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To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (1822)	11/25/2006 7:05:15 PM
From: ms.smartest.person	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3198

China's Economy May Expand as Fast as 10.7% in 2006 (Update3) By Helen Yuan and Allen T. Cheng Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- China's economy, the world's fourth- largest, may expand as much as 10.7 percent in 2006, said Yao Jingyuan, chief economist at the National Bureau of Statistics. Gross domestic product may rise between 10 percent and 10.7 percent this year, Yao told reporters at a steel conference in Shanghai today. Growth close to the top of the range would exceed the World Bank's Nov. 14 estimate for China's economy to advance 10.4 percent in 2006. China has raised minimum wages and increased welfare spending to get households to spend more and make the world's fastest growing major economy less dependent on investment and exports. Economic expansion slowed in the third quarter for the first time in a year as lending curbs damped business spending. ``Given the pace of growth around the world, I don't think 10.7 percent is excessive,'' said Tai Hui, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong. ``China definitely needs some rebalancing'' in growth away from business investment. Standard Chartered forecasts China's economic growth will accelerate to between 10.6 percent and 10.8 percent this year. The economy advanced 10.2 percent in 2005. The People's Bank of China, the nation's central bank, on Nov. 14 said the economy likely will expand at a more than 10 percent pace in 2006. The central bank raised interest rates twice this year to cool an investment boom that threatens to leave China with idle factories. Growth in fixed-asset investment and industrial production has moderated since June, reflecting tighter rules on land use, higher rates and efforts by the central bank to remove funds from the financial system. By contrast, retail sales jumped in October at the fastest pace in almost two years as rising incomes spurred consumer spending. Investment May Rebound ``China's macro-economic measures to rebalance growth are correct, but the question is whether the magnitude or aggressiveness are sufficient enough,'' Hui said. Profits at industrial companies accelerated in October for a seventh straight month as steelmakers including Baoshan Iron & Steel Co. boosted prices, the statistics bureau reported Nov. 22. Rising profits may cause business investment to rebound as many companies finance capacity expansion from retained earnings. China's inflation rate will be ``as high as 1.5 percent for 2006,'' Yao also said at the conference today. Rising prices are a sign that deflation, which has plagued China for years, may be on the wane, he said. The nation's trade surplus will be more than $150 billion this year, Yao said, without giving a comparison for 2005. Money Supply China's trade surplus surged to a record $23.8 billion in the month of October as imports grew at the slowest pace in 15 months, raising the likelihood that the U.S. and Europe will intensify demands for currency gains and more market access. U.S. and European policy makers have accused China of keeping its currency undervalued, ignoring copyrights and protecting local businesses. The government's fiscal revenues for the year will be 4 trillion yuan ($510 billion), Yao said, without providing a comparison for 2005. China's money supply measure, M2, will gain between 16 percent and 17 percent in 2007, said Wang Yu, a director of China's central bank. Wang also was speaking at the conference in Shanghai. M2, the broadest measure of money supply, gained 17.1 percent in October from a year earlier, a Nov. 13 report showed. China's foreign exchange reserves exceeded $1 billion by the end of October, Wang said. The nation's foreign exchange reserves are the world's largest. To contact the reporter on this story: Allen T. Cheng in Beijing at acheng13@bloomberg.net Helen Yuan in Shanghai at hyuan@bloomberg.net Last Updated: November 25, 2006 01:37 EST bloomberg.com

To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (1822)	11/27/2006 5:30:24 PM
From: ms.smartest.person	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3198

