Thanks I will check it out. I welcome any ideas on this thread about shorting commodities if it looks like the profitable way to go. We are starting to see increasing cutbacks in production with gold becoming less profitable to mine. With the consistently higher energy prices over the next few years output is going to slow even more. Of course this can go on for quite a while as long as above ground inventories pick up the slack, but eventually when the above ground supplies dry up it will take a while to pull more gold out of the ground. That will make for a sharp rise in price.
UPDATE 1-Barrick's El Indio gold mine to close, cut output
5/31/2001 2:08:00 PM
SANTIAGO, May 31 (Reuters) - Chilean gold mine El Indio, owned by Canada's Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) (ABX) , said on Thursday it would shut down for three months starting in mid-June, lowering its 2001 gold production target to 90,000 ounces from 110,000.
El Indio, located in the Andean mountains north of Santiago, said it would lay off 180 workers.
"With low gold prices, higher costs experienced in the first quarter, and the depletion of higher-grade gold reserves, we feel that this is a prudent course of action," Sergio Jarpa, vice president and general manager of Compania Minera El Indio, said in a statement.
The mine posted a first-quarter operating loss as production costs rose to $266 per ounce because of lower copper grades and a reduction in the volume of ore mined, the company said. El Indio originally announced a mine closure in September 1997 to take effect in 1999 but remained open as cost-cutting measures prolonged its life. Exploration work at the mine site will continue during the closure, which corresponds to Chile's winter season.
"We will undertake definition drilling and development work while the mill is shut down for the winter," Jarpa said, adding that a targeted exploration drilling program will continue over the coming year while mining the remaining gold reserves.
Barrick, North America's largest gold company by market capitalization, also owns the $950 million Pascua-Lama gold project that straddles the Chile-Argentine border. Construction at Pascua-Lama was originally scheduled to begin last year but start-up was deferred because of low gold prices. Pascua-Lama is expected to produce 615,000 ounce of gold annually, 5,000 tonnes of copper contained in concentrates, and 18.2 million ounces of silver.
REUTERS
Rtr 14:08 05-31-01 |
