Junior miner Goldcrest Resources Ltd. will option its Gaoua copper-gold permits in Burkina Faso to Phelps Dodge Corp. in exchange for funding to develop the projects.

Goldcrest said Monday it has signed a deal whereby Phelps Dodge Exploration Corp. may earn up to a 70 per cent interest in the Malba, Souhouera and Danyoro permits by funding the projects through completion of a feasibility study.

Phelps may earn a 51 per cent interest by spending $5 million US over three years and paying Goldcrest $225,000 US. It has also committed to spend $1 million US in the first year, with Goldcrest as the operator.

Goldcrest will continue to have the right to explore the properties for gold-only prospects at its own expense.

Goldcrest Resources is a mineral exploration company focused on the Youanmi project in Western Australia and its Malba, Kampti and Souhouera projects in Burkina Faso.

Phelps Dodge Corp. is a U.S.-based miner that produces copper, carbon black, magnet wire and continuous-cast copper rod. It is in the middle of a takeover battle for Canadian nickel giants Inco Ltd. and Falconbridge Ltd., for which it has bid about $40 billion US.

President José Eduardo dos Santos sets up commission for the development of Uije´s copper project

A dispatch from the country's Head of State, José Eduardo dos Santos, creates the Inter-Ministerial Commission for the Development of the Copper Project in the Telelo-Mavoio and Bembe regions, northern Uije Province.

The basis of this measure is the strategy to carry out the project, after considering the need to do a study on its technical, economic and financial viability, as well as the survey on the infrastructures for its development.

Published in the First Series of the State Gazette number 79, of last month, in the referred communiqué it is appointed to coordinate the Commission the deputy-minister of Finances, and also comprises the vice ministers for Geology and Mining, Planning, Public Works, Transports, Energy and Water, besides the economic advisers to the President and Prime Minister, respectively.

The commission, which has to present a report in the next 90 days, has the duty to identify, within the infrastructures of support, the segments dedicated specially to the mining project.

The commission has also the task to carry out a survey on the common areas for public works and support to the mining exploration, associated to the study and projects in progress that might make viable the referred minerals exploration, specially the construction of roads, the Port of Soyo, as well as the establishment of the terms for the negotiation with the future concessionaire.

London Metal Exchange prices were buoyant Tuesday, responding to supply concerns, falling stocks and rising oil prices boosting sentiment across commodity markets, traders and analysts said.

Strongest performer was LME three-month nickel, breaching the $25,000 a-metric-ton level for the first time and setting an all-time high of $25,700/ton, up 4.2% on the Monday PM kerb.

LME nickel stocks have been steadily declining since the start of the year from over 30,000 tons to 8,418 tons, down 486 tons on the day. Cancelled warrants, denoting material due to leave the warehouse soon, have risen to 50.23%, up from 46.23%, leaving nickel stocks close to critical levels.

The cash-to-three-month spread flared out to $2,450, curtailing short selling, a trader said.

While prices are seen as overblown and fueling substitution of other materials for nickel, its rally could extend further before consolidating, the trader said.

LME copper rose to a five-week high of $7,977.50/ton. Speculative buying following a small stock rise pushed prices up, said analyst Roy Carson at Triland.

A rise in oil prices in the afternoon following comments by Iran's chief negotiator predicting a long process on talks regarding the country's nuclear program boosted prices across commodity markets.

Copper will remain extremely sensitive to supply disruptions due to slow capacity growth, Goldman Sachs said in a report.

At the same time, the possible closure of Grupo Mexico SA's La Caridad mine, Escondida contract negotiations, and Codelco contract negotiations later in the year added to copper's bullish outlook, a trader said.

LME zinc was in bullish mood, charging to a one-month high of $3,570/ton, up $70 before trade selling pared gains.

Last week in our hot commodities we picked the commodity we thought would be great long term hold and copper as we thought has made great gains.

How do you take advantage of opportunities such as this one? Here we will outline how to take advantage of the commodity boom with a simple system.

The global boom in commodities

Global economic expansion is fuelling price rises in many commodities and copper is a great market to trade with huge increases in the new millennium already, with more to come.

Global economic expansion will keep prices firm

This increase has been fuelled by the emerging super economic powers of China and India as they compete with established industrialized nations such as the USA for raw commodities.

Trading the move

The first place to look for opportunities is on the weekly charts these give you the longer term trend and then move to the daily chart for timing.

The best way to get into the market is to identify chart support and use Bollinger bands for price targets and support and use stochastic momentum to time entry.

Once support had been established we waited to key off it and looked for upside momentum and it is here the stochastic indicator helps - it gets you in as the market gathers strength.

NEVER: Trade into weakness on the “hope” support will hold, always look for strength coming off the level you have targeted.

A simple way to trade but it has piled up huge gains!

Copper made big gains last week, but you will also notice from our other reports we made huge profits in unleaded gas and crude oil and currencies with the same method – look at our previous reports and you will see huge profits on the week and we used this method to trade them all.

Novice or pro? This method will help you

This method gets you in on the longer term moves at key areas of support and allows you to enter on strength not weakness.

Anyone can do it, it’s easy to learn and is very simple, however it still makes a lot of money and stop levels are easy to place if you are wrong.

If you want build wealth quickly there is a simple way of doing it Buy copper as long term investment, forget gold and silver this is the one metal that builds wealth.

