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Bank of England expected to launch L50 billion QE
By Angela Monaghan
The Telegraph, London
Saturday, June 30, 2012
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/9367178/MPC-expected-to-lau...
The Bank of England is poised to pump L50 billion of fresh stimulus into the ailing economy in a bid to drive Britain out of recession.
The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is expected to vote for more bond purchases through quantitative easing (QE) when it makes its monthly decision on Thursday.
It would take the total spent under the programme to L375 billion.
Additional stimulus would come against a backdrop of a recession in Britain that is deeper than initially thought, a eurozone debt crisis that continues, and falling inflation.
... Dispatch continues below ...
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
Michael Saunders, economist at Citigroup, said: "We expect the MPC will restart QE at the upcoming meeting, in reaction to the persistent weakness of the UK economy, easing inflation worries, and ongoing European Monetary Union crisis."
The latest economic indicators suggest the economy may have contracted for a third successive quarter between April and June, having shrunk by 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 and by 0.3 percent in the first quarter of this year.
Philip Shaw, economist at Investec, said: "Domestically, the official numbers cast some doubt as to whether the economy has begun to expand again, following two quarters of contraction. Meanwhile, signs of a slowdown elsewhere in the world have intensified."
The case for more QE has also been strengthened by inflation, which fell to a 2 1/2-year low of 2.8 percent in May from 3 percent in April. Inflation has steadily fallen over recent months, after peaking at 5.2 percent in September last year.
Minutes of the June MPC meeting revealed growing support for more QE, with four out of the nine members voting in favour. While it was not enough to secure a majority, it represented a key shift and suggested the committee was moving closer to a collective view that the economy is in need of more stimulus. The Bank's Governor, Sir Mervyn King, was among those voting for further asset purchases.
While the Government presses ahead with its austerity plan in order to reduce the deficit, there is little scope for a fiscal boost to the economy.
Monetary policy is already unprecedentedly "loose," with interest rates at an all-time low of 0.5 percent since March 2009, and QE at L325 billion.
The MPC has always said that it is ready to expand QE when necessary. Economists at Citigroup predict that QE will ultimately be expanded to a total of L500 billion. Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, said in May that the Bank should considering lowering interest rates as well as more QE to support the economy.
The British Chambers of Commerce believes more QE "may prove to be counterproductive" by stoking inflation.
David Kern, the BCC's chief economist, said: "Adding to QE is not a risk-free policy, as it will limit the decline in inflation at a time when it is important for it to fall. This will be the most important single factor likely to underpin real incomes and boost demand in the UK economy."
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Prophecy Platinum Announces Wellgreen Preliminary Economic Assessment:
38% Pre-Tax IRR, $3.0 Billion NPV, and a 37-Year Mine Life
Company Press Release
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada -- Prophecy Platinum Corp. (TSX-V: NKL, OTC-QX: PNIKF, Frankfurt: P94P) reports the results of an independent NI 43-101-compliant preliminary economic assessment for its fully owned Wellgreen nickel-copper-platinum group metals project in the Yukon Territory.
The independent assessment, prepared by Tetra Tech, evaluated a base case of an open-pit mine (with a mining rate of 111,500 tonnes per day), an on-site concentrator (with a milling rate of 32,000 tonnes per day), and an initial capital cost of $863 million. The project is expected to produce (in concentrate) 1.959 billion pounds of nickel, 2.058 billion pounds of copper, and 7.119 million ounces of platinum, palladium, and gold during a mine life of 37 years with an average strip ratio of 2.57.
The financial highlights of the preliminary economic assessment, shown in U.S. dollars, are as follows:
Payback period: 3.55 years
Initial capital investment: $863 million
IRR pre-tax (100% equity): 38 percent
NPV pre-tax (8% discount): $3 billion
Mine life: 37 years
Total mill feed: 405.3 million tonnes
Mill throughput: 32,000 tonnes per day
Prophecy Chairman John Lee says: "We are pleased with the preliminary economic assessment results. The numbers indicate that Wellgreen is one of most exciting mineral projects in the Yukon. The company is drilling to upgrade and expand the resource base. The infrastructure is excellent as the project is only 1,400 meters in altitude and 14 kilometers from the paved Alaska Highway, which leads to the Haines deep seaport. Discussions are under way with support from local stakeholders regarding permitting and logistics."
For the complete press release, please visit:
http://prophecyplat.com/news_2012_june18_prophecy_platinum_announces_res...
