By Gleb Gorodyankin and Olga Yagova

Reuters

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

MOSCOW -- Russian oil producer Surgutneftegaz is pushing buyers to agree to pay for oil in euros instead of dollars if the need arises, apparently as insurance against possible tougher U.S. sanctions, traders who deal with the firm told Reuters.

... Dispatch continues below ...

The prospect that causes most alarm for Russian firms is inclusion on a Treasury Department blacklist that effectively cuts them off from conducting transactions in dollars, the lifeblood of the global oil industry. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-surgut-sanctions-exclusive/exc...


* * *

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New Orleans Investment Conference

Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel

Thursday-Sunday, November 1-4, 2018
http://neworleansconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/NOIC_2018_Pow...

* * *

Help keep GATA going

GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

http://www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:

http://www.gata.org/node/16

China Won't Devalue Yuan to Boost Exports, Premier Li Says

From Bloomberg News

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Hours after China and the U.S. announced their latest tariff salvos in the escalating trade war, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the nation wouldn't devalue its currency to make its exports more competitive.

"Recent fluctuations in the renminbi exchange rate have been seen as an intentional measure, but that isn't true," Li said in a keynote speech at the World Economic Forum in Tianjin on Wednesday. "One-way devaluation will do more harm than good to China's economy. China will by no means stimulate exports by devaluing the yuan." ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-19/china-won-t-devalue-y...

Another rich country insisting on being poor instead of digging its own money out of its own ground.

* * *

Metallon May Pay Suppliers in Gold Amid Zimbabwe Cash Shortage

By Godfrey Marawanyika

Bloomberg News

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Metallon Corp. is considering paying mining-equipment suppliers in gold because a cash shortage in Zimbabwe is hampering its plan to expand output, Chief Executive Officer Mzi Khumalo said.

Zimbabwe, which abandoned its own currency in 2009 because of hyperinflation, has faced cash shortages for at least the past two years as businesses and individuals moved money offshore and the import bill increased after exports collapsed. The country’s biggest gold miner needs at least $400 million to buy new machinery and upgrade existing equipment as it targets a fourfold increase in production.

... Dispatch continues below ...

"We can then enter agreements with banks, various financiers on the basis of gold-backed transactions," Khumalo said. Suppliers will "get their payment in gold," he said. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-18/metallon-may-pay-supp...


* * *

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New Orleans Investment Conference

Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel

Thursday-Sunday, November 1-4, 2018
http://neworleansconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/NOIC_2018_Pow...

* * *

Help keep GATA going:

GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

http://www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:

http://www.gata.org/node/16

By Stefan Gleason

Money Metals News Service

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

"Just run the presses -- print money."

That's what President Donald Trump supposedly instructed his former chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, to do in response to the budget deficit. The quote appears in Bob Woodward's controversial book "Fear: Trump in the White House."

Trump disputes many of the anecdotes Woodward assembled. But regardless of whether the president used those exact words, they do reflect an "easy money" philosophy that he has expressed many times before. ...

... For the remainder of the commentary:

https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2018/09/18/trumps-power-play-fed-001619

2:47p ET Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

China, the TF Metals Report's Craig Hemke writes today at Sprott Money, seems to have taken control of the world gold price by establishing major vaults in New York and London and pegging the price to the sinking value of the Chinese yuan. So what China intends to do with gold over the long term, Hemke writes, is an urgent question for gold investors.

Hemke's analysis is headlined "Trade Wars, Tariffs, and the Peg" and it's posted at Sprott Money here:

https://www.sprottmoney.com/Blog/trade-wars-tariffs-and-the-peg-craig-he...

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

2:02p ET Monday, September 17, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Silver market analyst and rigging critic Ted Butler today explains why, despite the extreme conditions it reflects, he believes that the gold and silver futures market trader positioning data reported by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is still accurate and predictive.

The data, Butler asserts, is no more extreme than the prices of the monetary metals themselves. He continues to construe the data as the most bullish ever for the metals.

... Dispatch continues below ...

"Why lie and falsely report when you can report truthfully and openly manipulate? Moreover, my allegations of manipulation by JPMorgan are derived directly from positioning data published by the CFTC.

"CFTC data show that JPMorgan has been the single largest buyer of Comex silver and gold contracts on the unprecedented downturn in price, making it the single biggest beneficiary of the downward price manipulation. I don't know it's possible to state the case in more precise terms. If the single biggest beneficiary of a manipulative downturn in price is not the prime manipulator, then who is?"

Yet JPMorganChase repeatedly has claimed that it has no position of its own in the monetary metals markets and trades them only for clients:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc9Me4qFZYo

Further, official filings by CME Group, operator of the major U.S. futures exchanges, repeatedly has reported that its clients include governments and central banks and that its exchanges give them discounts for their secret trading:

http://www.gata.org/node/14385

http://www.gata.org/node/14411

http://gata.org/node/17976

The U.S. Treasury Department's Exchange Stabilization Fund is expressly authorized by U.S. law to trade secretly in all markets, domestic and foreign, in the name of maintaining stability in the currency markets:

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/international/ESF/Pages/esf-ind...

