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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (5712)	4/30/1999 12:07:00 PM
From: lorne	Respond to of 81518

Hi MD. On the one hand we have big producers complaining about low gold prices then we have these same producers telling the world how low a price they can produce an ounce of gold for. Seems like a pretty stupid thing to be doing kind of like the IMF telling the world they are thinking of selling gold so the price can go down before they sell. You think maybe they have a good reason for doing this.?? AngloGold positive on year after tough qtr By Darren Schuettler JOHANNESBURG, April 30 (Reuters) - AngloGold Ltd , the world's biggest gold producer, said on Friday it was on track to produce seven million ounces of gold this year after emerging from a first 1999 quarter hit by operational problems. The Johannesburg-based gold miner reported a 29 percent jump in attributable profit to 611 million rand ($101 million) in the three months ended March 31. However, after stripping out exceptional items, AngloGold's earnings slipped three percent to 493 million rand. "In light of the operational problems we have had, they are good results," AngloGold executive director of finance Jonathan Best told analysts at a results briefing. AngloGold said some of its mines were affected by seismic events and mechanical problems as well as planned repairs to existing infrastructure. Shares in the bullion giant were up 500 cents or 1.83 percent at 278.00 rand on the Johannesburg bourse on Friday. AngloGold's results included for the first time production from the North and South American mines acquired from sister-company Minorco SA for $550 million. The former Minorco mines in the United States, Brazil and Argentina boosted AngloGold's total gold output by eight percent to 53,711 kg from 49,914 kg in the previous December quarter. This was ahead of the company's revised output forecast of 52,000 kg for the March quarter. "Management remains confident of achieving the targeted production levels for the year of seven million ounces, at cash costs of around $210 per ounce," AngloGold chief executive Bobby Godsell said in his quarterly report. The Minorco mines also helped trim AngloGold's cash costs to $209 per ounce from $224 an ounce in the December quarter. Best said the company would focus on dollar cash costs in the future. When it was originally formed 18 months ago through a merger of Anglo American Corp's bullion assets, AngloGold executives set a cash cost target of 40,000 rand, or $250 per ounce, for all its operations. At current exchange rates, the target is now $200 per ounce and mine managers will be pressed to meet that target, said Alan Smith, executive director of South African operations. "We still see that as a very strong measure of our operations," Smith said. The March quarter included exceptional items related to the Minorco assets and changes to South Africa's tax regime. Best said 342 million rand in goodwill related to the Minorco acquisition was written off in the March quarter. The sale of a 21.5 percent stake in gold miner Driefontein, which is set to merge with South Africa's Gold Fields Ltd , will result in a book profit of 545 million rand accounted for in the second quarter. AngloGold said that to secure pricing for production from the Minorco mines it increased its hedge position by 8.7 percent to 12.9 million ounces spread over ten years -- equivalent to a year and nine months of production. reuters.com

To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (5712)	4/30/1999 8:44:00 PM
From: Bill Murphy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 81518

MD, Interesting web site. Thanks. I will follow up. Bill

To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (5712)	5/1/1999 5:33:00 PM
From: Bill Murphy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 81518

