the real way money is made...exploration, page-3

Vontrader

Yes, interesting about the platinum industry, which is fed from Sth Africa and Zimbabwe (plus Russia).
In Sth Africa Goldfields has finally announced it is being investigated by the US SEC for irregularities concerning the procurement of the Southern Deeps Gold Permits. This could be very powerful, as reports implicate government involvement, bribery, corruption and the CEO and probably the board of Goldfields. Do you own research on this one, but it political dynamite. Also throw in the Unions demands for increased pay of miners, and things are not going well for Sth Africa, and one could wonder about the platinum supply side, not to mention gold.

In Zimbabwe, its great to see justice finally being done by the Diamond traders, who somehow miraculously think that all is fair with the exploitation of the extremely rich Marange diamond fields. Makes a mockery out of the Kimberley process.

And just after Barrick has decimated its global exploration group (couple of issues on the acquisitions side), Goldfields seems to have now done the same by disbanding its International exploration group,

Anglo Gold has its major Ghana gold Mine up for sale, and has put its mining operation at Yatela on ice, and cannot be making a lot of cash from its Sth African operations...interested to see their Diggers and Dealers presentation failed to put ip one actual cost for their operations, let all up sustaining costs, but of course did mention the future anticipated cost of mining at Tropicana.

So there appears to me there are both short and long terms (Tropicana finally into production 11 years after discovery, and thats very quick, and does not include the pre-discovery exploration lead time which can be 10-20 years) first order issues for the physical gold production side of the international gold industry.

I like companies with JORC gold resources in the ground, stable country, a lot of exploration potential, and who can control their entry into the mining side, as Gold is going to be around a lot longer than the derivative contacts being written today. You wonder whether they really understand counter party risk? They are probably writing paper to hedge against counter party risk of course. How silly of me.

Always interesting to see how Goldman Sachs operates. I see Jim Rogers suggesting that future careers at Wall Street will not be so lucrative, and probably better to get a career in Agriculture or Mining.
Hope his right..shocking misallocation of intellectual capital.

Good luck! My money is on gold in the ground, and the more merrier.