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

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.

Investtech:

Positive Candidate (Medium term) - Feb 10, 2004
Has risen 2020% since the bottom on 7 Apr 2003 at 0.63. Is within a rising trend. Continued positive development within the trend channel is indicated. 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. High risk.

Weak Positive Candidate (Short term) - Feb 10, 2004
Has risen 960% since the bottom on 30 Sep 2003 at 1.25. Has broken through the floor of a rising trend channel. This indicates a slower rising rate at first, or the start of a more horizontal development. RSI is 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 4.10. High risk with an average difference between the lowest and the highest price of the month of 56%.

Up 1p to 13-14 at the open and you just know that the MM isn't publishing any of the trades that are going through, this is disgraceful. They will all show as sells in a couple of hours so that they can fool the market and make themselves loads of money at the expense of the private investors. something should be done about this, who gains from delayed trades anyway, looks like a good day ahead for AFG though!

Excellent volume today and 5*100,000 buys have already been reported. Lines of 100,000 buys have gone through at 13.5 pence.