I don't believe that the mentioned "African Gold Zimbabwe" is AFG, but the article does demonstrate rapid resurgence of E&P in Zimbabwe:

Mining Giants Plan Massive Diamond Prospecting

The Herald (Harare)

January 22, 2004
Posted to the web January 22, 2004

Harare

MINING giants, De Beers Zimbabwe Prospecting Limited and Circle Three Mining Corporation are proposing a massive diamond prospecting project that will see the two companies prospecting for the mineral in Gweru, Harare, Bulawayo and Kadoma mining districts.

The two mining companies intend to prospect for diamond in areas covering a total of 448 180 hectares.


Another company, African Gold Zimbabwe, has also undertaken to prospect for gold on two areas measuring 120 550 hectares within the Harare and Gweru mining districts.

De Beers Zimbabwe Prospecting Limited, Circle Three Mining Corporation and African Gold Zimbabwe have applied to the Mining Affairs Board for an exclusive prospecting order for 12 areas under the four mining districts.

In the latest issue of the Government gazette, the Mining Affairs Board said De Beers, Circle Three Mining and African Gold Zimbabwe intend to prospect for diamonds and gold over an area of approximately 568 730 hectares from the three areas.

"The applicants intend to prospect for diamond within the areas, which have been reserved against prospecting pending determination of this application.

"Prospecting authority is sought upon registered base mineral blocks within the reservation," read part of the notice.

One of the two diamond prospecting projects to be undertaken by Circle Three Mining measures 65 000 hectares and is bounded by a line commencing on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border approximating five kilometres.

All areas, which have been earmarked for prospecting are within the 15 000 hectares and 65 000 hectares range and are mostly in the traditional mineral bearing areas of the country.

The proposal to prospect for diamond in the country comes at a time when the US$41 million Murowa Diamond Mine has started to operate following the successful relocation of 141 families which were on the mining site.

Mining is one of the sectors which has been depressed over the last five years but some of the players in the industry have said investors should look at non-traditional minerals.

An example that is often given is that of platinum, which is fast becoming the world's most lucrative mineral.

The mining of diamond in Zimbabwe is also fast gaining pace and it is expected that some of the mining projects would create a lot of employment.

Relevant Links

Southern Africa
Mining
Zimbabwe

AFG - Punters paying well over thr offer price today, a sea of blue buy trades..

Anyone care to offer a view on where this is going next week. A bit of a paradox is an undesrstatement, small investors are piling in expecting a strong move upwards but the MM's are holding it back possibly due to the share placing. would it be a good move to get in at 13p at the open on monday, does anyone have any idea when the news releases are expected out? Thanks.

Hi ehall, I would expect a news release confirming the fundraising sometime this week. Could be as early as tomorrow or mid-week. The wider scope is that news on 2 more sites is due imminently. We have news on 2 sites already, both times on thursday last week and the week prior to that. Going along with that then one could percieve that we could have more good news this coming week.

A great short term buy if you decide to hold onto these for the next two or three weeks atleast. Medium term, would expect more good news with bigger gains.

With regards to the fundraising, there is talk that only 9 million shares will be coming onto the market and have been placed with instituional investors raising 900,000. In addition, this stock does seem to attract instituional buying(2*500,000 BUYS at 13 pence on Friday) so I would not be surprised to see more heavy buying tomorrow.

Best Wishes.

Sue.

Focus on G7 meeting
AFX
Guide to the main points from Saturday's meeting of G7 finance ministers and bankers

EXCHANGE RATES

-Finance ministers and central bank governors said they do not want to see excessive volatility or disorderly movements in exchange rates.

-They also called for greater exchange rate flexibility in economies where such flexibility is lacking.

-They therefore retained the call for exchange rate flexibility issued at the last G7 meeting in Dubai, but sought to make clear that it is aimed at Asian countries that use fixed exchange rate regimes or which intervene to stop their currencies strengthening too sharply.

