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China’s gold reserves ‘top 1,000 tonnes’
25/04/2009 1:24:01 PM
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China’s gold reserves rose 75 per cent from 2003 to 2008, state media said, reporting that Beijing now had the world’s fifth largest holdings of the precious metal.

China had 1,054 tonnes of gold by the end of 2008, up 454 tonnes from the 600 tonnes that it said it had in 2003, the last time it reported its reserve figures, Xinhua news agency said in a report Friday.

The new figures, released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, has been reported to the International Monetary Fund, Xinhua said.

China has adjusted its gold reserve holdings twice since 2000, raising the holdings from 394 tonnes to 500 tonnes in 2001, and to 600 tonnes in 2003, Hu Xiaolian, head of the administration, told Xinhua.

China holds the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves, which stood at $US1.954 trillion ($A2.74 trillion) at the end of March, up from $US1.946 trillion ($A2.72 trillion) in December, official data showed.

On Friday, gold prices raced higher on concerns about the US economy and strong Chinese demand.

By late Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold jumped to 909 dollars an ounce from 870.50 dollars the previous week.

Allison Jackson | April 02, 2009
Article from: The Australian

EXPORTS bounced 4 per cent in February on soaring gold export prices and a weaker Aussie dollar, widening the trade surplus to $2.1 billion.

Economists had expected the trade surplus to shrink to $700 million from $926 million in January.
Imports slipped 1 per cent, figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed.

Gold exports soared 55 per cent in February as nervous investors sought shelter in the safe-haven asset, and was the main reason for the turnaround in total exports.

China ‘place to be for gold miners’
Wednesday April 1, 2009, 4:21 pm

China is the place to be for gold miners, Sino Gold Mining Ltd says, with cheap and abundant debt financing on offer for the right projects.

President and chief executive Jake Klein told the Paydirt Gold Conference in Perth on Wednesday that Sino Gold, which was the first foreign entrant to China’s gold sector in 1995, was benefiting from the Asian superpower’s ready access to capital.

“Here’s a bold prediction: Chinese gold companies and the Chinese gold industry is undergoing a revolutionary rate of change and what is going to be a major catalyst for change is access to capital,” Mr Klein said.

“Sino Gold - not even a local, domestic company - has benefited from that access to capital.”

He said it had raised more than one billion renminbi (more than $A175 million) from Chinese banks at an interest rate of less than seven per cent to fund several projects.

These included its five million ounce (Moz) Jinfeng mine - China’s second largest gold mine and Sino Gold’s flagship operation - and its one Moz second mine, White Mountain.

“So cheap access to capital is available in China, not only if you’re state owned but for every company operating in China,” Mr Klein said.

“And I think you’re going to see state ownership reduce, access to capital increase and those companies are going to get more and more confident, using their production base to expand outside of China and we’re reading about that all the time.”

Mr Klein said China, currently the largest gold producing country in the world, was highly prospective for the precious metal but under explored.

About 10,000 gold deposits had been identified within its borders so far, he said.

And while Australian gold production had steadily declined since 2005, China’s gold production continued to grow.

“It’s the tip of the iceberg,” Mr Klein said.

He said Sino Gold was moving toward developing its third gold mine, Eastern Dragon, where an initial 0.8 Moz resource is expected to grow through near mine exploration.

Sino Gold is hitting its nameplate annual production rate of 180,000 oz at Jinfeng, up from 150,928 in 2008, and expects to encounter higher grade ore at depth.

“Jinfeng has not yet told its full story in terms of geology,” Mr Klein said.

AAP