War clouds kill gains

The spectre of war sent the major markets south of the border farther south. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 returned much of the gains gathered in the previous report period. The DJIA slumped 373.62 points over the report period ended Sept. 17 to finish at 8,207.55; the S&P 500 lost 35.93 to settle at 873.52.

The major gold producers put in a mixed performance. On the plus side were: AngloGold, which tacked on $2.01 to get to US$27.26; Ashanti Goldfields, which made 52 to reach US$5.67; and Gold Fields, which advanced 40 to US$13.60.

AngloGold, the world’s second-largest producer of the yellow metal, responded to the improved gold prices of late by extending the life of its Navachab open-pit mine in Namibia by eight years to 2013. During the extra years, mill throughput and production of about 80,000 oz. gold annually will be maintained.

The base metal miners continued to slide hand-in-hand with base metal prices: Alcoa dropped $2.24 to US$21.52; Phelps Dodge shed another $2.51 to US$27.64; Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold carved off another $1.03 to US$13.31; Rio Tinto slipped $2.34 to US$69.26; BHP Billiton, crept up 6 to US$10.34; and Anglo American lost 9 to end at US$11.85.

Chile’s finance minister said U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil will pay Chile US$40-45 million in capital gains taxes for the planned, US$1.3-billion sale of its Disputada de las Condes Limitada copper mine to Anglo American. Still unresolved is the Chilean government’s claim to the right to buy Disputada, via Enami, the state’s mineral company.