Gold futures on the COMEX traded above $1,800/oz on Thursday as bad economic news continues to mount and market sentiment turns. On Thursday, the S&P/TSX Composite index fell nearly three percent. The S&P/ASX 200 was off 3.51%. Markets worry that Europe could pull the world economy down due to a spreading euro-zone fiscal crisis.
The week of August 15 was one of the most volatile stock market performances in years. Negative news about the global economy, gloomy forecasts and mixed signals on the jobs front battered stocks and sent gold repeatedly above $1,800/ounce.
Vancouver BC is undoubtedly one of the greatest mining centers in the world and British Columbia should be a mining powerhouse.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (pictured) said on Wednesday he will nationalize the gold industry, from mining through to processing, and move bullion reserves held in Europe to Venezuela's central bank. Toronto-listed Rusoro is the only large gold miner operating in Venezuela and the country does not feature in the top 20 global gold producing states. In late afternoon trading Rusoro had lost 6.67% in above average volumes. Rusoro holds a 50% interest in the Isidora gold mine that produced some 100,000 ounces last year. The Chavez government holds the rest.
I have been busy at the job of mining. Instead of writing something original, I post as follows an email I received which give numbers to prove what I have previously written: mining is good for the US economy and more mining is essential if we are to pull out of current economic slumping.
The Queensland state government has made an agreement with resource companies to fill skills gaps in the mining boom with members of coastal communities with high unemployment, Mining Weekly reports.
Premier Anna Bligh said the agreement to hold Work for Queensland jobs expos was reached at a summit between senior resource companies on the Gold Coast, with the expos to be held in Cairns, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, the Whitsunday region and Wide Bay Burnett starting in October. “This is about giving people choice and opportunity. We have significant numbers of Queenslanders, particularly in some regional areas, out of work and yet the mining industry is facing a skills shortage," Bligh said.
Global markets were on a roller coaster last week ever since Washington agreed to increase their debt ceiling and S&P downgraded the USA’s AAA credit rating to AA+.
The deadline for a crucial federal loan guarantee backing a proposed uranium plant in southern Ohio came and went Monday leading some to wonder if the project will ever get shovels in the ground, the Dayton Daily News reports. For the second time in three months, investors in a $5 billion uranium centrifuge project in Pike County have said they will give the federal government more time to offer a $2 billion loan guarantee. Ohio officials first unveiled plans for the plant in 2009, promising 4,000 jobs for an area with the worst unemployment in the US state.
South American Silver Corp. (TSX:SAC)(PINK SHEETS:SOHAF) reports the release of its unaudited interim consolidated financial statements for the three and six months ended June 30, 2011 and the related management's discussion and analysis of financial position and results of operations ("MD&A").
Despite the high unemployment rate in the United States, Catepillar's CEO says there is a desparate shortage of skilled workers, and many job vacancies are going unfilled in some of the most depressed regions of the country. "I talked to one of our great customers in Detroit. I spent some time with our distributors. They have 50 job openings today that they cannot fill, and guess what they are. They are service technician jobs," says Doug Oberhelman, chairman and CEO of Caterpillar. He was interviewed by CNBC on Friday.