http://www.minews.ir/PreciousMetals Tue, 08 Sep 2015 11:41:17 GMT News Studio(News Distribution System http://www.minews.ir/skins/default/en/{CURRENT_THEME}/ch01_newsfeed_logo.gif http://www.minews.ir/ 100 70 en Produced by Minews Tue, 08 Sep 2015 11:41:17 GMT Precious Metals 60 http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26869/construction-begins-at-colombia-s-first-gold-mine-in-20-years (Minews) - Red Eagle Mining is spending $120 million to open Colombia's first gold mine in two decades, an executive with the Vancouver-based company told Fox News Latino on Friday.Colombia manager Rafael Silva said the junior explorer spent $40 million to survey and drill the San Ramon gold deposit, located in Antioquia province, with an additional $80 million expected to be needed to build the mine.Construction of the underground mine began on July 29 after the company obtained an environmental license from the local environmental protection agency, according to Fox News. The mine will be the first in Colombia to operate under modern environmental permitting legislation.Silva told the news outlet that construction should be finished by 2016, after which it would produce at a rate of 50,000 gold ounces annually for a minelife of eight years.According to Red Eagle, the October 2014 feasibility study outlines a 1,000-tonne-per-day operation, with cash costs at $596 per ounce or $84 a tonne.Reserves are 2,424,000 tonnes at a grade of 5.2 g/t gold for 405,000 ounces. The underground mine will use conventional shrinkage stoping mining methods with delayed backfill. Processing incorporates single-stage crushing, SAG milling and floatation with concentrate re-grinding followed by conventional carbon-in-leach processing the combined float tails and reground concentrate to produce gold dore with 96 percent recoveries, Red Eagle states.A $19.3 million private placement was completed on July 16 by Liberty Metal & Mining Holdings LLC, which will take a 19.99 percent ownership interest in Red Eagle Mining. The $39.56 million market cap company is down 10 percent year to date and currently trades at 27 cents on the Toronto Venture Exchange. ]]> Precious Metals Sun, 16 Aug 2015 21:02:54 GMT http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26869/construction-begins-at-colombia-s-first-gold-mine-in-20-years http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26723/india-gold-imports-could-fall-a-fifth-to-28-bln-as-prices (Minews) - The value of India's gold imports could plunge over 18 percent to $28 billion this fiscal year due to lower prices and despite likely higher volumes, the head of the country's biggest gold refiner said, helping to narrow the trade deficit.Gold is India's second-biggest expense on the import bill after oil, and purchases of $54 billion two years ago forced the government to raise the duty on the metal to 10 percent."Since prices have fallen and could drop further, I think imports will be around $28 billion," Rajesh Khosla, managing director of MMTC-PAMP India Pvt Ltd, told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference.India, the world's second-biggest gold consumer after China, paid $34.32 billion to import around 930 tonnes of gold in the year ending March 2015.Gold prices are hovering around a 5-1/2-year low of $1,077 an ounce hit in late July.Khosla said prices could fall below $1,000 in the next few months as the U.S. Federal Reserve is likely to raise interest rates. Higher U.S. interest rates would increase the opportunity cost of holding gold, an asset that does not earn interest"The impression of uncertainty reflects on the prices of gold," Khosla added. "Right now everybody seems to think the problems of the world have been sorted out. So there is no risk (to drive up gold prices)."Gold is typically regarded as a good investment in times of financial and economic uncertainty.In volume terms, the country's imports in 2015/16 are likely to be between 900 and 1,000 tonnes as lower prices will boost demand during the festive season at the end of the year, Khosla said.Demand for gold jewelry is usually robust in India in the last quarter as it celebrate festivals such as Diwali and Dussehra when buying gold is considered auspicious.India's July imports are expected to be between 70 and 75 tonnes, up from 57 tonnes in June, Khosla said."Imports in August would be higher than July. Jewelers are stocking up for the festive season," he said. ]]> Precious Metals Sat, 08 Aug 2015 13:08:21 GMT http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26723/india-gold-imports-could-fall-a-fifth-to-28-bln-as-prices http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26692/iran-discovers-new-gold-reserves-in-yazd (Minews) - Iran has identified more than 1,200 promising gold prospects, including a positive anomaly discovered recently in the Darreh Bidan of Yazd whose reserves have not been determined yet, a senior mining official has said. “After tracing possible gold bearing zones in 21 provinces across the country, gold mines have been marked in 10 provinces,” deputy head of the Geology and Mineral Discoveries Organization Behrouz