The report period Jan. 28-Feb. 3 may have been more remarkable for what didn’t happen than for what did. Reaction to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee dominated the U.S. equity markets on Jan. 28, but the markets moved sideways after that very mild correction. The S&P 500 index fell 8.02 points to 1,136.03 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 104.74 points at 10,505.18.
Apex Silver was off US49 at US$20.10, having closed a well-timed 8.1-million-share offering for net proceeds of around US$161 million. Apex plans to use the bulk of the money for development work at the San Cristobal silver project in Bolivia, where a reserve of 218 million tonnes grading 64.6 grams silver per tonne, with 1.67% zinc and 0.59% lead, has been outlined. Feasibility studies in 1999 estimated the capital cost of an open-pit mine and mill at San Cristobal at US$413 million.
The big gold miners paid for the decline in the bullion price. Newmont Mining was off US$1.01 at US$41.50, while Gold Fields was off a dollar at US$12.70. AngloGold was down only US16 at US$41.56 and Ashanti Goldfields actually rose US6 to US$11.81, after European Union regulators gave the go-ahead to the two companies’ merger plans.
Many in the middle tier of gold producers took harder hits, including Durban Roodepoort Deeps, which was off US33 at US$3.34, and Randgold Resources, which slipped US$3.42 to US$20.72. Minas Buenaventura did better than most, backing up only a quarter to US$25.26, and Hecla Mining fell only US11 to US$7.74.
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