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

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-

First thing I saw on the site was James Turk’s book, "The Coming Collapse Of The Dollar And How To Profit From It."

This may be very good news indeed. Clinton and Rubin were the masterminds behind the Strong Dollar Policy and sucking 10,000 plus tonnes of gold out of the central banks in clandestine fashion. If anyone knows the gold isn’t there anymore in sufficient supply to keep the price from exploding, it is BILL CLINTON!

The gold shares recovered a tad with the XAU picking up 1.01 to 89.65 and the HUI gaining 2.91 to 195.55.

Gold and silver are due for a huge bounce. However, The Gold Cartel has gone out of their way to keep gold under pressure. Tomorrow should be VERY volatile.

GATA BE IN IT TO WIN IT!

MIDAS

Appendix

From yesterday’s MIDAS:

Remember Mel Gibson's "The Patriot"

Keep up the fight and lets get more proactive. You use to be more so a few years ago and maybe that is what this GOLDRUSH 21 is about?..
David

***

Yes David, that is exactly what GOLDRUSH 21 is all about. What The Gold Cartel has thrown our way via the latest IMF gold sale nonsense accentuates why it is so important for a number of movers and shakers associated with the industry to meet to discuss an action plan to counter those who have maligned gold in a devious fashion with little opposition for so long.

Our focus is mainly on attracting gold producer executives and gold fund money managers who have an interest in leveling the gold playing field. We are in the process of sending out our invitations. Thus far 4 money managers and 7 gold company CEO’s have told us they will be in Dawson City in the Yukon, Canada on August 8th and 9th.

To host a conference of this caliber is going to take an enormous effort, which we are gladly willing to undertake. As is, we have been quietly making basic preparations for two months. Over 100 rooms have been reserved in the resort town of Dawson City. Our project coordinator, Janet Lee in Whitehorse, Canada is top notch and we are in the process of ironing out travel plans to Dawson City; organizing the flow of the conference itself; planning for individual needs of various participants, coordinating post conference vacation trips, soliciting gifts for the attendees, etc. Getting a large number of people to Dawson City is not like bringing them to LA and that will be part of the appeal. It will be a once in a lifetime adventure as well as a significant event in the history of the gold market. Three Mr. Golds (John Embry of Canada, Peter George of South Africa and Ferdi Lips of Switzerland) along with one Mr. Silver (Hugo Salinas Price of Mexico) will congregate in the same place for the first time.

We are not looking for bodies, only those who have an interest in listening and then be willing to take some action should they be so inclined. To assist us, GATA requests your assistance by sending us names of those gold CEO’s, gold money managers, other important figures in the gold world, etc., you think we should invite. The ideal would be for YOU to call them up and explain in general what this is about and ask them if they would be interested in learning more about what GATA is up to. That’s all. Then send me the pertinent details of where to send the invite along with their phone number (for me to follow up). To familiarize yourself with the basics of our conference, please go to http://www.GOLDRUSH21.com.

I would like to receive names and numbers from every Café member who owns gold shares. I hope that some gold company CEO’s are called 25 times. Right now GATA is the only organization openly supporting them and their shareholders. It is time to start making things happen. It can be done and you can help. Rather than sit there and stew about what The Gold Cartel is doing to your investment portfolio, be a part of the GATA ARMY and help us win the day for YOURSELF.

Round and round we go. GATA first went into action when IMF gold sales were first proposed in 1999. Therefore, I have appended the commentary below from my trip to Washington almost 6 years ago to counter those sales. It is fascinating to me to review what GATA said back then and then to follow what happened over the years. Our warning to Congress about a potential disaster should gold shoot up suddenly is EXACTLY what occurred after the Washington Agreement announcement in September/October of 1999.

Bank of England Governor Edward George in October 1999:

"We looked into the abyss if the gold price rose further. A further rise would have taken down one or several trading houses, which might have taken down all the rest in their wake. Therefore at any price, at any cost, the central banks had to quell the gold price, to manage it. It was very difficult to get the gold price under control but we have now succeeded. The U.S. Fed was very active in getting the gold price down. So was the U.K."