Indeed, at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Boston in 2001 in GATA's lawsuit against the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve, which charged them with rigging the gold market, an assistant U.S. attorney claimed that the government was fully authorized to do exactly what the lawsuit complained of:

http://www.gata.org/node/4211

So if the biggest manipulator of the gold and silver futures markets is not really JPMorganChase & Co. at all but the U.S. government, which is fully authorized by law to rig any and all markets anywhere and is using the investment bank as its broker, as the government uses the investment bank as a primary dealer in government securities, might that not explain why the bank's market rigging is never opposed by the CFTC?

Might that also signify that the biggest beneficiary of gold and silver market rigging is actually the U.S. government, whose currency, the dollar, is valued inversely from the monetary metals? Surely the U.S. government has an interest in maintaining the dollar's value against other currencies and commodities that can be used as stores of value.

Might that also explain why trader positioning has gone to such extremes lately -- because the biggest participant in the market is a government authorized to create infinite money and deploy it secretly?

Butler has done heroic work over many years. Since today he has addressed concerns that the futures trader position data is no longer accurate or predictive and may even have been falsified, maybe next he could address the possibility that the force controlling the monetary metals futures markets is really much bigger than an investment bank that is functioning only as a broker.

Butler's analysis today is headlined "Is the COT Report Still Valid?" and it's posted at GoldSeek's companion site, SilverSeek, here --

http://silverseek.com/commentary/cot-report-still-valid-17413

-- and at 24hGold here:

http://www.24hgold.com/english/news-gold-silver-is-the-cot-report-still-...

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org


* * *

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New Orleans Investment Conference

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Thursday-Sunday, November 1-4, 2018
http://neworleansconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/NOIC_2018_Pow...

* * *

Help keep GATA going

GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

http://www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:

http://www.gata.org/node/16

By Paul Burkhardt

Bloomberg News

Monday, September 17, 2018

Labor groups representing more than 60 percent of workers at AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., a major South African gold producer, signed a three-year wage deal with the company.

The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, UASA, and Solidarity unions said they accepted the deal today. The sides agreed to raise pay by 6.5 percent for the first year and increases at the same rate or inflation -- whichever is higher -- for each of the following two years, Solidarity General Secretary Gideon du Plessis said in a statement. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-17/south-african-unions-...

By Ronan Manly

Bullion Star, Singapore

Monday, September 17, 2018

On Wednesday, September 12, the Shanghai Gold Exchange launched trading of a new Chinese gold panda coin contract on the exchange trading platform. With the addition of this listing, the exchange now offers physical trading of these famous Chinese gold bullion coins alongside its extensive range of physical gold bar and ingot trading contracts.

The Shanghai Gold Exchange is the largest physical gold exchange in the world, and nearly all gold in the Chinese gold market passes through the exchange. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/ronan-manly/chinese-gold-panda-coins-n...

Barrick Gold Seeks Chinese Partners, May Slash Headcount, Globe and Mail Says

By Natalie Obiko Pearson

Bloombrg News

Saturday, September 15, 2018

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-15/barrick-gold-seeks-ch...

Barrick Gold Corp. may slash 400 jobs and involve Chinese partners in its troubled Tanzania operations, Executive Chairman John Thornton told the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper.

The Toronto-based company has slashed middle management by half to about 700 and "we want to get it down to 300," Thornton, who's been in his role since 2014, told the Globe and Mail in an interview in London. The former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive wants a leaner, entrepreneurial partnership more like the early days under late founder Peter Munk, the Globe and Mail said.

... Dispatch continues below ...

The Acacia mines have never paid income tax to the Tanzanian government, which wants a new deal, Thornton told the Globe. Chinese companies can bring capital, technical expertise and -- above all -- political connections in Africa and Latin America that North American miners can't match, he told the Globe.

"It's one thing to be a Canadian company. It's another to have China as your partner," Thornton told the Globe. "If I know one thing, I know this is right: we have the thinnest talent in the most difficult areas and we can't develop all these projects alone."

Thornton again floated the idea -- raised in a town hall with employees last month -- about forming a copper company with Chinese miners.


* * *

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New Orleans Investment Conference

Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel

Thursday-Sunday, November 1-4, 2018
http://neworleansconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/NOIC_2018_Pow...

* * *

Help keep GATA going

GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

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To contribute to GATA, please visit:

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11:10a ET Saturday, September 15, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

GATA Chairman Bill Murphy and your secretary/treasurer will be speaking again this year at the New Orleans Investment Conference, and if you register to attend the conference through GATA, the conference will generously pay us a commission that will help keep the organization going.

Apart from helping GATA, the conference is offering attendees an extraordinary money-back guarantee -- that if the investments you make as a result of your attendance don't at least quadruple in value within six months, your registration fee will be refunded.

... Dispatch continues below ...

The conference always covers the monetary metals thoroughly and long has made room for politically incorrect opinions about them and public issues generally, so no one is ever bored there.

A letter from conference organizer Brien Lundin explaining the conference and describing some of this year's speakers is below. Please check it out and, if you decide to attend the conference, use the internet registration link provided --

https://neworleansconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/NOIC_2018_Po...

-- since it will identify you as someone recruited by GATA.

That link also operates with the advertisement for the conference that appears at the top of the home page of GATA's internet site.

