MINING MARKETS & INVESTMENT NEWS — U.S. MARKETS — Slumping gold sinks producers

The Dow Jones industrial average posted a new high of 11,175.02 for the July 7-13 report period, with a modest climb of 39.9 points, or 0.4%.

Gold companies edged downward as the price slumped to new lows of US$256.70 on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange;

Battle Mountain Gold dropped to a low of US$2.12 on the New York Stock Exchange, down 13 cents; Ghana’s Ashanti Goldfields edged closer to new lows, falling 44 cents to close at US$5.94; Anglogold shed 63 cents to close

at US$19.75; while Newmont Mining was down 13 cents to US$17.81 in heavy trading.

Among the smaller companies, Meridian Gold slid 50 cents to US$4.19, while Glamis Gold slipped 6 cents to US$1.75. Royal Gold lost $1.06 to close at US$3.56 on Nasdaq trading.

Copper miners were mixed as the Comex spot price of the red metal remained steady at US76 cents per lb. Phelps Dodge gained 81 cents to finish the

week at US$64.75. The company reported a net loss of US$57.5 million (or 99 cents per share) for the second quarter, after cutting production the previous week. Asarco picked up 38 cents to close at US$19.19, while Southern Peru Copper declined 88 cents to US$13.81.

Silver producers were hit by weakness in that metal. American Stock Exchange-listed Apex Silver Mines lost 69 cents to close at US$11.06, while New York-listed Coeur d’Alene Mines dipped 13 cents to US$4.12.

De Beers Consolidated Mines added 94 cents to close at US$25.50 on Nasdaq trading, while Stillwater Mining slid for the second week. The company lost $2.88 to close at US$27.50 after announcing that second-quarter production would be less than anticipated.