quarter. One bright spot was France, which saw its same-store sales turn positive during the quarter after months of weak demand.
McDonald’s reported fourth-quarter net income of $2.02 billion, or $2.80 per share, down from $2.04 billion, or $2.80 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding gains tied to the sale of its South Korean business, transaction costs for buying its Israeli franchise and other items, McDonald’s earned $2.83 per share.
Looking to 2025, the first quarter is expected to be the low point for McDonald’s same-store sales, CFO Ian Borden said, citing a weak start to the year in the U.S., among other factors. Winter storms and wildfires in California weighed on restaurant traffic across the industry in January.
For the full year, McDonald’s plans to open roughly 2,200 restaurants. About a quarter of those locations will be in the U.S. and its international operated markets. The rest will be in the company’s international developmental licensed markets, including about 1,000 new restaurants in China.
Including its investments in restaurant openings, McDonald’s plans to spend between $3 billion and $3.2 billion this year on capital expenditures.
The company is also projecting a headwind of 20 cents to 30 cents per share to its full-year earnings due to foreign currency exchange rates.
This post appeared first on NBC NEWS
McDonald’s on Monday reported disappointing quarterly revenue, dragged down by weaker-than-expected sales at its U.S. restaurants following an E. coli outbreak just weeks into the quarter.
But shares of the company rose more than 4% in morning trading as executives predicted sales would improve in 2025.
Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
Net sales of $6.39 billion were roughly flat compared with the year-ago period. The company’s overall same-store sales growth of 0.4% outperformed Wall Street’s expectations of same-store sales declines of 1%, according to StreetAccount estimates.
But McDonald’s U.S. business reported a steeper-than-expected drop in its same-store sales. Same-store sales at the company’s domestic restaurants fell 1.4% in the quarter; Wall Street was projecting same-store sales declines of 0.6%.
McDonald’s said traffic was slightly positive, but customers spent less than usual during the quarter. Over the summer, the chain rolled out a $5 combo meal to bring back price-conscious diners and reverse sluggish sales. The strategy worked, helping McDonald’s U.S. same-store sales tick up in the third quarter.
However, analysts have warned that value meals only work if customers also add menu items that aren’t discounted to their orders. McDonald’s executives downplayed those concerns Monday, saying the average check on the $5 meal deal is more than $10.
The biggest hit to McDonald’s U.S. sales came in late October, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked a fatal E. coli outbreak to its Quarter Pounder burgers. McDonald’s switched suppliers for its slivered onions, the ingredient fingered as the likely culprit for the outbreak. In early December, the CDC declared the outbreak officially over.
However, in the days following the news of the outbreak, traffic at McDonald’s U.S. restaurants fell steeply, particularly in the states affected.
U.S. sales hit their nadir in early November, but began rising again after that. In particular, demand for the Quarter Pounder, a popular core menu item with high margins, fell quickly in the wake of the crisis.
McDonald’s expects its U.S. sales to recover by the beginning of the second quarter, executives said.
“I think right now what we’re seeing is that the E. coli impact is now just localized to the areas that had the biggest impact,” CEO Chris Kempczinski said on the company’s conference call. “So think about that as sort of the Rocky Mountain region that was really the epicenter of the issue.”
The company hopes value deals, along with key menu additions, will help to fuel the recovery this year. In 2025, the burger chain plans to bring back its popular snack wraps, which vanished from menus during pandemic lockdowns, and to introduce a new chicken strip menu item.
Outside the U.S., sales were stronger. Both of McDonald’s international divisions reported same-store sales increases, bolstering the company’s overall performance.
The company’s international developmental licensed markets segment, which includes the Middle East and Japan, reported same-store sales growth of 4.1%.
McDonald’s international operated markets division, which includes some of its biggest markets, reported same-store sales growth of 0.1%. The company said most markets reported same-store sales increases, but the United Kingdom and some other markets saw same-store sales shrink in the quarter. One bright spot was France, which saw its same-store sales turn positive during the quarter after months of weak demand.
McDonald’s reported fourth-quarter net income of $2.02 billion, or $2.80 per share, down from $2.04 billion, or $2.80 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding gains tied to the sale of its South Korean business, transaction costs for buying its Israeli franchise and other items, McDonald’s earned $2.83 per share.
Looking to 2025, the first quarter is expected to be the low point for McDonald’s same-store sales, CFO Ian Borden said, citing a weak start to the year in the U.S., among other factors. Winter storms and wildfires in California weighed on restaurant traffic across the industry in January.
For the full year, McDonald’s plans to open roughly 2,200 restaurants. About a quarter of those locations will be in the U.S. and its international operated markets. The rest will be in the company’s international developmental licensed markets, including about 1,000 new restaurants in China.
Including its investments in restaurant openings, McDonald’s plans to spend between $3 billion and $3.2 billion this year on capital expenditures.
The company is also projecting a headwind of 20 cents to 30 cents per share to its full-year earnings due to foreign currency exchange rates.
This post appeared first on NBC NEWS