Sunday, March 25, 2012

The Largest Gold Nugget In The World Sells At Auction For $400,000


Gold is always worth its weight in, well, itself. Sometimes, it’s worth even more. A gold nugget, weighing 100 troy ounces, sold at auction in Sacremento for $400,000 Wednesday night. “We valued it at around $200,000,” said Amy Baker, auction manager for Holabird-Kagin American. “There were 6 to 7 people bidding on it, most of them anonymously. It went to an anonymous (phone) bidder.” Baker said the auction house may be able to release more information on the winning bidder Thursday.

Security is important when you’re dealing with a large hunk of precious metal. “The new owner, I’m not sure when it will exactly be delivered to him,” Baker said. “That’s confidential.” On Wednesday, gold closed at $1,396.10 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, making the nearly 7-pound nugget worth about $140,000, if it were melted down. But since the nugget, found last year in Nevada County, California, is believed to be the largest one left from the state’s gold rush, it has special value. An estimated 500,000 people traveled to California between 1848 and 1864 in search of instant wealth. “It’s the last one we know left in existence,” Baker said. “There have been larger ones over the years, but they have been melted down.” The nugget will be on display this weekend at the Sacramento Convention Center, she said. The California Natural Resources Agency says the largest nugget ever mined in the state was found in 1854 and weighed 195 pounds.

It might seem to be a small chunk of precious metal, but it is very much a “founding father” of California. Without this piece of gold, California as we know it may very well have ended up on a much narrower and more desolate track in the eyes of history.

Gold rises 1pc, set to end three-week drop





NEW YORK/LONDON: Gold rose 1 percent on Friday, on track for its biggest one-day gain in almost a month, as higher crude oil prices and a sharp drop in the dollar prompted investors to cover short positions after a sell-off earlier in the week.

Bullion is set for its first weekly rise in four weeks. Fading hopes of further US monetary easing had led to weakness in the precious metal, reflected in a huge outflow from bullion exchange-traded funds and some funds exiting the gold trade.

Gold, which was oversold after falling $150 in the last four weeks, rallied after data showed US new home sales fell to a four-month low, a fund manager said.

"The jump today is somewhat sparked by the bad home sales, which increased the chance of the Fed bringing easing back to the system, and that's why gold is reacting positively," said James Rife, an assistant portfolio manager at Haber Trilix Advisors, which has $2 billion in assets.

Spot gold was up 1 percent at $1,660.79 an ounce by12:41 p.m. EDT(1641 GMT), recovering from a two-month low hit in the previous session.

US gold futures for April delivery rose $18.20 to$1,660.70 an ounce in moderate volume.

However, momentum weakened somewhat after the metal failed to breach resistance at $1,670, near the highs of its last seven sessions, said Daniel Hwang, senior technical strategist at FOREX.com.

Gold could face strong headwinds between $1,680 and $1,700, where many key moving averages converged after the metal's pullback, Hwang said.

The gold price has lost 2 percent so far this month as a shift in investors' perception of the health of theUSeconomy in particular has made so-called safe-haven assets less attractive than stocks or higher-yielding currencies.

GOLD ETFS POST OUTFLOW

The decline in the gold price earlier this week took its toll on investment in exchange-traded funds backed by physical metal, resulting in the largest one-day fall in holdings on Friday in three months.

ETF holdings hit a record of nearly 70.9 million ounces on Tuesday, but the past couple of days of outflows have wiped out all of the build-up that had taken place so far in March.

Markets are attaching lower probability to the US Federal Reserve's embarking on a fresh round of government-bond buying, or quantitative easing, to keep short-term interest rates low to stimulate growth.

That shift has been a key driver in this month's fall in the gold price.

"We think that quantitative easing and abnormally lowUSinterest rates have been a huge support for gold prices. It's no surprise that the falling gold price recently has been accompanied by quite a significant rise in US interest rates," Nic Brown, head of commodity research at Natixis, said.

Silver took its lead from gold, rising 1.8 percent to $32.12 an ounce, as did the platinum group metals.

Platinum rose 0.7 percent to $1,625.74 an ounce, while palladium gained 0.8 percent on the day to reach $653.72 an ounce. :- Reuters

Gold Miners a Buy, Gold Price Falls



Gold Miners a Buy, Gold Price Falls

Gold miners may see a short term sell off today as Gold traded at a 9 week low over night.

Gold futures for April delivery fell 0.5 per cent to $US1,642.50 an ounce at 1:44 p.m. on the Comex in New York, after touching $US1,627.50, the lowest since Jan. 13. Still, prices are up 4.8 per cent this year.

Jewelers in north and east India, the world’s biggest bullion importer, will continue a shutdown to protest higher taxes, leaving about half the nation’s stores closed, according to a trade group. Jewelers held the first nationwide strike in seven years after the government raised taxes on imports and on non-branded jewelry last week.

“With physical demand not at full strength and waning investor enthusiasm, the potential for further downside in gold remains exposed,” Leon Westgate, an analyst at Standard Bank Plc, said in a report.

