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

Gold flat, speculative buying lifts silver


Spot silver rose in Asia as speculative precious metals players shifted their focus away from a steady gold market.

Buying from funds and other speculative players, notably from Japan, helped lift spot silver as high as $6.71 a troy ounce, traders said.

Silver was quoted at $6.67/oz, up 7 cents from Tuesday's Comex close. While the part-precious, part-industrial metal is fundamentally less appealing than gold or copper, speculative money was chasing silver on the belief that it represents a cheaper way of playing the metals market, a Tokyo trader with a large Japanese dealer said.

In addition, the correlation between silver and copper has strengthened of late, given silver's increasing use in electronic applications and its diminishing use in jewellery.

Thus silver also got a lift Tuesday from the roughly 2% gain in the London Metal Exchange copper price, a Sydney trader pointed out.

The buying interest also spilled over onto the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, where all silver futures contracts soared.

The most actively traded December 2004 contract jumped Y0.49 per gram to close at Y22.98/gram, while the new benchmark February 2005 contract closed at Y22.92 following its first day of trading. Volume across all contracts totalled 13,722 lots.

Speculative players also bid up spot platinum in early Asian trading Wednesday with the metal rising as high as $863.50 a troy ounce.

However, long liquidation eventually took hold, traders said, sending platinum down to $858/oz, down 50 cents from Tuesday's Nymex close.

Meanwhile, gold continued to tread water in Asia, as players awaited further direction from the all-important currency market.

Spot gold was quoted at $404.05 a troy ounce, down 25 cents from the Comex close. "For the short term, it looks like we will be range-bound on the euro, so that means gold will probably be range-bound too," the Tokyo trader explained.

Several traders and analysts who have noted the thinner-than-usual trading volumes of the past few days believe the yellow metal has settled into a roughly $400/oz to $405 near-term range.

However, any sudden move in the currency market, particularly the key euro-U.S. dollar cross-rate, would likely immediately be reflected in bullion, they say.

But following yesterday's Comex options expiry, which spurred buying and helped gold briefly outperform the euro, the expiry of over-the-counter options later today is also being watched closely by some players.

"The large OTC expiry today, will be an important event in the gold market with the possibility of a large move after the expiry has passed," UBS said in a note to its Asian clients Wednesday.

As in the spot market, gold was muted on Tocom Wednesday, with the most actively traded December 2004 contract closing unchanged at Y1,403/gram.

The new benchmark February 2005 contract made its debut with a close at Y1,401. Volume across all contracts totalled 66,210 lots.

Tocom platinum futures were mixed despite very heavy volume of 120,772 lots. The most actively traded December 2004 contract slipped Y1/gram to close at Y2,838 while the new February 2005 contract finished at Y2,820.

Finally, Tocom palladium jumped along with silver, with the December 2004 contract gaining Y18/gram to close at Y809. The new February 2005 contract wrapped up its first day at Y806 and total volume reached 1,715 lots.


25 February 2004

It's all good news for gold

By: Tim Wood


Posted: 2004/02/24 Tue 15:43 EST | Mineweb 1997-2004


NEW YORK (Mineweb.com) -- There is a simple reason Dr Martin Murenbeeld is widely regarded as one of the best prognosticators on gold in the world – he’s been calling the price remarkably accurately.
Let’s step back and recall what he said in May last year about the gold price in the first quarter of this year – he assigned a probability weighted average price of $378 per ounce based on his preferred scenario. For the December quarter he came up short at $375 – but consider that his “C” scenario projection was $413 – 7 months before the event.

Some may carp about the lack of precision, a churlish objection since Murenbeeld provided a base of comfort rather than rampant speculation, and he was straying far further into the future than any real or imagined competitor.

At the end of last year the forecast was updated and gold bugs will be cheering to the rafters – his statistical soothsaying rests on a probability weighted average of $413 and ounce with increases all the way to the second quarter of 2005 (see table).



Murenbeeld provided a distillation of the key gold price drivers in a presentation hosted by Glencairn Gold earlier this month.

Central Banks
Will continue to sell gold because of fiscal priorities and monetary sea changes, principally in Europe.
A Washington Agreement rollover with limits on selling remains important to support gold prices.

Asian forex reserves
China and Japan have fought revaluation of their currencies by buying dollars; their portfolios need diversification.
Gold can be attractive as a neutral asset of strategic importance.
Only 1.55% of Asian reserves are in gold (1,932 tonnes).

New Mine Supply
Production lags price quite significantly.
Murenbeeld’s model projects declining production until after the end of the decade.
China and Russia are key players with no clear evidence of their eventual supply-demand balance with increased deregulation.

