Robin Bromby From: The Australian December 28, 2010 12:15PM
IT'S low-key so far, but China's move into gold projects is gathering pace.
As Pure Speculation has remarked previously, the global grab of commodities now being orchestrated from Beijing did not, until recently, include one commodity close to our heart.
But in the past 12 months, Chinese interests have started to quietly pick up gold projects and assets around the world, indicating that Beijing - like so many other investors - is anxious to convert its piles of paper money into something a little more capble of holdings its value. China's gold imports have already risen dramatically in 2010 and the need for more of the yellow metal will be needed as retail investors there go for the ultimate form of money and Beijing (no doubt) quietly increases its official reserves of the metal.
Until last Tuesday, Synergy Metals was one of those penny dreadfuls that rarely attract a second glance. But it was ripe for the picking at just 0.07c, and that is where Northwest Nonferrous International Investment Co saw a fitting place for a lazy $12.6 million.
This Xian-based offshoot of Shaanxi province's geological bureau will, after the deal is bedded down and free attaching options exercised, own 51 per cent of SML. This hitherto ignored junior is based at Bairnsdale, Victoria, and has tenements in East Gippsland which include historic gold workings at Glen Willis and Sunnyside which, between 1888 and the 1960s, produced 235,000oz of gold at grades above 15 grams/tonne.
In a separate move on Christmas Eve, Hong Kong institutions were among those taking up a $2.18m placement in Drake Resources. While this company has its more developed project in the copper-zinc ground at Bergslagen in Sweden, we can't help suspecting that these Hong Kong investors were possibly more interest in the ground held in Mauritania. Drake is about to start exploration in an area of that West African country which also hosts the 12 million ounce Tasiast gold deposit.
