Palladium price consensus forecasts point to end of the rally

Richmont Mines Inc. (TSX:RIC)(NYSE Amex:RIC) is pleased to announce financial and operational results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2011. Financial results are based on International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") and dollars are reported in Canadian currency, unless otherwise noted.

The wholesale-market gold price continued to fall on Thursday morning in London - hitting a 1-week low of $1480 per ounce - as world stock and commodity markets took another tumble. Silver fell to $32.50 per ounce at the London Fix, nearly $7 down from Wednesday and 33% below the 31-year high of $48.70 set on April 28.

Robert Quartermain's refrain in a Pretium Resources (TSX: PVG) presentation at the Hard Assets conference in New York, May 9-10, was: "This is why I came out of retirement." Quartermain, Pretium president and CEO, was referring to the high-grades of gold at the Brucejack project in BC, Canada, where drillholes have numerous times hit gold measured by kilograms per tonne, not by the usual grams or fractions of ounces per tonne.

Following on the footsteps of an ambitious, $80 billion plan to invest in Quebec's north announced earlier this week, the provincial government is looking at changing its Mining Act, the Montreal Gazette writes: Bill 14, amending Quebec’s Mining Act “in keeping with the principles of sustainable development” was presented Thursday in the Quebec National Assembly.

Silvercorp Metals reported in Q4 that net earnings were up 29% to $12.6 million, or $0.07 per share, compared to net earnings of $9.8 million, or $0.06 per share, in the same quarter last year. It also said that quarterly cash flows from operations up 44% to $34.3 million, or $0.20 per share, from $23.8 million in the same quarter last year. Production was 1.05 million ounces of silver in the quarter, resulting in a record annual production of 5.3 million ounces of silver and achieved the fifth consecutive year of production growth.

IAMGOLD Corporation reported its unaudited consolidated financial and operating results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2011. Net earnings were $162.3 million ($0.41 per share), an increase of $102.1 million compared to the first quarter of 2010, and operating cash flow was $205.8 million ($0.55 per share1), representing an increase of 177% from the first quarter of 2010. "Our strong first quarter results reflect our focused strategy to maximize the value of mines that we own and operate," said Steve Letwin, IAMGOLD's President and CEO. "Attributable gold production was up 41% year-over-year driven chiefly by the inclusion of Essakane along with higher recoveries at Rosebel. We continue to benefit from higher gold prices and are implementing various initiatives to reduce our cash costs."

Africa's biggest gold miner AngloGold Ashanti (ANGJ.J: Quote) reported a return to profit in the first quarter on Wednesday following its hedge-book buy back and said it expects higher output in the current three months. AngloGold said adjusted headline earnings per share for the January-March quarter were 53 U.S. cents compared to a loss of 199 cents in the previous one after it had eliminated its hedge book last year to reap the full benefit of record gold prices.

Australian contractor Barminco has signed the company's largest contract in its 21-year history with the renewal of its contract with AngloGold Ashanti Australia to deliver underground mining services at the 600,000 t/y Sunrise Dam gold mining operation, located 56 km south of Laverton in Western Australia. The company has been contract mining at Sunrise Dam since October 2003.

The quest to commercialize one of Latin America’s last undeveloped major gold deposits is one major step closer to a prospectively big pay day for its unlikely owner - a small gold explorer named Exeter Resources. A Canadian-headquartered company, Exeter recently completed a major milestone development. It announced a positive metallurgical study for the sprawling Caspiche gold-copper deposit in northern Chile’s gold-rich Maricunga mineral belt.