Gold monthly
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/GD/M

April 28, 1999 - Spot Gold $282.70 up 70 cents - Spot Silver $5.25 up 8 cents

Feedback to the Café about my trip Washington and meetings with Jim Saxton, Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, the Staff Director of the Joint Economic Committee, the senior macro economist of the Joint Economic Committee, the Senior Counsel of the House Banking and Financial Services Committee and the Staff Director of the Capital Markets Subcommittee

Washington is in full bloom this time of year and it is extraordinarily beautiful and bustling with activity. One cannot help but be inspired walking around the Capitol while gazing at its majestic buildings and thinking of what they stand for. It is one great country we have here, with all its flaws, and an awesome, proud feeling came over me as I traversed from the Capitol building to the Rayburn Building, to the O'Neill building, etc. America is special because anybody can do anything here. It is a land of individuals and we are very lucky to be living in such an environment. I thought as such as Mitch McConnell, Barney Frank, and other House of Representative Members sauntered by - all just part of the crowd.

My first meeting was with the Staff Director of the Capital Markets group that is investigating Long Term Capital Management. I cannot get into too much about this one, but I can tell you that I almost fell off my chair when he told me that they were investigating Long Term Capital Management for "anti-trust" violations. It was not my place to probe further. But, now we understand why Long Term Capital Management has reacted so expressively to the Gold Anti Trust Action Committee and is sending our attorney a letter. I am sure that we are just a coincidence that happened to show up at the wrong time for them, but no one I have spoken on Wall Street had heard that anti-trust activity is the reason a Congressional subcommittee is looking into their previous operations.

Later on, the Senior Counsel of the House Banking and Services Committee came by and we had a long session about the "the sizeable gold borrowings". He took copious notes. I stressed to him that it was our opinion that a danger had been created by speculative gold borrowers who had become so greedy that we believe that there are now about 3,000 tonnes of these loans out there. And, that the total gold loans may now be 8,000 to 10,000 tonnes. I stressed that the borrowers were making a fortune with virtually interest free money! But, in doing so, they have created a potential banking disaster. If the price of gold were to unexpectedly shoot up and go sharply higher (like the price of oil did the past two months), the gold borrowers could not find 3,000 tonnes of gold to pay back their loans, even if they wanted to. Panic could ensue. Major banking defaults may occur and they could have 10 Long Term Capital type, systemic risk problems on their hands, all at once!

I told him that I was here today to alert the Banking Committee to this potentially very serious problem and that this situation could be likened to the Savings and Loan crisis. After the Savings and Loan crises erupted, it was queried by many as to why someone did not do something about it before it became a crisis. I told the Staff Director that there is no reason for history to repeat itself. NOW, is the time for the Banking Committee to ask the bullion dealers and major financial institutions what their gold books look like; ask them to reveal the gold books (confidentially) to a banking or economic committee. If they will not do so, ask why? If they do and we are we are right, somebody had better blow the whistle. If we are wrong, then it was a waste of just a little time and a few phone calls.

We discussed the gold loans issue in great detail. You know much of our reasoning and evidence, so there is no point going into all that. What is important is that at the end of the meeting the Senior Counsel got up grinning and said, "Geez, got a small order here, have to save the banking system."

The next meeting was with Jim Saxton, the Staff Director of the Joint Economic Committee and their senior macro economist.

Jim Saxton is one class act. We had some fun talking about my cousin, Bobo Sullivan, who also has been a force in New Jersey Republican politics for many years as he ran the election campaigns for Bush and Reagan in that State. Jim just got back from a fact finding mission in Yugoslavia and now is also preparing legislation to reform the Exchange Stabilization Fund by introducing the, ESF Transparency and Accountability Act.

"This legislation will end the legacy of secrecy and obscurity at the ESF," Saxton said in his press release. The ESF was established in 1934 at a time when the dollar was pegged to gold, but has survived into the current era of flexible exchange rates despite its lack of clear objectives and its secretive operations."

"This legislation will end the legacy of secrecy and obscurity at the ESF," Saxton said. "We need this kind of secrecy in our nuclear weapons programs, not in our international economic policy, but most Americans have never heard of it. The American people have the right to know how billions of their tax dollars are being used. Excessive secrecy is part of an even larger problem: the lack of accountability to Congress or the American people."

I told Jim that GATA was concerned about the lack of transparency in the gold market too and that we felt there were many shenanigans occurring in the gold arena. GATA applauds his efforts, and intended legislation, which could cut off another potential source of manipulation of the gold market.

Most of the discussion was about: 1) what GATA felt was the real reason behind all the IMF proposed gold sale P R commotion and 2) GATA's opinion that gold loans had become so large that they had become a danger to the U.S. banking and financial system.