-'We reaffirm that exchange rates should reflect economic fundamentals. Excess volatility and disorderly movements in exchange rates are undesirable for economic growth. We continue to monitor exchange markets closely and cooperate as appropriate. In this context, we emphasize that more flexibility in exchange rates is desirable for major countries or economic areas that lack such flexibility to promote smooth and widespread adjustments in the international financial system, based on market mechanisms,' they said in their communique.

-The wording represents a compromise between the euro zone and the US. The euro zone wanted the G7 to come out against excessive volatility and to signal that the burden of the dollar's downward adjustment should be shared by Asian economies, rather than falling disproportionately on the euro. The US wanted to keep the reference to flexibility and avoid an explicit call for an end to the dollar's slide.

-US Treasury Secretary John Snow said he reaffirmed the US 'strong dollar' policy at the G7 meeting and said the call for currency market flexibility does not contradict this policy.

-Asked if the reference to economies which lack currency flexibility was targeted at China, Snow said: 'I will let the statement speak for itself.'

-European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet said it is important that financial markets understand that there is now a consensus within the G7, but he declined to comment on the possibility of central banks intervening in the foreign exchange market to curb excess volatility.

-Japanese Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said Japan is not the target of the call for more flexibility in exchange rates despite its large-scale intervention to prevent the yen rising too sharply.

-'Japan is not at all the country which lacks flexibility in currencies,' he said.

-He also declined to comment on whether the phrase is targeted at China.

-Tanigaki said he told Snow that Japan will continue to intervene in the foreign exchange market to counter speculative currency movements. 'I insisted that if we are to see speculative currency movements, each country should be determined to do whatever is necessary to restore stability,' he said.

-Tanigaki said foreign exchange markets should study the wording of the communique closely before reacting. 'We discussed the matter fully to avoid any misunderstanding and paid close attention to the wording. I hope participants in the forex market read the statement again and again until they understand what it truly means,' he said

-The Dubai call for greater currency flexibility triggered a sharp dollar fall, particularly against the euro, whereas the G7 had simply wanted to call for the liberalisation of fixed currency regimes in Asia. The Dubai G7 communique was 'misinterpreted by the market', Tanigaki said.

-French Finance Minister Francis Mer said he hopes that the conclusions of the Boca Raton meeting will be 'more comprehensible than last time'.



ECONOMIC GROWTH

-The G7 said world growth has strengthened significantly since the Dubai meeting.

-'The global economic recovery has strengthened significantly since our meeting in Dubai and risks have diminished. Growth projections for 2004 have been revised upward to their highest in three years,' ministers and central bankers said in the communique.

-But they said the pace of growth remains uneven between G7 economies and much more remains to be done.



ECONOMIC POLICIES

-They said fiscal and monetary policies have helped strengthen the recovery.

-But emphasis also needs to be placed on the supply-side structural policies contained in the G7's Agenda for Growth initiative, in order to increase flexibility and raise productivity growth and employment, they said.

-Such strategies and sound fiscal policies over the medium term are key to addressing global current account imbalances, they said.

-The US committed to boost savings and support job creation by making healthcare more affordable.

-Germany and Italy said pension and tax reform are their priorities.

-France said it will advance healthcare reforms and reduce labour market constraints.

-Japan said it will undertake further fiscal expenditure and revenue reforms and continue to address financial sector reforms.

-The UK said it is targeting reductions in enterprise regulatory requirements.

-Canada said it will provide municipalities with the resources they need for infrastructure investment by exempting them from the goods and services tax they now pay.



US FISCAL POLICY

-Snow said the Bush administration intends to cut the US budget deficit over five years, bringing the gap below 2 pct of GDP, which he said is low by historical standards.

-German Finance Minister Hans Eichel said Snow's plan is a 'good commitment.'

-Snow said US tax cuts have begun to have a positive impact on the domestic economy, and will help boost global growth.



ECB INTEREST RATES

-Trichet said no G7 partners called for any change in ECB interest rates.

