Thai Guru's Gold und Silber ... (Informationen und Vermutungen)

As a result of the last many years of my ownership of Golden Star Resources, a substantial number of Café members own the stock. The joy of 2003 turned nasty the last 14 months with the stock falling from $8.64 to $2.90. UBS downgraded the stock after their last earnings report. However, Trevor Turnbull of Harris Partners Ltd and David Thomas of First Associates have just written the firm up in a very favorable light.

I met with GSS Treasurer Alan Marter in Vancouver and asked him to tell it like he sees it, which in turn is the way I see it and why I am staying with my position:

"(1) 2005 will be a good year with production expected to be 85% higher than in 2004; (2) the Wassa mine will be a great producer for the company, and this year’s production of 100-120,000 ounces will be modest compared with what the mine is capable of in the near future; (3) the turnaround has started, and results for the fourth quarter are better than the third, and the results in 2005 will be better still; (4) Peter Bradford, having relocated with his family to Ghana will be very close to the action and where the money is being spent, and this will be important for the redevelopment; (5) the delays in receiving permits at Bondaye were part of the drivers to review expansion plans, but the permits for Bogoso will be much easier to obtain (being an expansion of an existing processing plant, compared with permits for a new mine and plant); (6) the expansion at Bogoso is using very well accepted technology and will "unlock" seven or eigth years of reserves – all permitted; (7) the Bogoso production this year will equal last year’s but the expansion will amount to a 75% increase in production levels in future years."

GSS closed at $3.01, up 4 cents. Yesterday’s close below $3 set off margin call selling all over the place, which affected my other holdings like Samex (46 cents, down 4 cents), which has been pummeled for no reason other than forced/panic share dumping. Both of these firms should return to their 2003 form as 2005 progresses.

Speaking of my friend John Anderson, who also called the last gold market bottom almost to the tee, he is also an advisor to IMZ (International Minerals) which also re-tested their low from last year at $3.50, closing today at $3.70 Cdn, down 20 cents. According to John, IMZ "should trade back thru $5.00 on the next move and try $6.50 based on its 6.5 million oz of gold reserves."

The gold shares still cannot get out of their own way. The XAU went .05 to 88.64, while the HUI managed only to rally .27 to 192.64.

The gold and silver sentiment is about as bearish as it gets. We are due for some relief here and soon.

GATA BE IN IT TO WIN IT!

MIDAS

Hi Bill,
This article supports my thesis that the oil price bands effectively dictate the bands of trading for the relative value of the dollar. I have received another mail from ODAC who are not expecting an oil price fall through $40/bbl due to ongoing tightness of supply.

This being the case I believe that whatever gold & silver low is put in as Oil approaches this level ($40) will be the PM bottom and time to purchase with ears pinned back – as we are likely to just rotate through the recent oil price bracket ($40 to $56) again before we break out to the upside sometime over the next 12 months when supply factors take over. My most recent expectations on this dollar index move are up to 88

(Euro 1.23 handle) simply due to the dollar trading bracket setup. A move up from the current Control Point at 85 may well be seeking the Next Control Point at 88 as there was a price time trading gap created on the recent decent from the 88 consolidation area on the DX. (ie we didn’t spend much time in the DX range of 85.5 – 88 on the way down last October). Given our market is generally short dollars a swift move to 88 is not beyond reason when we start making headway beyond 86.

In summary I reckon due to the fundamental oil setup this Counter trend dollar rally will be short, sharp, large, and reverse on its tail rapidly as soon as we hit Euro 1.23. The impact on leveraged gold and silver longs my well be decimating – but for those that stand aside with powder dry ready for the mother of all buying opportunities, these people will be richly rewarded.
Regds
David

Published on Tuesday, February 8, 2005 by Energybulletin.net

The End of The Oil Standard
by Greg Croft

Few commentators have recognized the significance of OPEC's January 30 decision to temporarily suspend their price band mechanism. If the suspension is indeed temporary, it may not be that important. If it isn't, there are some interesting parallels to the suspension of the U.S. gold standard in 1968 to 1971.

The gold standard was maintained by fixing the dollar price of gold and by federal stockpiling of gold. This was the means by which most currencies had maintained their value since ancient times. By the late nineteenth century, the growth in international trade had made the system difficult to maintain, but it continued for lack of an alternative.

The Bretton Woods agreements at the end of the Second World War reduced the importance of precious metals in the international financial system and the United States government suspended purchases of newly-mined gold in 1968. The United States gold market was fully deregulated in 1971.

