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ECB simultaneously confirms and denies currency intervention
4:45p ET Monday, April 19, 2010
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
The Reuters story appended here is typical of both Western central banking and mainstream financial press reporting and particularly of reporting about gold, insofar as the story blandly quotes the European Central Bank as asserting that it did not intervene in the currency markets in 2009 even as the story prominently describes a currency intervention acknowledged by the bank.
That is, the story leads with the ECB's acknowledgement that it traded 35.5 tonnes of gold for dollars in 2009 in the name of "liquidity, security, and return."
Then the story quotes the bank as having "also confirmed it had not intervened in currency markets in 2009."
But whenever a central bank exchanges gold for a currency, that is by definition a currency market intervention.
The ECB can call this portfolio rebalancing, just as the Bank of England tried to rationalize its own gold sales starting in 1999, but the effect is undeniable even if the intent is not admitted: to support the dollar and suppress gold.
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
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ECB Invested 2009 Gold Sale Proceeds in U.S. Dollars
By Sakari Suoninen
Reuters
via Interactive Investor, London
Monday, April 19, 2010
http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=7848254&subject=econom...
FRANKFURT, Germany -- The European Central Bank used the proceeds from gold sales to boost its U.S. dollar reserves in 2009, helping lift the dollar holdings share of overall currency reserves, the bank said on Monday.
The share of the currency portfolio denominated in dollars rose to 78.5 percent from 77.5 percent in 2008, while the yen's share fell to 21.5 percent from 22.5 percent in 2008.
"During 2009 the ECB sold 35.5 tonnes of gold in total. The proceeds of the gold sales were added to the U.S. dollar portfolio," the central bank said in its 2009 annual report.
... Dispatch continues below ...
Prophecy Resource Corp. Appoints Rob McEwen to Advisory Board
Prophecy Resource Corp. (TSX.V: PCY, OTC: PCYRF) is pleased to announce the appointment of Rob McEwen to the company's Advisory Board. McEwen is a leading Canadian mining industry entrepreneur. He is the chairman and CEO of U.S. Gold Corp. and Minera Andes Inc. McEwen was the founder and former chairman and CEO of Goldcorp Inc., whose Red Lake Mine in northwestern Ontario, Canada, is considered to be the richest gold mine in the world. During his tenure at Goldcorp, McEwen transformed the company from a collection of small companies into a mining powerhouse, growing its market capitalization from $50 million to approximately $8 billion.
For Prophecy Resource Corp.'s complete statement:
http://www.prophecyresource.com/news_2010_mar11b.php
The overall value of the ECB's foreign currency portfolio dropped slightly to 38.3 billion euros at the end of last year, compared with 38.5 billion at the end of 2008, it said, citing weakness in the yen and dollar.
"The decrease in the euro value of the foreign currency portfolio, of 0.5 percent, mainly reflected the depreciation of the Japanese yen (by 5.3 percent) and the US dollar (by 3.4 percent) versus the euro over the year," the ECB said.
The ECB said that on a trade-weighted basis, the euro weakened in 2009 by about one percent, reflecting especially a 7 percent depreciation against the British pound during the year.
The ECB also confirmed it had not intervened in currency markets in 2009. The last time it intervened was in 2000.
The overall net value of the ECB's foreign reserves rose to 51 billion euros at the end of 2009 from 49.5 billion at the end of 2008, as capital gains and interest income outweighed depreciation of the yen and the dollar.
Gold and special drawing rights issued by the International Monetary Fund accounted for 12.7 billion euros of net foreign reserves, up from 11 billion euros in 2008 due to a 14 percent rise in the value of both gold and SDRs versus the euro.
"The objectives for the management of the ECB's foreign reserves are, in order of importance, liquidity, security, and return," the annual report said.
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Preliminary Feasibility Study Completed for Seabridge Gold's KSM Project
Study Reports Reserves of 30.2 Million Oz. Gold, 7 Billion Lbs. Copper,
133 Million Oz Silver, 210 Million Lbs. Molybdenum
Base Case Life of Mine Cash Operating Costs Estimated at $144/oz. Gold Produced
(Net of Base Metal Credits)
Toronto -- Seabridge Gold Inc. has announced results from a National Instrument 43-101 compliant preliminary feasibility study of its 100-percent owned KSM project in northern British Columbia, Canada. The study was prepared by Wardrop, a Tetra Tech company, a major international engineering and consulting firm.
Seabridge President and CEO Rudi Fronk says, "The study confirms that the KSM project now hosts the largest gold reserve in Canada and one of the largest in the world. KSM is projected to provide an extraordinary mine life of more than 35 years with estimated cash operating costs well below the current average of the major gold producers. Estimated capital costs are in line with those of comparable, large-scale, undeveloped gold-copper projects and KSM has the advantage of being located in a low-risk jurisdiction."
For the complete Seabridge Gold statement:
http://www.seabridgegold.net/readmore.php?newsid=283