-'There was no call for a change in our monetary policy,' he said.

-'There was a consensus that monetary policies (in the G7) are good and appropriate,' he said.



TRADE

-The G7 called for countries to resume the Doha world trade round 'which is pivotal to global growth and the alleviation of world poverty'.



ARGENTINA

-The G7 called on Argentina to 'engage constructively' with its bondholders in order to increase the participation rate in its debt restructuring.

-Ministers and central bankers said Argentina needs to implement policies in line with its agreement with the IMF.

-The comments can be seen as a 'stern message' to Argentina, which is proposing a reduction of 75 pct in the value of debt owed to its private sector creditors at a time when its economy is growing faster than expected, inflation is low and tax revenues are favorable, sources said.



IRAQ

-Iraqi Finance Minister Kamil al-Gailani, who attended the G7 meeting, said he expects increased revenues from oil production this year and repeated that daily output is up to 2 mln barrels per day, although he gave no projection for 2004 output.

-Iraq's central bank governor Sinan al-Shabibi said he expected a 'substantive percentage' of Iraq's debt to be forgiven by industrialised nations and hoped an aid package from the IMF could be agreed soon.

-G7 ministers and central bankers said they called on other countries to join them in reducing Iraq's debt burden and welcomed IMF/World Bank plans for financial and technical assistance.

-They said they welcome the completion of the currency exchange in Iraq and the removal of interest rate controls, and look forward to the approval of the new central bank law.



AFGHANISTAN

-The G7 also launched an action plan for Afghanistan in which they said they would help the Afghan government create a dynamic market economy, but they insisted that the country must stop its opium production.

-Ministers and central bankers said they will provide assistance which will produce 'visible and measurable' results by June, and that they will work with creditors to ensure that Afghanistan's debt burden is bearable.

-But they said the production of opium is a major threat to the country's security, economic growth and reconstruction.

-Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani, who also attended the G7 meeting, said the country will be looking for 25 bln usd of reconstruction aid at an international donors conference which will be held in Germany on March 30-31,

-'This conference will enable us to discuss our needs for the seven years ahead. The total amount of support that we are looking for is 25 bln usd,' he said.

-In addition to the 25 bln usd of aid for reconstruction, Afghanistan is looking for 3.5 bln usd to fund a working budget over seven years, he said.

-Afghanistan is aiming to increase GDP per capita to 500 usd a year in 10 years time, from 186 usd currently, he said.

-The March 30-31 conference will be organised by the German government, probably in Berlin, and will bring together all potential donors, he said.

-The G7 said it welcomed progress on reform and reconstruction in Afghanistan and the renewed efforts to collect revenues from the provinces.

-G7 countries call on others to join them in reducing Afghanistan's debt burden.



TERRORIST FINANCING

-To combat terrorist financing, the G7 urged all countries to strengthen their asset freezing regimes and to combat abuse of the informal financial sector and non-profit organisations.

Thanks Seuhelen, tomorrow morning might be an opportune time to buy AFE and AFG as both are expecting news soon. I feel that AFE is a bit stretched financially and needs a partner, there appears to be more value with AFG. what is the relevance of the above, have I missed it?

Good start today, price up to 13.5-15.0 pence, up 11.7% with good volume.

It is just what happened at the G7 meeting this weekend. A guidance to the main ambitions in the future for the different countries eHall.

Some large buys have just come through the system. A couple of 250,000 purchases along with a 500,000 purchase at 14.75 pence (instituional buying?)

1 million T trade reported at 13.5 pence (think is a buy), has push the price up to 13.25-14.75 pence.

Personal view: Get your gold while it's still in the ground
By Jim Slater (Filed: 09/02/2004)


Investors who believe, as I do, that gold is in the early stages of a bull market have to decide whether to buy bullion or invest in gold mining shares. I recommend the latter because of the leverage.



