GOLD

[peat]

its possible though, and I seem to recall reading it somewhere that there is no shortage of actual silver.... merely a shortage of pressed Eagles.... because the USA govt is obliged by law to provide these to people when they want them. I'm no conspiracy nut but it does seem odd that they wont provide Eagles even when the price has fallen so far and there must be the actual stuff available at these lower prices. so it does make one wonder what is going on... eg fuel for conspiracy theories.

I guess I find it hard to believe in a shortage when the price has plummetted so much recently. I still have 2/3rds of my accumulated holding (silver) but my stop lossed got triggered on the other. I'm still buying the occasional coin on TradeMe where I can acquire it at bullion value.

[arco]

Matt Chambers | September 01, 2008


GOLD output in Australia sank to an 18-year low last financial year -- and not even a better fourth quarter could avert the poor result.
What the high metal price gave to producers, soaring energy costs took away.
The drop in output comes as a dramatic increase in costs in the past quarter threatens production at the nation's second-biggest mine, the Kalgoorlie Super Pit.
Added to that was the gold price starting the current quarter with its biggest nominal monthly drop in 25 years.
Australia produced 232 tonnes, or 7.46 million ounces, in the 12 months to June 30, down 7 per cent from the previous year, according to industry analyst Surbiton Associates.
Production in the June quarter remained in the doldrums -- up just 2 tonnes (3 per cent) from the 19-year low reached in the March quarter, to 55 tonnes, or 1.77 million ounces.
That is still 13 per cent lower than last year's June quarter.
Surbiton's Sandra Close said the Australian gold industry had suffered a 20 per cent increase in costs last quarter as oil and West Australian gas prices surged, marking a big acceleration in costs, which had already been moving higher for some time.
"Higher energy costs have contributed to the cost increase," Dr Close said. "You can't draw too many conclusions from one quarter's figures, but there is cause for concern."
That concern was voiced by Super Pit part-owner Newmont last month when it said it was reviewing operations at the iconic open pit, which mines the outback town's old Golden Mile.
Despite higher costs and gold prices dropping $US89 an ounce in August to $US835, production could have bottomed as Newmont's huge $2.4 billion Boddington mine in the south of Western Australia prepares to fire up. The mine is due for first production late this calendar year or early 2009.


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...07-643,00.html

[arco]

September 8, 2008

Japan's enormous high-tech rubbish dumps have become a natural resource for precious metals including gold, silver and indium

Leo Lewis, Asia Business Correspondent

Japan's high-tech rubbish dumps - the vast “urban mines” of landfill outside every big city - have grown so huge that the country now ranks among the biggest natural resource nations in the world.
Tens of millions of defunct mobile phones, discarded televisions, PCs and MP3 players conceal a “virtual lode” of hundreds of tonnes of precious metals. An even greater seam may be lurking forgotten - but not yet discarded - in Japan's attics and garages.
According to new calculations by the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) in Tsukuba, Japan has unwittingly accumulated three times as much gold, silver and indium than the entire world uses or buys in a year. In the case of platinum, Japan's urban mines may contain six times annual global consumption.
The institute's leading urban mine expert said that if these electronics-rich treasure troves were properly tapped, supposedly resource-poor Japan would suddenly join the likes of Australia, Canada and Brazil in the top five producers of some elements.
The mines have been accumulated because of the extraordinarily high speed at which Japanese consumers replace gadgets. Of these, the 20million mobile phones replaced by the Japanese each year are especially attractive “ores” for urban miners. Only 13 per cent, about 550 tonnes a year, are recycled, with the remainder thrown away or stored in drawers and cupboards.
The circuit boards of each phone contain a smorgasboard of precious metals: in minute quantities there are silver, lead, zinc, copper, tin, gold, palladium and titanium.
Although other developed countries - particularly the United States and Britain - are thought to have very substantial untapped urban mines of their own, Japan leads the world as an assessor of what its dumps and attics contain in the way of metal resources. Koumei Harada, the director of the institute's strategic use of elements division, has pioneered the calculation of Japan's potential urban mine resources.
By comparing the quantities of metals imported over the past 60 years with what has left Japan inside its electronics, cars and other exported goods, Professor Harada arrived at basic reserves. From this were subtracted theoretical quantities of metal that remain in use.
According to the professor, decades at the forefront of the global consumer electronics industry had left Japan with a tantalising legacy: it has invisibly accumulated stocks of some metals to rival proven worldwide reserves in the ground, but it knows where only about half of it is. Worse, that half is difficult to process.
Now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is pushing for nationwide collections of old electronics from homes and for ideas about how best to excavate the landfill. Companies such as Asahi Pretec already run urban mines at various plants in Japan. One of its plants retrieved about 15 tonnes of gold last year from a variety of industrial waste.
Professor Harada is part of a team working on establishing “artificial ore” factories at Japan's waste dumps and landfill sites. By his estimates, a tonne of ore from a real goldmine might produce only five grams of actual gold, while a tonne of artificial ore made from reduced mobile phones would yield about 150 grams.



http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle4698917.ece