SILVER v USD

[peat]

NZMINT quoted a 16% markup (above spot) on buying silver bars !!!!
not quite sure how it can work trading in the real thing with such massive spreads , and he said theres not much demand for them esp the 5kg bars and they wont necessarily buy them back off you - even the 1 kg bars. you can be sure they wouldnt buy them if the price really rocketed.
coins seem a better option but not at the prices listed on nzmint tho I'm seeing prices on 1oz coins a lot closer to spot price on trademe... tho these auctions havent actually completed yet. so yeh just investigating.

oh and heres another silver bug arguing why it is undervalued

http://www.investmentrarities.com/10-24-06.html

[arco]

Peat

Try Johnson Matthey (originally AGR or AMR?) in AKL.
Not sure what they charge over spot for silver/gold bars.

regds - arco

[peat]

Newcrest Mining said its planned restructure will lower gearing
and give it the capacity to chase larger acquisitions if
opportunities arise. Newcrest announced on Monday plans for a
$2bn equity raising to fund the close out of its gold hedge book.
Managing Director Ian Smith said the restructure would lower
gearing to 15% from 49% and allow Newcrest to chase larger
takeover targets if it decides it wants to. "If there was a
particularly interesting deal that came along then we could
consider seriously a M&A type exercise of a more mature
profile," he said. "With the current restrictions we have around
our capital structure we really couldn't pursue anything of a
sizable nature." Smith said the restructure would also make
Newcrest a more attractive takeover target but it was
impossible to say if this would lead to any activity. Newcrest has
already bought 2.3m ounces of gold as it moves to close out its
gold hedging, and said it plans to buy another 1.7m ounces over
the next 12 months to complete the process.

[ananda77]

...good news all around for gold/silver due to the Kamikaze interest rate policy of the Fed

...maybe it is all part of the FED'S strategy: NAFTA - AMERO

Kind Regards

(these coins are available in gold/silver and not illegal until they ??become?? an official currency unit - then these coins would be counterfeit money - now does that make your collector's heart beat faster???

[peat]

prices for silver oz coins are tending to the NZ$30 or more currently on trademe. even allowing for possible collectability or aesthetic value of the coins tis a heck of a premium above the spot rate, and even ingots are priced at those levels per oz too.

[ScrappyO]

[QUOTE=ananda77;164561]...good news all around for gold/silver due to the Kamikaze interest rate policy of the Fed

...maybe it is all part of the FED'S strategy: NAFTA - AMERO

Kind Regards

Ananda77 Do you Reckon the fall of the U.S dollar might coincide with the Amero being pushed into circulation in 2010. The Fed seem to be working towards this target.

[arco]

IN AN unusual approach to research and development, Barrick Gold offered a $US10 million ($11.6 million) prize on Wednesday to any scientist, researcher or inventor who can increase the amount of silver the company recovers from a mine in Argentina.

Gold and silver extraction, which generally involves trickling diluted cyanide over crushed rock, can cause serious environmental problems. But Barrick's decision to stake a prize for a new process comes from its frustration at recovering only 6.7 per cent of the silver in its Veladero mine, compared to an 80 per cent rate for its gold.

After several alternative techniques for removing the silver proved either unsuccessful or financially unfeasible, Gregory Wilkins, Barrick's chief executive and president, said the company thought it needed a broader approach.

"This is a way to go out to the global scientific community to focus that intellectual horsepower," Mr Wilkins said from the company's head office in Toronto. "Rather than limit the problem to a very small R&D staff, we have turned our R&D group into managers of research."

The competition's winner, if there is one, will probably receive more than $US10 million. Mr Wilkins said that Barrick, the world's largest goldminer, would help finance research proposals with potential. If any prove successful, the prize will be an additional payment.

Finding an answer will not be easy. Cyanide leaching removes very little silver from the open pit mine's ore because, unlike its gold deposits, the silver is encapsulated in silica.

"Silica is a pretty tough material," said William Bawden, who teaches mine engineering at the University of Toronto. "If you're going to attack this, you're going to need to pull together different groups of people who probably had nothing to do with mining before."

The company posted detailed information about the mine and the silver problem at a website: www.unlockthevalue.com. As submissions come in, Mr Wilkins said he expected the company's review committee to "filter out the crazy stuff pretty quickly".

Barrick is not the first Canadian mining company to run such a contest.

In 2000 Goldcorp posted the geological data for a poorly performing goldmine in Ontario and offered $US500,000 in prizes for determining drill sites that could improve the mine's yield. The competition discovered sites that had not been identified by the company.

With that information, the mine has gone from producing 50,000 ounces of gold a year to 500,000 ounces.

The New York Times

[peat]

I now have 7oz's of silver in coins. So yeh am long lol.

[arco]

Hi Peat

I was told recently there is a company called Auckland Bullion, but I havent managed to track them down yet.

However, I did find this which looks quite interesting.

http://www.nzsilver.com/

rgds - arco

[peat]

yes I've been using NZSilver for their charts when I dont want to run MarketMaker the Hog. but I've been finding cheaper coins on Trademe than those retail prices on nzsilver or nzmint.