“But consider that the silver market is a hundred
times smaller than the gold market. Put another
way, all the silver bullion in existence is worth less
than the market capitalisation of ANZ Bank.”…. Diggers and Drillers
Monday, 27th February 2012
Melbourne, Australia
By Dr Alex Cowie

Snippets from Miningweekly.com:

Global gold demand topped the $200-billion mark for the first time ever in 2011, with demand increasing to 4 067 t, the World Gold Council (WGC) reported on Thursday.

This was also the highest tonnage level since 1997.

The WGC said that the main driver for this increase was the investment sector, where yearly demand reached 1 640 t during the year, up 5% from the previous record set in 2010, and valued at around $82.9-billion.

Demand for gold bars and coins also continued to be robust, climbing by 24% to 1 486 t.

India remained the largest source for demand with 933 t, which the WGC said was notable, considering the volatility of the gold price and the weakness of the Indian rupee against the US dollar during the second half of the year.

In India, gold jewellery accounted for over 500 t of demand, while the investment market demand reached 366 t. Indian demand accounted for 25% of total bar and coin demand worldwide.

In China, yearly demand of 769.8 t was up 20% year-on-year as a result of increases in both jewellery and investment. The largest rise was in investment, where demand of 258.9 t with the value of RMB84.5-billion leapt 69%. Read full article

In a sign of sheer desperation Obama is said to be seeking a greater than 5% (gross) royalty on gold, silver, copper and other hard rock mining and also imposing a $4 fee per acre for non producing oil and gas leases on Federal land. Echoes of Australia’s resource rental tax and of “socialism induced” sovereign risk. read more

And has a LONG way to go… note the extremely LOW % of Forex reserves.

Need a good Forex adviser? Tell Alex that Sparty referred you.

Public release date: 2-Feb-2012
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Contact: Richard Mellor
[email protected]
44-011-334-34031
University of Leeds

A silver bullet to beat cancer?

The internet is awash with stories of how silver can be used to treat cancer. Now, lab tests have shown that it is as effective as the leading chemotherapy drug – and may have fewer side-effects.

Results from the study at the University of Leeds, published in Dalton Transactions, show that particular silver compounds are as toxic to cancer cells as the platinum-based drug Cisplatin, which is widely used to treat a range of cancers.

But the crucial difference is that silver is thought to be much less toxic to healthy human cells, and in some cases, can be beneficial. Silver is currently used for its antiseptic and antibiotic properties, in bandages, wound dressings and water purification filters in the third world.

Nausea and vomiting, kidney damage and an increased risk of infection are common side effects of Cisplatin which is used to treat cancer of the lungs, breast, bladder, testicles, head and neck, ovaries and lymph nodes.

Dr Charlotte Willans who is leading the study said: “As many are unfortunately aware, chemotherapy can be a very gruelling experience for the patient. Finding effective, yet non-toxic drugs is an ongoing problem, but these preliminary results are an important step in solving it.”

“Our research has looked at the structure which surrounds a central silver atom. This ‘shrubbery’ is what determines how reactive it is and what it will interact with. Our research has used different types of these ligands to see which is the most effective against cancer cells,” adds Dr Willans.

The research, still the first phase of drug development, involved exposing breast and colon cancer cells with different silver-based chemicals for six day periods. It has been shown that ligands which are co-ordinately bonded to the central silver atom through two sites are more effective than those coordinated through only one site. This may be due to the release of silver being much slower and make these compounds more effective over a longer period of time.

A major barrier to the continued development of these compounds is a lack of understanding of how they work. Over the next 12 months, research will focus on investigating how the compounds damage cancerous cells and what effects they have on healthy cells. This will establish whether these silver complexes are in fact less toxic to ordinary human tissue, and will help to design and develop the next-generation of chemotherapy drugs. This work is been carried out in collaboration with Dr. Roger Phillips at the University of Bradford and is funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research.

Charts are from FML’s AGM Presentation