Midas on the tide in gold''s favor

10:30p EDT Monday, September 27, 1999

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

What a day -- 21 percent on the XAU! Here's to many
more days like this as the shorts try to locate all the
gold they've sold, without the help of all those central
banks.

And in that hope, you may enjoy this story from
Bloomberg News. A mainstream analyst is predicting
ANOTHER 20 percent rise in gold shares.

Looks like the perception of gold has changed
overnight.

Please post this as seems useful.

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

* * *

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Comments from
David Christensen, a precious-metals analyst at Merrill
Lynch amp; Co. in San Francisco, speaking on the financial
news network CNBC about gold. Prices for the yellow
metal surged 4 percent, its biggest gain in 13 years,
after European central banks pledged to restrict the
sales and lending of bullion that had sent gold to 20
year-lows.

quot;Today's news was the largest fundamental news in the
precious metals market in 10 years.

quot;Gold has declined about $150 an ounce in the last two
years. The biggest impediment to rising gold prices had
been the overhang of potential central bank sales that
investors feared.

quot;Most fundamental news was actually positive for gold.
There was a slowdown in the rate of new mine
production, many mines are uneconomic at the current
price levels, and about 40 percent of world's
production is cash-cost negative.

quot;There's rising demand in Asia, where economies are
improving and now, with the removal of the most
significant overhang, things in the gold market are
beginning to take off.

quot;At Merrill we had $290 an ounce as the average gold
price target for gold in 2000, and we are getting close
to that now.

quot;We expect a 20 percent upside in gold shares.quot;

Christensen has an quot;accumulatequot; rating on Barrick Gold
Corp., the world's fourth-largest gold producer, and a
quot;long-term accumulatequot; on Newmont Mining Corp., the
world's No. 2 gold producer.