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Opposing Paul's audit bill, Bernanke guards secret transactions with foreign banks
Like the transactions at issue in GATA's freedom-of-information lawsuit against the Fed:
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Audit the Fed? Bernanke Fights Back against Ron Paul
By Annalyn Censky
CNN Money
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/18/news/economy/fed-bernanke-ron-paul/index...
NEW YORK -- In what is likely to be the last showdown between Ron Paul and Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman once again fought back against the congressman's calls to audit the Federal Reserve.
Rep. Paul, a Republican from Texas and author of "End the Fed," has been trying for years to pass a law that would give Congress the ability to examine the central bank's decision-making process.
Now he's closer than ever before, after his colleagues voted last month to finally take up his bill on the House floor. The vote is expected to happen next week.
It's important, though, not to confuse the aim of the bill with a financial audit. The Federal Reserve's finances are already audited every year by an independent accounting firm. (Last year it was Deloitte and Touche.) The central bank also publishes its balance sheet every Thursday online.
... 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
Instead, what Paul is aiming for is a full investigation of the way the Fed determines monetary policy.
Those deliberations currently take place behind closed doors. Minutes are released with a three-week lag, and full transcripts are published only five years after the fact.
Bernanke, speaking at a hearing about the economy and monetary policy Wednesday, said he prefers to keep it that way to protect the Fed's independence. Having Congressional investigators in the room could "create a political influence" and have a "chilling effect," the chairman said.
Bernanke said he could envision a "nightmare scenario" where Congress would disagree with a Fed decision on interest rates and try to get other agencies, such as the Government Accountability Office, to review it.
Current law also protects the Federal Reserve from audits that reveal transactions with foreign central banks and governments, the reserves of its member banks, and discussions among its employees about these issues.
Reforming or even abolishing the Fed has been one of Paul's top priorities. But Paul, who has served more than 24 years in Congress, has indicated he plans to retire when his current term ends later this year. One of his colleagues even joked about Paul's battles with Bernanke.
"His leadership on the committee, especially during these hearings when we've had the Federal Reserve chairman up here before us, have certainly made the hearings more interesting and provided several memorable YouTube moments," Rep. Spencer Bachus said.
In the remainder of the hearing Wednesday, Bernanke reiterated his gloomy outlook for the economy and urged lawmakers to act now to boost growth and the job market in particular. Much of his testimony echoed similar comments before the Senate Banking committee a day earlier.
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Join GATA here:
Toronto Resource Investment Conference
Thursday-Friday, September 27-28, 2012
Toronto Sheraton Centre Hotel
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
http://www.cambridgehouse.com/event/toronto-resource-investment-conference
New Orleans Investment Conference
Wednesday-Saturday, October 24-27, 2012
Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel
New Orleans, Louisiana
http://www.neworleansconference.com/
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http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal
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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...
