RE: Response from Chris ....David,
Yes, a lot people are attracted to Au/Ag recently. However, the article is kind of pushing this a bit too far
It is true that German banks used to sell Au/Ag and gave up some time ago, since it appeared to be not profitable enough – and probably still is not! With the recent crisis initiated by the real estate disaster in the US, some people were feeling more secure with metals I guess, but still even in the article they talk about a business with 100 Mio. € a year at best in Germany. Hence, the vast majority of the money is still some place else – at least this is how I think about this!
The ECB is doing a great job and the € appears pretty stable. The European economy to my understanding is doing quite okay over recent years and the German economy – after quite some rough years on the employment rates linked to our economical struggling with the reunification – is doing excellent – we export more than ever!
Nonetheless, gold is interesting, but personally I favour technologically relevant metals, in particular moly and Ta/Ni, maybe some Uranium although there we have to wait another two years – would be my guess.
If and how this affects Ta prices … Well to my understanding, Ta prices are negotiated between the people digging it out of the earth and the processors. As long as the price for Ta can be kept at a reasonable level it remains the first choice for quite some high end applications, since technologically it provides the best parameters. This I guess is where CCE comes in, since it could replace SOG being the main provider at present and presumably will ensure a stable price for Ta over decades ... agree on this?
Of course I am not an expert … as you for sure have noticed
… however for me and several other people in the German boards, CCE could be the next Blue Pearl … (TCM) and I guess no one can stop this if the mgmt is continuing to get their stuff together as they did in the past!
Let’s see how things turn out after the resource update and the TIC meeting. My guess is that there is something in the pipe with Starck!
Best,
C.