I went on to say how large we felt the gold loans had become and that if something were to happen to cause the price of gold to rise sharply, and the gold borrowers wanted to get out of their gold loans and pay the gold lenders back with physical gold, that it would be impossible for them to do so in a short period of time without the price of gold skyrocketing. With 1998 mine supply at 2529 tonnes in 1998, it just cannot be done. I followed with what I had told the Senior Counsel of the Banking Committee, that I felt the resulting turmoil could produce 10 "systemic risk problems", not just the 1 that our Fed had with Long Term Capital Management. What would the Fed do in that case?

It was stressed by me that almost no one thought there could be a Long Term Capital Management either; that even the Central Bank of Italy invested in Long Term because of the supposed lack of risk in investing with them. The biggest and the best invested in Long Term. "And look what happened," I told Jim. I then pointed out that it is these same "biggest and best" that are borrowing gold at 1% interest rates and are thus, in effect, short gold to a staggering degree. In essence, they are investing all over the place for practically free (as long as the price of gold does not go up). I asked him if he would like to be able to go his bank and take out virtually an interest free loan? Did he think his investment performance would look pretty good if he could do so? That is what I told him I felt was behind all this IMF gold sale talk spewed forth by our administration, the bullion dealers, Wall Street and anyone else whose arm they can twist. I do not think it proper to recant any of his conversation, but I think I can comfortably say that he has a great smile.

All 3 committees want to very much hear whatever more we have to convey on this matter.

-END-

Then almost two years later with gold at $256:

2/15/01 GATA's Journey to South Africa

GOLD ANTI-TRUST ACTION COMMITTEE

GATA's Journey to South Africa

There is no way I can do proper justice to my trip to South Africa, but I will cover it as best I can. While it would have been better to write details down as the days went by, there was little time to do so. It is from fond memories that I now relate my hectic adventure to you.

The South African countryside is very beautiful and I was fortunate to meet many wonderful people, but of most importance was the fact that GATA's revelations of the manipulation of the gold market were publicized by the SA press and were personally presented to important SA officials.

My first meeting was an enjoyable one with Chris Thompson, Gold Fields Chairman, who listened very attentively. That was followed by a lunch with newsletter writer Aida Parker, who had just written a piece called "Gold Price Manipulation." Aida is quite the character and one tough babe as she was a war correspondent during the Arab/Israeli war. Reg Howe was very impressed with her insightful coverage of his Complaint.

That afternoon I met with Nick Goodwin, South African gold guru analyst, and Johann Blersch, Managing Director of Ings Barings Bank. That meeting went well and Nick arranged a meeting with ten of the senior gold analysts in Johannesburg the next day in his office to listen to a GATA presentation. It amazed me that Nick could corral so many of them on such short notice. Tuesday started out with a David McKay MiningWeb interview.

Tuesday late afternoon I headed to the airport for a trip to Durban (by the Indian Ocean). Rhoda Fowler of Media-Link did a marvelous job scheduling a Wednesday morning breakfast meeting with the Durban press and business leaders in the community. After the meeting, there was a 3 1/2 minute TV interview that was aired all over South Africa during the day.

While waiting for a scheduled meeting with Zulu King, Goodwin Zwelithini, Rhoda, her helpful brother James Stock and I went up the Indian Ocean coast to Umhlanga for a relaxed seaside lunch. The King was delayed, but eventually we had a very special two hour meeting over dinner that lasted until 10:30 in the evening. That meant another sleep over in Durban ahead of an 8:30 press interview back in Johannesburg the next day.

The King was very sharp, lamenting that the Rand had weakened ever since the new government came into power and that the price of gold had not rallied at all with the price of oil. Many of his Zulu subjects are gold miners and have been very negatively effected by the suppression of the gold price. At the end of the meeting, he asked his aide, Moses, to call Deputy-President Jacob G Zuma, who is also a Zulu, on our behalf. The Zulus are one of the many tribes in South Africa.

A wee bleary eyed, I just made it on time for a meeting with Curt Von Keyserlingk, Business Editor of Rapport, the well read Afrikaner newspaper. Also attending was superb technical analyst Daan Joubert, who often presents his work at Gold-Eagle.

That conversation presaged a trip to Lordium in the South African countryside for a Moslem radio station interview. It struck me that when I walked into the Moslem radio station, the interviewer said that he saw me on television the day before. I thought to myself: now we are getting someplace!