Borna said.Iran’s proven gold reserves are currently estimated at 340 metric tons lying in 24 mines across the country. Fifteen mines are operational, with another mine being equipped and the remaining eight out of operation.Borna put Iran’s annual gold output at three metric tons, saying it will get a significant boost when production from the Zarshuran mine in northwestern city of Takab begins.Zarshuran, as the Middle East’s biggest gold deposit, will yield 6 metric tons of gold a year after the current expansion of the processing facility is complete by 2017.Officials have said it will raise Iran’s overall gold output to 7 metric tons a year. The country, however, will open another gold mine with a capacity to produce 2 metric tons per year of the precious metal in Iran’s western Kurdestan province.Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh says production from the Sari Gunay deposits near Qorveh with an ore concentration of 1.6 grams per metric ton will begin in the next three months.Borna said Iran has the capacity to boost its gold production to 10 metric tons per year with further explorations.He said gold is a top priority mineral for exploration. “Gold is primarily a strategic substance. Moreover, given the existence of at least 14 gold zones in the country, new discoveries of mines are possible."“The Geology and Mineral Discoveries Organization has discovered several gold zones and found reserves in the provinces which were never considered to have such deposits,” Borna said.“Iran is among the world's five biggest gold consumers which provides added motivation to discover more gold,” he added.  ]]> Precious Metals Sat, 08 Aug 2015 05:13:23 GMT http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26692/iran-discovers-new-gold-reserves-in-yazd http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26596/bucking-the-global-trend-south-koreans-pile-into-gold (Minews) - South Koreans are on course to buy a record amount of gold in 2015, worried that a meltdown in China's stock markets will destabilize South Korean equities and keen to replenish a traditional store of value in an era of low interest rates.In contrast to the weak demand in top gold buyers China and India, South Koreans are on target to buy 1 trillion won ($860 million) in bullion for the first time this year, based on first-half sales through Korea Gold Exchange 3M Co Ltd, the country's largest gold merchant.South Korea accounted for just 17 tonnes of gold demand in 2014, according to the World Gold Council, a far cry from the 974 and 811 tonnes in China and India respectively, so the revival in buying will do little for global bullion, but it could add to the depression on the domestic stock market.Song Jong-gil, general director for sales at Korea Gold Exchange 3M, said that of the more than 500 billion won of gold sales the company made in the first half of 2015, more than 20 percent went to financial investors in the form of thin cards and bars ranging in weight from 1 gram to 1 kg."Low interest rates are the biggest reason. And gold is preferred to stocks and real estate thanks to high liquidity," Song said, adding sales picked up as bullion dropped below $1,100 an ounce.Volume hit 27.76 kg on the Korea Exchange bourse on July 20, the second-highest daily volume since trading started there in March last year, as retail investors hunted bargains.Global bullion hit $1,077 an ounce last month, a 5-1/2-year low, and was at $1,084 on Tuesday, depressed by the prospect of higher U.S. interest rates and weak demand in major markets.Koreans have long seen gold as a store of value and a safe haven and are estimated to hold around 800 tonnes in households and private vaults.During the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis, the authorities launched a campaign to buy gold from patriotic individuals, selling it on to get dollars to bolster foreign reserves."Lots of people sold gold during the Asian financial crisis. Then prices surged and many were unable to buy back," Song said. "Now people are buying gold rings and small bars, thinking prices have fallen a lot and it's a good time to buy."The country's largest gold wholesale and retail markets centered in the Jongno district of Seoul are doing good business."Some individuals are buying a lot of gold at Jongno - some about 40 million won a day as prices have been falling. They resell in black markets without paying taxes," said Ohn Hyun-sung, head of Wolgok Jewelry Research Center. ]]> Precious Metals Wed, 05 Aug 2015 12:15:00 GMT http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26596/bucking-the-global-trend-south-koreans-pile-into-gold http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26563/sari-gunay-gold-mine-to-become-operational (Minews) - Sari Gunay Gold Mine in the city of Qorveh in Kurdestan Province will be operational in two to three months, according to the Minister of Industries, Mining and Trade Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh.In a joint project between Iran and Kazakhstan, some four tons of gold are estimated to be extracted from the mine in two years, Mehr News Agency reported.