We hope to see you in New Orleans in November.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

* * *

In Today's Uncertain World, There's Only One Sure Investment

By Brien Lundin

New Orleans Investment Conference

Friday, July 27, 2018

Growing geopolitical worries have joined with massive debts and currency creation to virtually guarantee much higher gold prices.

No wonder investors are flocking to the world's oldest, most exclusive, and most profitable investment event.

For well over four decades -- through some of the most turbulent and dangerous times in investing -- the record shows there is no better place to find profits and safety than the legendary New Orleans Investment Conference.

But this year's blockbuster event will be one of the most exciting in the long history of the New Orleans conference.

That's because we've reached a dramatic turning point in the global economy and the markets.

The Fed continues to raise rates -- even as the federal debt is exploding higher.

The rest of the world's central banks are about to begin their own monetary tightening -- likely driving the dollar lower in reaction.

Stocks are bouncing around like crazy but are still priced for perfection near record levels.

Inflation is surging higher while commodity production and prices are still low.

And gold has confirmed a new bull market but is still hovering below key technical break-out levels.

It all adds up to a new level of risk and opportunity -- one that investors need to be prepared for.

This is what the New Orleans Investment Conference was built for. This year's conference will be held Thursday through Sunday, November 1-4.

In our 44-year history, the New Orleans Investment Conference has never failed to deliver rich returns (and wealth-protecting strategies) during times of market uncertainty.

It's why we can guarantee investors will quadruple their investment in the event.

To capitalize on this year's opportunity, we're gathering dozens of the world's top experts in geopolitics, economics and the resource markets, including:

-- One of today's hardest-hitting and most entertaining political analysts, Mark Steyn…

-- The inspirational author of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," the No. 1 selling personal finance book of all time, Robert Kiyosaki -- plus his top tax expert, Tom Wheelwright…

-- Wall Street's most insightful and eloquent market commentator, James Grant.

-- The forceful -- and funny -- political commentator Jonah Goldberg.

-- The king of controversy and contrarianism, Doug Casey.

-- Popular and prescient investment authority Peter Schiff.

-- The ultimate guides to "Plan B" wealth and lifestyle preservation, Chris Martenson and Adam Taggart of PeakProsperity.com.

-- Hedge fund guru and legendary trader Dennis Gartman.

-- Master resource investor Rick Rule.

-- Peter Boockvar, perhaps the most influential economist in the world.

-- Wildly successful newsletter editor Nick Hodge.

-- Masters of property and tangible asset investing, The Real Estate Guys.

-- Plus the world's leading authorities on gold, silver, mining stocks, and every investment sector, including Guy Adami, Adrian Day, Brent Cook, Mary Anne and Pamela Aden, Mark Skousen, Robert Prechter, Eric Coffin, Steve Hochberg, Lindsay Hall, Omar Ayales, Thom Calandra, Gary Alexander, Chris Powell, Bill Murphy, and more.

It's all happening at this year's New Orleans Investment Conference.

For well over four decades the conference has helped investors learn how to protect and build wealth during uncertain markets.

And during that time we've repeatedly seen stocks recommended at the conference double, triple, and even grow 10, 20, and more times in value.

Remarkably, results like these are not at all unusual.

That's because the New Orleans conference is the most important investment gathering of the year and brings together the brightest, most successful analysts and investors.

How special is this event?

-- It has attracted dozens of the most celebrated figures in modern history, including Lady Margaret Thatcher, Ayn Rand, Alan Greenspan, Milton Friedman, F.A. Hayek, Barry Goldwater, Steve Forbes, Henry Kissinger, Ron Paul, and more.

-- It boasts a reputation of inviting only the most successful and deadly-accurate analysts, many of whom save their best recommendations to unveil on our stage.

-- It has brought together the most sophisticated and successful individual investors, mavericks who don't follow the herd but rather search for valuable, unhedged, and unbiased information.

This is why previous attendees will attest that the New Orleans conference has never failed to deliver stock picks that have doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled in value during the weeks and months following the conference. But many of our picks do much better.

FACT: A number of stocks recommended at recent Conferences have gone on to multiply over 20 times in value, enough to turn a modest $5,000 investment into a whopping $100,000, or $25,000 into half a million dollars.

And whenever the metals and mining shares are in a bull market -- as they are now -- the New Orleans conference really shines.

Over our history we're known for showing investors how to shield their wealth during turbulent times and how to build fortunes from the powerful strategies and specific picks our speakers provide in a gold bull market.

In fact. ...

We'll guarantee that you'll quadruple your investment.

This opportunity is so important, and we're so confident that the New Orleans conference will pay for itself many times over, that we'll offer you this ironclad guarantee:

If you attend New Orleans 2018 and don't make back at least four times the money you paid to register -- in six months or less -- just let us know. We'll happily give you a prompt, hassle-free refund on your entire registration fee. Every penny.

You can't lose -- unless you don't act immediately to secure your place at New Orleans 2018.

But here's the problem: Our registration fee is about to soar, and at some point we'll likely completely sell out.

So if you hope to get in at the current early-bird rate, and enjoy our quadruple-your-money-or-it's free guarantee.

You'll need to call us at 1-800-648-8411 right now or click on this link to learn more and register:

http://neworleansconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/NOIC_2018_Pow...

Given the dramatic turning point we're facing in the markets, New Orleans 2018 could turn out to be the most profitable investment event in decades -- perhaps in the entire 44-year history of the Conference.

