CHF WEEKLY ROUND-UP: September 8-12, 2025

World shares mostly rose this week, tracking Wall Street’s record-setting run, as mixed set of U.S. inflation data bolstered expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates to boost the economy. A notable exception was France, where the Government could be collapsing.

Trump and tariffs seem to have fallen out of thought as market participants wait for a Supreme Court ruling on legality, which most expect will go in Trump's favour. Tariffs and trade conflict are now just part of the playing field.

The TSX continues to impress, on a long run-up since the beginning of April, making another all-time high this week. The Venture exchange has been moving strongly higher since the start of April and appears ready to challenge the highs of January 2022.  A former Bank of Canada governor is warning that both Canada and the United States are headed towards a recession amid a backdrop of tariffs, geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty. Canada’s unemployment rate jumped to 7.1% in August as the economy shed 66,000 jobs for the month, its highest level since May 2016, and other signs of a slowing economy are visible. On Wednesday next week, the Bank of Canada is expected to cut interest rates by 0.25%, with another cut possible later in the year.

While the United States has not experienced the same level of economic turmoil as Canada, there are signs of an economic downturn, with housing and labour markets performing poorly, yet consumption spending is holding up. The Federal Reserve has been hesitant to cut interest rates throughout 2025 because of the threat that tariffs could make inflation worse, fearing that lower interest rates could push inflation even higher. A report on U.S. inflation Thursday showed that prices are continuing to rise faster for U.S. households than the Fed’s 2% target, but no more than economists expected. The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, its highest level since 2017, excluding the pandemic, and the data appears to ensure a rate cut from the Fed on September 17. The U.S. dollar is softening today, near a four-month low.

Gold prices are sharply higher this week at USD$3,643.50/oz at opening today. The price has been finding support at this level all week, with the price breaking out of a four-month consolidation period, and if the current pattern continues, this might add as much as 15-20% to the price in a move that heads toward USD$4,000/oz by the end of the year.  The historic trading pattern is down into the Fall and rising from September into the Spring. Look at any price decline as a buying opportunity. Shares of the gold producers have been very reactive to price moves lately, suggesting that leverage is now on the side of gold shares. Mid-size developer/producer issuers may provide the better opportunity. Silver prices were at USD$41.83 at opening today, a level not seen since April 1, 2011. Platinum is at USD$1,399/oz, and palladium is at USD$1,212/oz.

Watch the USD. If rate cuts drive it lower, expect precious metals to remain well bid, and gold and other metal-related shares to do well.

We are pleased to present our round-up of news released between September 8 and 12, 2025.

On September 11, 2025, Athena Gold Corporation (CSE: ATHA) (OTCQB: AHNRF) announced the identification of promising geophysical targets at its Laird Lake gold project in Ontario’s prolific Red Lake Gold District. Recent analysis of historical geophysics has highlighted at least six distinct zones of electromagnetic (EM) anomalism (G1 to G6), complementing the recently announced geochemical till anomalies. Concurrently, Athena has mobilized a field crew to follow up on these anomalies and refine targets ahead of its drilling campaign, planned for this upcoming winter.

Map of Laird Lake project, showing geophysical (pink) and geochemical (blue) anomalies.

On September 12, 2025, Sokoman Minerals Corp. (TSXV: SIC) (OTCQB: SICNF) announced that diamond drilling will resume at the 100%-owned Moosehead Gold Project in central Newfoundland. The initial focus will be a series of deep, 1,000 m depth, downhole drill holes testing the Eastern Trend and Western Trend gold zones for depth extensions, as well as testing for undiscovered parallel zones. Since 2018, a total of 135,325 m of core in 672 drill holes, across the property, have resulted in the definition of five significant zones of gold mineralization and several smaller, less defined zones, with most remaining open for expansion. All the main gold zones have high-grade intersections of at least 100-gram metres of gold to a maximum of 636.12-gram metres from MH-18-39.

Timothy Froude, P.Geo., President and CEO, states, “We are extremely excited to be back drilling at Moosehead, given the significance of the deep holes and the impact they could have on the mineralization on the property. Drilling to date has focused on the near surface, to an average depth of about 300 m vertically, where we have been extremely successful in defining high-grade mineralization in five previously unknown zones. The time is right to go deeper than we have in the past, to downhole depths of 1,000 m, and armed with the knowledge we have gained over the past few years, hopefully locating continuous high-grade zones at depth. We expect to be on site in early October and anticipate a four- to five-week timeline to complete drilling.”

 Plan View - Deep Drilling