World Gold Council figures seal status
21/07/2009 4:03:19 PM

Global demand for gold soared 38 per cent in the March quarter, compared to the corresponding period in 2008, as investors banked on the precious metal’s safe haven role amid tough economic conditions.

Strong investor appetite for gold countered a fall in demand for the precious metal for jewellery and industrial uses, World Gold Council investment research manager Rozanna Wozniak told a teleconference on Tuesday.

“Jewellery demand weakened, which isn’t surprising given the extreme economic conditions that consumers face: rising unemployment, falling house prices and low levels of consumer confidence,” Ms Wozniak said.

“Industrial demand also weakened. Once again, this is hardly surprising given the economic conditions.

“The biggest driver in that sector was electronics demand.

“However, investment demand easily offset weakness in the other two sectors.

“It literally boomed.”

http://money.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=840041

By Bernard Salt

review summary then visit the website

Very low market cap of $9m, strong team and loads of goodies. Worth checking out…

Make sure you watch the Conrad video.

I’m in.

In a recent on-camera interview with BNW Business News Wire, Schiff suggests that the looming prospect of a hyper-inflationary environment in the U.S. will severely debase the greenback over the next few years. And the global investment community will realize that gold represents the ultimate “store of value” as a safe haven replacement for a discredited U.S. dollar.

“One of the reasons that gold isn’t stronger is because of this temporary strength of the dollar. This is keeping the gold market in check. And the dollar is getting some of the safe haven money that should be going into gold,” he says.

“At some point that will stop. The people who are buying dollars will realize that there’s no safety in dollars. Because the central banks are going to try to pay for the economic bailouts and stimuli by looting the world’s savings and by printing money and debasing it.”
read article here

A recent article published to Fat Prophets’ readers reminds us in rather scathing terms that it was P Costello who sold off 2/3 of Australia’s gold reserves in 1997 for a song and cost Australia around $6 billion dollars….

With all the hype surrounding the possible return of P Costello to replace the current leader of the Libs (“All wick no bang” as aptly described by P Keating) it is worthwhile to remember that Costello was NOT very good at his job. The old maxim of not diving into shallow murky waters should be at the foremost of people thoughts … especially those that seek to return the libs to power……

Excerpt:
Since our initial recommendation in 2007 at USD 650, gold outperformed almost every other asset class. The gold bull market has been running with an annual performance of 16% since 2001. Gold closed the year 2008 with the eighth annual increase in a row. And in the year to date, the performance has been outstanding as well: the gold price has recorded an increase of 7% (in USD) and 8% (in EUR) 1, respectively. The average price in 2008 was USD 872/ounce, i.e. 25% higher than in 2007 (USD 695).

read full article

Gold explorer Andean Resources is expected to announce a capital raising to help develop its flagship Cerro Negro project in Argentina.

Shares in the company have been placed in a trading halt while the company finalises the details.

They last traded for $1.77.

The company has estimated it will cost about $434 million to bring the project into production within three years.

Last year, a pre-feasibility study suggested a low-cost operation producing up to 350,000 ounces of gold a year with cash costs of $US198 per ounce.

Recent upgrades have pushed Cerro Negro’s total resource to 2.6 million ounces of gold and 23.2 million ounces of silver.

STUART McKINNON

Interesting divergence AUD trending strongly upwards… Gold going sideways….