The strategies and picks our celebrated speakers deliver could yield a fortune for you.

Or nothing if you don't attend.

And here's one other word of warning: We frequently sell out of every available hotel room for this event.

If you don't act now, we can't guarantee you'll be able to attend and reap the rewards New Orleans 2018 will give you.

All you have to do is register now, while space is still available. And doing so couldn't be easier. Just click on this link --

http://neworleansconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/NOIC_2018_Pow...

-- or call toll-free 1-800-648-8411 to secure your place now.

After you click the link, select the green "Tickets" bar, then click on "Enter Promotional Code" and use code FREEGOLDCLUB to unlock your discount.

A special benefit of the New Orleans Conference is our beautiful city itself. So in addition to world-class market intelligence, you'll enjoy the wonderful, old-world charm of New Orleans, with the food, entertainment, and joie de vivre that make it America's most interesting city.

And for this year's conference we'll also bring the best of New Orleans to you, with gala celebrations and receptions throughout the event.

Here's one more, last-minute opportunity: If you can register right now -- while this limited offer is in effect � we'll give you a FREE Gold Club Upgrade for you and your guests.

A $189-per-person value, your Gold Club status will entitle you to a special private viewing room with day-long coffee service, exclusive Q&A sessions with selected speakers following their presentations, special reports and investment information exclusively for you, and deep discounts on conference audio and video recordings and other valuable investment products.

But space is limited and we cannot guarantee availability.

To claim your Gold Club status, be sure to act immediately and enter the promotional code FREEGOLDCLUB when you register.

We hope to see you in New Orleans.

BRIEN LUNDIN

New Orleans Investment Conference


* * *

Join GATA here:

New Orleans Investment Conference

Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel

Thursday-Sunday, November 1-4, 2018
http://neworleansconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/NOIC_2018_Pow...

* * *

Help keep GATA going

GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

http://www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:

http://www.gata.org/node/16

5:30p ET Friday, September 14, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

GoldMoney research director Alasdair Macleod predicts today that the next financial crisis will begin toward the end of this year or early next year as the European Central Bank is forced to raise interest rates to reduce the gap with U.S. dollar interest rates.

The strains between the major currencies have become too great, Macleod writes, but their rebalancing will trigger explosions throughout the world financial system, and this time Russia and China will have incentive to make mischief.

Macleod's analysis is headlined "The Dollar Is Central to the Next Crisis" and it's posted at GoldMoney here:

https://www.goldmoney.com/research/goldmoney-insights/the-dollar-is-cent...

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

4:52p ET Friday, September 14, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Interviewed today by King World News, London metals trader Andrew Maguire describes how he sees China playing its trade war with the United States to drain the West's gold supplies in preparation for internationalizing a gold-backed yuan.

China and its ally, Russia, are cornering the physical gold market, Maguire writes.

His interview is excerpted at KWN here:

https://kingworldnews.com/andrew-maguire-forget-trade-war-china-is-posit...

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

11:24a ET Friday, September 14, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

The report from today's South China Morning Post that is appended is interesting for a couple of reasons.

First, it shows that a big gold-mining company owned by the Chinese government continues to invest heavily in new mines -- now with another three quarters of a billion dollars -- "confident that an upward trend in gold prices will emerge within the next 12 months."

... Dispatch continues below ...

A particularly intriguing connection between the Chinese government and Barrick was brought to your attention by GATA the other day via a report in the Financial Times. The newspaper noted that the Chinese government has appointed a committee to advise it on relations with the United States and financial and economic reforms and the committee will be co-chaired by the chairman of Barrick Gold, John Thornton, a former Goldman Sachs executive. The committee's members, which include leading Wall Street bankers, have been invited to Beijing in two days:

http://www.gata.org/node/18485

In federal court in New Orleans in 2003 Barrick admitted that, with its borrowing and leasing of central bank gold, it had become the agent of central banks in regulating the price of the monetary metal:

http://www.gata.org/node/1858

Soon after that admission, which came during a lawsuit charging the company with rigging the gold market, Barrick announced that it would discontinue leasing gold. But the mining company's growing closeness with the Chinese government implies that China not only considers gold crucial to the world financial system but also wants gold mining intermediaries in the West.

Is Barrick still helping central banks manage the gold market?

There might be some interesting financial journalism to undertake here upon Thornton's return from Beijing. Can gold investors continue to count on gold market reporters and analysts to refrain from asking gold mining executives the most important questions?

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

* * *

State-Owned Miner Shandong Gold Plans $768 Million in Hong Kong Initial Public Offering

By Yujing Liu

South China Morning Post, Hong Kong

Friday, September 14, 2018

https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2164132/state-owned-mine...

Shandong Gold Mining, one of China's largest miners of the precious metal, is seeking to raise as much as US$768 million in a Hong Kong initial public offering to fund overseas expansion.

The company is offering 327.7 million H-shares at between HK$14.7 and HK$18.4 (US$1.87-2.34), according to its filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The state-owned domestic holding company of Shandong Gold is also listed in Shanghai with a market capitalisation of 43.6 billion yuan (US$6.3 billion).

