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Gold/Mining/Energy : Starcore Resources Ltd. SOE.V -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rob Toor who wrote (48)	11/19/1997 8:25:00 AM
From: ziggy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 578

I do not foresee any significant news until the new year-----at this time of the year the market is very soft because of tax loss selling so the companies will selectively release unimpressive news and hold the good stuff for the new year when RRSP buying brings the markets up.

To: Rob Toor who wrote (48)	11/19/1997 10:42:00 AM
From: morrie	Respond to of 578

ROB: I'm expecting news on starcore very soon, As STARCORE is linked very closely with AVALON, and news is expected this week on their assays at "separation rapids". ALSO AVALONS exciting new property at "wolf mountain" with platinum. I believe Starcore will likely be involved somewhere there. Tuesday November 18, 8:16 am Eastern Time Platinum demand way over supply on Russian squeeze By Patrick Chalmers LONDON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - "Russia's squeeze on precious metal exports this year means platinum demand will significantly outstrip supply for the first time since 1988, refiner Johnson Matthey said on Tuesday. Confusion and political wrangling halted Russian platinum group metal (PGM) exports in early 1997, causing one-month lease rates for platinum to leap to 150 percent and prices to spike to seven-year highs of $500 an ounce. ''Demand for platinum, at 5.09 million troy ounces (158.3 tonnes), will exceed supplies by 320,000 ounces, the first significant deficit since 1988,'' Johnson Matthey said in its preliminary 1997 platinum report. The white metal is used mainly in car catalysts, where it helps cut noxious exhaust fumes, in jewellery and in the chemical, electrical and glass-making industries. Metal shortages, which market stocks should be able to absorb, prompted Johnson Matthey to predict a trading range of between $400 and $450 per ounce of metal during the next six months. ''The market's going to be in deficit both this year and next year,'' Johnson Matthey publications manager Alison Cowley told Reuters in a briefing ahead of the report's release. ''We do believe there are stocks of metal in the market which can be used to meet demand. We don't think anybody's going to go short,'' she added. Platinum's early Tuesday fix in London was at $386.00 an ounce. South Africa will supply a record 3.66 million ounces of platinum to world totals in 1997, compared with Russia's 700,000 ounces, 270,000 from North American mines and 140,000 from other countries such as Zimbabwe. On the demand side, the big news for platinum this year has been a jewellery buying spree by Chinese and North Americans which more than matched lower Japanese sales. Johnson Matthey said Chinese consumers would take 300,000 ounces of platinum in 1997 while North Americans bought 140,000 ounces. It said Japan's market share in jewellery, while still dominating the market, would slip 100,000 ounces to 1,380,000 ounces. ''Sales of platinum rings and neck chains in China have benefited from a strong preference for white metal among younger consumers, who have much higher levels of disposable income than their parents,'' the report said. Japanese sales, in contrast, suffered from lower consumer spending on luxury items generally. Platinum demand also rose in the electronics sector whilst declining slightly among catalyst makers. While Russian supply problems convulsed all PGMs markets in early 1997, that country's export plans will affect platinum's stablemate palladium more than platinum itself in future. That is because Russia's platinum stocks, as opposed to reserves, are now nearly spent. ''They still have stocks of palladium but we believe their reserves of platinum are almost exhausted,'' Johnson Matthey Research Director Michael Steel said in a statement accompanying the report. That meant the 700,000 ounces supplied by Russia this year more or less matched mine production. What the squeeze did do for some of platinum's industrial consumers was to force them to buy metal rather than lease it. People leased the metal because it was cheaper to pay interest for the time they used it in industrial processes rather than buying the metal outright. Such tactics became untenable during this year's hike in lease rates, which caused many to switch definitively to straight metal purchases to avoid supply uncertainties."