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

To: goldsnow who wrote (4033)	12/9/1997 6:19:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116815

Another $1.6 bln is just about to disappear from the face of the earth into the Neverland (but that is a change in comparison to what was and will be wasted, but ..always more can be printed.. Russia has only $4 bln in gold..1 month spending under current conditions World Bank set to offer Russia $1.6 bln this year 02:49 p.m Dec 09, 1997 Eastern WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Russia could win promises of up to $1.6 billion by the end of this year in two World Bank loans to support budget and coal sector reforms, officials said on Tuesday. A spokeswoman said the World Bank's board was expected to vote within the next two weeks on an $800 million structural adjustment loan to help the government carry out economic reforms and an $800 million loan for the coal sector. ''These two loans are expected to be considered by the board before the end of the year,'' she said. She could not say over what period Russia would receive the money, what conditions would be attached to the loans or how the money would be used in the two programs. Russia has already received one coal loan to reform the industry. The World Bank wants Russia to close down unproductive mines and spin off coal company subsidiaries. It was not clear if Russia would be able to use the loan to pay wage arrears in the sector. Russia, facing crippling wage arrears and higher costs for foreign and domestic borrowing, has been looking at ways to close a yawning budget gap and bring its economic reform program back on track. The cash-strapped government is struggling to pay off trillions of rubles of wage arrears by year-end -- a deadline set by President Boris Yeltsin, who has staked much political capital on eliminating the wage debt. A government minister said on Tuesday that Russia and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had discussed providing Moscow with a Korean-style stabilization package, but such financing was not needed at present. The IMF has halted payments on an existing $10-billion 3-year loan to Russia because it is worried about dismal tax revenues. ^REUTERS@ Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

To: goldsnow who wrote (4033)	12/9/1997 6:28:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 116815

''About half the world's gold mines are now unprofitable on a cash operating basis at prices below $285, meaning mine supply will be start to be curtailed, while demand is rising in 1997 and we have revised our forecasts up for 1998,'' said Jeffrey Christian, managing director of gold industry consultant CPM Group. Gold hits 18-year low, oil weak, coffee soars 05:45 p.m Dec 09, 1997 Eastern NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gold slid to 18-year lows Tuesday as ready lending of gold by central banks and forward sales by mining companies weighed on prices. In other markets, weak gasoline prices led oil markets lower on expectations of rising supplies, and coffee prices jumped higher after a top Colombian coffee official said that dryness from the El Nino weather pattern had reduced output. At the COMEX in New York, gold for February delivery closed $5.10 lower at $284.90 an ounce, after setting a new life-of-contract low at $283.30. In the bullion market, spot gold ended at $282.75 an ounce compared with the Tuesday afternoon fix in London at $283.25 an ounce, the lowest gold fix since August 1979. The U.S. dollar strengthened on Tuesday, making dollar-denominated bullion more expensive and weakening demand even more at a time when supplies of gold remain ready to industrial users, jewelry makers or investors. ''There's been more hedging by Australian gold miners this week, as the Australian dollar has slid lower, and there was good bullion bank selling in the gold market this morning probably as a result,'' said Carlos Perez-Santalla, a Hudson River Futures COMEX floor trader. Some analysts said the prolonged weakness in gold now meant that a growing number of mines would have to curtail production since returns would not meet costs. ''About half the world's gold mines are now unprofitable on a cash operating basis at prices below $285, meaning mine supply will be start to be curtailed, while demand is rising in 1997 and we have revised our forecasts up for 1998,'' said Jeffrey Christian, managing director of gold industry consultant CPM Group. The lower gold price claimed another victim Tuesday as the Paddington mine in Western Australia announced it would have its operating life cut to 18 months by owner Goldfields Kalgoorlie, which cited lower forward prices for gold. Silver continued to shrug off the weakness in gold, with March silver at COMEX ending up 5.3 cents at $5.448 an ounce. COMEX silver warehouse stocks slid to a new 12-year low Monday, falling another 300,000 ounces to 124,699,013 ounces and reflecting falling world silver inventories. At the New York Mercantile Exchange, gasoline prices fell and led other petroleum prices down as traders pointed to expectations that stocks of gasoline in the United States were rising and to a weak tone to the cash market along the U.S. Gulf Coast, a major refining center. January gasoline ended 0.99 cent a gallon lower at 55.97 cents. January crude ended 17 cents lower at $18.67 a barrel and January heating oil 0.40 cent a gallon lower at 53.12 cents. ''Cash prices just sank today and most are expecting gasoline stocks to have headed higher. But volume wasn't great and we remain in the $18.50 to $19.00 range,'' said Warren Tashnek, president of Fimat USA Futures Inc in Houston. Traders were expecting a build-up in gasoline stocks of up to 2 million barrels for the week ended December 5 in weekly inventory data on U.S. refineries to be released Tuesday evening by the American Petroleum Institute. After the close of trading, the institute reported a decline of 1.64 million barrels. At the Coffee Sugar and Cocoa Exchange, coffee prices rose sharply as speculators jumped into the market on news of a reduced crop in second-largest producer Colombia due to the global weather phenomenon El Nino. Coffee for March delivery rose 8.85 cents a pound, or about 5 percent, to 183.20 cents, its highest finish since May 29. Jorge Cardenas, general manager of the National Coffee Growers' Federation and Colombia's top coffee official, said on Tuesday that El Nino -- a warming of sea waters off South America that plays havoc with the global climate -- had caused the loss of about 500,000 132-pound bags of coffee since July. Cardenas said production during the 1997 calendar year -- earlier forecast to total up to 12.5 million bags -- would now come in at no more than about 11.5 million to 12 million bags. ''The Colombians scaled back their crop expectations and people are looking at the next U.S. stocks figure and expecting a decline,'' said Prudential Securities analyst Arthur Stevenson. ''Those are the two factors behind the move.'' A monthly report on U.S. coffee stocks by the Green Coffee Association of America U.S. stock report was due next Monday. Analysts said the report was likely to show a drawdown in U.S. consumer coffee stocks during November of some 300,000 bags. Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.