The firm controls and operates 12 domestic gold mines and accounted for 6.6 percent of China's gold output in 2016,. The country is the world's largest producer of the yellow metal.

Officials said the company plans use the funds to partially repay US$972 million worth of debt it took on to buy a half stake in the Veladero mine, Argentina's largest mine and the second-largest in South America, from Canadian miner Barrick Gold in June 2017.

"To achieve our goal of becoming one of the world's top-10 gold miners by 2020, we have to expand our international assets," said chairman Li Guohong.

"This can be done only by overseas mergers and acquisitions, so we have to open up to the international capital markets."

The timing of the listing is tricky as Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index dipped into bear territory on Monday amid escalating trade tensions and a strengthening US dollar.

The market has already been stretched by several mega-sized listings this year, including smartphone maker Xiaomi, telecommunications tower operator China Tower, and food review and delivery giant Meituan Dianping.

The listing also comes as gold prices have become increasingly volatile, and are now in a five-month decline.

The spot gold price has fallen 11 percent since April, as climbing US interest rates have driven an inflow of capital into the country and into investment in its currency.

But Li said the company was confident that an upward trend in gold prices will emerge within the next 12 months, with interest rates steadying in the US by the end of next year.

Increasing geopolitical intensions will also fuel the demand for gold as a safe haven, he added.

The company counts the Shanghai Gold Exchange, the world's largest spot physical gold exchange, as its top client, making up 73 percent of its sales in 2017.

Revenue reached 51 million yuan last year, up from 49.1 million in 2016 and 28.8 million in 2015.

The price of the Hong Kong offering will be set on September 20 and shares will start trading eight days later.

CCB International, China Securities International, and ICBC International are joint sponsors of the listing.

Shandong Gold Group, the domestic holding company, will own 46.64 to 47.69 percent of the firm's shares after the float, depending on whether an over-allotment option is exercised to increase the IPO's value.

The company's gold reserves stand at 339 tonnes.

It has already expanded its operations domestically out of from Shandong, the largest gold producing province in China, to northern regions including Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Gansu province, as well as the southeastern province of Fujian.


* * *

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New Orleans Investment Conference

Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel

Thursday-Sunday, November 1-4, 2018
http://neworleansconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/NOIC_2018_Pow...

* * *

Help keep GATA going:

GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

http://www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:

http://www.gata.org/node/16

10:41a ET Thursday, September 13, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

GATA Board of Directors member Ed Steer, publisher of Ed Steer's daily Gold and Silver Digest letter, was interviewed this week by talk show host Dave Janda of WAAM-AM1600 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and explained how the monetary metals price suppression scheme of governments and central banks is part of their longstanding policy to suppress all commodity prices and protect government currencies, particularly the U.S. dollar. This policy, Steer notes, is imperialistic exploitation of developing, commodity-producing countries.

But, Steer adds, the U.S. government's increasing weaponization of the dollar in foreign policy is starting to alienate the world and bust the scheme apart.

The interview is 25 minutes long and can be heard here:

https://davejanda.com/audio/EdSteer090918.mp3

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

By Annmarie Hordern and Jake Rudnitsky

Bloomberg News

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Russians with bank accounts in dollars may find they can only make withdrawals in other currencies if new sanctions proposed by U.S. lawmakers take effect.

"I am sure that all the clients of all banks should receive their money back. That's the principal approach," VTB Group Chief Executive Officer Andrey Kostin said today. "How, in which currency, is a different story."

... Dispatch continues below ...

Kostin's comments are an indication to markets that policy makers and businesses are bracing for the worst, and could focus investors' attention on the possible fallout from sanctions, according to Liza Ermolenko, an economist at Barclays Capital in London. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-12/russians-may-have-to-...


* * *

Join GATA here:

New Orleans Investment Conference

Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel

Thursday-Sunday, November 1-4, 2018
http://neworleansconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/NOIC_2018_Pow...

* * *

Help keep GATA going:

GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

http://www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:

http://www.gata.org/node/16

4:08p ET Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

USAGold's News & Views newsletter for September features an essay by Thorsten Polleit of the Degussa Market Report arguing that gold is undervalued at the moment, as well as a digest of other gold-related news and commentary. It's posted in the clear at USAGold here:

http://www.usagold.com/publications/NewsViewsSEPT2018.html

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

3:27p ET Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Trader positioning data in gold and silver futures in the United States is not as bullish as the prevailing analysis describes, the TF Metals Report's Craig Hemke writes today at Sprott Money. Particularly, Hemke writes, nothing in the data shows that JPMorganChase & Co., the big player in the monetary metals markets, has gone long in the monetary metals.

Hemke's commentary is headlined "What Is a Bank and What Is a Commercial?" and it's posted at Sprott Money here:

https://www.sprottmoney.com/Blog/what-is-a-bank-and-what-is-a-commercial...

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

By Mehreen Khan and Jim Brunsden

Financial Times, London

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Jean-Claude Juncker has vowed to turn the euro into a global reserve currency that could rival the dollar as part of the European Union's drive to reduce its financial dependence on the United States. 

In his last "State of the Union" speech to members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg today, the president of the European Commission said it was an "aberration" that the EU paid for more than 80 percent of its energy imports in U.S. dollars despite only 2 percent of imports coming from the U.S.

... Dispatch continues below ...