Oil was sold at fixed prices under long-term contracts until the nationalizations of the mid-seventies, when oil traders began to play an important role. Oil prices became more transparent in 1983 when crude oil futures began to be traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange. From 1979 to 1985, OPEC tried to defend too high a price target and lost market share.

According to Pennwell's Energy Statistics Sourcebook, OPEC production declined from 30.67 million barrels per day in 1979 to 16.02 million barrels per day in 1985. The same source list OPEC's maximum sustainable production capacity as 34.4 million barrels per day in 1985. By the end of 1985, OPEC had 18 million barrels per day of shut-in oil production capacity. It became clear that there had to be a price ceiling as well as a floor. This was the price band.

Viewed from a different angle, an oil price ceiling is a dollar floor. Oil is traded in greater dollar volumes than any other commodity so the oil standard had more liquidity than gold ever did. The value of OPEC's oil production is more than a billion dollars per day. The oil equivalent of Fort Knox was not the Strategic Petroleum Reserve; it was the combined oil reserves of OPEC, three orders of magnitude greater and much larger in value than all the gold mined since the dawn of history. According to the December 20, 2004 issue of the Oil and Gas Journal, the oil reserves of OPEC at yearend 2004 are estimated to be 885 billion barrels.

According to the United States Geological Survey, the total gold ever mined in the world is about 3.4 billion troy ounces. At $42 per barrel for oil and $420 per troy ounce for gold, the value of Opec's reserves is 26 times the value of all gold ever mined. The United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve contained about 680 million barrels as of February 7, so it's role is an emergency supply in case of an oil market disruption; it is too small to have any long-term influence on oil markets.

Was the oil standard an accident or was it a deliberate product of U.S. policy? Motives are difficult to determine and the U.S. Treasury has not claimed to tie the dollar to oil prices. The ultimate effect of the end of the oil standard is difficult to predict, but one should not understate its importance.

--

Greg Croft is an Oil Exploration Consultant
http://www.gregcroft.com

Hallo !!!!!!!

Ist da jemand ????????????????

February 9 – Gold $412.50 up 40 cents – Silver $6.56 up 3 cents

Support GOLDRUSH 21!

History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats...B.C.Forbes

GO GATA!!!

The AM Fix was $413.20, up $1. The Gold Cartel said that was too high. No problem. they would just do what they could to bury the price on the Comex. By the time we got around to the NY open, gold was due 40 cents lower. Then I watched the euro take a dip to 127.39 (down only about .20) this morning with the pound higher on the day and yen lower. It was all the cabal needed to set the tone for the morning, meaning trash gold. They didn’t need to do much. The locals and the specs jumped all over the short side even though gold has closed lower 9 out of 10 days and dropped some $45 in two months. I blinked and gold was down $2.60.

However, the euro held technical support and it began a sharp rally. As I write this, the euro is UP .40, yet gold hit the DO NOT PASS GO sign at the unchanged mark. The cabal will not allow it to go up on the day so that it might bring in reversal buyers. It is rather hideous. Often when gold is down I am told that the traders are selling it off because of the euro selling off. Well, what about right now? SILENCE is all I get when I ask. The effort by The Gold Cartel to make gold a non issue has been relentless for two months now with no relief in sight.

The locals covered on the close and gold managed to eke out a pathetic gain. Silver was steady for most of the session, however, was unable to manage any oomph.

The gold open interest rose 3572 contracts, while the silver open interest fell 1600 contracts to 95,344. The COT report released on Friday should show the specs short gold. The ploy of the cabal has worked brilliantly, in violation of US anti-trust laws, but executed to perfection by the bad guys.

For more than half a decade I have focused on The Gold Cartel as being, by far, the most important factor in the gold market. This becomes more apparent as each year goes by. You would think by the price drop over the last two months that the gold fundamentals were terrible. Yet, that notion could not be further from the truth.

We know from John Brimelow’s superb work, and now from almost every report out there, that demand for gold is surging all over the world. You have the GLD which was supposed to have been such a big deal in enhancing gold demand from new sources such as pension funds. THEN, you have the hedgers continuing to close out their positions, which added to demand last quarter. "So-called de-hedging reached a record 14.3 million ounces last year, London-based researcher GFMS Ltd. said in a report today. Repurchases will slow this year because producers have 10 million ounces for deliveries, GFMS said." – Bloomberg. In the fourth quarter alone, the hedgers reduced their positions by 3.6 million ounces (113 tonnes).

