In its 50 years 53.5 million ounces of #gold in #Krugerrands have been sold & over $21.5bn of forex generated for #SouthAfrica

Half a century as a store of value
Krugerrands remain a timeless investment for gold bulls.

Eleanor Becker / 4 May 2017 00:05

The renowned Krugerrand – dubbed the world’s first, most successful and widely-traded gold bullion coin – this year celebrates 50 years since its first minting.

It was mainly created to add value to, and create a premium for, SA gold sales. “It’s more than exceeded any expectations that could have been had at the outset,” says Richard Collocott, Rand Refinery’s executive head of marketing and a director of Prestige Bullion, the Rand Refinery and SA Mint joint venture.

Since inception, just less than 53.5 million ounces of gold in Krugerrands have been sold and over $21.5 billion of forex revenue generated.

Of the Krugerrands produced, about 90% have been sold internationally, says The Scoin Shop executive chairman Alan Demby.

“As an example of appreciation, a R10 000 investment in Krugerrand coins in 1967 would today be worth R6 million to R7 million,” he says. A 1967 proof Krugerrand trades for about R40 000 today.

In 2016 Krugerrands were the world’s top-selling gold coin, with $1.3 billion in sales – for the first time since 1980, says Collocott. “We anticipate that we should retain our number one position for 2017 also.” 

See the rest of the article here: 

Half a century as a store of value

The MasterMetals Blog

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Dominion #Diamond $DDC.TO officially in play Washington Corp. Takeover attempt moving forward

 

Finally Dominion Diamond and Washington Corp. have signed a Confidentiality Agreement which enhances the probability of receiving a formal bid from Washington Corp. for a takeover of the company.

 

The shares are trading near the high of the recent advance.

 

Text below from Scotiabank:

 

WashCorps and Dominion Diamond Finally Sign Confidentiality Agreement: Earlier this morning, Dominion Diamond Corp announced that the company has signed a confidentiality agreement with the Washington Corporations (among others) and have granted them access to a confidential data room. In the view of Scotiabank Senior Precious Metals Analyst Tanya Jakusconek, this is a significant positive development because it enhances the probability of DDC receiving a formal bid from Washcorps possibly at a higher valuation than the US$13.50 indicated in the original expression of interest letter. Having access to confidential data could allow WashCorps to ascribe value to projects/exploration potential for which there is minimal information in the public domain, notably the Misery Deep and Fox Deep projects, and further exploration potential on the properties. As recently as its Q4 conference call on April 13, DDC said that it had not yet come to terms with WashCorps on a confidentiality agreement, with the key sticking points being 1) WashCorps having veto power of DDC's CEO selection; 2) length of exclusivity period (45 days); and 3) terms of a standstill agreement. The terms of the executed confidentiality agreement were not disclosed and no timetable for the strategic review process was provided. DDC also provided a brief update on the ongoing CEO search, saying that the process is well underway and several qualified candidates have been interviewed, but no timetable for an appointment has been established.

 

Having access to confidential data could allow WashCorps to ascribe value to projects/exploration potential for which there is minimal information in the public domain, notably the Misery Deep and Fox Deep projects, and further exploration potential on the properties.

 

http://www.ddcorp.ca/investors/events-presentations/presentations

 

http://www.ddcorp.ca/investors/events-presentations/presentations

 

#Uranium - U.S. DOE reduces amount brought to market, brings total supply reduction to 4.8% with Kazatomprom

Below is a comment from Cantor Fitzgerald regarding the reduction of uranium dispersed into the market. This is a very positive development,and together with the cut of uranium supply by Kazatomprom, the uranium supply to the market will be reduced by 7.6 Mio. pounds U3O8 or 4.8% beginning in early 2017.

 

We attached the longer term chart of URA, an ETF of uranium mining companies. Late last year the downtrend was broken when Kazatomprom announced production cuts. Currently URA is checking back towards the upper downtrend line. Attachment 2 shows the top holding in the URA (Global X Uranium ETF).

 

Attachment 3 shows the long-term Point&Figure chart of URA (Global X Uranium ETF). The chart indicates strong support in the US$ 12 to13 area. Long term fundamentals for uranium are excellent as demand will be outstripping supply by a wide margin.

 

Event: The U.S. Department of Energy ("DOE") has released a Secretarial Determination that notably reduces the maximum amount of uranium that can be transferred to contractors for cleanup services at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

 

Bottom line: Very Positive. The development is positive to the uranium sector as it reduces the amount of uranium that was being dispersed into the market by the U.S. DOE. The 2M lbs U₃O₈ equivalent for the remainder of 2017 and 3.1M lbs U₃O₈ equivalent for 2018, are notably less than the 5.5M lbs U₃O₈ equivalent that was occurring in prior years. This is effectively an annual cut of 2.4M lbs from the market for the next two years, which is about half of the annual amount cut by Kazatomprom when it announced production reductions earlier this year of about 5.2M lbs U₃O₈. That announcement spurred a rally in the uranium spot price from US$20.25/lb to a peak of US$26.00/lb, or by 28%. We believe this announcement should provide a boost to the sector.

 

·        The U.S. DOE released a Secretarial Determination for the Sale or Transfer of Uranium that stipulated maximums of 800 MTU of UF₆ for the remainder of 2017 and 1,200 MTU for 2018. In prior years the maximums were set at 2,100 MTU.

·        This translates into about 2M lbs and 3.1 M lbs of U₃O₈ equivalent for those years. With the prior maximum equating to 5.5M lbs U₃O₈ equivalent.

·        The transfers were to contractors in payment for cleanup services at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The maximum amount was always transferred in the past and many industry participants believed that these transfers had an adverse impact on the market as it increased spot supply.

·        Compared to the announcement of a 10% annual supply cut from Kazatomprom earlier this year (~5.2M lbs U₃O₈), the announcement by the U.S. DOE that translates into an effective annual reduction of 2.4M lbs of U₃O₈ equivalent is 46% of the size.

·        The announcement by Kazatomprom sparked a spot uranium price rally from US$20.25/lb to a peak of US$26.00/lb, or by 28%. Uranium equities across the board experienced large gains during the same period.

·        Combined, the Kazakh and U.S. DOE cuts amount to 7.6M lbs of U₃O₈ equivalent, which is 4.8% of our forecast production at the beginning of 2017.

·        Our latest supply and demand forecast under a steady state US$40/lb U₃O₈ scenario is show below. This forecast projects likely shutdowns and production curtailments if realized prices are flat-lined at US$40/lb.

 

Uranium Supply & Demand Forecast (US$40/lb scenario)

Source: Cantor Fitzgerald Canada Research