Investment/Trends

ANZ opens Gold vault in Singapore

"Singapore gold investors now have another option when it comes to stashing their gold. New Zealand's biggest banking group, ANZ, has announced that it has opened a gold vault in the Singapore. The bank's vault has the capacity to house 50 tons of gold. According to the bank, close to 15% of the world's primary production, and counts among its clients central banks and sovereign wealth funds. 'Singapore is strategically located between the world's top two gold producers, China and Australia, as well as the world's largest consumption markets,' said ANZ co-head of fixed income, currencies and commodities, Eddie Listorti." Continue reading →

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China’s Spending on Renewable Energy May Total 1.8 Trillion Yuan

"China may invest another 2.3 trillion yuan in key energy-saving and emission-reducing projects, Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said today at a conference in Beijing. The government aims to have 100 gigawatts of wind-power installed capacity and more than 35 gigawatts of solar power by 2015, Xie reiterated today. China’s targets have encouraged companies including China Petrochemical Corp., also known as Sinopec Group, to strengthen their commitment to protect the environment." Continue reading →

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The Largest Gold Share Rise of All Time

"During our many walks together, my father and I often compared his experiences in the 1920s and ’30s with mine in more recent decades. Each time brought new revelations. But we rarely missed the obvious fact that history repeats itself in strange ways. His experiences with the world’s leading gold mines in the early 1930s are a classic example. Their shares were downtrodden, misunderstood and undervalued, much as they are today. Then, right in the midst of the nation’s worst depression, select mining shares surprised nearly everyone. They bust out of their doldrums. They surged to their highest levels in history." Continue reading →

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Should You Trust Your Instincts on Gold?

"I have yet to see anyone present any logical economic premise that concludes that our country will not eventually see a currency collapse. Instead, I see several clues that reinforce my concerns. Throughout history thousands of currencies have collapsed, but precious metals have held their value. It should come as no surprise to learn that over the last few years China, Russia, and many central banks have been stockpiling gold. Germany and Venezuela quietly announced earlier this year that they are repatriating their gold stores overseas—not coincidentally mostly from the US—back to their shores." Continue reading →

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No One Saw This Coming…

"Last fall, I sat in a cozy living room on the outskirts of Tallinn, Estonia, drinking coffee, eating freshly baked pastries and listening to a former parliament member for the Soviet Union tell me about a phone call he had recently received from inside Russia’s central bank. The bank officials wanted input on how to build a reserve currency, one backed by the plentitude of hard assets Russia owns. What he told me – easily the most-stunning bit of information I gathered on that research trip – has stuck with me. 'Russia,' he announced, 'is using oil, gas and minerals as the new tools of war instead of military tools. This will be the beginning of a currency cold war.'" Continue reading →

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Copper And Gold Flowing From Turquoise Hill – Part I With Harris Kupperman

"The whole country is basically a boomtown. It’s one of these funny places where you really need to be on the ground to understand it. So you have a country that five, ten years ago didn’t have that much in the way of wealth, and the average citizen wasn’t making that much money. And suddenly they’ve gotten really high paying jobs in the mining sector, and they’re making a few thousand U.S. dollars a month. Prior to this mining project, some of them weren’t making that much in a whole year. All of this newfound wealth is entering the economy. It’s creating a middle class. It’s creating a booming economy." Continue reading →

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David Galland: Answers from a Monetary Master

"Mr. Bernanke will get to visit his ideal world of 2% price inflation, but it will only be a whistle stop. The price inflation that lies ahead will be at least as bad as what happened in the 1970s episode, when the annual inflation rate approached 15%. The money that's already been printed so far may be enough to produce such a 1970s-size problem. Making matters worse is that the devices for paring down the amount of cash that you need for the sake of convenience—such as credit cards, ATMs and online banks—are now far more widely available and cheaper to use than they were in the 1970s." Continue reading →

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Bitfury 400 GH/s Bitcoin Mining Rig Hits US Shores; $19,250 For August Delivery

"With hundreds of units expected to land in Europe and the Americas this month, Bitfury products represent the most advanced chips to hit mass production and will significantly change the bitcoin mining landscape. Bitfury ASIC chips use a 55nm process and are sold running at an estimated 1.56 GH/s per chip, with demonstrated performance up to 2.7 GH/s. Although they are clocked slower than Butterfly Lab’s 4 GH/s chips, they will run 4x more efficiently at 0.8 Watts/Ghps. Power efficiency will be a deciding factor in a bitcoin miner’s longevity as profitability narrows with increasing difficulty." Continue reading →

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Top 10 gold miners: cash cost reporting comes home to roost

The full absurdity of cash cost reporting for gold miners is really coming to the fore with the latest batch of quarterly and half yearly reports from the world’s leading gold mining companies. On a cash costs basis virtually all the world’s significant gold miners would appear to be profitable – most highly so, yet as we foreshadowed ahead of them on Mineweb the latest quarterly and half yearly profit figures coming out of the gold mining sector are, virtually without exception, dire. One might have been forgiven from asking in the past why reported earnings have invariably worked out as being way below the optimistic estimates suggested by cash cost reporting." Continue reading →

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Local traders unmoved by SEC Bitcoin warning

"'The short answer is that financial scams are everywhere and it pays to be cautious about any investment and ensure that you understand it and trust those operating it, before giving them your dollars or your Bitcoins,' said Tulsa Bitcoin trader Ryan Underwood. 'This question of where to place confidence is not a Bitcoin-specific issue but a problem with all investments that make future promises in exchange for taking investor money in the present,' Underwood said. 'The SEC did not protect investors from Madoff despite numerous whistle-blowers coming forward in advance. Only their own diligence could have protected them.'" Continue reading →

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