"We will have to change that. The euro must become the active instrument of a new sovereign Europe," said Mr. Juncker, whose five-year tenure as commission president is due to end next year.

...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.ft.com/content/7358f396-b66d-11e8-bbc3-ccd7de085ffe


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By Brendan Pierson

Reuters

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

NEW YORK -- U.S. securities law can be used to prosecute fraud cases over cryptocurrency offerings, a New York federal judge ruled on Tuesday in what appeared to be the first court decision to address the issue.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie in Brooklyn allows federal prosecutors to pursue their case against Maksim Zaslavskiy. The Brooklyn resident was arrested in November on charges that he defrauded investors in two cryptocurrencies, violating the federal Securities Exchange Act.

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-crime-cryptocurrency/u-s-securiti...

From Agence France-Presse

via Channel News Asia, Singapore

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that Moscow and Beijing plan to use their own national currencies more often in trade deals as Russia's relations with the West deteriorate.

... Dispatch continues below ...

Putin said this would "increase the stability of banks' servicing of export and import operations while there are ongoing risks on global markets." ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/putin-says-russia-and-china-t...


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8p ET Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

In his essay published today, "Memoirs of an Unemployed Man," Hugo Salinas Price of the Mexican Civic Association for Silver recounts how he came to the cause of remonetizing the metal as a savings vehicle for ordinary people around the world but laments his failure to persuade central bankers about it -- as if they'd ever agree to give up their power to create and deploy infinite money.

... Dispatch continues below ...

Salinas Price's essay is posted at the association's internet site, Plata.com.mx, here:

http://plata.com.mx/enUS/More/358?idioma=2

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org


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Will he recommend buying more gold to democratize the world financial system?

* * *

Beijing Summons Top Wall Street Bankers for Tariff Talks

By Tom Mitchell

Financial Times, London

Sunday, September 9, 2018

The Chinese government is inviting Wall Street's top bankers to a hastily arranged meeting in Beijing as President Donald Trump threatens to impose punitive tariffs on all Chinese exports to the United States.

According to three people briefed on the initiative, Chinese Communist Party officials have invited the heads of America's leading financial institutions to attend a "China-U.S. Financial Roundtable" in Beijing on September 16, followed by a meeting with Wang Qishan, vice-president of China.

... Dispatch continues below ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.ft.com/content/c0034cba-b2ca-11e8-99ca-68cf89602132


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12:36p ET Tuesday, September 12, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

The quarterly report from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency showing bank trading revenue, published today and called to GATA's attention by our friend J.H., contains two remarkable graphs showing the increase in the notional value of gold and precious metals derivatives held by "U.S. commercial banks and savings associations" quarter by quarter since 2001.

These derivatives, according to the charts, have increased for "foreign exchange and gold" from about $4 trillion at the end of 2001 to nearly $40 trillion in the quarter ending in July this year, and for other precious metals from about $2.5 billion at the end of 2001 to nearly $50 billion in the quarter ended in July this year.

... Dispatch continues below ...

http://www.gata.org/files/OCC-Q2-2018-FX+Gold.pdf

The chart for derivatives for other precious metals is excerpted from the report at GATA's internet site here:

http://www.gata.org/files/PMDerivatives-Q2-2018.pdf

The full report is posted at GATA's internet site here --

http://www.gata.org/files/OCC-DerivativesReport-Q2-2018.pdf

-- and at the OCC's internet site here:

https://www.occ.treas.gov/topics/capital-markets/financial-markets/deriv...

Perhaps not coincidentally, the value of the "foreign exchange and gold" derivatives and the derivatives for other precious metals jumps markedly in 2010 just before the seven-year smashing of monetary metals prices that began in 2011. The value of the derivatives increases steadily from 2010 through this year.

Anybody connected with the monetary metals business who is not on the status quo's take and who looked at the charts might ask the question famously posed by Paul Newman's Butch Cassidy in the 1969 film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid":

"Who are those guys?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU3jMgaZ2uI

That is, who are these commercial banks and savings associations and what are their connections to the U.S. government? Are they, for example, mainly primary dealers in U.S. government securities, formally agents of the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve?

Or do they include instead, say, lots of community institutions like the famous Bailey Bros. Building & Loan of Bedford Falls, New York, in the 1946 movie that romanticized locally based banking, "It's a Wonderful Life"?

Who besides the U.S. government and other governments might have the money to take on so much risk and have the interest in doing so?

Your secretary/treasurer yesterday asked the OCC's press office why foreign exchange and gold derivatives were combined instead of graphed separately when this prompts suspicion that the U.S. government doesn't want the world to know how much secret intervention is happening in the gold market. While the OCC press office acknowledged that its derivatives charts combine gold with foreign exchange rather than with the other precious metals, it did not explain the obfuscation.

ZeroHedge examined the OCC's quarterly derivatives report in June 2015 and concluded that the explosion in commodity derivatives on the books of banking institutions was mainly the work of JPMorganChase & Co. and that the investment bank had effectively cornered the commodity derivatives markets:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-29/jpm-just-cornered-commodity-de...

