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To: goldsnow who wrote (23546)	11/29/1998 12:21:00 AM
From: Robert Dirks	Respond to of 116753

Gold production falling....... Saturday November 28, 10:07 pm Eastern Time Australia 1998 gold output seen down at 309 tonnes SYDNEY, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Australian gold production is forecast to decline to around 309 tonnes in 1998 from a record 314 tonnes in 1997, Surbiton Associates Pty Ltd said on Sunday. Production in the three months ended September 30 totalled 74.9 tonnes, marking the third consecutive quarterly decline in mine output, managing director Sandra Close said in Surbiton's Gold Review for the third quarter. ''Given the slight downward trend over the year to date, production will probably be around five tonnes less than 1997's record 314 tonnes,'' Close said. Australia is the world's third largest producer of gold behind South Africa and the U.S. The declining gold yield is the result of several factors, Close said. ''It cannot be explained by the low U.S. dollar price alone,'' she said. ''Exploration has been cut back ... you must explore to find more ore,'' Close said. A lack of support from investors in Australia has forced mining companies to slash their exploration budgets, she said. Moreover, uncertainties about the outcome of Aboriginal native title land claims had hastened a move by some miners to explore for gold outside Australia, she said. ''The effects are now being seen, with fewer new discoveries to replace production from mines which are nearing their end,'' Close said. The only new mine to start producing in 1998 was the Cadia Hill lode in New South Wales owned by Newcrest Mining Ltd , she noted. She said investors have become ''obsessed with the U.S.-dollar gold price,'' which has languished below US$300 an ounce. ''While the U.S. dollar gold price drives market share sentiment, Australian dollar gold prices and production costs affect gold sector profits,'' she said. The Kanowna Belle mine in Western Australia, 50-50 owned by North Ltd and Delta Gold NL , was the lowest cost mine, with a reported cash cost of A$103 an ounce, Close said.

To: goldsnow who wrote (23546)	11/30/1998 7:02:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116753

Little headway seen at EU finmin meet on taxes, G7 10:38 a.m. Nov 30, 1998 Eastern BRUSSELS, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Talks between European Finance Ministers set for Tuesday over the future of the EU's huge annual budget and how the euro zone should be represented at G7 meetings will likely make little headway, officials said on Monday. Both issues are set to top the agenda at next month's EU summit in Vienna. But officials said the best that could be hoped for at the Brussels meeting was a narrowing of positions on the issues which have completely divided EU countries. ''We will not I think reach conclusions or decisions tomorrow,'' one EU official said, when asked to comment on the likelihood of an agreement on euro zone representation. Officials said EU countries were still split over whether the European Commission should get a seat at G7 meetings, and whether national central banks should lose their places. ''Germany hates the idea, so what are the chances of a result which Germany cannot live with?'' said one official. France has suggested national central bank governors stop taking part in G7 talks. Talks over the EU's 85 billion Ecu ($100 billion) budget for 2000-2006 are also expected to run into the sand. Eight countries want to freeze expenditure as it prepares to take in new members from eastern Europe. Others -- Spain, Ireland, Greece and Portugal -- fear this will lead to cutbacks in the transfers they receive from Brussels. In a debate on fiscal matters, ministers are due to give a green light to opening high-level talks with the United States, Japan, Switzerland and other countries about an EU plan to clamp down on tax evasion by EU residents. The plan calls for EU countries either to introduce a 20 percent withholding tax on non-residents' savings, or cooperate with other tax authorities in monitoring income on investments. Many EU countries fear savings will flow out of the EU if it goes ahead unilaterally with the plan, just as the United States created an offshore dollar market in the 1960s with the introduction of a similar withholding tax. Officials said the decision to address this concern hid lack of progress in other areas, such as whether the proposed directive should cover Eurobonds, which Britain and Luxembourg both object to, and whether the proposed 20 percent rate was too high. Ministers are not expected to tackle either of these issues until lower-level experts have finished preparatory work. The European Commission wants ministers to reaffirm a commitment they gave at a meeting in Vienna in September to reach a political agreement on the savings tax by June 1999. They also want the deadline extended to a separate work on combating countries' ''harmful'' corporate tax regimes, on which ministers are due to receive a progress report. British Finance Minister Gordon Brown has threatened to veto any tax agreement which could harm Britain's interests, although the Financial Times reported on Monday that others in the British government were unhappy with his stance. Tuesday's meeting of all 15 EU finance ministers will be preceded by a Euro-11 group meeting of nations taking part in economic and monetary union. European monetary affairs commissioner Yves-Thibault de Silguy will use the meeting to remind ministers of their commitment to submit long-term budget forecasts to the EU before the end of 1998. So far only two EMU countries - Finland and the Netherlands - have met the deadline, set to give the European Central Bank an overview of the budgetary prospects of the euro zone before it takes over responsibility for monetary policy in January. The Dutch ''stability programme'' is due to be endorsed at Tuesday's EU finance ministers meeting, which coincides with a meeting of the ECB's policy-making council in Frankfurt. ((brussels.newsroom+reuters.com, tel +322 287 6830)) Copyright 1998 Reuters