New York spot gold closed up $3.40 to $1,550.60 Wednesday, after the United States Federal Reserve ended its meeting as expected. The Fed plans to end its second round of money printing on June 30, and keep interest rates low. The benchmark interest rate has stayed at zero to 0.25 per cent since December, 2008. In Canada, the loonie fell against the greenback, the TSX Venture Exchange gained 23 points to 1,935 and the TSX Gold Index rose five points to 369.
Most major gold miners in Canada rose slightly, such as
Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX), which added 60 cents to $43.56 on 4.72 million shares, and
Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. (AEM), which added 12 cents to $63.75 on 1.46 million shares. However,
Iamgold Corp. (IMG), dropped 35 cents to $19 on 8.53 million shares as the company sold its 18.9-per-cent interest in the Tarkwa and Damang gold mines in Ghana to
Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI: $14.54). In exchange for the interest Iamgold received $667-million cash, which it plans to use developing its wholly owned projects. The company arranged the sale in April, reducing its 2011 gold production target by 46,000 ounces.
Ferdi Dippenaar's
Great Basin Gold Ltd. (GBG) jumped 19 cents to $2.01 on an unusually high volume of 11.7 million shares. Today a tout site, Sellpennystocks.com, included Great Basin in its "hot stock" picks of the day. The site provided no reasons for its recommendation. The other "hot pick" was
Vitacostcom Inc. (VITC), which rose 40 cents to $4.15 on 700,000 shares. Vitacostcom sells health products on-line. Sellpennystocks.com says little about itself on its site. It has been offering two stock picks daily, since January, most of which are on the OTC Bulletin Board.
Great Basin's president Dippenaar (who received a handsome $848,500 in salary and bonuses last year) spends much time travelling to promote the company. This year, he has already made stops in Zambia, Cape Town, Florida, New York, London and Zurich. Last week he was in both Geneva and Zurich, and on Friday he will return to South Africa where he is hosting a site visit at the Burnstone mine. Burnstone produced its first 5,500 ounces of gold in the first quarter. Great Basin's other producing gold mine is Hollister in Nevada, which mined 17,000 ounces. The company hopes to mine 110,000 ounces of gold this year.
Harry Miller's
Clifton Star Resources Inc. (CFO) rose 23 cents to $2.77 on 283,000 shares. Today the company began planning a drill program for its now-100-per-cent-owned Duparquet project in Quebec. Duparquet was a joint venture operated by
Osisko Mining Corp. (OSK: $14.92) until last Friday, when Osisko dropped the option. It had budgeted $16.6-million on 130,000 metres of drilling there this year. Clifton will now have to make do with its $15-million in working capital. The project has not been drilled since last summer, because the partners were waiting for a resource estimate. The estimate, 2.77 million ounces of gold inferred, arrived on June 13, sending Clifton's stock down 35 cents to $2.62. By last Friday, the stock had fallen another 50 cents to $2.13, as the company confirmed rumours Osisko was pulling out of Duparquet. Chief executive officer Miller's 1.19 million Clifton shares fell by about $1-million value. He will step down as CEO on Dec. 31, 2011, "preferring a different role with the company." For lazy slugs looking forward to retiring at 65, drawing their old-age pensions and being a drain on society, check out Clifton Star's Mr. Miller. He is 75 and received $168,000 as management fees from Clifton last year. He also made a quick $562,000 profit by exercising 200,000 stock options at $2.50 and selling them at $5.31. A productive pensioner is he.
Meanwhile, Osisko has reached commercial production at its Malartic mine in Quebec. Last month the company invited 1,100 mining types from across Canada to the mine for an "inauguration" party. It started with a rock-blast, after which the company poured a gold bar. Then there was a catered lunch and lots of speeches. One of the lucky attendees was Vancouver-Russian promoter Cary Pinkowski of
Astur Gold Corp. (AST: $1.67). Osisko's president, Sean Roosen, is also an Astur director. At the party, Mr. Pinkowski, 40, and his beautiful blonde Russian wife, 24, who does corporate development for Astur, took several pictures of mining equipment during the day, and at night smoked cigars while handling a gold bar labelled "Osisko."
John Proust's
Southern Arc Minerals Inc. (SA) added six cents to $1.95 on 321,400 shares. The company has a joint venture with Newcrest Mining Ltd. on its Taliwang property, and another with Vale SA on the Sabalong and East Elang properties, all in Indonesia. New mining laws enacted in the country in 2009 have caused various permitting delays for Southern Arc. In response, it has hired three lobbyist-types it calls Indonesian-affairs advisers: Malcolm Baillie, former director of the Indonesian Mining Association, Robert Parsons, former board member of the Indonesia Canada Chamber of Commerce, and Dr. Alwi Shihab, Special Envoy of the President of Indonesia to the Middle East. Dr. Shihab's main task as special envoy is to protect the diplomatic and trade relations between Indonesia and Egypt. He studied in Cairo and Philadelphia, has three children, and, like many, claims he is a descendant of the polygamous procreating marvel, the prophet Muhammad.
Adding to Southern Arc's Middle Eastern connection is yesterday's completion of an $18.14-million private placement of shares with the Qatar state mining company's subsidiary, Tadeen Cyprus Holdings Ltd. News of the financing helped the stock add 20 cents to $1.89. Tadeen Cyprus now holds 10.67 million shares or 9.99 per cent of Southern Arc, and it is nominating one of its directors, Mohammed Al-Shahwani, to Southern Arc's board. Mr. Al-Shahwani is confident for the company, partly because of the big-name JV partners. Investors are pleased for the same reason; Southern Arc is up from about 70 cents in 2010 because of the JV with Vale.
While waiting for the Indonesian permitting fog to clear, Southern Arc is focusing on its corporate social responsibility twaddle, "socialization at village and subdistrict levels," particularly for its main property, West Lombok, which was attacked by artisanal miners last month. There is no word yet on when the company will resume drilling at the property, although Southern Arc continues pandering to the locals, saying it plans to hire many of them for its projects.
Ian Foreman's
Yale Resources Ltd. (YLL) added half a cent to 6.5 cents on 447,900 shares. The company, which is off a 52-week high of 14.5 cents, is trying to attract European investors. With the stock trading at four euro cents on the dubious Frankfurt Stock Exchange, they may not be any more interested than North American investors. Mr. Foreman escaped 2010 without raising much money at dilutive prices. In a news release summing up a "successful 2010," he said that if the company had no JV partners it would have needed to issue over 18 million shares to perform the amount of exploration done by its partners. He also said that the company's current $570,308 working capital is enough for its projects. (The company's financial statements bear a caution stating that the same $570,308 amount "is not sufficient" for operating and exploration expenses, and equity financing is necessary.) Last year the company was unable to meet a $565,000 obligation for its La Verde property, and it is hoping to modify the agreement for the third time since 2007. It is looking for an optionee for the property and may have to write it off