I would like to thank so many of you for your feedback after my email about my concern over the lack of press attention to Chairman Saxton's Press Release and to the fact that not one newspaper in the United States printed Janet Whitman's Dow Jones Newswire story about GATA. There was note one in particular that I thought you might enjoy. John has been a friend for some time and is a big fan of the Cafe. He is also very well known and highly respected in his field: Dear Bill, I haven't been in touch lately because we're working to finance our return to an active site and it's more time-consuming than expected. I read your good stuff, however and I can explain why you can't get the news media interested in GATA. The problem is that the regular media are terrified of being out there alone with a controversial story. Ben Bradlee has said that if no one else had picked up on Watergate he was within a week of dropping the story. The press pretends to be anti-establishment, but it's very reluctant to take any information from an unofficial source. So, the only way you really get information is to read all the non-estabishment stuff, especially the extreme Right and Left. The Right wing American Spectator magazine had the Indonesian connection with Clinton more than a year before the NY Times “discovered” it. As a reporter, I have run into this all my life. I've come in with a hot story and unless official sources confirmed it they wouldn't run the piece. I tried to get a story about massive theft from air cargo at JFK in TIME for two years and always got shot down because the FBI wouldn't admit it. Off the record they told me it was true, but they had territorial problems. Some years ago a black teenaged girl in Peekskill claimed she'd been attacked by a gang of white cops. Sensational front page in the Times, TIME, Newsweek, TV, etc. And then a few weeks later a reporter from The Village Voice and a guy from some non-network local TV station went up there to get details--and found out that the story was a hoax. The chief crime reporter from the Times found it hard to look me in the eye and explain why they didn't bother to go and check. The reason: it seemed to be police brutality and the media WANTED it to be true. GATA is unofficial and making what seem outrageous claims against the establishment. So, they ignore GATA and listen to Goldie and Rubin and others who probably call your operation a bunch of nutty speculators. The story is also hard to understand and that also makes editors nervous. Finally, the official position that gold is just another commodity is pretty much accepted by the media. (Still, I'm surprised that Crudele hasn't said anything. He's pretty good at doing odd-ball stories) Your best hope is that Congress will get interested and say so to the press. Another possibility: go to American Spectator. Still, the official line will be to ridicule it and deny it with self- righteous indignation. “How dare you suggest that the Treasury and Wall Street are part of a giant conspiracy!” Assuming that Congress does look into it, and comes up with some convincing evidence, the official line will be that they are “Shocked! Shocked! that some offshore hedge funds and such would try to rig the gold market.” And the Treasury and White House will see to it that the malefactors are punished. Finally, they will want to make sure that none of the bad guys really get hit in the pocketbook. So, they might try doing what President Grant did to break the corner in gold engineered by Fisk and Gould: release tonnes of AU from Fort Knox. Knowing how Clinton & Co work I would not find this at all surprising. And they will be very convincing explaining how they managed to step in an avoid a worldwide panic. When our ‘net site is running again [ ClickOnMoney.com ] I will be giving GATA plenty of space. all best, John Thank you John and we will give you as much exposure as we can. GATA has received some special interest from members of the Dallas, Texas community. Certain individuals learned that Jerome Marcus is one of our attorneys and it caught their attention. For those of you that are not familiar with Jerome, I will quote the following from the front page of the New York Times - Jan 23, 1999: "Quietly, a Team of Lawyers Kept Paula Jones's Case Alive" This time last year, Hillary Rodham Clinton described in a now-famous appearance on the NBC News program "Today," how a vast right-wing conspiracy" was trying to destroy her husband's Presidency. As it turns out, some of the most serious damage to Bill Clinton's Presidency came not from his high-profile political enemies but from a small secret clique of lawyers in their 30's who share a deep antipathy toward the President, according to nearly two dozen interviews and recently filed court documents. While cloaking their roles, the lawyers were deeply involved - to an extent not previously known - for nearly five years in the Paula Jones sexual misconduct lawsuit. They then helped push the case into the criminal arena and into the office of the independent counsel, Kenneth W. Starr. The group's leader was Jerome M. Marcus, a 39-year-old associate at the Philadelphia law firm of Berger & Montague, whose partners are major contributors to the Democratic Party. Although Ms Jones never met him or knew he had worked on her behalf, Mr. Marcus drafted legal documents and was involved in many of the important strategic decisions in her lawsuit, according to billing records and interviews and interviews with other lawyers who worked on the case. As much as any of Ms. Jones's attorneys of record, Mr. Marcus helped keep Ms. Jones's case alive in the courts." Thus, as a result of very recent interest in GATA from the Southwestern part of the U.S., I have decided to move to Dallas, Texas on May 15 so that I may be more effective and productive as GATA Chairman. Bill Murphy