Silver futures for May delivery tumbled 2.7 per cent to $US31.345 an ounce on the Comex. Earlier prices touched $US31.09, the lowest since Jan. 20.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, palladium futures for June delivery declined 5.5 per cent to $US651.05 an ounce, the biggest fall for a most-active contract since Dec. 14. Earlier, prices fell to $US650.40, the lowest since Jan. 18. Platinum futures for April delivery retreated 1.7 per cent to $US1,612.10 an ounce.

Shayne Heffernan

Shayne Heffernan oversees the management of funds for institutions and high net worth individuals.

Shayne Heffernan holds a Ph.D. in Economics and brings with him over 25 years of trading experience in Asia and hands on experience in Venture Capital, he has been involved in several start ups that have seen market capitalization over $500m and 1 that reach a peak market cap of $15b. He has managed and overseen start ups in Mining, Shipping, Technology and Financial Services. :- Live Trading News

A nine-tael 24K gold in the shape of a dragon



A sales representative poses behind a nine-tael 24K gold in the shape of a dragon forming the numerals "2012", symbolising the upcoming Year of the Dragon, at a Chow Tai Fook Jewellery store in Hong Kong December 6, 2011.

Gold investors ditch equity funds, favor bullion



Investors keen on gold showed frustration at underperforming funds that invest in mining firms as liquidations extended for more than four straight months, while money flowed into funds that invest in the underlying metal, data from Lipper showed.

Gold mining stocks have underperformed the metal over the last several years as companies struggled with rising costs and operational problems in far-flung locations, but the figures show an accelerating trend.

The net outflows from U.S. funds that invest in gold and precious metals mining companies such as Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO) and Newmont Mining Corp (NEM.N) continued for the longest period since 2008.

Executives from Barrick, Newmont, Goldcorp (G.TO) and Gold Fields (GFIJ.J) are among guests who will be attending the Reuters Mining and Metals Summit next week.

"We have not previously seen that kind of trend of consistent outflows from the gold and precious metals equity funds," said Tom Roseen, senior analyst at Lipper.

At the same time, investors were sending money into U.S. funds that invest in gold bullion, futures and other precious metals, according to Lipper, a Thomson Reuters company that provides fund data and analysis.

Since November, including data for the first half of March, $3.75 billion has flowed into U.S. commodity precious metals funds while about $850 million was liquidated from the equity funds during the same period.

The flows reflect the sharp different in performance between the two categories. Over the past 12 months, precious metals equity funds shed 12.1 percent while underlying metal funds gained 6.8 percent.

Neither fund category, however, captured the 19 percent gains over the period in the spot gold price, perhaps due to investments in other precious metals such as platinum and silver, which have failed to match gold gains over the period.

Gold has had a volatile ride since late last year, touching a record peak of $1,920 an ounce in early September before lurching to a low of $1,522 in December. Early this year it shot up again towards $1,800 before sliding again.

All the precious metals equity funds were in negative territory during the 12-month period and as a whole were the worst performer among Lipper's 25 categories of funds that focus on specific sectors.

The underlying metals fund performed better than the average 3.7 percent gain for all the funds, but failed to match the top two categories: consumer services and health/biotechnology funds, both up around 18 percent.

"People are making moves back into equities, but when they are doing it they're going into dividend payers," Roseen said.

SLIDING VALUATIONS

Since exchange traded funds (ETFs), which allow easy investment in gold bullion and other precious metals, took off about five years ago, valuations of gold producers have struggled.

"It's a difficult one for the gold mining companies because they have to keep giving investors convincing reasons why they should be preferred over the underlying commodity," said analyst Tom Kendall at Credit Suisse in London.

"If you're struggling to control costs and if the perception of investors is that the political or operational risk is rising in the areas in which you're operating, then you're facing an uphill battle."

Valuations of gold miners, which previously attracted a rich premium, have plummeted to the lowest levels in over a decade and early this year slipped below the average of other stocks.

Global gold mining stocks currently have an average forward price earnings ratio of 10.5, below world equities at 12, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream. This contrasts with a PE of 30-35 for gold miners in 2005-2006, more than double the world equity average.

While Kendall currently sees gold shares as undervalued, he is unsure how much they will be able to claw back their premium.

"I suspect there are still a significant number of investors out there who expect at some point in time that valuation gap to narrow somewhat, but I don't think there are many who expect it to come back to what it used to be." :- Reuters

Friday, March 23, 2012

Gold nugget weighing 63.8 grams


An Alaskan gold nugget weighing 63.8 grams.

Large gold nugget from Nevada County


A large gold nugget from Nevada County, California.

220 kg Gold Brick


The 220 kg gold brick displayed in Jinguashi Gold Museum, Taiwan, Republic of China.

156-ounce (4.85 kg) Nugget Gold


This 156-ounce (4.85 kg) nugget was found by an individual prospector in the Southern California Desert using a metal detector.

250kg Gold Bar



The world's largest gold bar has a mass of 250 kg. Toi museum, Japan.

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