“In addition to Qorveh, exploration activities are also ongoing in Saqqez and other parts of the province with high chances of progress,” said Nematzadeh in a visit to Sari Gunay Gold Mine last week.Executive manager of the Kazakh company in charge of developing the mine, Moris Satiashvili, said in April that as much as $48 million had been invested in the mine, with an additional $15 million required for completing the project.The gold mine, located 90 kilometers east of Sanandaj, was supposed to start operation in September 2013. The deadline was further extended until October 2014 but the Kazakh company once again missed the deadline. ]]> Precious Metals Sun, 02 Aug 2015 16:56:37 GMT http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26563/sari-gunay-gold-mine-to-become-operational http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26561/these-nations-are-panicking-with-gold-and-copper-prices-so-low (Minews) - Just a few years ago, life was very good for countries like Peru that have a lot of copper and gold.China's explosive economic growth fueled seemingly-insatiable demand for industrial metals like copper, which represents a fifth of Peru's total exports. Prices for these natural resources surged as part of a commodities super cycle.That enormous appetite for raw materials was a blessing for Peru, whose stock market tripled between late 2008 and late 2010.But now China is consuming far less copper and other metals as its economy cools off big time.Metals meltdown: Commodity prices are well off their 2011 highs. In recent months, they have crumbled quickly. No wonder why Peru's economy has slowed down from annual growth north of 7% in late 2013 to just 1% today. The country's stock market has cooled off as well, losing nearly half its value over the past three years."A lot of these countries thought they were in this golden sweet spot that would last forever. Clearly it didn't. Now that tide is going out," said Win Thin, global head of emerging markets currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman.The latest downturn in the commodities market is hitting metals of all stripes. Prices for gold, silver, copper, iron ore, aluminum, platinum, palladium, tin and nickel have all declined this year. Gold recently fell below $1,100 -- its lowest level in five years.Of course, it's not just Peru that's exposed to the metals meltdown. Here are a handful of other countries feeling the aftershocks of the end of the super cycle in commodities.Chile: Chile's unemployment rate is rising again after years of steady declines. The country relies heavily on copper, which represents nearly half its exports. One-quarter of Chile's shipments overseas go to China. Chile is also home to Codelco, the world's largest copper company.South Africa: The FTSE South Africa stock index has tumbled 7% over the past three months. Its gold mining index has plummeted 24% this month alone. South Africa is one of the world's largest exporters of chromium, platinum and manganese, and its biggest exports overall are iron ore, gold and diamonds.Australia: The Land Down Under is trying to avoid its first economic recession since 1991. But this country's economic expansion has been fueled by the rise of China. Metals like iron ore and gold make up more than a quarter of its exports. Australia is also suffering from cheap coal, oil and gas prices.Brazil: The commodities plunge has Brazil staring at its worst recession in a quarter century. Iron ore, one of Brazil's largest exports, has plunged dramatically in recent years. The downturn in raw materials has helped cause Brazil's currency to recently tumble to 12-year lows.Zambia: Copper makes up more than half of Zambia's total exports, and this African country relies on China as a key trading partner.Democratic Republic of the Congo: Talk about a double whammy. Not only is China Congo's top export destination, but the country's top five exports are metals (led by cooper) and crude oil.Other metals-heavy countries include Ghana and MozambiqueNo luck for emerging markets: The fear is that the steep decline in metals prices will cause mass mining layoffs in these countries and, worse, send these economies into recession.It's a particularly bad time for this to happen as emerging markets brace for an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve that may make their debts harder to repay and cause their currencies to slide further against the dollar."When China sneezes, all the other emerging market economies catch a cold," wrote Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research.Supply glut: No one knows for sure when metals prices will stabilize or rebound. Not only is demand growth slowing because of China, but there is a supply glut. Years of high prices caused producers to ramp up capacity to a level that's no longer needed."All of these countries had mini booms. Everyone is still churning this stuff out," said Thin.Expect to see mining companies continue to lay off workers and even sell assets. Countries with a long history of labor unrest like South Africa could experience even more