The first example of the leverage is that the total market capitalisation of all the gold mining stocks is less than 0.5pc of the stock market capitalisation of all stocks. Investors would only need to re-allocate a tiny proportion of their assets to bullion and gold mining stocks to rocket-propel their prices far beyond previous highs.

A gold mine that produces gold at $200 an ounce offers relatively low leverage. With gold at $400 an ounce, on a rise to $450, profits would increase by 25pc against 11pc for bullion. With a rising gold price it would be much more rewarding, albeit potentially riskier, to invest in more marginal mines.

One that produces gold with a break-even point of $350 an ounce would be making $50 an ounce with gold at $400. An 11pc rise in the gold price would double the mine's profits. Junior mines usually have further development work to do before they begin to produce gold. Therefore their gold resources will not be classified as reserves and are likely to be described as inferred resources.

When buying the shares of first- and second-tier producing gold mines in America and Canada, investors pay an average of approximately $135 per ounce for their gold reserves in the ground. With a non-producing junior company investors pay an average of $45 an ounce for their resources.

In late 2002, when I co-founded the company that was recently reversed into Galahad Gold, the gold price was just over $300 an ounce and gold shares were very cheap.

We decided to buy as much gold and precious metals as possible and set a limit of less than $10 an ounce for gold in the ground. We managed to buy into two significant deposits at well below that level. Now that gold has risen by $100 an ounce and gold shares have had a good run, we have lifted our limit to $20 an ounce, which still provides excellent leverage.

To obtain the maximum leverage it clearly makes sense to buy gold in the ground as cheaply as possible. The cost per ounce is determined by dividing the fully diluted market capital (less any obviously surplus cash) by the number of ounces of gold in reserve and resource estimates. However, such a simplistic measure needs some additional protective criteria to help eliminate the wrong-uns.

The other protective criteria we bear in mind are:

1 The resources should be in a politically stable country. America, Canada and Australia come immediately to mind as the three main countries that qualify. In contrast, for example, in Russia, it can be very difficult to register a title properly, in South Africa black empowerment can be an issue and in Colombia you might be kidnapped.

2 The environmental position needs to be relatively straightforward. In California for example, the regulations are so onerous that the cost of production is usually prohibitive.

3 The resources must be calculated in accordance with the regulations of the country in question. In Canada, for example, National Instrument 43-101 outlines the criteria, which include economic viability.

4 The management must have either developed a deposit and sold it to a major or brought a mine into production.

5 The company must have the financial capability to raise further funds.

I recommend investors to try to identify (with the help of their brokers if necessary) gold mining companies whose gold resources can be invested in at less than $20 an ounce and also satisfy all of my protective criteria.

Many of the companies that make up the averages are not compliant with local regulations for calculating resources and are in unstable countries.

You can readily see, therefore, that the companies you select using my protective criteria should be better than average and this will provide a relatively safe ride to the $45 average level and a consequent doubling of your money.

As the mine is developed, there is a longer joyful journey towards the $135 average for first- and second-tier producing mines. There would be some equity dilution to raise funds to cover the equity portion of capital costs but frequently this is offset by substantial increases in resource estimates as the mine is developed.

I have over-simplified my approach. There are many other factors that complicate the position, such as other metals, for example copper, which may have to be mined in tandem to make the whole project economic. Sometimes a whole suite of metals might be involved. There are also questions of grade, metallurgy, working costs, capital costs and the time lag before production is likely to commence.

However, the key criterion of a low cost of gold per ounce strengthened by protective criteria is very simple and highly leveraged. Given a rising gold price, I am confident that, on balance, it will substantially outperform other ways of investing in junior gold shares.

Jim Slater is deputy chairman and financial director of Galahad Gold

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2004/02/09/ccpers09.xml&sSheet=/money/2004/02/09/ixcoms.html

Delayed 200,000 buy reported at 13.75 pence.

Today's Leaders and Laggards:

African Gold rose 15.6% to 14.75p. On 5 February it said it had bought a 52% controlling interest in the Akrokeri gold lease located on the Ashanti Belt in Ghana through a joint venture with Birim Goldfields. The lease has a common boundary with the Obuasi Gold Mine which has to date produced 42m oz of gold.