Hedging
Every 100 tonnes hedged or dehedged moves the price about $5.
“Hedgers didn’t hurt the price of gold all that much, and now won’t add to the price of gold all that much.”

Dollar & current account
The dollar is the most important factor affecting gold with a correlation of 0.56.
US policy favours a weak dollar to stimulate domestic growth.
US current account balance suggests “protracted dollar bear market”.
Deficit is hovering at a record 5% of GDP.
Fed has signalled it would be comfortable with a further 17% fall in the dollar
Current account deficit cannot shrink unless:
o US economy tanks, or
o other countries grow faster, or
o dollar falls sharply;
Interest rate changes are only a warning for gold. Only when the dollar trend changes will gold react.

Monetary policy
Reflation policy underway to mop up bubble’s excess capacity and avoid depression.
G7 money supply and gold prices are strongly correlated.
Two impacts of high money supply – debasement and inflation.
Negative real interest rates persist and are always gold stimulative.
Debt levels are unusually high for households and government.

Demographics
Retiree / worker ratios in OECD countries are rising to unsustainable levels.
Government obligations are unsustainable by 2030. Responses can be
o Renege
o Cut services
o Raise taxes
o Print money

Other factors
History repeating itself with regard to how investment bubble shakes out, usually with good results for gold.
Purchasing power parity measures of gold suggest it is undervalued.
Floating gold should trade closer to PPP.

http://trinity.mips1.net/MGGold.nsf/UNID/TWOD-5WGSB2?OpenDocument

Opportunity to add on weakness(MMs really messing about with the price);

10.5-12.0 pence.

A lot of the prospecting mining stocks are down anyway; so is the FTSE.

MMs just trying to balance their books possibly as they did sell quite a few yesterday at cheaper prices before the news came.

Little recovery, 11.0-12.0 pence.

Another tick up on the offer, 11.0-12.5 pence, looking better.

More games being played with the price. Had to add at these cheap prices, now only 10.5-11.5 pence. The fundraising was done at 9 pence so it has to be a bargain at these prices.

The funding for development is in place at 9p and these gangsters in the city expect not a 1 to 3 fold return for the risk but normally and 5 to 10 fold return on little companies like this one.

10.5-12.0 pence.

we must have all been hopping for a big push upwards this morning,but the mms have different ideas.This is very strange with a positive news and yet the price have further drifted downwards,but its good to top up at these levels as sue says.

Good buying again reported this afternoon and after close including a 200,000 buy at 11 pence. Not a sell in sight.

Leaves to me believe the price drop is purely to gather more stock for the very big announcement that will come very soon on the last site.

Would hazzard a guess that it should come next week.

Current price of 10.5-12.0 pence will look very cheap and 20 pence + is just round the corner.

Weak Positive Candidate (Short term) - Feb 25, 2004
Has risen 667% since the bottom on 10 Oct 2003 at 1.50. 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. The stock has support at p 5.00 and resistance at p 15.00. High risk.

Weak Positive Candidate (Medium term) - Feb 25, 2004
Has risen 1740% since the bottom on 7 Apr 2003 at 0.63. Is within a rising trend, which indicates a continued growth. The stock has support at p 2.00 and resistance at p 15.00. High risk.

Neutral (Long term) - Feb 25, 2004
Has risen 1740% since the bottom on 7 Apr 2003 at 0.63. Has broken the ceiling of the falling trend, which indicates a slower initial falling rate. Has risen strongly since the positive signal from a inverse head and shoulders formation at the break through the resistance at 2.00. The objective at 6.40 is now met, but the formation still gives a signal in the same direction. Positive volume balance, i.e. high volume in days of rising prices and low volume in days of falling prices, strengthens the stock in the short term. The stock has support at p 3.00. High risk.

I think the prices will start to move significantly again once we get some kind of drilling results, possible farm in contracts and positive feasibility studies are announced. Most know that any mining exploring company is worth if produces some good results. Again fundamentals are the most important in this kind of risky investment, these will come apparent once all of the above are given. As for institutional investment, yes they put money (they are gambling, just like us, just like they do in any company that may grow one day. I also agree that few thousands shares bought are not really 'institutional investment' it could be anyone of us who is really a high risk taker. Like AFD and CWV, it has had its run for now. It is now up to AFG to demostrate they can take profits form their recent adquisitions. To me this is a long term investment with a high risk element since it depends a lot in how the dollar is behaving. Do u agree with me Sue and rest???

Agree.

Price 11.0-12.0 pence, up 2.2%. The blue has been a long time coming.

Price 11.5-12.5 pence, up 6.6%, looking much better.

Back to 11.0-12.5 pence, though some larger buys have come through.

There was a 500,000 purchase at 11 pence this morning as well.