Well if demand is surfacing everywhere we turn, then soaring mine or scrap supply must be keeping a lid on the market. WRONG! Mine supply is steadily deteriorating. For example:

"South Africa's mining production increased 5,9% in 2004 compared to the previous year, but gold output plunged 8.4% in the same period, official data showed yesterday."
Mining Weekly

So why did the price of gold drop $45 in two months when there is a natural supply/demand deficit of 1500+ tonnes. Answer: GOLD CARTEL.

Thus, the key factor in the gold market is whether these bums can come up with enough available central bank gold to continue this surreptitious scam. GATA believes their options are running out as less than half of the central bank’s reserves are still in the vaults. Many in our camp surmise this is the reason England’s Brown is shooting his mouth off. The cabal forces are desperate to get their hands on physical as this year progresses. It is also very likely they know there is no hope of IMF gold sales, however they intend to psychologically traumatize the market and bury the price so the cabal shorts can cover their shorts at decent prices. If so, it has been a successful ploy.

Finally some "officialdom" opposition to the sales, however, it is both feeble and tepid:

S. Africa Mines Minister
Opposes IMF Gold Sales

By Gordon Bell
Reuters
Wednesday, February 9, 2005

http://www.reuters.co.za/local…Key=en_ZA&storyID=7577802

CAPE TOWN -- South African Mineral and Energy Affairs Minister
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Wednesday she opposed the idea of selling International Monetary Fund gold, one of several proposals to use its gold reserves for debt relief.

Mlambo-Ngcuka told Reuters at an African mining conference in Cape Town that other minerals ministers at the event were concerned by media reports on the proposals, and they would ask the IMF for clarification.

"Obviously if what we see in the newspapers is a fact, we have reasons to be concerned," she said. South Africa is the world's biggest producer of gold, which is also an important export for other countries on the continent.

Asked for her view on South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel's cautious backing of the gold sale proposals, along with suggestions to revalue the IMF's reserves, Mlambo-Ngcuka replied: "I don't know about that. I am not in favour of that."..

-END-

I met with minister Mlambo-Ngcuka four years ago almost to the day (see Appendix), which is a good segue into the feature of this MIDAS.

The INDABA gold conference is winding up in Cape Town, South Africa. Four years ago with gold at $255 GATA made a splash at the conference when we organized an ad to take issue with the big hedgers and The Gold Cartel thanks to "The South Africans For a Free Gold Market" and the "Mr. Gold" of South Africa, Peter George.

The most significant contributor to that $50,000 Business Day full page ad, organized over a lunch, was C.R.G. Hellinger, the chairman of International Hotels Development Corporation Limited. His estate/vineyard operation in Franschhoeck, SA outside of Cape Town is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful places I have ever had the privilege of visiting. Our Peter George group had lunch at the restaurant depicted in Mr. Hellinger’s website:

(Check out the "the farm")
http://www.chamonix.co.za/reststart.htm

Early last Saturday morning I called up Chris in Franschhoeck to invite him to be our guest at our GOLDRUSH 21 conference in the Yukon as he is the largest INDIVIDUAL single contributor to GATA over our six years of existence. He was delighted to hear from GATA. We would like Chris to represent all you GATA investors who have contributed to our efforts to free up the gold market.

We are shifting into high gear as far as our conference is concerned and GATA and MIDAS request that everyone of you make an effort to help and make it the success we expect it to be. Therefore, I hope every Café member will read the Appendix to understand the effort we have made in the past on behalf of gold investors to give you some idea of what that effort can lead to in the future.

The John Brimelow Report

Astonishing Indian story; Sensible Gartman!

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Indian ex-duty premiums: AM $7.38, PM $7.12, with world gold at $412.50 and $413.05. Ample for legal imports. This is basis Bombay. Other Indian import points continue to report premiums which would normally be associated with the Bombay premiums being $1 or so higher.

Reuters today carries an extraordinary Indian demand story.

"BOMBAY, Feb 9 (Reuters) - A sharp drop in gold prices have boosted demand in India, the world's largest market, and have caused a supply crunch, traders said on Wednesday….The delivery time has risen to more than a week, compared with the normal two days.

"Banks are not ready to take new orders. Deliveries of some bookings done a week ago are still pending," said Prithvi Raj Kothari, a dealer in Bombay, India's financial capital.

One foreign bank, which has been selling 7 to 8 tonnes of gold a week against a normal 2 to 3 tonnes, is finding it difficult to cope with the demand, a dealer at the bank said.

"I think the problem is also because each bank has its own internal limits on gold business," the dealer said, adding the delay had caused some scarcity in the market."

