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

To: long-gone who wrote (14141)	7/6/1998 9:14:00 AM
From: Roebear	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116763

Richard, I can confirm milk produced is of a lower butter fat content here in the Eastern dairy areas of US also. My access to dairy concerns agrees that, though this is a normal seasonal effect, this year it is exaggerated enough that it will cause a steep increase in the price of milk by summers end. New York city receives a lot of their milk from these areas. Instead of drought we have 50% over normal rain and warmer temperatures. Should have bumper crops of hay and corn so far looks great. I have noticed some harvest of early crops already, but no reports of their size yet; things are ahead here in Mid Atlantic area a few weeks. Almost like we were moved down to the Carolinas climate wise this year, a very early and warm spring. Heavy T-Storms more frequent than normal, as in other areas of country(?). Despite the other good news the butterfat is still low, probably because of the El Ninja weather and the heavy pasture growth. Thanks for the ag report from the southern areas, it was extremely helpful. Roebear

To: long-gone who wrote (14141)	7/6/1998 7:48:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116763

Rand gold rise unlikely to slow SAfrica shake-up 07:24 a.m. Jul 06, 1998 Eastern By Darren Schuettler JOHANNESBURG, July 6 (Reuters) - A soaring rand gold price may be a relief for South Africa's embattled gold producers, but it is unlikely to slow the pace of restructuring that has cost thousands of mining jobs. Despite calls from the country's biggest mining union to halt painful retrenchments, industry officials and analysts said on Monday they expect the shake-up to continue as South Africa's industry battles to compete against leaner international rivals. ''We are certainly not going to be basing the future viability of the industry on short term (market) gyrations,'' Roger Baxter, an economist with the South African Chamber of Mines, told Reuters. However, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Monday it will press the industry to recall workers who have been retrenched or put on extended leave since gold's collapse last year. ''With the gold price doing much better, we want to see retrenchments halted,'' said NUM spokesman Ben Molapo. After a century of mining, South Africa's famed Witwatersrand basin has some of the deepest and costliest mines in the world. A wave of restructuring has chopped thousands of mining jobs and closed unprofitable shafts in a bid to trim cash production costs. But South African gold mining is still more expensive than almost anywhere else in the world. Now while the rest of South Africa despairs over a depreciating rand, the country's struggling gold companies are grinning as the rand gold price hit 1,974 per ounce on Monday, its highest point in at least 2-1/2 years and well above 1,404 recorded on January 1. With gold traded and priced internationally in dollars, as the rand slides against the U.S. currency, the value of rand earnings increases. The rand tumbled to record lows on Monday as investors reacted negatively to weekend news that Labour Minister Tito Mboweni would be South Africa's next central bank governor. The rand has fallen around 40 percent since January as speculators keep up a concerted attack on the ailing currency. The unit hit a fresh low of 6.75 to the dollar on Monday. On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the heavyweight gold index rocketed to its highest point in over a year, climbing 105 points, or 9.8 percent, to 1,174.7 at midday. The key gold index, which has loped along for much of the year due to slumping world gold prices, last reached these heights in mid-June last year. Since domestic mines bear their costs in rand, a depreciating currency adds up to higher margins of return for all producers, particularly those companies more exposed to the gold price. ''Everybody wins with this gold price, but the guys who are more naked to the price are looking very good,'' said a South African mining analyst. Among the more exposed producers, Gold Fields Ltd added 400 cents to 35.50 rand. Harmony was up 300 cents to 3100 rand, a 52-week high of 31 rand. Durban Roodepoort Deep rose 185 cents to 15.55 rand. Analysts have forecast the increase in average spot gold price would have added about one billion rand to revenue stream of gold companies. This buoyant outlook has union leaders demanding that the industry scale back retrenchment plans formed months ago when the rand gold price was wallowing in the basement. NUM estimates that 12,000 miners have lost their jobs since January, with thousands more in danger on at least nine marginal mines. Since the industry has linked the need for cutbacks to the slumping gold price, it should take its foot off the restructuring accelerator as the gold price improves, say union leaders. But analysts say companies must still focus on cutting costs to complete globally with leaver rivals in Canada, the United States and Australia. ''Although there has been a spike in the gold price and everything is looking pretty good, the jury is still out over whether this is a just a one-off situation,'' the analyst said. South African companies averaged cash costs of just over $300 per ounce in 1997, compared to $216 per ounce for U.S. companies and $221 per ounce for Canadian firms and $261 per ounce for Australian miners. ''The higher rand gold price gives the marginal mines a little more time, but the dollar gold price is still the be-all or end-all for this industry,'' the analyst said. Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.