A campaign to restore sound money in New Hampshire

8:26p ET Friday, February 13, 2004

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

MineWeb's Tim Wood has an interesting account of
Barrick Gold's comments today about reductions in
its huge gold hedge book. Here's an especially
interesting excerpt:

quot;The reductions have been insufficient to stave off
ballooning unrealized losses on the hedge book,
though. It stood at a whopping mark-to-market loss
of $1.725 billion, a 42 percent deterioration from the
third quarter's negative $1.2 billion and 170 percent
worse than for the end of 2002, when the book
recorded negative $639 million. The hedge book
would consume almost twice Barrick's end-of-year
cash holdings.quot;

You can find the MineWeb story here:

a href=http://trinity.mips1.net/MGGold.nsf/UNID/TWOD-5W5NVX?OpenDocumenthttp://...

Or try this abbreviated link:

a href=http://shmyl.com/pozhttp://shmyl.com/poz/a

Then there is the Reuters story below reporting a
substantial decline in gold hedging by producers
generally. So where is gold selling like today's
coming from?

On a day when the news was explosively bad for
the dollar and good for gold, surreptitious and
desperate intervention by official sources has to
be suspected. But don't be too upset, for the
market riggers are becoming so blatant and
obvious that the rigging is losing its utility.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

* * *

Gold hedges fall 2.2 million ounces
in fourth quarter, GFMS says

a href=http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNewsamp;storyID=4351216...

SYDNEY, Feb. 13 (Reuters) -- Gold hedges declined by
about 2.2 million ounces worldwide in the fourth quarter,
metals consultancy Gold Fields Minerals Services Ltd
said on Friday.

A global gold hedge book analysis produced by
consultants GFMS on behalf of Investec, the international
specialist banking group, says hedges at the end of 2003
stood at just over 69 million ounces .

The position represented a decline of roughly 2.2 million
ounces from the three months ended September 30 and
a 10 million ounce drop from the year-earlier month, GFMS
said.

The findings suggest that the bulk of the fall in the fourth
quarter was a result of a decline in forward contracts, it
said.

Forward sales hedging involves selling yet-to-be-mined
nuggets at a preset price. The tactics protect miners when
prices fall, but can limit revenue or force holders to buy
high and sell low when gold goes up.

Spot gold was fetching around $412 an ounce in Asian
markets on Friday. In January, the metal reached a
15-year peak of $430.50 an ounce.

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----------------------------------------------------

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----------------------------------------------------

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