Three years earlier the head of the JPMorganChase commodity desk, Blythe Masters, responding to allegations that the bank was rigging the silver market, told CNBC that the bank had no position of its own in the monetary metals markets and traded there only for clients:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc9Me4qFZYo

CNBC failed to ask Masters if those clients included the U.S. government or other governments or central banks, but official filings by CME Group, operator of the major futures exchanges, acknowledge that its clients include governments and central banks and that CME Group even extends discounts to governments and central banks for their secret trading of all financial and commodity futures contracts:

http://www.gata.org/node/14385

http://www.gata.org/node/14411

http://www.gata.org/node/17976

The powerful implication here is that the trading of futures market derivatives through intermediaries, particularly JPMorganChase & Co., is the mechanism by which the U.S. government is suppressing commodity prices -- creating vast imaginary supply so that the inflation of the world money supply is not well reflected in commodity prices and does not undermine currency values and the value of government bonds and so commodities do not supplant government currencies as stores of value.

The British economist Peter Warburton foresaw all this in his 2001 essay, “The Debasement of World Currency: It Is Inflation but Not as We Know It”:

http://www.gata.org/node/8303

Warburton wrote 17 years ago: "How much capital would it take to control the combined gold, oil, and commodity markets? Probably, no more than $200 billion, using derivatives. Moreover, it is not necessary for the central banks to fight the battle themselves, although central bank gold sales and gold leasing have certainly contributed to the cause. Most of the world's large investment banks have overtraded their capital so flagrantly that if the central banks were to lose the fight on the first front, then the stock of the investment banks would be worthless. Because their fate is intertwined with that of the central banks, investment banks are willing participants in the battle against rising gold, oil, and commodity prices."

This documentation of surreptitious but comprehensive market rigging by government might be an interesting course of inquiry for financial journalism, if there was any.

It might be a compelling course of inquiry for a world gold council, silver miners association, or alliance of oil producers, if there were such organizations and not just shams using similar names.

All commodity-producing, developing countries might see their very lives at stake here.

Investment houses that have put their clients' money into the monetary metals and the companies that mine them might do well to inquire about this stuff too if they ever became more interested in creating value for shareholders than mining them for management fees.

Market analysts who chart prices with a mystical belief in the predictive power of "waves,""candlesticks," and such might come closer to reality by wondering whether the derivative charts are exerting more powerful magic with the help of entities that are authorized to create infinite money and deploy it in secret.

Of course anyone who suggests merely that there might be institutions called central banks and an association of central banks called something like the Bank for International Settlements risks being derided as a "conspiracy theorist." But then government operating in secret is the very definition of "conspiracy," if language itself is not to be manipulated as much as what pretend to be markets.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org


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Acting through intermediaries, the Fed essentially already does what he proposes.

* * *

Fed Should Buy Stocks If There Is Another Steep Recession, IMF's Former Chief Economist Says

By Greg Robb

MarketWatch.com, New York

Monday, September 10, 2018

The Federal Reserve buying stocks? How about financing the federal deficit? Or buying goods?

These were some of the suggestions for combating the next severe recession given to the central bank by former International Monetary Fund chief economist Olivier Blanchard at the Boston Fed’s monetary policy conference over the weekend.

... Dispatch continues below ...

The problem facing the central bank is easy to describe.

The Fed's benchmark short-term fed funds rate is now around 2.875 percent. That's not so much room to cut rates in a downturn, considering that in a typical post-World War II recession, the Fed slashed rates by 5-6 percentage points to turn the economy around after a recession.

Blanchard said the Fed probably has enough tools to handle a run-of-the-mill recession. But if it is another severe recession like the financial crisis, Blanchard urged the central bank to resort to previously unheard of policies. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/fed-told-it-should-buy-stocks-if-there...


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Looks like somebody forgot to tell his heirs about them before he died.

* * *

By Charlie Moore

Daily Mail, London

Sunday, September 9, 2018

A stash of fifth-century gold coins worth millions has been found buried in a pot under an Italian theatre.

Builders demolishing the former Cressoni theater in Como were stunned to discover the cache last Wednesday.

The Roman coins will be examined and dated before ending up in a museum, officials said.

... Dispatch continues below ...

Local archaeologist Luca Rinaldi told Qui Como: "We cannot speak of a precise value because they are not a marketable commodity, but certainly it is an exceptional find and therefore of inestimable value."

He said the coins dated from the fifth century, adding: "The state of conservation so good that even dating should be fast enough." ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6148791/In-mint-condition-Huge-...


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'There Was Just Gold Everywhere, as Far as You Could See' -- Miners Discover 90 kg of the Precious Metal -- Worth a Whopping $15 Million -- in Just Four Days

By Kelsey Wilkie

Daily Mail, London

Sunday, September 9, 2018

A $15 million gold discovery could change the fate of a struggling Western Australian town.

Workers at the Beta Hunt mine in Kambalda, 630 kilometers east of Perth, unearthed the gold in a "once in a lifetime discovery."

... Dispatch continues below ...

The discovery in a town that was built on the nickel mining has been described as "incredibly unique."

Kambalda has been fighting for survival, with low nickel prices forcing the closure of four large mines in just three years, the Australian Broadcasting Co. reported.

Miner Henry Dole nearly fell over when they made the discovery during a "business as usual" day. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6149359/Miners-discover-15milli...


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And when will South Africa's own government care about that issue?