Listening to the show in Cape Town was Professor Umar Ibrahim Vadillo, Founder of e-dinar, who is urging that Muslims all over the world buy dinar gold coins. We later met in Cape Town and I learned a good deal about the movement of this worldly Spanish professor who resides in Scotland.

Early on Friday I met with the South African Chamber of Commerce, followed by a meeting with Bheki L. Sibiya, Executive Director of Transnet and Chairman of South African Airways. Bheki is a leader in the South African business community and grasped the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee findings very quickly.

That afternoon was spent on the phone talking to prominent South Africans and then I set out for downtown Johannesburg to do the Alec Hogg Classic Business radio show. That was almost a disaster as my driver's car broke down 1/2 mile from the interview and I had to run the rest of the way - right through the area one is not supposed to be as evening sets in. Made it with 7 minutes to spare.

By that evening and week's end, I was ready to relax and did so with two friends of Daan Joubert. Both are very successful businessmen who knew the gold market well. One of them owns the last private elephant farm in South Africa. They took me to Baccarat, restaurant extraordinaire, for some crocodile and ostrich. We had much fun and plan to meet up again.

On Saturday it was time to set sail for Cape Town and the INDABA 2001 mining conference. Soon after my arrival, Peter George, who is well known in South African gold circles, came by to take me for a climb up Judas Peak - high above the geographically spectacular Cape Town.

It was an hour trek to reach our elevated destination and some flowing water to drink. "Be careful, it is slippery," Peter warned. About 20 seconds later, I fell anyway and started to go down the mountain, but managed to grab on to a thorny bush. In a bit of a dither, I tried to pull myself up, but fell back and further down. This was becoming rather scary and I looked up for Peter's help. Instead, he looked down at me and blurted, "I told you it was slippery."

If that was not bad enough, I could not bare to tell him I am afraid of heights. A relieved me was happy to make it back safe and sound to his wonderful home overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Peter was a most gracious host and became a new friend for life.

Sunday we took a drive to vineyard country - called Franschhoek. It is spectacular countryside. One of the vineyard owners organized a luncheon at his vineyard restaurant to hear about the gold market. When they heard that press coverage of my trip was going well except for the mainstream Business Day (the Wall Street Journal of South Africa), they said, "we will fix that." Within 20 seconds, the attendees at the lunch pledged $50,000 for a full page ad in Business Day. They said you write it, we (the instantly formed 'South Africans for a free gold market') will pay for it. The money was collected and in the till by Monday noon.

Both stunned and delighted, Peter and I sped back to Cape Town and I began writing. The input Peter George contributed was invaluable as he and I spent the next two days editing and re-editing. Peter was still calling in word changes at the deadline hour late Tuesday afternoon. More on the ad later.

Reg Howe and I hooked up on Monday and met with Mark Wellesley-Wood, Chairman of Durban Roodeport Deep that afternoon. He was most impressive and both Reg and I could see why Durban Deep has been turned around and is a gold bull's delight. As most of you know, Durban is very leveraged to the gold price will substantial gold reserves and resources to its credit.

Later that evening Reg, Peter, his son Quentin and I had dinner with Brett Kebble at the "Nellie", the Lord Nelson. Brett, CEO of Western Areas, and his father Roger, Chairman of Western Areas, are legends of the South African gold industry and not afraid to stand up for their beliefs. Brett will go down as a hero one day - which will be revealed in time.

The Indaba 2001 Conference kicked off on Tuesday morning with Anglogold's Kelvin Williams one of the early speakers. It did not take him long to make a mocking statement about the "conspiracy crowd," which drew chuckles from the attendees. Later, he told the press that GATA was full of "adult fantasies." I thought to myself, you punch today Kelvin, GATA counter-punches tomorrow - we'll see who gets the last laugh when the "Gold Price Manipulation" ad breaks the next morning.

Late that morning, Reg and I met with Ian Davidson, a member of Parliament in the Democratic Party. Ian, a former mayor of Johannesburg has a legal background and is a former stockbroker so he quickly grasped what we were saying. We learned later that Ian is the kind of fellow who is not afraid to mix it up in Parliament - as we left our meeting with him he told us he would bring the GATA issue up in Parliament, which was to begin a new session that coming Friday.

Wednesday, Peter George threw a breakfast meeting for Reg and I. One hundred and thirty men, many of them prominent Cape Town citizens, attended. Peter, a staunch Born Again Christian, runs this Christian fellowship breakfast meeting every week, often bringing in guest speakers. It was very well orchestrated, GATA raised some money and we turned a few eyebrows about the real gold market of today.

