confident, page-21

Bit of a story in AFR touting gold stock are due for consolidation and cash strapped shows with good assets may be the first off the block.

"The bank balances of Australian-listed goldminers increased by about 11?per cent from a year ago to $2.28?billion, according to data complied by The Australian Financial Review from Bloomberg.

In contrast, the cash holdings of the sector excluding gold players actually fell by close to 30?per cent to $21.1?billion.

Gold producers are generating robust amounts of cash despite the spot gold price crashing 18?per cent to $US1575 an ounce since it hit a record high of $US1921 an ounce in September last year.

Most gold producers have cash costs that are half of where the gold price is trading, have relatively low capital expenditure requirements and are unhedged.

Their enviable positioning has left management teams with a dilemma of what is the best place to spend given that the sector doesn’t have a tradition of paying good dividends."

for a variety reasons they conclude that

"This means emerging gold producers that are low on cash with promising projects and large capital expenditure requirements will make more likely targets."

Unfortunately we dont crack a mention.