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

To: Ironyman who wrote (31120)	4/3/1999 10:58:00 AM
From: Probart	Respond to of 116764

Yes, RANGY has moved up 30% over the past 60 days while gold is dropping to the 170's......: -) Probart

To: Ironyman who wrote (31120)	4/3/1999 11:01:00 AM
From: Gord Bolton	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116764

Claude Resources CRJ.to Pangea PGD.to St. Andrews SAS.to Kinross K.to St. Jude SJD.v Madison MNP.v Meridian MNG.to IWA.v Metallica MR.to

To: Ironyman who wrote (31120)	4/4/1999 11:00:00 PM
From: Alex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116764

4/04/99 - INDEX: Business, Mining, International, Finance, Economy <Picture> Gold has lost its lustre, analysts say TORONTO, Apr 04, 1999 (The Canadian Press via COMTEX) -- It has given us fever -- and several big rushes -- then reduced us to fools. Ever since humankind found its first nuggets of gold in riverbeds, the soft, buttery metal has exerted a force in the world. In the current era, some are richer for its existence, especially the world"s central banks. Some are poorer: does Bre-X Minerals ring a bell? But there are unhappy signs that gold has lost its compelling, and high-priced role in human affairs. It"s a symbolic shift, but it"s an expensive one for gold bugs: the price has been stuck under $300 US an ounce for a year now. Bullion used to be a safe haven in which to park money and weather stock market and currency storms. It was also a reliable hedge against inflation. But its exalted status as the ultimate symbol of wealth no longer applies. In a time when the Dow Jones industrial average cracks 10,000 and inflation remains at historic lows, safe havens lined with gold look pretty dull. And while the U.S. economy is red hot, the American dollar has replaced gold as the safety net of choice. The price of gold has declined for the last 20 years after hitting a record high of $875 US an ounce in January, 1980. But times were far more turbulent then with the hostage crisis in Iran and the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. The fear at the time was that there would be a superpower face-off as well as major disruptions in world oil prices, which sent investors scurrying for those trusty gold bars. The price fell to a 19-year low last August of $274.60 US an ounce and continues to trade below $300 for only the third time since 1979. It closed Thursday at $279.90. ""Right now, the demand is not there,"" says Mike Leahy, a prospector based in Kirkland Lake, a community in the middle of Northern Ontario"s gold-producing belt. ""People aren"t considering it a storehouse of wealth. And why put your money in a bond that pays no interest?"" Investors now wonder if the metal is destined to become about as glamourous as a doorstop. ""The short answer is that it"s a commodity and a monetary asset,"" says Martin Murenbeeld, publisher of the weekly Gold Monitor in Victoria. ""Gold has some competition from the U.S. dollar right now (as a safe haven). That could change in the near future."" So far, neither the Asian financial crisis nor the current war in Yugoslavia has sent investors scurrying to the beloved bullion. ""Gold is a haven when you"re looking at very high inflation rates or extreme currency turmoil,"" says University of Toronto finance professor Eric Kirzner. ""But we haven"t been in a high inflationary period since the early 1980s."" Unless things turn around, gold is in danger of becoming an ordinary commodity, much like copper, nickel and aluminum -- just another useful object whose beauty has faded. Commodity prices in general have been weak since the start of the Asian economic flu in mid-1997 -- and historically , gold falls during times of weak commodity prices. ""There are so many negative components for gold it"s hard to pinpoint just one,"" says Manford Mallory, an analyst with Research Capital Corp. of Toronto. ""Aggressive supply and soft demand have been driving the price down to very low levels."" Gold is a funny thing. It"s too soft to make weapons or tools yet it"s virtually indestructible, making it perfect for electronics, in everything from pocket calculators and computers to washing machines, televisions, missiles and spacecraft. Its malleability and resistance to corrosion make it perfrect for dental fillings. Gold has been used in dentistry for 3,000 years. Japan, the biggest maker of electronics in the world, also has the most need for gold, accunting for more than 45 per cent of global consumption. The U.S. is the second-biggest user of the metal. An estimated 90 per cent of all the gold ever mined still exists, in everything from touch-tone phones to bracelets to china and glasswear. But gold"s strength is also its weakness. ""It"s not like oil,"" Mallory says. ""It doesn"t burn up. The same gold has been around from thousands of years ago. People used to think it could only go up (in value). Well that"s not the case."" (Toronto Star) Copyright (c) 1999 The Canadian Press (CP), All rights reserved.