&#8362 David Pescod's Late Edition November 27, 2006 AURELIAN RESOURCES (V-ARU) $33.55 -3.50 Suddenly it could become a little more interesting to be a shareholder of say, Aurelian Resources, Corriente Resources (CTQ), IAMGOLD (IMG), Coastport Capital (CPP), Dynasty Metals (DMM), Goldmarca (GML) or any one of several other companies due to the surprise election results this weekend out of Ecuador. Billionaire banana grower and serial entrepreneur Alvaro Noboa who was expected to win, didn’t based on exit poles and lost to economist Rafael Correa, the American-educated politician whose ideology is way left of left. He has, in the past, advocated walking away from the countries debt as well as world bank obligations and Correa is also a fellow traveler of neighborhood blowhard, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. What happens next could be significant to the country of 13 million people that has half its population in poverty and successful developments of mining operations you would think could help alleviate some of that poverty, but things don’t always go the way they should. Aurelian Resources is probably the discovery of the year, the decade and possibly the generation and they are one of several large projects along with Corriente that makes one wonder what happens next and that yes, things can be delayed or ruined by politics. CORRIDOR RESOURCES (T-CDH) $7.05 +0.11 It’s one of our nominees for “The Big Play of the Day” and Corridor on Thursday, November 23rd announced spudding of the McCully F-58. The well will test the known Hiram Brook zone, but will also go deeper and finally test the Dawson Settlement zone for the first time. Corridor already has close to 1 Trillion cubic feet of gas in the Hiram Brook and the deep formation is four times the size...but is it gas charged? That is the big question. The interesting thing about the chart to the right is that while most natural gas companies have been clobbered over the past year with the plummeting of natural gas prices, Corridor with its success at McCully, has tripled. Cash flow is expected with the completion of their pipeline to the Maritimes & Northeast line in February, which should make more believers of the play when that cash flow commences, as this is a story that is not widely followed. Not yet anyway. Who believes that there is actually gas in New Brunswick? That is the question of the day. With an expected 75 days to drill and test this new and very important well, one should be looking for interesting news and developments some time in early February. SELKIRK METALS (V-SLK) $1.19 +0.09 ANTRIM ENERGY (T-AEN) $3.57 -0.05 Last week Selkirk Metals came out with some pretty interesting grades on their base metal deposit in B.C. It was 20 meters of 13% zinc/lead and is the stuff one dreams of finding. Today, there is yet more news out on their Ruddock Creek property and the grades are just as tasty. Their Ruddock Creek property in B.C. is also in a location that’s much closer to the facilities than many of the new exploration projects way off in the woods in Northern B.C. “We are only roughly 20 kilometers from road, power and all the supplies we’d need” company president Gord Keevil tells us and he suggests there is also lots of experienced mining types as it’s not too far from the Kamloops area as well as other experienced mining towns nearby. Keevil updates us by suggesting that this is an area that has been drilled before, back in the 1960’s and 70’s, and thinks that new resource estimates due in the first quarter of 2007 are going to be interesting. Right about now, he suspects there’s about three to four million tons of reserves and this is the kind of rock that while underground, goes for about $300 U.S. per ton. And while they might have 3-4 million tons now, he suggests that they can find 10 million tons with a 10% grade—you are talking about $3 billion worth of rock. That would attract market attention! As far as the good drilling results yesterday, he says that “over time, there have been dozens of good holes just like it” and he suggests that while drilling is finished for the year, at least on this project, there are about another 20 holes awaiting assay. Again to emphasize their location, he says they are only 30 kilometers from the North Thompson Highway and the nearby towns of Clearwater and the like. “It would be no trouble attracting crews to make the project go” he says as these days manpower is one of the very tough to find ingredients to make projects go. It’s not going to be totally quiet for the company as they are drilling some additional projects over the next while, but obviously for this main project, the next big number will be new reserve numbers in the first quarter of next year. They hope to be gearing up for the first underground development sometime next year which would be a dramatic step forward and as one looks at the chart of zinc prices these days, you are looking at numbers that could make dreams come true. With Australian production expected to wane over the coming years, just maybe one could expect high zinc prices for some time. We ask Keevil the question we always do... “Gord, if you could only buy one stock other than your own, or a stock that you wouldn’t have any conflict of interest with, what would it be? And understanding fully that you are under pressure here to come up with a double! The experienced and well-connected mining man, for heaven sakes comes up with an oil and gas stock...Antrim Energy. He suggests that they should be drilling their next high profile North Sea project some time around the second quarter of next year. He’s right about it being an important play should it hit... Disclosure: Aurelian Resources and Corriente Resources & Dynasty Metals: Canaccord Capital covers these stocks and has a Speculative Buy rating on them. (Speculative buy: Stocks bear significantly higher risk that typically cannot be valued by normal fundamental criteria. Investments in the stock may result in material loss.) IAMGOLD: Canaccord Capital covers this stock and has a Buy rating on it. (Buy: The stock is expected to generate risk-adjusted returns of over 10% during the next 12 months.) Canaccord has recently participated in financings for Aurelian Resources, Corriente Resources and Corridor Resources. If you would like to receive the Late Edition, email Debbie at debbie_lewis@canaccord.com