-END-

To my memory, this has never been seen before, even in the market low in mid 1999.

TOCOM slumbers on, with dealers complaining about the absence of the New Year celebrating Chinese. World gold went out 10 c below the NY close, volume slipped 13% to only equal 10,420 Comex lots; the active contract edged up 4 yen. Open interest was down the equivalent of 166 Comex. (NY yesterday traded 47,154 contracts; open interest rose 3,572 lots.)

An effort to rally gold in the early NY day was blocked, and an aggressive counter attack took gold to new lows on this downswing before another rally attempt erased most of gold’s loss – April closed down $1.10. Since it took a net increase in open interest of 11 tonnes to achieve this, it would appear that a serious seller is capping the market. Optimists would hope the lows were made on short selling, of course. We will find out on Friday.

Sometimes one wonders if one is watching the same market as the Bullion Bank commentators. Barclays this morning claims

"Although much has been made of the recent negative influence of discussion the possible sale or revaluation of IMF gold to fund debt relief of heavily indebted nations, the reality has been that gold has, in line with the correlation seen almost entirely throughout this rally, followed the euro."

A glance at the Euro chart of gold in the past few months – for instance at
http://www.the-privateer.com/chart/g-multi.html
reveals that this is just not true. Gold peaked on November 22 just under E345, staged an ugly sell off to January down to just over E320, rallied to the upper 320s by the end of the month, and has been knocked back down to the low this month.

A puzzling error.

Much more accurate today is the Gartman Letter, which displays a chart designed to convey that gold is still in the up channel which started in 2001 and remarks:

"We've not sold gold short, and some have taken us to task for our "indecision" in this matter. However, this still appears to us to be a very long term bull market, and in very long term bull markets one can have only one of three positions: Very long; modestly long, or neutral. We've chosen the latter."

JB

CARTEL CAPITULATION WATCH

The US stock market was hit fairly hard today. Bout time reality set in. The DOW lost 61 to 10,664, while the DOG barked 31 lower to 2052.

What is the bond market action telling us? Robust economy ahead? Don’t think so.

March bonds (117 6/32, up 14/32)
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/TR/35

Word is the main reason for the bond rally is a short squeeze "convexity" trade. Perhaps, however, my smeller tells me something more significant is at play here.

An important US trade number to be released tomorrow morning. Estimates are for a reduction to $57 billion. Important? So was the jobs number, yet thanks to intervention the dollar and gold market went the opposite way of what EVERYONE would have told you prior to the disappointing report.

The dollar fell .07, with the euro rising .26 to 128.07.

US economic news.

10:00 Dec. Wholesale Inventories reported 0.4% vs. consensus 0.9%
Prior reading revised to 1.2% from 1.1%.
* * * * *

10:30 DOE reports crude oil inventories (1M) barrels vs. consensus +700K barrels
Gasoline inventories +500K barrels vs. consensus +1M. Distillate inventories (3M) barrels vs. consensus (2M) barrels. March WTI crude is trading higher in reaction.
* * *

10:45 API reports crude oil inventories (4.2M) barrels
Gasoline inventories (232K) barrels, while distillate inventories (4.2M)barrels. March WTI crude remains in the upward trend, rallying to a session high of $46.10/barrel in reaction.
* * * * *

Oil was all over the place – up $1, then down 50 cents. March WTI closed at $45.46, up 6 cents per barrel.

The Bush Administration has talked a good game as far as bringing the US budget/fiscal problems under control. The reality says the talk is just that…talk.

The New York Times
February 9, 2005
New White House Estimate Lifts Drug Benefit Cost to $720 Billion

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 - The Bush administration offered a new estimate of the cost of the Medicare drug benefit on Tuesday, saying it would cost $720 billion in the next 10 years.

That is much more than the $400 billion Congress assumed when it passed legislation creating the benefit in late 2003.

But administration officials said the numbers were not comparable. The original estimate was for the years 2004 to 2013. The new estimate covers the period from 2006, when the drug benefit becomes available, to 2015.

The higher figure, which provides the first glimpse of the true cost of the drug benefit, could touch off a political uproar in Congress, where conservative Republicans were already expressing alarm about the costs of Medicare, including the drug benefit….

Lawmakers said they were shocked to see that number because it was close to the $400 billion figure they had previously been given as the price tag for a full decade. Estimates prepared by the chief Medicare actuary show that the spending for the prescription drug benefit will total $1.2 trillion from 2006 to 2015, before taking account of income that will offset some of that cost.

