G’day Bill,
Dear oh dear oh dear,
The US$ has been knockin on the 80 in the Index door over the last few days. Tonight it stands 82.37:. at the start of a rally?!
Gold, has been, yet again short sold.
The Australian Gold stocks have been sold off during the last three sessions, and with tonights Gold action, these stocks have zero life in them.
It is quite amazing that here in Australia, in particular Western Australia, that exploration companies are always trying to seek a window of opportunity to raise funds, via a rising Gold price.
Exploration companies, in general, still fail to address the Native Title issue, and here in Western Australia, some 12,000 pending mining tenements are still waiting to be granted, and are subject to the “Right to Negotiate” by the Traditional Owners.
Based upon a Section 35 process under the Native Title Act 1994, one company has recently gained Land Access on one tenements after a year of discussions, negotiations, and process thru the Native Title Tribunial. To take things to the extreme, it “could” take, in theory, some 12,000 years to get all 12,000 tenements granted.
This does not bid well for the future of the Industry.
An observation that I have made is that the Traditional Owners work in the “dream time:, and certainly not in the “Swiss watch time”. They are in no rush, none at all.
The Western Australian Government is losing money “hand over fist”, and they require for example $500 million a year to fund hospitals and the police force.
The State Government intends to ammend the Mining Act some time in middle 2005, whereby tenement holders will be required to “use it or lose it”, and will be required to negotiate with the Traditional Owners over a 4 month period, and will only get a Mining lease granted conditional upon a Notice of Intent and a JORC reserve being defined; this information will have to be provided to the Native Title Group, in orderr for them to be fully informed, which is not required at present.
Recently I have negotiated a Land Access Agreement with the Wongatha People to get Land Access in any part of their claim, which covers 25% of all tenements in Western Austrlia. This Agreement is unique within the Australian Mining Industry. I am also negotiating similar deals with other Native Title Groups. In essence, the Agreement will open up the land for my company.
So, what is next for the Mining Industry? It looks like the hyperinflationary cycle has now started in the US economy. The “powers that be” really do not care abount the creation of additional debt and credit.. in particult the “Gold Credit card bill” that simply cannot be paid. They are living in “La La Land”, or should I say America!!
This hyperinflation is not good for the Mining Industry, with the ongoing short selling of Gold, until such time as the coffers are totallt emplty of Gold. How long will this take? Certainly not in the “Dream time”!!!
Och aye
Haggis