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

To: PaulM who wrote (23515)	11/28/1998 5:53:00 AM
From: Alex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 117063

Adding value to African gold V Mallett Financial Times, 20 Nov 1998, p 30, Business Day, 23 Nov 1998, p 1 A ban on the sale of gold in South Africa, the world's largest producer, is just one of the many obstacles to the marketing of gold with added value rather than just as a commodity. Two other commodities that South African companies dominate - platinum and diamonds - have successfully adopted the concept of adding value to the basic product. While some South African gold mining executives are sceptical that similar promotions could work for gold, others believe in the idea of adding value to South African gold and exploiting the country's position as the dominant producer. Anglogold, the world's largest producer, intends expanding its marketing activities, and has launched a gold jewellery design competition called 'Riches of Africa'. Independent gold mining company Harmony has set up its own gold refinery and is producing branded gold bars for sale, while Sarah Da Vanzo of Consolidated Bullion offers a solution that is based on a new 'African' brand of 22 or 24 carat gold, that is treated to make it harder and less liable to scratch. In another move, the world's leading gold producers have banded together in an attempt to increase transparency in the speculative gold trading market, which has been blamed for the drastic decline in the price of the metal since 1996. They aim to broaden and deepen cooperation between the world's gold producers and initiate dialogue with market players. Only 10% of the gold trade is conducted on official exchanges such as Comex or Nymex. The remaining 90% is conducted over the counter. 1257/1998 Golden lining to euro cloud? Mining Journal, 20 Nov 1998, Financial Times, 18 Nov 1998, p 30 Gold euro coins, minted for currency purposes, could provide significant support for the gold price, which continues to decline. Recently, the European parliament called on the mints of EU countries to produce 100 euro coins with a gold content not exceeding its nominal face value. However, the European Parliament's decisions on euro coins are not binding on either the European Commission or on member nation finance ministers, who ultimately decide on all aspects of the coins. The proposal has been tried before and rebuffed, but, according to analyst Andy Smith of Mitsui Bussan Commodities, if kept alive, it could eventually absorb more gold than any coin in history and absorb most of the surplus EU gold reserves. The amount of gold used in an issue would depend on the gold content of the coin. Based on a gold content of 3-6 and an issue size of 1-10 per head of the EU population, the issue of a 100 euro gold coin could account for between 1080 and 21 600 t of gold. Meanwhile, the World Gold Council reports that sales of gold coins in the USA surged in the third quarter of 1998 to 23.5 t, and sales of gold coins in other parts of the world have also risen. The WGC attributes this to the worldwide economic turmoil, and fears over the potential problems that the millennium computer bug may cause.