tensions than usual."Five years ago there was money to go around for everything," said Daniel Linsker, head of the Americas mining practice at Control Risks, a global risk consultancy. "Now some of these projects are being wound down because there is no appetite." ]]> Precious Metals Sun, 02 Aug 2015 12:20:21 GMT http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26561/these-nations-are-panicking-with-gold-and-copper-prices-so-low http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26477/gold-demand-weakest-since-2009-in-q2-as-chinese-turned-to-stocks-gfms (Minews) - Demand for gold slid to its lowest in six years in the second quarter of this year as buyers from top consumer China poured funds into its now troubled equities market, an industry report showed on Tuesday.Retail investment from China fell by a quarter and jewellery demand by 23 percent in the April to June period as stock markets there soared, GFMS said in a quarterly update.However, a subsequent plunge in Chinese share prices from mid-June has not helped bullion, it said, as some investors were locked in and others nervous about switching to different asset classes while financial markets are so volatile.After a 12-year bull run peaked in 2011, global prices of the safe haven metal have struggled to gain traction. Last week, gold sank to $1,077 per ounce, its lowest in 5-1/2 years, after a sudden sell-off in New York and Shanghai, as investors worried about Chinese growth and the prospect of U.S. interest rate rises made the dollar more attractive."Gold has certainly moved out of favour in China in recent quarters," GFMS analyst Andrew Leyland said."I think Chinese demand was a reaction to weak price performance, rather than a cause. Both the equity market, and the U.S. dollar have promised stronger returns than gold, and this put investors off the yellow metal."GFMS was cautiously optimistic that both demand and prices could start to pick up in the final quarter of the year."Chinese purchasers tend to buy into rallies, so when gold gets some upward momentum Chinese purchasing should support this," Leyland said.China and India are the world's top gold consumers. Physical demand there has not picked up strongly despite a sell-off last week that knocked global prices XAU= to 5-1/2 year lows.That contrasts to the explosion in physical demand seen after gold prices dropped sharply in the second quarter of 2013.GFMS, a division of Thomson Reuters, said global demand for gold bars and coins fell 12 percent year-on-year in April-June and was around 63 percent below the peak two years ago.In the largest consuming sector, jewellery, consumption dropped 9 percent and production declined 6 percent, GFMS said. Overall physical demand stood at 858 tonnes in the second quarter, down 14.2 percent from a year before.Central banks remained net buyers of gold, but their purchases fell 62 percent year on year.That helped push the physical surplus in the gold market to its highest in five years at 196 tonnes, more than double the total of a year before.While jewellery consumption in India increased 2.5 percent to 158 tonnes during the period, gross imports fell 10 percent to the lowest in five quarters, the report said.China and India consumed almost the same amount of gold in January-June, with China a tad higher at 394 tonnes against India's 392 tonnes, it said.In the full year, GFMS is expecting gold demand to come in at around 4,000 tonnes, Leyland told the Reuters Global Gold Forum on Tuesday."That's the weakest since 2010, but still 1,000 tonnes per year higher than the 2004-2007 period," he said.GFMS forecast gold would average $1,135 an ounce in the third quarter against $1,192 in April-June, before recovering to $1,175 in the last quarter of the year."It remains our view that a U.S. rate hike this year is already priced into the market and that an increase could well prompt a review of asset allocations that leads to an increase in gold holdings," the report said. ]]> Precious Metals Wed, 29 Jul 2015 12:36:47 GMT http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26477/gold-demand-weakest-since-2009-in-q2-as-chinese-turned-to-stocks-gfms http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26458/us-family-make-million-dollar-gold-find-from-spanish-fleet-off-florida (Minews) - A Florida family has been rewarded for years of treasure hunting after finding gold artefacts worth $1m or more from the wreckage of a 1715 Spanish fleet that sank in the Atlantic, according to a salvage company.The find included 51 gold coins of various denominations and 40ft (12m) of ornate gold chain, said Brent Brisben, whose company, 1715 Fleet – Queens Jewels LLC, owns the rights to the wreckage.The Schmitt family, who hunt for treasure off their salvage vessel Aarrr Booty, could not immediately be reached for comment.Brisben said he timed the announcement to coincide with Friday’s 300th anniversary of the sinking of 11 galleons brought down by a hurricane off the coast of Florida, as the convoy was sailing from Havana to Spain.Eric Schmitt found the artefacts in 15ft (4.5m) of water off Fort Pierce, approximately 