When we returned to INDABA conference, there was a buzz about the ad. As someone told me, "that is just not done around here; one does not take on the establishment in that kind of way."

Later that day, Reg and I met with Bernard Swanepoel, Harmony Gold CEO, and Ferdi Dippenauer, one of their senior executives. That meeting also went well, with our dialogue to continue in the near future.

The rest of the day was spent networking and socializing. It was good to see Peter Bradford, President and C.E.O. of Golden Star Resources, once again. All is going very well with GSR as Peter was on his way to Ghana to continue to build Golden Star's gold production in that African nation.

Cape Talk radio kicked off Thursday morning. The DJ knew more about what was going on in gold than most gold analysts here in the States. Also joining in was the top money manager in South Africa, who also had attended Peter George's breakfast for us. On the air he stated that he felt that "the Howe/GATA Complaint had a better than 50/50 chance of succeeding."

Between press interviews during the day, I listened to David Hale, the Keynote Speaker for the conference. It was a very provocative presentation as he related why Zimbabwe is falling apart, will run very short of food in the months to come and that only "political revolution" can save an all out disaster in that imploding country.

David, who was also the Keynote Speaker at the Australian Gold Conference, told me after his speech that he had read GATA's ad and would like to talk to me about it in the near future. He was not unaware of the issue as he is a long time acquaintance of Frank Veneroso, a member of the GATA delegation that met with Speaker of the House of Reprentatives, Denny Hastert, on May 10, 2000.

Reg then took off back to Boston to work on his Complaint.

Friday, gears were shifted, as I had breakfast with Ms. Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka, Minister of Ministry of Minerals and Energy, at "The Nelly." Also at the breakfast was Thabo Mafoko of the Department of Minerals and Energy International Relations. The meeting went very well. Thabo conferred with Ms. Ngcuka and before I knew it another meeting was set up in Pretoria for me to meet with senior Reserve Bank officials and other Department of Minerals and Energy staff.

Friday night it was a farewell dinner with Peter George and his charming wife, Allison, and then a lunch on Saturday with another feisty South African firebrand, Margaret Legum, Board Member of the S A New Economics Foundation. Margaret has her economics degree from Cambridge and would like to help anyway she can. Not afraid to take on the establishment, Margaret and her husband were exiled from South Africa for 30 years for fighting against Apartheid.

Back to Johannesburg I went for an early Monday morning meeting with the National Union of Mineworkers. Attending the meeting were Mr. S. Zokwana, President: Mr. G. Mantashe, General Secretary, Mr. A. Palane, Deputy General Secretary and Gino Govender, Co-Ordinator Strategy Unit.

No one is more directly effected by the manipulation of the gold market than the South African miners as 170,000 have been laid off. Each one of these miners supports 11 to 12 others according to Bheki Sibiya, also President of the Black Managment Forum.

Obviously, there is no way that the mining union executives could know if GATA's claims are correct, but what I stressed was that the new Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neil, has to make a decision to either remain a Defendant in the case or conduct a gold market inquiry of his own. Of all the Defendants, only the new Republican Treasury Secretary was not party to the charges when Reg Howe filed his Complaint. The Bush Administration must decide whether to continue the fraud or let The Gold Cartel fend for themselves. Like the other Defendants, the Treasury must send a written response to the charges to the judge assigned to the case in Massachusetts Federal District Court by March 15.

GATA believes that the new US Treasury knows the score and must decide what course of action to take. Pressure from aggrieved South African blacks can only be constructive to guiding them in the right direction. As it is, the Republicans only garnered 10% of the black vote in the U.S., the lowest since the days of Barry Goldwater.

If the Republicans could rightly expose what the Clinton Administration was really doing to the Black led African governments and the people of Southern Africa, it could dramatically change perceptions of who the real friends of the black community in Africa really are.

The National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa helped to block the proposed IMF gold sales with their protest. They joined the US Congressional Republican leadership, the Democratic Congressional leadership, the Black Caucus and 36 out of 41 poor gold producing countries in doing so. Only President Clinton, Treasury Secretaries Rubin and Summers, the IMF and the bullion banks were for it. I explained to the mining union that it was not debt relief for the poor they were after. It was the 3000 tonnes of IMF gold they wanted to flood the physical gold market with to keep gold prices low for years to come. When that attempt failed, they called on the British to auction off half of their gold reserves.