GATA plans Africa Gold Conference to expose manipulation

Bright future for gold
helps N. American producers

TORONTO, Feb. 23 (Reuters) -- The belief that gold is
heading above $300 and that a fresh round of
restrictions was in the works on selling gold from
central bank reserves helped North American gold miners
to a strong showing on Friday.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's gold and precious minerals
index, which includes some of the world's top gold
companies, was up more than 3.7 percent in afternoon
trading, while the overall market was down 1.3 percent.

The sudden interest in gold mining stocks is based on
the belief that gold, which has been under pressure in
recent months, is pulling itself out of the doldrums as
the supply/demand curve moves back in favor of the
yellow metal.

Gold, which trades in a 52-week range of $252.80 to
$326.25 an ounce in London, closed at $260.30 an ounce
on Friday.

quot;There is a belief that we are yet again
heading for that the $285 to $300 an ounce area, which
would be good,quot; said John Ing, president of Maison
Placements Canada, in Toronto.

Ing also said there were rumors that a number of
central banks were poised to enact another gold accord,
limiting the amount of bullion they could sell.

quot;I don't think it would be bad that we have another
accord,quot; Ing said. quot;What that does is remove gold from
the market.quot;

When the central banks last agreed to limit sales, in
September 1999, gold climbed to about $328 an ounce
from around $255.

Bullion was also helped by the financial and political
crisis in Turkey. Turkey abandoned its policy of
pegging its currency against the dollar this week, and
the lira went into free-fall, reaching rates under one
million to the dollar.

quot;Turkey is a big consumer of gold and there is belief
that demand for gold came from that country because of
the devaluation,quot; Ing said.