I read about this company in an article in The Australian recently there is some useful free information on some of the Australian Gold Companies. They have only just started researching gold companies after specialising in Uranium. It is called Resource Capital Research - here is the link to both:
No let-up in the demand for gold Print Robin Bromby | February 18, 2008
SOMETIMES it pays to take a step back and look at the big picture - especially now that so many sectors are being knocked about. With property companies and banks being in the news for all the wrong reasons, investors can apparently still look to the resources sector for assurance.
One big factor is what is happening in South Africa. Platinum has gone to a new record high of over $US2000 an ounce as that country's producers are hit hard by power shortages.
Eskom, South Africa's state-run electricity company, now says that mines and smelters may have to do with just 90 per cent of their normal power requirements right through until 2012.
AngloGold has warned its gold output will be down 7 per cent this year - that's 400,000oz that won't be coming out of the ground. This came after Gold Fields said its production could be down by 20 per cent.
Sydney outfit Resource Capital Research has been carving out a business reporting on the uranium companies and has now diversified into gold. Its new report rehearses the now-familiar reasons why gold is heading to $US1000 an ounce - record oil prices, unrest in the Middle East, the sub-prime slime, declining US dollar and lower interest rates, all increasing demand for gold as a safe investment.
But it does have some interesting points to make on gold production, which has been on a downward trend since 2002. The estimated 2007 global output of 2444 tonnes was down 1 per cent on the previous year.
And hanging over the industry as a whole, says RCR, are the problems of rising capital and operating costs, declining grades at processing plants and fewer and smaller discoveries.
If the power situation isn't bad enough, South African producers are seeing sharp cost increases. Year on year, Harmony Gold reported a 39 per cent rise to $US589/oz in the September quarter and Gold Fields saw a 24 per cent hike to $US435/oz.
The gold price has risen by 100 per cent in three years. You'd search hard to find anyone who expected it to drop significantly in the foreseeable future.
