3:46p ET Saturday, January 31, 2009

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

At last weekend’s Vancouver Resource Investment Conference, Mining Interactive’s Nick Nicklaas interviewed GATA Chairman Bill Murphy and your secretary/treasurer about the work GATA has done over the last 10 years, and you can watch the interview here:

http://www.mininginteractive.com/videos/videos.php?link=camb200901bm

Read more….

Precious metals finished the week higher while oil, U.S. and European stocks moved lower. London gold finished 5.0 percent higher than last Friday’s close. Silver improved by 9.2 percent while platinum gained 5.9 percent. For the month, the Dow lost 8.8 percent, the S&P fell 8.6 percent and the Nasdaq dropped 6.4 percent.

New York crude-oil for March delivery closed to $41.68 a barrel on Friday, gaining 24 cents, or 0.6 percent. Oil lost 10 percent on the week and 14 percent for the month.

AAA said the average price for unleaded gasoline on Saturday settled to $1.855 a gallon compared to $1.618 a month ago and $2.988 twelve months back.

London silver ended at $12.51 an ounce, rising $1.05 since last Friday’s close.

London gold closed to $919.50 an ounce, gaining $43.75 for the week.

London platinum settled to $983 an ounce, climbing $55.00 since last Friday.

(…)
Read the rest of Bullion & Business Weekend Report – Jan 31 (798 words)

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Mining and construction machinery maker Caterpillar Inc. announced additional job cuts on Friday, bringing the week’s total to 22,100 cuts.

Read more….

Or at least interference by anyone else….

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Banker Warns of Risk of Political Interference

By Peter Thal Larsen, Gillian Tett, and Francesco Guerrera
Financial Times, London
Friday, January 30, 2009

The bailouts of Citigroup and Bank of America could distort the market if the US lenders succumb to political pressure when making lending decisions, a senior executive at JPMorgan Chase has warned.

Jes Staley, head of JPMorgan’s asset management and private banking operations, said political interference in the management of those lenders that have turned to the US government for large-scale support was the “biggest risk” facing his bank.

His comments, made at a seminar on the fringes of the World Economic Forum in Davos, highlight the growing concern among financiers and policymakers that recent government banking bailouts on both sides of the Atlantic could distort the market while undermining global capital flows.

The US authorities have in recent months taken on much of the risk on hundreds of billions of dollars of loans held by Citigroup and BofA.

Read more….

The Gold ETFs have suddenly swelled, but still represent only a tiny portion of pension-fund assets…

ON DECEMBER 17th of 2008, the combined gold holdings of the World Gold Council-launched Gold ETF and Barclays Gold Trust funds stood at 985.59 tonnes, writes Julian Phillips of the Gold Forecaster.

By Jan. 16th 2009 this had risen to 1009.92 tonnes, and by 30th Jan. early London time they had grown to 1079.83 tonnes after growth of almost 70 tonnes in two weeks.

To give you perspective on this, the Central Bank Gold Agreement signatories – those European central banks agreeing to cap their sales each year – sold only 3.5 tonnes in the last two weeks. And there are many other gold bullion-holding funds, including other ETF trusts in the developed world, from Canada to Switzerland, that are not included in this total

If they were the total would be approaching 1,200 tonnes and more. So clearly we are seeing a stampede of institutional fund management into gold at present!

Read more….

Buying gold bullion coins is a popular way to invest in gold. While I personally don’t think that it is the best way to invest in gold, many investors and coin collectors like to buy gold bullion coins.

Why Do People Buy Gold Coins?

People buy gold coins for various reasons, but here are the best reasons to buy gold coins:

• Gold coins are liquid assets that can be resold quickly.
• Gold coins are not subject to foreign exchange rate fluctuations.  Gold owned in the United States is worth the same as gold owned in India.
• Investing in gold bullion acts as a hedge against inflation.  If the value of the U.S. dollar decreases, that means that it would cost more U.S. dollars to buy the same amount of gold.  Therefore, if you owned gold bullion coins, those coins would be worth more U.S. dollars if the value of the U.S. dollar weakens.
• Because gold acts as a hedge against inflation and foreign exchange rate volatility, it also protects owners from political instability and it  s effects on the value of money.

