Gold Price Report - March 8, 2010

Early this morning gold dropped a quick ~5 points to lows at $1130.00.  By 10:00 am SMH reported gold as a sector laggard as it was down 0.4%. At midday, gold dropped to new session lows as the dollar index moved into positive territory. Gold closed down at $1123.70. In summary, gold sold off as the dollar pared its early losses this morning, but it moved modestly higher off session lows and traded relatively flat for the remainder of the session, netting marked losses. April gold closed 1.0% lower at $1124.00 per ounce. Gold futures are still above their 50 moving average near the $1109.50 level.

Gold Mining Report- March 8, 2010

Three gold mining companies were in the news today.  There was the discovery of a possible new high yield gold target, a huge sale of mining company stock to Soros Fund Management, and positive initial test results on a new gold extraction and processing method that could dratically reduce the volume of material used to recover the shiny stuff.

Paramount Gold and Silver announced a second bulk mineable target has been discovered at San Miguel project in new San Francisco, Mexico area.  The new target generated some unusually high assay results. Paramount owns a 100% interest in the 466,000 acre San Miguel Project in the Palmarejo District of northwest Mexico, making it the largest claim holder in the area.


NovaGold Company announced that it is proposing to issue more than 13.6 Million (M) common shares of the company at $5.50 per common share for gross proceeds of $75M to Quantum Partners, a private investment fund managed by Soros Fund Management. This capital is in addition to the $100M financing announced by the company on March 4th of this year. The gross proceeds to be raised under the two financings total US$175 million.

Lastly, International Tower Hill Mines announced key initial metallurgical test results for mill processing of the major types of mineralization at the Money Knob deposit at the Livengood Gold Project in Alaska. The initial gravity and flotation gold recovery test results were highly encouraging for the use of a pre-concentration gold recovery system for the Money Knob mineralization. Potentially, both the operating and capital costs for a milling operation could be reduced by using this treatment for gold extraction. The initial extraction method results indicated that it could reduce by 80% the material volume used to recover gold. The company is currently engaged in further testing and optimization of both the concentration process and the extraction of gold from the concentrates. 

That is your day in gold mining.  Stay tuned for the Gold Mining Report as I hope to make it a regular feature of this blog.

24K Chuk Kam's Daily Gold Mining Report

     Today, March 5, 2010, three gold mining companies, Nova Gold, Appollo Gold, and Yamana Gold made headlines.
     Nova Gold Resources announced that landowners have approved certain amendments to the lease for subsurface and surface rights in connection with the Donlin Creek property; the existing lease covers the subsurface rights for the entire Donlin Creek mineral reserves and resources.
     Apollo Gold announces that its first drill assay results intercepted high grade gold mineralization at the Pike River Project. The assay shows high grade gold mineralization.
     Yamana Gold has not had the same good fortune lately. The company’s costs were higher than expected at the company's Jacobina mine in Brazil and El Penon in Chile during the fourth quarter, which pumped up cash costs of gold on a per ounce basis. Yamana claims it has performed below expectations as a result of damage to its Minera Florida mine in Chile due to ongoing power outages caused by recent earthquakes.

This article is intended to be a regular feature on 24K Chu Kam as time allows.

Article from TheStreet.com : Gold Prices Stall

Alix Steel

March 4, 2010

Gold prices were slipping today due to profit talking by PM investors, and a rise in the U.S. dollar index. The U.S. dollar rallied off of Euro weakness after the European Central Bank announced its decision to keep key interest rates low.

Currently gold's future is mixed, and one factor is the next employment report. A positive report could prompt the Fed to raise interest rates, which would likely impact gold prices negatively. Gold prices were also negatively influenced by Greek debt fears, new uncertainties created volatility for the Euro and gold.

Mining stocks, were also such as Barrick Gold, Newmont Mining, Kinross Gold and Goldcorp were also down. Gold ETF’s such as SPDR Gold Shares were also lower.  To read the article in its entirety go here.

