Scheme would deliver Ashanti to Barrick

9:35p EST Monday, January 10, 2000

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

As you'll see from the accompanying Bridge News
dispatch from January 8, U.S. Treasury Secretary
Lawrence Summers indeed was responding directly
to GATA on Saturday in Boston when he denied that
U.S. gold reserves have been sold. The Reuters story
from Saturday that I sent to you earlier made us think
as much, but the Bridge News story made it explicit.

Unfortunately the question put to Summers seems to
have attributed to GATA an assertion we haven't made,
while neglecting our most compelling issues.

That is, GATA has never said that U.S. gold reserves
have been sold or are being sold. We HAVE called for
an audit of U.S. gold reserves, and we are still pressing
for definitive answers to questions about possible
intervention in the gold market, including the gold
derivatives market, by the Treasury Department and the
Federal Reserve System.

Still, this is great progress. For the highest levels
of the U.S. government now are acknowledging that
they know who we are and what we're about. We
believe that this came about largely because of our
two-page advertisement last month in Roll Call and
the hundreds of letters and emails GATA's friends
have sent to their congressmen seeking answers to
the questions posed in the ad.

Neither the Treasury Department nor the Fed have yet
answered all those questions, and the partial answers
provided to GATA and others by both agencies suggest
that some evasion may be intended. But we're not going
away; we're pressing for complete answers.

Please post this as seems useful.

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

* * *

Summers: No U.S. gold reserves
being sold, no plans to do so

BOSTON, Jan. 8 (Bridge News) -- U.S. Treasury
Secretary Lawrence Summers on Saturday strongly
denied allegations made by the Gold Anti-Trust Action
Committee (GATA) that the U.S. government has been
secretly selling its gold reserves in an attempt to try
to hold down the gold price.

quot;I categorically deny assertions that U.S. gold
reserves are being sold off or that there is any plan
to sell them off,quot; Summers told a small group of
reporters here.

GATA, formed a year ago, claims it has evidence that
the price and supply of gold are being controlled by a
group of Wall Street investment houses and bullion
banks, with the possible encouragement of the Federal
Reserve and the U.S. Treasury. The group alleges that
the gold market is being manipulated to ensure the gold
price does not rise sharply above $300 per ounce.