You are here
World Bank chief elaborates: Gold is the 'elephant in the room'
World Bank Chief Says No Gold Standard But Gold's Role Key
By Kevin Lim and Nopporn Wong-Anan
Reuters
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
http://af.reuters.com/article/metalsNews/idAFSGE6A904Z20101110
SINGAPORE -- World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on Wednesday he was not advocating a return to a gold standard for exchange rates but described the metal as "the elephant in the room" that policymakers needed to acknowledge.
Zoellick, who was attending an infrastructure conference organised by the World Bank and the Singapore government, said it was important for nations to look beyond exchange rates and focus on economic fundamentals.
"I don't believe you can return to a fixed exchange rate system and that is the gold standard," he later told the Foreign Correspondents Association. "Markets are already using gold as an alternative monetary asset because confidence is low. ... It is saying we have a problem that needs to be fixed."
... Dispatch continues below ...
Sona Drills 85.4g Gold/Ton Over 4 Metres at Elizabeth Gold Deposit,
Extending the Mineralization of the Southwest Vein on the Property
Company Press Release, October 27, 2010
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Sona Resources Corp. reports on five drillling holes in the third round of assay results from the recently completed drill program at its 100 percent-owned Elizabeth Gold Deposit Property in the Lillooet Mining District of southern British Columbia. Highlights from the diamond drilling include:
-- Hole E10-66 intersected 17.4g gold/ton over 1.54 metres.
-- Hole E10-67 intersected 96.4g gold/ton over 2.5 metres, including one assay interval of 383g of gold/ton over 0.5 metres.
-- Hole E10-69 intersected 85.4g gold/ton over 4.03 metres, including one assay interval of 230g gold/ton over 1 metre.
Four drill holes, E10-66 to E10-69, targeted the southwestern end of the Southwest Vein, and three of the holes have expanded the mineralized zone in that direction. The Southwest Vein gold mineralization has now been intersected over a strike length of 325 metres, with the deepest hole drilled less than 200 metres from surface.
"The assay results from the Southwest Zone quartz vein continue to be extremely positive," says John P. Thompson, Sona's president and CEO. "We are expanding the Southwest Vein, and this high-grade gold mineralization remains wide open down dip and along strike to the southwest."
For the company's full press release, please visit:
http://sonaresources.com/_resources/news/SONA_NR19_2010.pdf
Gold prices have soared to record levels in recent weeks and are currently around $1,400 per ounce.
"There is an elephant in the room and that is what I want people to recognise," Zoellick said.
Zoellick earlier this week surprised financial markets by suggesting that the world's largest nations consider gold as an indicator to help set foreign exchange rates, amid concerns governments and central banks may try to kickstart their economies by devaluing their currencies.
He said on Wednesday: "I'm not advocating a return to the 19th century when money supply was linked to gold."
The former U.S. trade representative, who served in several Republican administrations including Treasury, has said any new system "is likely to need to involve the dollar, the euro, the yen, the pound," and a Chinese yuan "that moves toward internationalisation and then an open capital account."
The idea drew criticism from many policymakers and economists and there was no indication it was on the agenda for the summit of G20 nations later this week.
Many other pivotal issues are besetting economic policymakers attending the meeting, including a global framework for balanced growth and the surge of capital inflows into developing markets.
The G20 groups Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, and the United States.
Zoellick said China was more likely to allow its yuan currency to appreciate, a key demand of the United States, if there could be an agreement on economic fundamentals.
"I have a long-stated belief, that the renminbi should appreciate, that you are more likely to be able to move forward toward appreciation if you get some agreement on some of the underlying economic fundamentals."
The United States has frequently criticised China, saying it deliberately undervalues its currency to boost exports. China says that the United States, via the Fed, is engaged in the same practice.
On the global economic policy debate, Zoellick said: "We have to move away from what sometimes has become a zero-sum debate on rebalancing, which sometimes is described as a shift in aggregate demand as opposed to rebuilding (and) sources of growth.
"If you have healthy global growth, the currency adjustment will be easier."
* * *
Support GATA by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt:
Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009:
http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal
Or a video disc of GATA's 2005 Gold Rush 21 conference in the Yukon:
* * *
Help keep GATA going
GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are
free, and you can subscribe at:
To contribute to GATA, please visit:
http://www.gata.org/node/16
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
