RE:RE:News A good broad brush stroke and I would tend to agree. But there is a lot more to the story. Starting off with this header: Gold shortage, worst in 21st century sends 1 year GOFO to lowest ever...and India just made it worse.
It has been almost two years ago when I remarked that we could safely abandon gold juniors as a worthy investment until the middle of 2015. Well, we are almost back to the point when we should be thinking about starting to do our due diligence into junior gold companies. Key questions should be: money in the bank, has the production question been both raised and progressed to actual production planning. Grade of gold is crucial as the economics will need to be guaranteed. Reason: even if gold 'soars' back to $1300-$1400 an ounce, the cost of mining some of the low grade projects can in no way guarantee a solid bottom line for many. It is for that reason, GRR should be near the top of anyone's due diligence list. Strong financing, great location and enough high-grade gold near surface to make the project shine.
And it is a big deal that India just cancelled their 80-20 punitive gold law. When it comes to Indian gold consumption, the smugglers are having a field day. As a result, no one really knows how much physical gold the Indian people are swallowing - but it is definitely way more than the 'official' number of tonnes. Ditto with China - the world's black hole when it comes to physical gold. Russia is also on the buy and has added gold tonnes to their reserves each and every month. Sooner rather than later there will be a day of accounting and reckoning. And once that happens, gold juniors will again be the flavour of the day.