Anglo-American bids for DeBeers

2:30p ET Thursday, February 1, 2001

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

I just talked with GATA Chairman Bill Murphy in
Johannesburg. He reports the following:

* He spent more than two hours at dinner last night
with the king of the Zulus, who was sympathetic and
helpful.

* He was interviewed for three minutes this morning
on a national television news program that was seen
throughout the country. Later in the day he visited a
Moslem town near Pretoria and was greeted by people
who said they had seen him on TV that morning.

* He met with a leader of the movement to create an
Islamic gold currency.

* His conference yesterday with news reporters in
Durban produced a major article in South Africa
Business Report, which in turn was published in most
major newspapers in the country, as well as a big
article in the Durban Daily News. The former article
is reproduced below. I hope to be able to share the
latter with you later.

I'm also sending to you here a brief item from South
Africa Business Report explaining the recent
commotion in the share price of Durban Roodeport
Deep.

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

* * *

'Conspiracy theorist' beats bullion drum

By Ingrid Salgado
South Africa Business Report
February 1, 2001

Durban -- The Gold Anti-Trust Association (GATA)
jetted into South Africa this week to drum up
support for its campaign to haul U.S. Federal
Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and top bullion
banks before a U.S. court for alleged manipulation
of the gold price.

Bill Murphy, the Texas-based chairman of GATA,
yesterday promised a scandal quot;bigger than Watergatequot;
that would bring sharp improvements in the gold
price.

GATA claims that investment houses J.P. Morgan,
Chase Manhattan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and
Deutsche Bank are colluding to keep the gold price
down to prevent losses on gold short positions.

It alleges that the Bank of International
Settlements and central banks have colluded in the
scheme to disguise inflation and weakness in the
U.S. dollar.

At a briefing in Durban yesterday, Murphy launched
an attack on Barrick Gold, the Canadian gold
producer that has expressed interest in investing in
South Africa, saying it would be quot;the worst thing
that could happenquot; if the group should acquire Gold
Fields. quot;Barrick has helped to suppress the gold
price through hedging,quot; he said. quot;If they acquire
producers that are not hedging, that would be
negative for South Africa.quot;

He said South Africa's premier gold producers,
including Gold Fields and AngloGold, had contributed
between $20,000 and $50,000 apiece to GATA, launched
in 1999 to litigate against gold price fixing.

AngloGold had supported Gata quot;in the early daysquot; to
encourage open debate, said Kelvin Williams,
AngloGold's marketing director. But quot;since then we
have seen no evidence for their conspiracy
theories,quot; he said.

Prominent gold analysts who met Murphy on Tuesday
had mixed feelings about his allegations. One
analyst would not discard the allegations quot;because
there have been completely abnormal reactions in the
gold market in the last four to five years.quot;

However, Andy Smith, a gold analyst at Mitsui Metals
in London, said prices were low because bullion was
in surplus. quot;It's a simple story, hard to swallow
for some,quot; he said.

* * *

US roadshow sends DRD shares soaring 23%

South Africa Business Report
February 1, 2001

Johannesburg (Bloomberg) -- The shares of Durban
Roodepoort Deep (DRD), South Africa's fourth-biggest
gold miner, jumped as much as 23 percent yesterday
after executives triggered interest in the mine with
a series of presentations to U.S. investors. The
shares gained 95 cents, or 17.3 percent, to R6.45
after earlier reaching R6.80.

Roger Kebble, the chairman, was in the U.S. telling
investors of plans to cut costs by 5 percent, or
almost R100 million, said Nick Goodwin, a gold fund
manager at Fedsure Asset Management.quot;

quot;Things are really turning around at the mine,quot; said
Goodwin, who has a buy recommendation on the stock.

DRD has lost money for seven consecutive quarters --
the most recent being a R8.9 million loss in the
three months to December 31. The company has
suffered floods, cyanide spills, and alleged fraud
in its Australian mines in the past year.