Gold price to pass $US1000 an ounce this year: Sino Gold
Alex Wilson | July 16, 2009 Article from: Dow Jones Newswires SINO Gold chief executive Jake Klein expects the gold price to pass $US1000 an ounce late this year and for this to establish a new base for the price.
Picture: Bloomberg "You have seen it test the low $US900s and it seems to have bounced strongly form there," Sino Gold cheif executive Jake Klein said.
"Once it goes through and breaks through $US1000 I think that will establish a new level."
Mr Klein said Sino Gold is not seeing any fallout from the detention of four employees of Rio Tinto by Chinese authorities for allegedly stealing state secrets.
"It is in the interests of everybody that it gets sorted out as quickly and as transparently as possible, but from our perspective it is business as usual," he said.
The detention of the four Rio employees, including Australian national Stern Hu, threatens to spark a serious diplomatic incident and market watchers are weighing the potential fallout for the trade and investment relationship between Australia and China.
Mr Klein said the bonds between China and Australia went well beyond the important trade in iron ore and would remain strong.
"Really it is the complementality of the two economies which is far wider than iron ore and I see that as being very strong and robust in the future," he said.
The comments came as the China-focussed miner released its quarterly production report today.
Sino Gold said its operations produced 53,367 ounces of gold, up 51 per cent on year, at a cash operating cost of $US391 an ounce.
On an attributable basis, Sino Gold's gold production for the three months to June 30 was 45,310 ounces, at $US392 an ounce.
It said the average price realised for gold sales during the quarter was $US916 per ounce.
The company said it expects gold production at its Jinfeng mine in southern China to gradually increase over the remainder of the year.
