china confidential
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Venezuela Offering Canadian Gold Deal to Russians
Foreign Confidential....
More gold mining news.
Brian Ellsworth reports Venezuela is about to offer a Russian company a big gold mining project:Venezuela said it will offer a joint venture to Russian-owned miner Rusoro to operate the Las Cristinas and Brisas gold projects, currently under contract to two Canadian companies, Mining minister Rodolfo Sanz on Thursday.
He told a Russian delegation that a memorandum of understanding would soon be signed with Rusoro.
It appeared that Sanz intends to replace the Canadian companies who operate the projects that contain some of Latin America's largest gold deposits, with Rusoro, but he did not mention their names.
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Will Gold Stocks Come Back?
Foreign Confidential....
Gold companies, like other miners, have felt the effects of the recent financial market turmoil, seeing their stock prices plummet.
Last month, the price of gold, traditionally a safe haven in times of economic uncertainty, fell below $700 per ounce for the first time in more than a year. It was selling for about $735 on Friday and the S&P gold stock index was at a 52-week low of 61.52, down from a high of 135.23 last January.
Shares of Barrick Gold Corp, Newmont Mining Corp and Goldcorp Inc are all selling at about half their price of nine months ago. Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc, at $26.04, is far off its 52-week high of $127.23 in May. Will the stocks rebound and are they a good bargain?
Jay Taylor, publisher of the industry newsletter, Gold, Energy & Tech Stocks: "With an increase in the price of gold, I expect an improvement going into the fourth quarter." "The higher leveraged they (companies) are to the gold price, the more the share price will bounce back.
"It's the larger-cap companies where institutional buying will go. The gold price should be moving up again if we get global growth again."
Robert Lutts, president and chief investment officer at Cabot Money Management, which oversees $400 million of client assets: "I think the (gold) equities are extraordinarily, reasonably priced today. And I think that's a reflection of the recent drop of $200 of gold bullion."
"It (the lower gold price) is weighing on equities like Barrick and Goldcorp, and those are priced at a very modest level. I think they are very inexpensive today." "I have always stated 5 to 10 percent of an investor's portfolio should be in gold, and we still believe that."
-ReutersIndia and Qatar Signing Security, Defense Pacts
Foreign Confidential....
India and Qatar will sign two agreements on defence and security during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the Gulf nation beginning Sunday evening--the first by an Indian head of government.
Apart from the two pacts, the two sides will also discuss a number of other issues ranging from energy security to bilateral trade.
“The visit by the prime minister of India has been long overdue. Qatar’s Amir (Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani) visited India twice,” an Indian embassy official said from Doha.
“Qatar is the only country (in the Gulf) with which India has had long-term security co-operation. During the course of the visit of the prime minister, two key agreements will be signed--one on defence co-operation and another on security and law enforcement,” he said.
According to the Indian official, the defence agreement will also include the issue of maritime security. “The agreement on security and law enforcement will cover issues like common threat perceptions and sharing of data,” he said.
Upgrading Energy Deal
As for energy security, India will seek to significantly upgrade its current deal with gas-rich Qatar. Qatar has the world’s third largest gas reserves, comprising 15% of the world’s total.
Apart from defence and energy security, bilateral trade will also come up for discussion. India is Qatar’s third largest export partner after Japan and Singapore.
“Bilateral trade between India and Qatar now stands at $3.3 billion and is significantly tilted in favour of Qatar because much of it is accounted for by gas exports,” he said.
Qatar’s exports to India stand at $2.6 billion while India’s share is $700 million. India’s exports to Qatar mainly comprise consumer items, foodstuff and industrial equipment.
Increasing Exports
With consumers in that country becoming highly quality conscious, there is scope for significantly increasing Indian exports.
According to the official, delegation level talks will be held between the two sides soon after the prime minister’s arrival on Sunday evening. The next day, Manmohan Singh will have a meeting with Qatar’s amir. Petroleum minister Murli Deora, minister for overseas Indian affairs Vayalar Ravi and minister of state for foreign affairs E Ahamed will be accompanying Dr Singh.
National security adviser M K Narayanan and deputy chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia will also be part of the entourage.
Apart from his parleys with the Qatari leadership, Singh will also meet representatives of the large Indian community. Qatar is home to around 420,000 expatriate Indians. India has one of the oldest labour welfare agreements with Qatar dating back to 1975, an additional protocol to which was signed last year.Iran Criticizes Obama
Foreign Confidential....
Iran's parliament speaker has criticized U.S. President-elect Barack Obama for saying Tehran's pursuit of nuclear weapons is unacceptable.
Iranian state media (IRNA) quotes Ali Larijani as saying Obama's remark signifies pursuit of what Larijani called the same "erroneous U.S. policy of the past."
Larijani said the United States should send appropriate signals to Middle Eastern countries if it wants to change the situation in the region.
Obama referred to Iran's atomic program on Friday in his first news conference since winning the U.S. presidential election. He also said Iran's support for terrorist groups must cease.
He also said he will review a letter of congratulation sent to him by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and respond appropriately.
The United States and its Western allies accuse Iran of working to produce a nuclear weapon. Iran says its atomic program is intended solely to generate electricity.
Sunday, 9 November 2008
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