Ann: Trading Halt, page-6

With the connections Shandong has back in Beijing, perhaps they got the word China will announce their real gold holdings in the future so get mining. China's official holdings do not include all the holdings scattered around in "unofficial" places. Maybe smart money (usually means people who spend time having chats in coffee shops) knew at the start of the year and have been the cause for buying.

The other option of low probability is they sell tenements for $90m or the equivalent of and give everyone 50c equivalent , then clear out of town.

Its not as if they can announce they are not mining.

My opinion for a while is the FML are the canary. They have lost so much so when they re-start it will be because of other knowledge and Beijing looks after their mates in the gold business.

Repricing gold will be in many nations interest, India, Italy, Venuzuela and Greece to name a few.

"...gross official sector sales declined by 55 percent last year (2017), to the lowest since 2014, indicating that central banks are happy to keep their reserves in gold, historically viewed as a safe-haven asset"

The dumb-wits in Treasury who should be lined up and shot and buried at sea left Australia had 72 tonnes but seems to have sold 3.5 tonnes recently.

The table below shows that GDP/tonnes of gold held, where lower is better, plenty of gold to cover their GDP.

It breaks into interesting parts.

At the top are those who are rich stable, those who are much less stable and cover themselves with having plenty of gold coverage. Beneath them are either the completely gormless and sanguine types like Canada and Australia, or countries with barely an economy. Australia is 57. Look where Europeans are.

Interesting is Russia and China. For China is to get USA equiv, then they need an announcement of 2.77x increase to amazingly, about 5,182 tonnes. Many people have been talking about them having 5,000 tonnes as long ago as 2012 (from memory). China is the worlds largest gold producer and they do not export any. 426 tonnes mined per year. Accumulating for the last 8 years they would be at 5,000 tonnes.

Go figure for yourself.

Another interesting but irrelevant fact - Australia is the second highest holder of silver 89,0000 tonnes after Peru with 93,000 tonnes.

Please, please someone tell Canberra that it is colour that matters not quantity. Either that or some two-up player in treasury is betting silver will rise more than gold. At the current POGOS ratio of about 80, then the silver is worth about 1,000 tonnes of gold. Whats the plan during a POS rise? Covert to Gold? Converting the silver to gold puts Australia near the top with Taiwan. Is there method in the madness?