130 miles (210km) north of Miami.The Spanish convoy’s manifests indicated the ships carried cargo valued today at about $400m (£257m), of which $175m had been recovered, Brisben said.His company bought the rights to the site in 2010 from heirs of treasure hunter Mel Fisher. The firm allows others, including the Schmitts, to search under subcontract agreements.The centrepiece of the Schmitts’ latest find is a perfect specimen of a coin called a royal, made for Spain’s King Phillip V and dated 1715. Only a few royals were known to exist, according to a news release from Brisben’s company.The gold chains are made of small, handcrafted, two-sided links of six-petalled olive blossoms. They were called money chains and are believed to have been used as a tax-free coinage, the news release said.Under federal and state law, Florida will take possession of up to 20% of the find for display in a state museum. Brisben’s company and the Schmitt family would split the remainder, Brisben said. ]]> Precious Metals Tue, 28 Jul 2015 13:40:49 GMT http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26458/us-family-make-million-dollar-gold-find-from-spanish-fleet-off-florida http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26409/new-mine-to-add-2-tons-iran-gold-output (Minews) - Iran will open a new gold mine with a capacity to produce 2 metric tons per year of the precious metal in its western Kurdestan province, Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh says. Production from the Sari Gunay deposits near Qorveh with an ore concentration of 1.6 grams per metric ton will begin in the next three months, he said.The mine is being developed jointly with Kazakhstan which has a 70% stake in the project, with the rest owned by Iran, Nematzadeh said. The Kazakhs had undertaken to begin extraction from the mine in September 2013 but they have missed two deadlines so far.     The minister said the second phase of the mine’s development will double production. Nematzadeh said explorations were underway on two more sites believed to contain gold reserves in the Iranian Kurdestan province.In 2006, Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto pulled out of the Sari Gunay gold mining project after deciding it was not commercially viable.The company had initially estimated to produce 4 million metric tons of ore per year from the mine over 12 to 18 years before concluding that the reserves were too small to continue with the project.But the exit coincided with Western companies pulling out of Iran projects under US pressures, which convinced many observers to believe the decision was politically-motivated.Iran’s gold output is estimated to rise to 7 metric tons by 2017 which could significantly improve the country’s place among the world’s producers of the precious metal.The Middle East’s largest gold deposit near the northwestern Iranian city of Takab in West Azarbaijan is undergoing expansion to double output by 2017. Last year, Iran’s gold production surpassed 4.1 metric tons. ]]> Precious Metals Tue, 28 Jul 2015 12:31:01 GMT http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26409/new-mine-to-add-2-tons-iran-gold-output http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26386/iran-s-annual-gold-production-to-hit-7-tonnes (Minews) - Iran’s gold output is estimated to rise to 7 metric tons by 2017 which could significantly improve the country’s place among the world’s producers of the precious metal. Zarshuran, the Middle East’s biggest gold deposit, will yield 6 million metric tons alone, with another 700 kg coming from mines in East Azarbaijan Province and 300 km from Arghash in Nayshabour.Production from Zarshuran in the Iranian city of Takab in West Azarbaijan began in November 2014 with the inauguration of a facility capable of processing 3 metric tons of gold on top of 2.5 tons of silver and one ton of mercury per year.According to the Mehr news agency, the plant is undergoing expansion which will double output by 2017. Initial estimates have put recoverable gold deposits in Zarshuran at 55 metric tons, which could rise to 110 tons by further drilling in the anomalies.Last year, Iran’s gold production surpassed 4.1 metric tons.  Another gold deposit in Takab, named Aq Darreh, yielded 2.2 metric tons of gold a year before production stopped in 2011.In 2006, Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto pulled out of the Sari Gunay gold mining project in Iran’s Kurdestan after deciding it was not commercially viable.The company had initially estimated to produce 4 million metric tons of ore per year from the mine over 12 to 18 years before concluding that the reserves were too small to continue with the project.Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade has identified as many as 15 mines so far, capable of yielding 320 metric tons of processed gold.The provinces of West and East Azarbaijan, as well as Isfahan and Razavi Khorasan hold the country's biggest reserves for production of gold. ]]> Precious Metals Sun, 26 Jul 2015 18:21:44 GMT http://www.minews.ir/en/doc/news/26386/iran-s-annual-gold-production-to-hit-7-tonnes