Doug, GATA will not win the lawsuit, all they can hope to do is try for a settlement. If they go to court they will lose, but the people GATA takes to court might settle as cheaper than fighting. If GATA wants too much then they will get nothing.
Wear away the profits of the bare assed shorts. Producers, like Barrick who hedged within their production capacity will be fine. Some hedged up to 10 times their capacity, gambling on continued low gold, and now they are in the fire. Since it is a gradual fire, a little due each month it will not force gold very high, just into the $3xx range. It may beat $400 around december, but after that fall back to the $300-350 range.
Each month the oversold producers will scrounge for their shortfall as well as increasing their output so it will be a moderate plateau for the next 5 years. It should allow for the HR miners in Canada to start up some mines.
GATA has no hope of a win here, just trying for money to stop the nuisance. As you say if there is no class, just a bunch of assorted people/groups, some will settle, some will fight and some will ignore the suit as not collectable against offshore stuff. I also expect there will be some who used corporate shells and those will be emptied leaving nothing for GATA to get. I expect GATA will quickly winnow the candidates down.
Bill |
