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Plenty of silver, Jeffrey? Tell it to the mints
Silver Rises to 30-Year High as Mints Start to Ration Coins
By Jack Farchy
Financial Times, London
Thursday, February 17, 2011
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7f316ac4-3acc-11e0-9c1a-00144feabdc0.html
Silver jumped to a 30-year high amid record levels of investor buying that has drained mints of silver coins.
The price of the precious metal hit $31.37 a troy ounce on Thursday, up 16 per cent since mid-January and the highest since March 1980. The world's leading mints have reported record sales of silver coins in January and some, including the Royal Canadian Mint and Austrian Mint, have had to ration sales.
"We have sold everything we can produce in silver and have demand for at least twice that volume," said David Madge, head of bullion sales at the Royal Canadian Mint, which produces the silver Maple Leaf coin. Silver coin sales at the US Mint and the Austrian Mint also hit record levels in January.
The surge of buying has both boosted silver prices and helped push the market into "backwardation" -- an unusual condition in which forward prices are lower than prices for immediate delivery. While investors are buying, miners have been selling their future silver production to lock in gains, which has depressed long-dated futures prices.
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Prophecy Resource Spins Off Platinum/Palladium Venture:
World-Class PGM Deposit in Yukon
Company Press Release, January 18, 2011
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Prophecy Resource Corp. (TSX-V:PCY)and Pacific Coast Nickel Corp. announce that they have agreed that PCNC will acquire Prophecy's Nickel PGM projects by issuing common shares to Prophecy.
PCNC will acquire the Wellgreen PGM Ni-Cu and Lynn Lake nickel projects in the Yukon Territory and Manitoba respectively by issuing up to 550 million common shares of PCNC to Prophecy. PCNC has 55.7 million shares outstanding.
Following the transaction:
-- Prophecy will own approximately 90 percent of PCNC.
-- PCNC will consolidate its share capital on a 10 old for one new basis.
-- Prophecy will change its name to Prophecy Coal Corp. and PCNC will be renamed Prophecy Platinum Corp.
-- Prophecy intends to distribute half of its PCNC shares to shareholders pro-rata in accordance with their holdings.
Based on the closing price of the common shares of PCNC on January 17, $0.195 per share, the gross value of the transaction is $107,250,000.
For the complete announcement, please visit:
http://prophecyresource.com/news_2011_jan18.php
Dealers said smaller investors saw silver as a cheaper alternative to gold with greater potential for gains as they look to preserve their wealth against rising inflation and currency weakness.
The Austrian Mint sold 1.53 million ounces of its silver Philharmonic coin in January, more than double the level a year earlier, according to Andrea Lang, marketing director.
"We could have sold more," she said, adding that the mint would boost production to 2.2 million ounces in February and March.
The US Mint sold 6.4 million ounces of silver American Eagle coins in January, 50 per cent more than the previous record month, and have already sold 1.7 million ounces so far in February.
Silver prices have outpaced gold in recent months as the improving economic picture has caused investment demand for gold to wane but has boosted silver's industrial demand -- which, in spite of rising investor flows, still accounts for 80 per cent of total silver consumption.
Both metals were buoyed on Thursday by renewed concerns over political stability in the Middle East. Gold gained 0.6 per cent to $1,382.90 a troy ounce, the highest in a month, but off the all-time peak of $1,430.95 touched in December.
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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