-END-

JUST IN: "Greenspan's Appearance On Fox News":

http://jessel.100megsfree3.com/treasurysecy.jpg

Well presented emails from two knowledgeable Café members on the IMF flap:

Bill:
In the face of the IMF's twaddle du jour, a bit of historical perspective may be in order. It was after all, Bretton Woods that marked the end of the gold standard but of significance, it was the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank that was born at that 1944 conference in order to facilitate the implementation of the mastery of fiat over gold. So it should come as no surprise when the IMF suggests the sale of bullion or any other corollary action, in order to depress its price; the IMF is after all, only protecting its franchise. Acting under the pretense of lender to the poor, the IMF sets about implementing its true agenda, while bathed in virtuous rhetoric. Edward Griffin, in his superb work, "The Creature from Jekyll Island" discusses this point and the IMF's surreptitious activities and I thought it would be worth my appending some excerpts from Griffin's work for Cafe members:

"The method by which gold was to be eliminated in international trade was to replace it with a world currency which the IMF, acting as a world central bank, would create out of nothing....If the IMF were to function as a true world central bank with unlimited Issue, the dollar had to be broken away from its gold backing...As such, [the IMF] has become the engine for transferring wealth from the industrialized nations to the underdeveloped countries. While this has lowered the economic level of the donating countries, it has not raised the level of the recipients. The money has simply disappeared down the drain of political corruption....the IMF has presided over more than two hundred currency devaluations. In private industry, a failure of that magnitude might be cause for going out of business, but not in the world of politics. An honest reading of the record shows that the IMF[] has been an engine of social waste and a fountain of abundance for the corrupt leaders who rule."
Go Gata!
Jeff

Bill,
After hearing another Gordon Brown terrorization of the gold longs I have come to an understanding regarding any and all gold commentary. It defies human nature to not want to maximize profit on ANYTHING you own, gold included. Therefore, if you actually OWN gold outright you are naturally bullish. If on the other hand you have sold gold, leased gold, sold short gold derivatives, own or sell paper interest that competes with gold, borrow money from paper entities that restrict gold ownership, forward sold "hedged" gold, disseminate information for a living that competes with gold, make jewelry from gold, or wish to acquire (more) gold by human nature you are bearish. Brown's very public opinion clearly is a man that represents people who do NOT own gold. His human nature reveals such. It's only a matter of categorizing the cause of his bearishness. Does he see the 3,000 ton IMF hoard as the last holy grail of suppression? Does he represent interests desperate to get the liquidity into an explosive market fast? Are BB's so way off sides on lease scams that it only clears the existing dilemma and not address demand? Is the IMF getting strong-armed? (Remember Kuwait dumping gold before being sold more weapons or the Catholic Church scandal that broke after a few "official visits"?) Are the shelves empty down at the GLD ETF shop and even the SEC doesn't want this herring smelling on their front porch? Any way you look at it, Brown desires a lower, not higher price.

A man who was bullish and actually cared about debt relief would talk of gold's historic undervaluation, would say in fact he thinks $1,000 might be closer to its true price, and lay out a plan that would contribute say $3 for every $10 in the rise in price. He would further add this is a double win for impoverished mining countries, who also benefit from the rising price. He would then call for the IMF to ADD, not sell gold reserves as a way to boost price. Just the announcement of this should send gold upwards by hundreds of dollars, providing immediate relief to indebted nations. That's the way a gold bull would think. A gold bear thinks precisely like Gordon Brown. I am a gold bull. I own it and desire a higher price. It's just my human nature. It's GATA's nature too, and to play a game that isn't rigged.
James McShirley

The silver mugging comment from my STALKER source created somewhat of a furor. I received a number of phone calls and it elicited a great deal of speculation.

Hi Bill:
With regard to your mention of the possibility of a group taking silver down, when last week they were going to take it up, look at it this way:

1) You had 843 million US dollars.

2) You heard of and then studied the possibility of once again cornering the silver market... and found it a cinch.

3) With wisdom you do not want to risk too much so you find a group of friends in your neighborhood or country. Besides reducing your financial exposure, more participants will serve to obfuscate any cohesion in the group's activities. Being a betting country, you find more people willing to bet on the story than the market will support, even at the minimum amount disposable to each participant, given the additional demand at current prices.

4) To make the deal better and in order to meet quotas, of course, and given the resources at your disposal, you decide to force the price down using a triangular trading operation (ask Jim Sinclair about that, though I am sure you already know).

5) Then buy without mercy.