 

Gold Futures Higher on Stronger Euro, Weaker Dollar

An article on Forbes.com reported that gold futures moved higher this morning as the Euro strengthened against the US dollar, and an employment report showed improvement in the U.S. jobs picture. Gold went as high as $1,144.40 per ounce early in the session, to its highest levels since Jan. 11. 2010. Greece's plans to rein in its debt gave strength to the Euro and thus weakened the US Dollar.   Furthermore, the ADP jobs report stated the U.S. private-sector employers cut 40,000 less jobs in February than in January. Gold mining companies also traded higher during this mornings advance. Barrick Gold, AngloGold Ashanti, and Newmont Mining all posted modest gains.  To read the entire article:
Gold Rallies As Dollar Dallies
Greenback falls on Greek belt-tightening, provides boost to metal prices, stocks.
By MarketNewsVideo.com
http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/03/gold-barrick-anglogold-markets-equities-silver-marketnewsvideo.html?partner=email

TheStreet's Prediction of Gold Futures

Published on TheStreet.com 02/14/10 - 09:12 PM EST

By Mohammed Isah of fxtechstrategy.com

"Gold futures took a break this past week from their recent declines and broke back into their longer rising trend line and through the Jan. 28 low at 1,073.95 to close the week higher at 1,093.30. Gold futures still retain their broader downside bias, but the immediate risk is higher, and futures could target the Feb. 3 high at 1,125.00. A cap is expected there, which would turn the commodity back down again. However, if that level breaks, we could see more momentum build toward the Jan. 20 high at 1,141.48. "
To read the entire article go here.

The Glitter of Precious-Metals ETFs - Kiplinger.com

By Laura Cohn, Associate Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance


Published February 4, 2010

In this article Ms. Cohn identifies five exchange-traded funds that give investors a stake in gold, silver, platinum and palladium. Ms. Cohn reports “for decades, precious metal maniacs have argued the bullish case for their favorite metal. In recent years, they’ve actually been right. The price of gold has climbed steadily for the past nine years, from $277 an ounce in 2001 to a record high (not adjusted for inflation) of $1,213 in December 2009 as investors piled into the yellow metal because of its reputation as a safe haven and as a hedge against a falling dollar”. Recently Gold closed at $1,115 on February 2, 2010.

She further elaborates “the rising price and the rise of exchange-traded funds have attracted investors in droves. Thanks to ETFs, investors can buy gold without having to open their own Fort Knox. Last year, investors around the world bought 51.2 million ounces of gold, and 35% of that amount came through ETFs. In the case of silver, the figure is even more astounding. Investors snatched up 172 million ounces of silver last year, and 87% of it was via ETFs. Silver closed February 2, 2010 at $17 an ounce, well below the record of $50, set in 1980, but far above the $5 level of recent years. However, you may want to expand your horizons to commodities that are less well known. In particular, the arrival of two new ETFs makes it easier than ever to invest in platinum and palladium, two precious metals with a wider array of industrial uses than gold and silver. The creative names of these new vehicles are ETFS Physical Platinum Shares (symbol PPLT) and ETFS Physical Palladium Shares (PALL).”

Then she shares a bit of wisdom that if you do not know already you should. Don’t put all of your eggs in the same basket, or as the author more eloquently states “Investing in raw materials doesn’t come without risk -- and, in fact, prices of platinum and palladium are actually more volatile than those of gold. So this is one reason precious metals should represent only a small slice of your portfolio -- 5% at most and probably less for most people. The best way to get a piece of gold is through the popular and liquid SPDR Gold Shares (GLD). The ETF sports an expense ratio of 0.40%. (If you’d rather track gold stocks, you can buy another ETF, Van Eck Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX), which tracks an index of gold-mining stocks). For access to silver, buy the iShares Silver Trust (SLV), which charges 0.50% per year. Both GLD and SLV provide a stake in the metals, which are housed in vaults located in London, eliminating the need to worry about where to store them safely.” “What gets people into trouble is making a bet that’s too concentrated,” says Jack Reutemann, founder of Research Financial Strategies, so he recommends a buying bit of each. The author states an alternative “spread your risk by buying an ETF that includes gold and silver as well as other materials, such as oil, corn and soybeans. For broad exposure, we like the PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (DBC). The ETF, based on the Deutsche Bank Liquid Commodity Index, tracks the futures prices of 14 raw materials. Its expense ratio is 0.85%.”

Read the whole article here:
The Glitter of Precious-Metals ETFs - Kiplinger.com

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