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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: goldsheet who wrote (89946)	9/25/2002 5:00:01 PM
From: E. Charters	Respond to of 116816

Now that is interesting. Russian gold output up 16%. Russian economic production is still in control of Moscow, as where else do the Russians get their money to produce gold? They sure didn't borrow it here. The Russians are not economic lame brains en masse. They may go through many difficulties in a sea change to capital markets but their market entries are not that bad uber alles. They led the world's diamond trade in Europe for 20 years or more, exceeding South Africa's output. And here again they must see a future in mining gold. This is very hopeful vis a vis gold price actually. EC<:-}

To: goldsheet who wrote (89946)	10/15/2002 8:34:01 PM
From: Real Man	Respond to of 116816

Looks like most of it will end up in the Russian CB vaults - not good news for the buck (about 100 billion US dollar bank notes circulate in Russia). There is a lot of negative press in Russia about the dollar, so this move is likely driven by the desire to increase the percentage of gold reserves over dollar reserves. Moscow, 14 October: Major state-owned Russian bank Vneshtorgbank [Foreign Trade Bank - VTB] purchased 18 t of gold from domestic gold miners in January-September [2002], up 50 per cent on the [same period last] year, Sergey Zaychenko, the deputy head of VTB's treasury, told Prime-TASS on Monday [14 October]. VTB plans to buy a total of 26 t of gold this year, up 53 per cent from 2001. Zaychenko said the increase is driven by a 38-per-cent on-year boost in VTB's gold-mining financing programme to 109m dollars in 2002, compared with 79m dollars last year. He also said the bank introduced a 25m-dollar leasing programme this year to finance purchases of heavy machinery and equipment for gold-producing firms. "We continue our diversified approach to gold transactions, selling 16 t to the Central Bank of Russia, while exporting 1.5 t in January-September," Zaychenko said. VTB's branches cover nearly every gold producing region in Russia, including Magadan, Khabarovsk, Blagoveshchensk in the Far East, Chita, Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk in Eastern Siberia. So far this year the number of VTB customers among gold producers rose by 30 per cent to more than 100. "VTB turned over a total of 220 t of gold in January-September, including selling, purchasing, swap and hedging transactions, up 131.6 per cent from a year ago when 95 t were used in transactions," Zaychenko said. "I think we could reach 300 t in gold transactions in 2002 versus 152 t in 2001," he said. According to Russia's state precious metals and gems depository, Gokhran, domestic banks financing gold production concluded contracts to purchase a combined 178 t of gold this year. Last year, 56 commercial banks bought 130 t of gold. Gokhran purchased 26 t for the state reserve. Russia's 2002 gold production is expected to rise 16.7 per cent on last year to 180 t, Gokhran estimates. As of 1 September, Russia's gold output was at 108.2 t, up 16 per cent on last year.