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Kazakhstan to put 20% of its foreign currency reserves into gold
By Raushan Nurshayeva
Reuters
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/13/gold-kazakhstan-idUSL5E8HD0W82...
ASTANA, Kzaakhstan -- Kazakhstan's central bank plans to boost the share of gold in its gold and foreign currency reserves to 20 percent from 14-15 percent, deputy bank chairman Bisengali Tadzhiyakov said on Wednesday.
Tadzhiyakov, who gave no time frame for the move, said last week Kazakhstan planned to buy 22 tonnes of gold from local producers, which at that time he estimated would boost the share of the metal in the reserves to 15 percent from about 12 percent.
"We will buy from Kazzinc Corp. 20 tonnes (of gold) in 2012, and a further 4.5 tonnes from Kazakhmys," he told journalists on Wednesday, reading out updated figures from his report prepared for presentation in parliament. "The total volume is 24.5 tonnes."
The central bank also announced last week that it would cut its holdings in the ailing euro currency to 25 percent from 30 percent.
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Prophecy Platinum (TSXV:NKL) Announces Encouraging Rhodium, Ruthenium, Osmium,
Iridium Assays from WS11-188 of Wellgreen Project in Yukon Territory, Canada
Company Press Release
May 25, 2012
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada -- Prophecy Platinum Corp. (TSX-V: NKL; OTC-QX: PNIKF; Frankfurt: P94P) is pleased to provide results of full spectrum 6E (Platinum, Palladian, Rhodium, Ruthenium, Osmium, and Iridium) analysis of platinum group elements on the first batch of samples from the company's wholly-owned Wellgreen PGM-Ni-Cu project in the Yukon Territory, Canada.
The company enlisted Activation Laboratories (Actlabs) of Ancaster, Ontario, to conduct a full-spectrum 6E analysis of samples taken from the 2011 drill hole WS11-188. Adding Rh, Ru, Os, and Ir to Pt and Pd increased the total PGE content (6E) by an average of 28 percent, based on a population of 90 samples, most of which are from disseminated sulphide-type mineralization.
Assay results with 6E exceeding 0.50 ppm (0.5 g/t) (excluding copper and gold assays) are tabulated at Prophecy's Internet site and are available with assay results from the entire batch of 90 samples here:
http://prophecyplat.com/news_2012_may25_prophecy_platinum_announces_rare...
Former Soviet Kazakhstan is one of a number of countries, including Russia, Mexico, Colombia, and South Korea, that have built up their official gold holdings in recent years.
Most buying has been seen from Asian and emerging-market central banks, which typically hold a smaller proportion of their currency reserves in bullion than developed economies.
Official-sector gold purchases rose to their highest since the mid-1960s last year, metals consultancy GFMS has said, largely as developing countries diversified their foreign exchange holdings in response to the sovereign debt crisis.
Only one refinery in Kazakhstan, operated by Glencore-owned miner Kazzinc in the east of the country, refines ingot to international standards. Copper miner Kazakhmys refines gold at another plant to meet domestic standards.
The central bank currently purchases all of the gold produced in Kazakhstan. The country's net gold and foreign currency reserves totaled $33.8 billion at the end of May, 17 percent more than at the end of last year.
"Earlier we had between 7 percent and 9 percent (of gold) in the structure of our reserves. Today it's already 14 or even almost 15 percent," Tadzhiyakov said.
"In line with our concept, we plan to raise (the gold share) to 20 percent," he said, giving no time frame for the increase. "Our task for the time being is not to push away our gold producers. We keep buying."
Tadzhiyakov said the central bank had bought 5.3 tonnes of gold last year. He said the bank had purchased another 10.3 tonnes since the start of 2012.
Kazakhstan's refined gold output totaled 16.6 tonnes in 2011, data published by the State Statistics Agency show.
Kazakh central bank governor Grigory Marchenko told reporters last week that the bank had amassed more than 100 tonnes of gold in its reserves.
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Sona Discovers Potential High-Grade Gold Mineralization
at Blackdome in British Columbia -- 13.6g over 1.5 Meters
From a Company Press Release
November 22, 2011
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- With its latest surface diamond drilling program at its 100-percent-owned, formerly producing Blackdome gold mine in southern British Columbia, Sona Resources Corp. has discovered a potentially high-grade gold-mineralized area, with one hole intersecting 13.6 grams of gold in 1.5 meters of core drilling.
"We intersected a promising new mineralized zone, and we feel optimistic about the assay results," says Sona's president and CEO, John P. Thompson. "We have undertaken an aggressive exploration program that has tested a number of target zones. Our discovery of this new gold-bearing structure is significant, and it represents a positive development for the company."
Sona aims to bring its permitted Blackdome mill back into production over the next year and a half, at a rate of 200 tonnes per day, with feed from the formerly producing Blackdome mine and the nearby Elizabeth gold deposit property. A positive preliminary economic assessment by Micon International Ltd., based on a gold price of $950 per ounce over eight years, has estimated a cash cost of $208 per tonne milled, or $686 per gold ounce recovered.
For the company's complete press release, please visit:
http://www.sonaresources.com/_resources/news/SONA_NR18_2011-opt.pdf
