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Peter Brimelow: Gold bushwhacks bears again

Section: Daily Dispatches

By Peter Brimelow
MarketWatch.com
Monday, June 4, 2012

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-bushwhacks-bears-again-2012-06-04

NEW YORK -- It’s happened again: Looming weekends seem to be getting dangerous for gold bears. And, once again, gold bulls sense a major brea-out.

Two weeks ago, after making a new low for the year, gold violently reversed.

Last Friday saw an even more violent reversal. Gold for August delivery saw a gain of 3.6%, and there was a gain in the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index of 6.74%. In contrast, two weeks ago, gold and shares gained only 2.41% and 4.45%, respectively.

Last time, gold subsequently lost momentum as May wore on. But gold shares did not.

... Dispatch continues below ...


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Prophecy Platinum (TSXV:NKL) Announces Encouraging Rhodium, Ruthenium, Osmium,
Iridium Assays from WS11-188 of Wellgreen Project in Yukon Territory, Canada

Company Press Release
May 25, 2012

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada -- Prophecy Platinum Corp. (TSX-V: NKL; OTC-QX: PNIKF; Frankfurt: P94P) is pleased to provide results of full spectrum 6E (Platinum, Palladian, Rhodium, Ruthenium, Osmium, and Iridium) analysis of platinum group elements on the first batch of samples from the company's wholly-owned Wellgreen PGM-Ni-Cu project in the Yukon Territory, Canada.

The company enlisted Activation Laboratories (Actlabs) of Ancaster, Ontario, to conduct a full-spectrum 6E analysis of samples taken from the 2011 drill hole WS11-188. Adding Rh, Ru, Os, and Ir to Pt and Pd increased the total PGE content (6E) by an average of 28 percent, based on a population of 90 samples, most of which are from disseminated sulphide-type mineralization.

Assay results with 6E exceeding 0.50 ppm (0.5 g/t) (excluding copper and gold assays) are tabulated at Prophecy's Internet site and are available with assay results from the entire batch of 90 samples here:

http://prophecyplat.com/news_2012_may25_prophecy_platinum_announces_rare...



"Trader" Dan Norcini points out on his website: "The last time we had three consecutive weeks during which the mining shares outperformed the broader U.S. equity markets was in late October/early November of 2011. While May this year has been atrocious for the S&P 500, it has been an excellent month for the miners. June is starting out on a good note to say the least. ..."

This will be pleasing for the respected institutional service The Gartman Letter, which has been making friendly comments on gold shares for some time.

Whipsawed out of half its gold position Wednesday, TGL bounced back by establishing a long gold/short S&P 500 Index holding on Thursday. After Friday’s slaughter in stocks, this might be an idea that some of Gartman’s numerous institutional followers find worth emulating.

Another service that has been saying interesting things is Gene Arensberg's Got Gold Report, which follows the microcap gold shares but does extremely sophisticated work on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) commitment of traders (COT) report.

After gold's strong mid-month bounce, GGR published on May 18 a report entitled "Help Is On The Way," drawing attention to the important move in gold shares that week, after a period of unresponsiveness.

Last weekend, after a discouraging week, GGR published a very long and complicated video discussion of the COT data.

Entitled "COT -- Funds High Short Positions Major Rally Fuel for Gold, Silver," this argued, with plentiful charts, that the futures situation was as extreme as in the bottom in the crisis of mid-2008 -- which occurred directly before the global financial crisis.

This week Arensberg's comment on the HUI chart is bold: "A monumental reversal may, repeat may, be under way. ... This is beginning to feel like a real deal post-capitulation rush higher."

Most letter editors are understandably focused, with horrified fascination, on the consequences of the death throes of the euro.

Perhaps that's why a normally significant gold item got little attention, except at the LeMetropoleCafe website: Turkey's gold imports in May rocketed 150% over February to 19.47 tonnes -- the highest since summer 2008 and a significant amount in anyone's book.

Middle East press reports say almost all this metal is going to Iran.

What could the Iranians know?

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Wednesday-Thursday, June 20-21, 2012
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Monday-Wednesday, June 25-27, 2012
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Sona Discovers Potential High-Grade Gold Mineralization
at Blackdome in British Columbia -- 13.6g over 1.5 Meters

From a Company Press Release
November 22, 2011

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- With its latest surface diamond drilling program at its 100-percent-owned, formerly producing Blackdome gold mine in southern British Columbia, Sona Resources Corp. has discovered a potentially high-grade gold-mineralized area, with one hole intersecting 13.6 grams of gold in 1.5 meters of core drilling.

"We intersected a promising new mineralized zone, and we feel optimistic about the assay results," says Sona's president and CEO, John P. Thompson. "We have undertaken an aggressive exploration program that has tested a number of target zones. Our discovery of this new gold-bearing structure is significant, and it represents a positive development for the company."

Sona aims to bring its permitted Blackdome mill back into production over the next year and a half, at a rate of 200 tonnes per day, with feed from the formerly producing Blackdome mine and the nearby Elizabeth gold deposit property. A positive preliminary economic assessment by Micon International Ltd., based on a gold price of $950 per ounce over eight years, has estimated a cash cost of $208 per tonne milled, or $686 per gold ounce recovered.

For the company's complete press release, please visit:

http://www.sonaresources.com/_resources/news/SONA_NR18_2011-opt.pdf