* * *

'Will I Come Back Dead?' Human Costs of South African Gold

By Felix Njini

Bloomberg News

Sunday, September 9, 2018

After more than two decades of improving mine safety since the end of apartheid, South Africa's progress has stalled with an increase in gold-mining deaths.

More than 50 people have died in the country's mines in 2018, roughly the same number as this time last year. While annual death tolls are far lower than the 615 in recorded in 1993 -- the last full year of apartheid -- 2017 witnessed the first rise in 10 years.

... Dispatch continues below ...

"When you wake up in the morning you think, will I come back dead or alive?" said Sivelly Mangola, a 40-year-old rock drill operator at Sibanye's Driefontein mine who was once trapped for 30 minutes by a rockfall. "It's traumatizing." ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-09/-will-i-come-back-dea...


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9:24p ET Sunday, September 9, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

GATA Chairman Bill Murphy discusses the gold cartel -- the U.S. Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, Exchange Stabilization Fund, Bank for International Settlements, bullion banks, et al. -- in an interview with Michelle Holiday of Portfolio Wealth Global. The interview is 20 minutes long and can be heard at YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXglp8eIhEI&t=3s

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

It's the cornerstone of the rigging of all markets, and exposing it would overthrow the world financial system.

* * *

In a Crisis, Sometimes You Don't Tell the Whole Story

By John Authers

Financial Times, London

Friday, September 7, 2018

https://www.ft.com/content/1fcb4d60-b1df-11e8-99ca-68cf89602132

It is time to admit that I once deliberately withheld important information from readers. It was 10 years ago, the financial crisis was at its worst, and I think I did the right thing. But a decade on from the 2008 crisis (our front pages from the period are at ft.com/financialcrisis), I need to discuss it.

The moment came on September 17, two days after Lehman declared bankruptcy. That Wednesday was -- for me -- the scariest day of the crisis, when world finance came closest to all-out collapse. But I did not write as much in the Financial Times.

... Dispatch continues below ...

That the US had coughed up so much money suggested that AIG's guarantees could not be trusted -- so what collateral could possibly be good for a loan?

Meanwhile, the Reserve Fund, the largest US independent money market mutual fund, announced a loss on its holdings of Lehman bonds. As a result, its price would fall below $1 per share.

This was terrifying because money market funds, which hold short-term bonds, were treated as guaranteed. No money market fund had ever "broken the buck" (or fallen below a price of $1).

The funds were vital customers for short-term debt. Without them, how could banks or big companies fund themselves? Investors rushed to pull money out of money funds, while the funds' managers dumped corporate bonds for the safety of Treasury bills.

This was a run on the bank. The solvency of Wall Street's biggest banks was in question. Amid chaos, the yield on Treasury bills fell to its lowest since Pearl Harbor. Desperate people needed safety; interest rates did not matter.

Unlike 2007's run on Northern Rock in the UK, none of this was visible. Queues do not form around the block to buy T-bills. But Wall Streeters I spoke to thought the banking system was at risk of failing.

As it happened, I had a lot of cash in my bank account, at Citibank. I was above the limit covered by US deposit insurance, so if Citi went bust, a once inconceivable event that I could now imagine, I would lose money for good.

At lunch hour I headed to Citi, planning to take out half my money and put it into an account at the Chase branch next door. That would double the money that I had insured.

We were in midtown Manhattan, surrounded by investment banking offices. At Citi, I found a long queue, all well-dressed Wall Streeters. They were doing the same as me. Next door, Chase was also full of anxious-looking bankers.

Once I reached the relationship officer, who was great, she told me that she and her opposite number at Chase had agreed a plan of action. I need not open an account at another bank.

Using bullet points, she asked if I was married, and had children. Then she opened accounts for each of my children in trust, and a joint account with my wife. In just a few minutes I had quadrupled my deposit insurance coverage. I was now exposed to Uncle Sam, not Citi. With a smile she told me she had been doing this all morning. Neither she nor her friend at Chase had ever had requests to do this until that week.

I was finding it a little hard to breathe. There was a bank run happening, in New York's financial district. The people panicking were the Wall Streeters who best understood what was going on.

All I needed was to get a photographer to take a few shots of the well-dressed bankers queueing for their money, and write a caption explaining it.

We did not do this. Such a story on the FT's front page might have been enough to push the system over the edge. Our readers went unwarned, and the system went without that final prod into panic.

Was this the right call? I think so. All our competitors also shunned any photos of Manhattan bank branches. The right to free speech does not give us right to shout fire in a crowded cinema; there was the risk of a fire, and we might have lit the spark by shouting about it.

A few weeks later, the deposit protection limit was raised from $100,000 to $250,000 via an emergency economic stabilisation bill passed by Congress.

Ten years on, US banks are virtually the only players in the financial world plainly more secure than they were before. They have delivered and built up capital, and the risk of a sudden collapse is now far more distant.

The problem now is that disposing of that risk has obstructed the task of reducing other risks. Now, risks lie in bloated asset prices, levered investments, and in pension funds that hold them. The next crisis will not be about banking, but the insidious danger that pension funds deflate, leaving a generation without enough money to retire.

The bad news is that it is a crisis whose solution can always wait another day. Politicians can ignore it. The good news: I need not stay quiet this time.


-----

John Authers is the chief markets commentator and associate editor for the Financial Times.


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