6) Imagine 30 people somewhere untraceable doing this....in physical and futures, probably buying carefully physical scale down while bashing futures hard, then ceasing physical purchases while beginning to cover futures, then buying both hardd. Only so would the group manage to fill each participant's quota at a "satisfactory" price, given the risk of course (maybe that should be "lack of risk"?). Sharks is sharks.

What you hear coming out of London fits the above scenario.

Been here, seen this before.

Can it happen again? Each of us must answer that for him(her)self.

The supply/demand fundamentals, as you know, are not changing, actually getting worse (more bullish for price). The political climate has warmed with the Palestinian and Iraqi elections (I must applaud sincerely these efforts), but we are looking down the barrel of Syria, Iran and Lebanon (insert:I almost forgot about North Korea, continuing violence in Iraq...etc.). The possibility of the warm getting explosive is huge. But frankly, it seems to me that the generational bull market in gold has little to do with the war(s). After all, the rally in gold began significantly before 9/11. Massive world debt, over capacity, huge liquidity, escalating US deficits, Gold/silver supply deficits (also escalating in production terms), overblown bubble in real estate in US, UK and others, are the front line items. The Middle East and N Korea only help, not lead.

I had fun writing that! Sorry I went on a bit. At least it has shored me up for a couple of weeks, during which time I expect a firming, even if a swift downdraft is in the air.

Stamina is the game today given the fundamentals. Focus, focus, focus.
All the best,
David.
PS: The seed HAS been planted.

From my friend Mahendra to his subscribers on the silver scuttlebutt:

Last night I received many emails concerning some negative news on silver.

My advise - NEVER BELIEVE IN RUMOURS, JUST BELIEVE IN WAVE OF NATURE OR THE TIME. IN LAST HUNDRED YEAR MARKET NEVER MOVED UP OR DOWN IN MEDIUM OR LONG TERM ON RUMOURS BASIS, RUMOUR CAN IMPACT ONLY FOR FEW HOURS.

You all you are educated and intelligent people, so delete next time rumours email and first talk to yourself. Nobody gains in this world financial market on rumours, infect rumours divert your focus.

WE ARE VERY NEAR TO TURN AROUND PERIOD FOR METALS (must remember your investment should be 60% in silver, 10% corn, 10% cotton, 10% Palladium, 5% bonds, 5% Gold and rest in other area).
THANKS & GOD BLESS
MAHENDRA
http://www.mahendraprophecy.com/

A bunch of queries came my way about Aflease and the change in their share price. The latest:

Aflease - Aflease Ads Ratio & Nasdaq Symbol Change

Release Date: 09/02/2005 16:50:02 Code(s): AFL

Aflease - Aflease ADS ratio & Nasdaq symbol change
AFLEASE GOLD AND URANIUM RESOURCES LIMITED
(Formerly The Afrikander Lease Limited)
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)
AFL (JSE) AFKDY (NASDAQ)
(Registration number 1921/006955/06)
ISIN: ZAE000061461 Share Code : AFL
("Aflease" or "the company")
AFLEASE ADS RATIO & NASDAQ SYMBOL CHANGE
Johannesburg, 9 February 2005.

The name of the company changed from The Afrikander Lease Limited to Aflease Gold and Uranium Resources Limited with effect 25 January 2005. As a result, the NASDAQ trading symbol has been changed from AFKDY to AFLUY to reflect the name change of the company. In addition, Aflease Uranium and Gold Resources Limited has announced a ratio change of its American Depositary Shares ("ADSs") so that one ADS will equal 10 ordinary shares. The previous ratio was one ADS to one ordinary share. As of close of business on 8 February 2005, current ADS Holdings will be changed to reflect 10 ordinary shares for every 1(one) ADS currently held. As a result every 10 ordinary shares is equivalent to 1 ADS. For those holding American Depositary Receipts (ADSs) via their brokers, they must request their US brokers to tender their existing ADSs and exchange these for the new ADRs.

For those with ADSs holding physical instruments, they should tender their ADSs and request their exchange by contacting:
The Bank of New York
Tender and Exchange Department
101 Barclay Street
New York
NY10286

It should be noted that the holders will NOT be charged any fees for this tender and exchange.

-END-

Here is a fun one. From former President Bill Clinton’s website:

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Happy Chinese New Year!

This year, 2005, is the year of the Rooster, specifically the Green Wooden Rooster.
This means good fortune, good business and a good year for gold. I hope I can catch the last few days of the Lantern Festival celebrations, when I visit Asia later this month.

http://billclintondailydiary.blogspot.com/

-END-