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Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: German 'nein' leaves Italy and Spain in turmoil
How awful of those nasty Germans to resent paying for the loose living of others!
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By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The Telegraph, London
Monday, July 11, 2011
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/8631219/German-Nein-leaves-Italy-and-...
Italian and Spanish bond yields soared to post-EMU highs in a fresh day of credit turmoil after Germany blocked any meaningful measures to defuse the crisis.
Chancellor Angela Merkel called for more "frugality" in Italy, sticking to her script that Rome can solve its woes with an austerity budget. Her finance minister Wolfgang Schauble said any boost to the EU's E500 billion (L440 billion) bailout machinery was "out of the question."
... Dispatch continues below ...
Prophecy (TSXV: PCY) Secures Russian Far East Seaport Allocation
and Updates Ulaan Ovoo Mine Production
Company Press Release, June 14, 2011
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Prophecy Coal Corp. TSX-V: PCY)(OTCQX: PRPCF)(Frankfurt: 1P2) has arranged with the Port of Sovgavan in the State of Khabarovsk, Russia, so the company will have initial access to port allocation of 25,000 tonnes of coal per month starting this month, potentially expandable to 50,000 tonnes per month, representing 300,000 to 600,000 tonnes annually. Prophecy also will be assigned a coal storage area at the port.
This arrangement provides Prophecy's Ulaan Ovoo thermal coal mine with immediate access to the Asian seaborne export coal markets. Sovgavan is strategically located on the seaboard of the Russian Far East. The port is privately owned and can accommodate seagoing vessels of up to 160 meters in length, with the depth of loading site of 9.5 meters. The port has loading capacity of 6,000 tonnes per day and direct connections to Trans-Siberian railroads and uncongested Russian state highways.
Securing the port opens Prophecy to a significant number of coal buyers, and the company is placing top priority to conclude rail transport within Russia and coal offtake contracts.
Prophecy's Ulaan Ovoo mine commenced production in 2011. So far this year the mine has produced 200,000 tonnes of coal, which are being stockpiled. The average quality is 4,200 kcal/kg NAR with 5 percent ash and 0.5 percent sulphur. Those attributes compare favorably to the coal being purchased by local Russian and Mongolian power plants.
For the complete company statement, please visit:
http://www.prophecycoal.com/news_2011_jun14_Prophecy_Secures_Russian_Sea...
Mr Schauble denied reports that Berlin was ready to empower the fund to purchase Spanish and Italian bonds pre-emptively on the open market, a move seen by experts as vital to halt dangerous contagion to the larger economies.
The market's verdict on EU foot-dragging was instant and brutal. Yields on 10-year Spanish bonds smashed through the 6pc barrier for the first time since 1997, made worse by warnings from the Castilla-La Mancha region that its deficit had become "extremely serious."
Italian yields jumped 44 points to 5.7 percent, a level that starts to threaten the sustainability of the country's finances. Markit's iTraxx SovX Western Europe, Europe's sovereign stress gauge, saw the biggest one-day rise ever. "Contagion was the word on everybody's lips," said Gavan Nolan, Markit's credit chief.
EU leaders seem unable to keep pace with the fast-moving events. Eurogroup finance ministers focused yesterday on details of "burden sharing" for banks that lent to Greece, no longer the most urgent matter. A summit of top EU officials ended with no hint of how the crisis could be contained.
"We've painted ourselves into a corner. At this point, either someone -- Germany, the European Central Bank -- has to fundamentally shift position or everything blows up," an EU official told Reuters.
Berlin has resisted any move to buy or guarantee the bonds of distressed debtors, viewing it as a slippery slope towards a fiscal union and a breach of Germany's Basic Law. The ECB in turn has refused to buy Spanish and Italian bonds, saying it is the task of EU governments.
The euro tumbled over two cents to under $1.40 against the US dollar. Gold rose to $1,556 an ounce on safe-haven flows. Italy's stock market led the rout of global bourses, dropping 4 percent despite moves by the regulator Consob to curtail short-selling. Italian bank shares were pummelled again. Unicredit fell 6 percent, and Intesa SanPaulo fell 7 percent. London's FTSE 100 fell 1 percent, while the Dow was off 1.3 percent in early trading.
Escalating woes in Italy and Spain raise the stakes dramatically. The pair have E6.3 trillion of total debts between them. Jean-Claude Trichet, the ECB president, said Europe is now at "the epicentre of a global problem."
Yet EU attention remains focused on curbing the rating agencies, a campaign that is turning shrill. Viviane Reding, the EU Justice Commissioner, said the authorities must "smash the cartel of the three US rating agencies." Fitch is, in fact, French-owned.
Barclays Capital said EU leaders must recognise that Greece is insolvent and prepare for an orderly debt restructuring, perhaps one that shares the pain between private creditors and the EU taxpayer and gives Greece a way out of its trap by easing the debt burden by 60 percent.
Such a move requires back-stop defences to prevent contagion, perhaps by using the EFSF bailout fund to shore up Club Med bond markets. The solution is elegant; what lacks is political will.
Gary Jenkins at Evolution Securities said the EU cannot keep stalling. Italy's borrowing costs are ratcheting toward the fatal line of 7 percent. "It is worth remembering how quickly bond yields can get out of control by looking at what happened to Greek, Irish and Portuguese 10-year yields. What would keep me awake at night if I was a European finance minister is that we are only about 2 percent from potential disaster," he said.
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Golden Phoenix Shareholder Conference Call To Discuss
Start of Gold Production at Mineral Ridge Gold Project
Company Press Release, June 27, 2011
SPARKS, Nevada -- Golden Phoenix Minerals, Inc. (GPXM) has scheduled its second quarter 2011 shareholder conference call for Tuesday, July 12. Shareholders are invited to participate in the call, will begin at 1 p.m. Pacific and 4 p.m. Eastern time.
Company management will provide updates on accomplishments in the second quarter and explain how the company's royalty mining growth strategy is expected to unfold in the second half of the year.
Topics to be updated include the start of gold production at Mineral Ridge, developments on the Vanderbilt Silver and Coyote Fault Gold projects, the Shining Tree and Peru projects, and drilling plans for 2011. Questions from shareholders will be answered as well.
"Thirteen months after closing the joint venture between Golden Phoenix and Scorpio Gold, the Mineral Ridge property has entered gold production," said Tom Klein, CEO of Golden Phoenix. "Last week both companies completed joint tours of Mineral Ridge. We look forward to providing a complete update on our conference call."
Participation in the shareholder conference call can be arranged by telephone, webcast, or Skype. To participate, dial 952-356-0015 and enter Conference ID 419582#.
For the company's full press release, please visit:
http://goldenphoenix.us/pressreleases/
Golden Phoenix (GPXM) is a U.S. mining company with international exposure to gold, silver, and strategic metals. The company's business model combines project generation and royalty mining that offers the potential for exploration upside, coupled with the backing of production and future royalty streams. View company videos here: http://www.GoldenPhoenix.us
