Gold Price Rises As Stocks Fall, UBI To Focus On Gold Bullion

The price of gold rose 85c to USD$677.15 per fine ounce in Sydney yesterday, the Herald Sun reports. However, the gold miners all fell, with Lihir (ASX:LHG) losing 2c to AUD$3.29, Newcrest (ASX:NCM) sliding 46c to AUD$23.73 and Newmont (ASX:NEM) dropping 6c to AUD$5.27

Dailypress reports that it has only taken three months for the US mint to sell most of the Jamestown coins it has issued; so far, more than 60% of gold and more than half of silver coins have been sold. The Mint was authorised to produce up to 100,000 gold coins and up to 500,000 silver coins to commemorate Jamestown’s 400th anniversary. The coins will be on sale until the end of 2007 or until they sell out, at a cost of USD$255 for the gold coin and USD$39 for the silver coin.

Dubai will hold its fifth Gold conference at the end of April, when members of the jewellery industry will gather to discuss mining, retail and marketing issues in the industry, Idex online reports. Key topics on the conference agenda include luxury marketing, supply and demand, e-commerce, and jewellery marketing.

Junior gold explorer Keegan Resources (CVX:KGN) has completed an Induced Polarisation program over the target area at its Asumura project, southwest Ghana, where two major anomalies have been defined.

Dan McCoy, President and CEO of Keegan Resources, said "The multi-kilometre scale of the strong aeromagnetic and IP anomalies at Asumura show that the property has room to develop drill targets over areas large enough to host major deposits as seen at Newmont’s Ahafo Mine. The augur drilling program will provide the geochemical and geological data necessary to prioritise and drill these prospective anomalies."

Northern Lion Gold has reached an agreement to sell all of its Finnish mineral properties to Lappland Goldminers (STO:GOLD), a Swedish exploration company, for approximately C$10.46 million. The company has recently shifted the focus of its exploration and development activities to its Cercal and Moura projects in Portugal, and also holds a strong portfolio of projects in Sweden.

Company President John Lando commented: "This transaction will allow us to focus squarely on the world-class exploration opportunity that we have assembled in Portugal, without need for new financing or share dilution. The history of Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO), and the recent success of Lundin Mining's (TSN:LUN) Neves Corvo project, demonstrate the magnitude of potential that lies within the under-explored region of the Iberian Pyrite Belt where we are currently defining drill targets.”

India’s Economic Times reports that the Union Bank of India (UBI), a public sector lender, plans to focus on its bullion and gold coins business this fiscal year as it believes these sectors have immense potential. The bank, which entered into gold coins retailing in October last, hopes to increase its market share from its existing bullion business and gold coins to six per cent this year, which would require the sale of 48 metric tonnes of gold.

“The business potential in gold is huge and we aim to tap this potential,” UBI’s General Manager for Treasury and International Banking, Bhaskar Sen, said.

The Daily Reckoning Australia

P.S. to get The Daily Reckoning direct to your inbox sign up to our free e-mail newsletter or if you prefer to use RSS, subscribe to the Daily Reckoning RSS feed.

Related Articles:

• None Found