What are gold bullion coins?

Gold bullion coins are gold coins that derive their value from their gold content and the price of gold.  Gold bullion coins do not derive their value from scarcity or condition.  People buy gold bullion for the price of gold, but as collectibles.  Unlike St. Gaudens Double Eagle gold coins, bullion coins are not rare.

Gold Bullion Coins From Around The World:

American Eagle Gold Coins

American Eagle Gold Coin

American Gold Eagles for Sale on Ebay

South African Krugerrand Gold Coins

Krugerrand Gold Coins

Krugerrand Gold Coins for Sale on Ebay

Canadian Maple Leaf Gold Coins

Canadian Maple Leaf Gold Coin

Canadian Maple Leaf Gold Coins for Sale on Ebay

Mexican Gold Coins

Gold Mexican 50 Pesos

Mexican 50 Pesos for sale on Ebay

China Panda Gold Coins

China Panda Gold Coins

If you are interested in reading more about China Panda gold coins, here is an article on collecting panda gold coins.

Panda gold coins on sale on Ebay

Australian Kangaroo Gold Coins

Kangaroo Gold Coins

Kangaroo gold coins on eBay

Russian Gold Coins

Russian gold coins on ebay

British Sovereign Gold Coins

British Sovereign Gold Coin

British sovereigns on sale on ebay

Austrian Philharmonica Gold Coins

Austrian Philharmonica Gold Coin

Philharmonica gold bullion coins on ebay

I hope that this buying gold bullion coins article provided you with a helpful primer on buying gold bullion and investing in gold coins.

Collectors were more than eager to slap down $1,189.00 for the 2009 Ultra High Relief $20 Double Eagle Gold Coin during its first days of availability, with sizzling sales figures reported.

The United States Mint placed the modern day recreation of the famed Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ designed 1907 $20 Double Eagle gold piece on its online store January 22, 2008.

All indicators pointed to a first day Double Eagle meltdown. Initial online orders took an hour or more to place, and collector reports about Mint phone line back-ups were plentiful.

The one-ounce highly detailed coin is struck in 24-karat, .9999 fine gold and is limited to a single year of issue. Its smaller diameter of 27mm is more than 50 percent thicker than modern US Mint gold coins. Those features and more, made the coin a hit.

Numbers are now surfacing with Mint sales of 28,173 within the first day and 40,727 sold during the first four days. In terms of revenue, the Mint generated an impressive $33.5 million on day one, or $48.4 million through the first four days. Those are exceptional figures. But they came with some negative side affects as well.

(…)
Read the rest of Sizzling Ultra High Relief $20 Double Eagle Sales Figures (311 words)

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Platinum Australia reported its first concentrate production at the Smokey Hills Processing Plant in South Africa and said the project would be among the lowest cost producers of the precious metal in the industry.

Read more….

Russian metals giant Norilsk Nickel said on Friday it had increased nickel production 8.6% in 2008 year-on-year, to 299,700 tons.

Read more….

By Pham-Duy Nguyen and Nicholas Larkin, Bloomberg News

The same unprecedented steps that central bankers are taking to rescue the banking system are driving investors to gold, the commodity investors buy when they lose confidence in financial assets.

David Einhorn, manager of the $5.1 billion Greenlight Capital Inc. hedge fund, bought gold for the first time. Steven Lehman, the Federated Investors Inc. fund manager who beat 99 percent of his peers last year, is betting on bullion with Toronto-based Yamana Gold Inc. and Goldcorp Inc.

The combination of central banks spending trillions of dollars to prop up the banking system in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression will cause gold to appreciate at least 17 percent this year from $882.05 an ounce on Dec. 31, surpassing the record of $1,032.70 in London, according to 16 of 24 analysts surveyed by the London Bullion Market Association. The metal rose to a three-month high of $927.36 today.

“The government can print endless money, but they cannot increase the supply of gold,” said Michael Pento, chief economist at Delta Global Advisors Inc. in Huntington Beach, California, who is doubling holdings of the precious metal to 8 percent of his $1.5 billion in assets. “Anything the government cannot replicate by decree, I want to own.”

Investors typically buy gold during times of financial turmoil as a store of value. The commodity has gained in five of the past six U.S. recessions. Read more….