Last week in our hot commodities section we looked at it and it piled up huge gains, more than most fund mangers make in a year and it can make you lot of money here’s why:

Big Long term gains

Triple digit gains are on the cards in the coming year and past performance is fantastic, prices have increased more than six-fold since the latter part of 2001.

Global demand is on the move

This price rise has been driven by strong demand from global economic demand and tight supply The long term trend is still up!

Copper is up over 50% this tear alone supported by historically low stockpiles and very tight supply trying to keep up with ever expanding demand.

This is a simple investment

You investing in a raw commodity that may swing in the short term but long and short term trends are up and have been for years.

Many traders think it’s too simple just to buy and hold, but this commodity is one that all speculators looking for large gains should focus on.

While the focus has been on more glamorous metals such as gold or silver copper has quietly piled up bigger gains – far bigger gains

The technical view.

If we look at the technical picture, we can see the huge potential.

The weekly & monthly chart

Here we can see the long term trends on both the weekly and monthly charts are firmly up.

The daily chart

The daily chart is up and support is at the mid Bollinger band, traders can also buy a clear break of the highs. Be patient to time entry with best risk reward.

You can trade the market in the following ways

1. Futures

The most risky and lucrative way timing has to be very precise or you need a wide stop

2. Options

For unlimited profit potential linked with limited risk. Buy at, near, or in the money options with lots of time value to expiry, that will help you cope with short term volatility

3. Intra market spreads.

This involves buying and selling contracts in the same commodity.

Buying the nearby and sell a deferred (you need to look at direction of the spread though before trading) again provide staying power and lower margins.

Is it really that simple?

Yes, this is simple trade but to get leverage to work for you, trade only when the risk reward looks good for entry you can then sit back and enjoy the ride.

Many traders have ignored copper as a way of building wealth but on past performance and future prospects it’s a great horse to be on to pile up some great triple digit annual long term gains

When thinking of precious metals most of us think of gold and platinum, almost everyone neglects to think of copper, which is, in fact, one of the most basic and common metal we encounter on a daily basis.

This red colored metal has been in use for many years, humanity has found copper and started using it already in Greek ancient times, this use of copper and other metals has evolved since ancient times, and as is the case in copper it has been used for more technological advanced things than the production of mirrors. Copper has a high electrical conductivity, and it reflects and its unique red orange color as it absorbers other frequencies.

Sharing many qualities of its family, copper is very much like silver and gold, all have high thermal and electrical conductivity. Copper is making its comeback for one very strange reason, it is a fact that in the last few years copper theft has been on the rise.

The use of copper has been so wide over the last few years that many have started stealing copper, in any form, to sell afterwards. Today we are dependent of copper, as a relatively cheap metal, for many different uses of everyday modern life and the need for cutting costs and lowering the cost of metals has produced this strange phenomena in which many people find different objects are stolen or stripped from their copper elements.

When you think of using copper in your home, or in your business you should consider the fact that you will need to maintain copper, much more than other metals it is sensitive to corrosion. The many other benefits of copper are that it is relatively cheap and easy to work with, that it has a nice look to it, and that it is, in many cases, a more robust alternative to other kinds of metals or products.

Copper awning for the business is one great solution for an awning needs, although you will need to take care of it a little more than other kinds of awning you will probably agree that it is the most attractive metal you can use.

If you are in the market for copper to use in your home improvement projects, you are probably making a right decision, copper is a great material to work with when you are doing home improvement tasks, and when you need to protect a pipe of an outing of any sorts you will find that copper is one of the most efficient metals you can use, it is not difficult to work with and you require no special expertise for success, you just need to start working with copper and you learn the rest by yourself.

Just one last word about copper, you probably realized half way through reading this that copper does have a very significant role in our lives, from our kitchens with their copper frying pans, pots, knives and forks, to coins and change made part of copper, pipes and awnings and many more products that we have become almost blind to, have copper in them.

European Minerals of London, U.K., expects the first ore to be uncovered at its Varvarinskoye project in August 2006. Commercial gold and copper production is expected by the end of this year.

The gold-copper project comes with a capital cost of approximately US$115 million to create an open pit mine and flotation-gravity mill. Cash costs per ounce of gold (including copper credits) are estimated to be US$87 in the first year of production, and to average US$158 over the 15-year life of the mine. A total of 1.93 million oz of gold will be produced.

In preparation for start-up, European Minerals is pre-stripping the Central pit; mobile equipment delivery is ahead of schedule; the permanent camp will be complete in September; and completion of the tailings dam should occur in November.

Deutsche Bank keeps buy call on Jiangxi Copper, ups FY06 earnings estimate by 13% to CNY4.27 billion; raises FY07 profit estimate by 9% to CNY4.42 billion on higher copper prices assumption.

Expects prices to stay high on demand strength; also stronger operating cash flow may lead to attractive payout, facilitate acquisitions.

Tips stock at HK$10.30, now +2.1% at HK$7.35.

Tai Fook Research keeps Jiangxi Copper at HK$11.25, representing undemanding P/E of 8.5X for FY06, tips counter at buy.

Says output of company's main products: copper cathodes, copper rods expected to rise 7%, 31%, respectively, for 2006; ASP growth for this year pegged at 20% for copper cathodes, 25% for copper rods.

FY06 earnings forecast at CNY4.0 billion (EPS: CNY1.36), +113%.

Notes, China largest refined copper consumer internationally, representing 19% of global usage for 2004; its robust economic outlook likely sustain strong usage of refined copper long term. Stock +2.8% at HK$7.40.