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Fox News takes Kitco's Ron Paul gold audit story national
9:40p ET Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Congratulations to Kitco News and its reporter Daniela Cambone for having broken last week what this week Fox News made into a national story, the call by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, for a serious audit of U.S. gold reserves. The Fox News story, broadcast and posted today and appended here, is notable for two reasons apart from calling attention to the audit issue.
First, the Fox News story quotes Paul as remarking that the audit should determine not only the simple presence of gold in the U.S. government's vaults at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and elsewhere but also "whether any of it has been obligated."
... Dispatch continues below ...
Prophecy to Become Coal Producer This Year
with 1.5 Billion Tonnes of Resource
Prophecy Resource Corp. (TSX.V: PCY) announced on May 11 that it has entered into a mine services agreement with Leighton Asia Ltd. to begin coal production this year. Production will begin with a 250,000-tonne starter pit as planned in August, with production advancing to 2 million tonnes per year in 2011. Prophecy is fully funded to production and its management team includes John Morganti, Arnold Armstrong, and Rob McEwen.
For Prophecy's complete press release about its production plans, please visit:
http://www.prophecyresource.com/news_2010_may11.php
That is, Paul is fully aware of the Federal Reserve's involvement in gold swaps with foreign banks, an admission made by Fed Governor Kevin M. Warsh a year ago in the course of GATA's litigation against the Fed under the Freedom of Information Act, even as Warsh insisted that the Fed's gold swap arrangements must remain secret:
http://www.gata.org/files/GATAFedResponse-09-17-2009.pdf
And second, the Fox News story is notable for the refusal of the Treasury Department to comment about the gold audit issue: "Representatives from the Treasury Department and U.S. Mint did not respond to requests for comment on Paul's proposal."
Imagine what would happen if mainstream financial news organizations began to put detailed, coherent questions to the Fed and Treasury Department about the disposition of the U.S. gold reserve, the gold swap arrangements, and the overwhelming if obscure public record of Fed, Treasury, and other U.S. government agency interest in suppressing the gold price:
http://www.gata.org/taxonomy/term/21
Already the Treasury Department is clamming up just as the Bank for International Settlements clammed up in July when the Reuters news agency was shamed into pressing the BIS with questions about the unprecedented gold swaps the BIS recently had undertaken surreptitiously:
Practically everyone seriously involved in the financial markets now acknowledges that they're all manipulated all the time by central banks -- except the gold market, which can't quite be talked about candidly yet. But thanks to Kitco News and Fox News, the gold market is another step closer to real journalism.
An introduction and link to the Kitco News story about Paul's proposal can be found here:
Audio of the Kitco News interview with Paul can be found here:
http://www.kitco.com/KitcoNewsVideo/kitco_news.htm
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
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Rep. Paul Calls for Gold Audit, Questions Whether Fort Knox Is Empty
From Fox News, New York
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/31/rep-paul-calls-fort-knox-audi...
There's gold in them thar hills. Or is there?
Texas Rep. Ron Paul, suggesting America's reserves may not be as robust as officials claim, is calling for an independent audit of the U.S. gold held at Fort Knox and other facilities.
The Republican congressman known for his fierce opposition to virtually everything the Federal Reserve does says the public deserves to know what's behind the fortified walls of America's gold vaults -- particularly in case gold is ever reintroduced as a basis for U.S. currency.
"It'd be nice for the American people to know whether or not the gold is there," Paul told Fox Business Network. And if it is all there, he said, the public should know whether any of it has been obligated.
A spokeswoman told FoxNews.com the congressman wants to introduce the bill in September when Congress returns from recess.
Fort Knox claims billions of dollars worth of gold are stored away in its secret vault. The Fort Knox facility, a hyper-secure fortress in Kentucky that is part of quintessential American lore, is encased in 750 tons of reinforced steel, as well as thousands of cubic feet of concrete and granite. No visitors are allowed.
Though Paul no doubt wants a more thorough inspection, the U.S. Mint is subjected to regular audits, including at Fort Knox. The Mint claims gold is removed in "very small quantities" for this purpose alone, and that no other gold has been transferred in or out of the facility for a long time.
The latest audit, conducted by KPMG, did not appear to detail U.S. gold holdings -- dealing more with gold and silver sales, coin circulation, workplace environment, and other issues -- but did state that gold and silver continue to be held at Fort Knox.
Scrutinizing U.S. monetary policy, though, is nothing new for Paul. Last year he pushed on Capitol Hill a bill to audit the Federal Reserve, an effort that ended with a Fed audit provision tucked inside the financial regulation package.
Paul, in an interview last week with industry publication Kitco News, first outlined his next campaign.
He said there is "reason to be suspicious" about U.S. gold holdings and suggested officials were manipulating the price of gold to prop up the perceived value of paper money. Paul said "it is a possibility" that neither Fort Knox nor the New York Federal Reserve vaults have any gold. He also said he will call for the U.S. government to legalize the use of gold and silver as "legal tender" alongside the U.S. dollar. Let them compete, he says.
"If people get tired of using the paper standard, they can deal in gold or silver," he told Kitco News.
Representatives from the Treasury Department and U.S. Mint did not respond to requests for comment on Paul's proposal.
Gold and silver investment has drawn renewed attention amid concerns about the stability of the U.S. dollar. The United States moved away from the gold standard in the early 1970s, but Paul said it's good to know what the United States holds just in case. He warned the U.S. government is setting the stage for a depression by trying to print, spend and regulate its way out of the last recession.
"Who knows? Someday we might want to have a gold standard again and quit all this printing-press money, so it would be nice to know how much we have," Paul said in the interview with Fox Business Network.
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Join GATA here:
Toronto Resource Investment Conference
Saturday-Sunday, September 25-26, 2010
Metro Toronto Convention Center, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
http://www.cambridgeconferences.com/index.php/toronto-resource-investmen...
The Silver Summit
Thursday-Friday, October 21-22, 2010
Davenport Hotel, Spokane, Washington
http://www.silversummit.com/
New Orleans Investment Conference
Wednesday-Saturday, October 27-30, 2010
Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel
http://www.neworleansconference.com/redirect.php?page=index.html&source_...
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http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal
Or a video disc of GATA's 2005 Gold Rush 21 conference in the Yukon:
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Sona Resources Expects Positive Cash Flow from Blackdome,
Plans Aggressive Exploration of Elizabeth Gold Property
On May 18, 2010, Sona Resources Corp. (TSXV: SYS, Frankfurt: QS7) announced the release of a preliminary economic assessment for gold production at its flagship Blackdome and Elizabeth properties in British Columbia.
Sona Executive Chairman Nick Ferris says: "We view this as a baseline scenario for gold production. The project is highly sensitive to the price of gold. A conservative valuation of gold at $1,093 per ounce would result in a pre-tax cash flow of $54 million. The assessment indicates that underground mining at the two sites would recover 183,600 ounces of gold and 62,500 ounces of silver. Permitting and infrastructure are already in place for processing ore at the Blackdome mill, with a 200-tonne per day throughput over an eight-year mine life. Our near-term goal is to continue aggressive exploration at Elizabeth and develop a million-plus-ounce gold resource, commencing production in 2013."
For complete information on Sona Resources Corp. please visit: www.SonaResources.com