Market report: Monday close
Michael Clark, Evening Standard
9 February 2004

HE falling dollar is driving up world demand for raw materials, which is good news for miners. They were among some of the best performing blue-chips today with broker Cazenove recommending the sector to clients while US investment bank JP Morgan has raised its price forecast for copper by 30% and coal by 23%.

http://www.thisismoney.com/20040209/nm74062.html

SAN FRANCISCO (AFX) -- Gold futures closed an eight-session high, with April gold at $407.40 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up $3.20, or 0.8 percent for the session. The precious metal managed to move higher despite some strength in the U.S. dollar, but most traders expect the dollar to see further declines, which would boost investment demand in gold.

Increasing gold prices, must be good. watch out for the MM's on this one, they're covering their backs. My buy was reported about 2 hours later and showed as a sell. The wide spread (ridiculously wide) could imply imminent news and the MM's are worried about a breakout and are trying to deter trade. keep a close eye on AFG.

EHALL........
Glad to see you mention this business about MM's reporting their trades.
I had a case a few weeks ago, when my purchase was later reported as a sale.
And yes, I did swear at my computer screen!
So what value is their in monitoring the Buys/Sells.....
How can we try and stay ahead.
Good luck to all us holders

Investtech analysis:

Positive Candidate (Medium term) - Feb 9, 2004
Has risen 2060% since the bottom on 7 Apr 2003 at 0.63. Is within a rising trend, which indicates a continued growth. RSI is, however, overbought. The stock can still rise further, and we should see a decreasing RSI before this is used as a negative signal. The stock has support at p 1.50. The average difference between the highest and lowest price of the month is 55%. The risk is therefore high.

That 1,000,000 unknown deal looks like a SELL to me. What do you think?

Don't really know but I have seen some very large buys so doesn't really bother me what it is.

There was a 250,000 buy at 12.7 pence this afternoon, appeared in the sell column. In addition, a 144,000 buy at 13.25 pence reported after close.

Volume was very low and the MMs not surprisingly tried to get some stock back for the impending good news.

Should easily recover tomorrow with volume back up and would expect another good news release on thursday or friday.

9th Annual Investing in African Mining Conference
INDABA 2004
February 10-12, 2004
Cape Town International Convention Centre
Cape Town, South Africa

The INDABA conference is one of the world's largest and most important conferences on mining issues. Held annually, the Indaba conference is one of the most prestigious in the mining industry, attracting nearly 2000 high-level participants from international mining companies, the global investment community, major consulting firms, exploration companies, suppliers of mining equipment and services, and members of official delegations from more than 20 African countries. It provides up-to-date information on mineral resource policies from African countries and on new trends and opportunities in the industry. It is Africa's most important mining event and the world's leading gathering of global policy makers and international finance personnel. INDABA introduced the international investment community to mining interests throughout the African continent.

Organized by International Investment Conferences, a world leader in natural resource investment conferences, this professional conference unites corporate and institutional investors, natural resource explorers and producers, government representatives and industry specialists. Admission is limited to professional investors, industry and governments.

More than 25 African ministries have participated in the past. The event continues to bring increased mining investment in Africa and has also been successful in terms of new business opportunities for Canadian companies.

Held this year at the new Cape Town International Convention Centre, this three-day conference offers an expanded program with a full schedule of presentations, panels and plenary sessions.

South Africa is one of the most diverse and enchanting countries in the world. Exotic combinations of landscapes, people, history and culture offer a larger-than-life experience for the visitor in search of a truly unique and inspiring experience. The Arabella Sheraton Grand Hotel Cape Town is interlinked to the Cape Town International Convention Centre (The new home for INDABA) and is situated at foreshore in the heart of Cape Town. Many of the world's scenic wonders are within a day's drive of the city centre.

Additional information is available, in English only, at the International Investment Conferences web site.