Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : DROOY Durban Deep- Best S. African Mine -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: POLARBEAR who wrote (209)	7/27/1999 5:26:00 PM
From: baystock	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 851

By ANDREW CLEARY Chairman of Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD), Roger Kebble, predicted on Tuesday that the gold price would come off its lows in the future but said that nothing was certain and in the meantime DRD would "keep its head down" and "ensure that [it] stays in business". Kebble said that he believed some sort of conspiracy to be in place, possibly involving hedging organisations. He said that DRD had felt "an enormous thrust from the hedging organisations to get us to give them our gold . . . their passion for this could be so that they protect themselves from a gold price increase". However, Kebble said that he saw positive factors emerging for gold, such as the probable blocking by US congress of IMF gold sales. "Eventually I think we might win this battle," he said. DRD hedges most of its gold so that it is not as badly affected by the lower prices. At current prices, or "in this current onslaught", as chief executive Mike Prinsloo put it, DRD could continue to operate at hedged prices for a further 18 months. However, the hedging programme could be rolled forward by a period of up to five years in the event of an improvement in the gold price, allowing DRD to take advantage of the higher prices, he said. Prinsloo said that his own research into sentiment for the gold price had shown an average forecast of $272/oz in 2000 and $285/oz in 2001. The rand/dollar exchange rate, he said, was forecast at R6.25 and R6.35 per dollar in 2000 and 2001 respectively. However, Kebble said he felt that the rand would finish the year at a level of over R7/dollar. He also called for government to lower interest rates into single-digit territory to kickstart the economy and allow the rand to weaken to "give this country an opportunity to be export driven".