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

Yes very much so azhar. The price closing at 8.0-9.5 pence today, very cheap indeed.

Buys roughly 550,000 today vs sells 567,216 today.

So in fact we didn't have that many sells today, equalled to the buys. Sells drying up and have been this week.

The company a year ago that was on it's knees, convinced 5 directors to put up 100K each, and several insitutions to subscribe for 27million shares at 9p raising 2.44m.

Teeling has reduced his responsibilities elsewhere to concentrate on AFD, and AFG, and PRE.

Due diligence, I suspect, because they have only a couple of mining engineers is taking a little longer than we would like. BUT when it happens we shall be the beneficiaries.

SUE buys 281,617 vs sells 757,030

SUE figures are right.

A majority of the buys appeared in the sell column. Trades over 18,000 shares are delayed by an hour hence for larger trades it is important to note the time of the trade and compare the time of the trade with the intraday chart and one should then be able to deduce whether a trade was a buy or sell.

Buys roughly 550,000 today vs sells 567,216 today.

This little piece just turned up on the tips emailing:

The 20 tips made by t1ps.com in 2003 soared by an average of 53%. But the site offers so much more. Wednesday sees the fortnightly webcast with the UK's top short-seller Evil Knievil - logon now to find out his latest targets. And the next four days also sees exclusive webcasts with Irish resources tycoon John Teeling, Kenmare Resources and African Eagle. There might even be another hot tip on the way! To make sure that you don't miss out click here

Gold has been consolidating for 7-8 weeks (?) Some Fund
managers have started buying into Gold.. (A safe haven given recent
market uncertainty and renewed global threats). Gold looks set for
outbreak and perhaps a fairly sharpish rise soon.. That'll only help
AFG.

John Teeling delivered for PET, when that had been walked down to 20p by mms.
It rose by 100% within 1.5 days.. (AFG has just been receiving the
same mm dealer's treatment for a week or two - they will squeeze
back whatever they can from T trades.. Extended credit can be very
high risk) Just like PET recently and AFD on Monday, most retail
investors are fully aware of AFG mate, and it's imminent likely
considerable bounce from the bottom ! For chartists, t/a indicators
have all conjoined, which whilst perhaps looking weak, is usually
in fact a very strong sign of imminent outbreak and sharp recovery,
which imv on AFG means perhaps 14.5p again ?

IMO AFG is going to spring back like AFD started to from Tuesday
morning,although the bounce back here could be far quicker. MMs
wont mess about putting prices straight back up and fast. I know
I joked a little bit the other day about delayed trades and premiums
being paid around 11.5p, but that was on very low volumes. When
retail return to AFG, the results could be spectacular, and on the
expected and hoped for news, then as you've offered 15p to 25p seems
more than possible, perhaps fairly soon..

AFG only looks set to do similar to what PET did.
Most retail investors seem happy to be leaving these opportunities
more and more until the last minutes, hence sometimes the lows can
get to you.. But you clearly have faith in the company and your
investment, and know that like AFD and others, very often you only
have to wait so long, before suddenly everyone is all over your
stock again with great enthusiasm.. -talk of the town..LOL !

That was a significant post ! As if you put together, the T/A indicators,
charts, RNSs and now John Teeling appearing on t1ps.com intercast,
with no doubt BUY tips - AFG is a "strong buy" and imv could do a PET very quickly.

COMEX gold ends higher after Baghdad Hotel blast
Reuters, 03.17.04, 3:16 PM ET

NEW YORK, March 17 (Reuters) - COMEX gold rose late Wednesday, escaping a tight range after an explosion that ripped through a Baghdad hotel and killed at least 25 motivated investors to buy the safe-haven metal.

Dealers said the investment fund buying seen in the last half hour of floor trade did not all seem entirely related to the midday blast, which destroyed the Mount Lebanon Hotel, used mainly by Iraqis and other Arabs.

The U.S. Army said it was probably a car bomb. Some U.S. civilians were wounded, according to a U.S. officer at the scene.

April gold ended up $4.50 at $407.10 an ounce, near the high of its $401.90-$407.50 range.

Spot gold rose to $406.50/7.25 from Tuesday's close at $402.00/2.80. London's afternoon fix was $402.75.

"I tend to think it was real buying," said Leonard Kaplan, president of Prospector Asset Management. "It doesn't appear to me like it would have been a terrorist-related event, because if that were the case you would have seen the effect in the dollar and you did not.

"The rally was strictly and solely in gold and silver," he added.

The dollar stayed firm, shaking off geopolitical concerns from the attacks in Baghdad and in Madrid last Thursday.

Gold's usual tight relationship with Europe's currency was less in evidence. It cleared its one-week, $395-$405 trading range, even though the euro stayed weak, ending at $1.2252/57.

"Funds were buying it. I know there was the news story out in the afternoon about the bombing in Baghdad, but that wasn't the whole thing certainly," said James Pogoda, a vice president of precious metals at Mitsubishi International Corp.

Pogoda said preset stop-loss buy orders accelerated the rally once the $405 and $406 levels were broken.

Spanish authorities said their investigation was in a decisive phase. Spain's El Pais newspaper reported that police believed the attacks which killed 201 people on packed commuter trains were carried out by people linked to a Moroccan Islamic group which it said was financed by al Qaeda, the organization blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America.

The Federal Reserve held U.S. interest rates at 45-year lows near 1 percent on Tuesday, citing the lack of inflation pressures and slow job creation. That maintained the relative appeal of hard assets like gold, which carry no yield, as alternatives to dollar deposits.

May silver rose 9.3 cents to $7.26 an ounce, in a $7.12-$7.275 range. Spot silver fetched $7.22/24, up from $7.13/15 late Tuesday. The fix was at $7.155.

NYMEX April platinum rose $4.40 to $906.80 an ounce. Spot was indicated at $905.00/910.00.

June palladium fell $6.30 to $275.30. Spot was priced at $271.00/276.00.

Copyright 2004, Reuters News Service

Price 8.5-10.0 pence, up 5.7% today. Massive upturn in volume today with nearly 850,000 shares already traded today. A big majority are buys that have appeared in the sell column. A 100,000 buy has been reported at 8.8 pence along with a 106,000 buy at 9.3 pence. Plus a lot of other good buys.

Volume past 1 milion already today.

BUYS = 757,970 vs SELLS = 320,763 so far today.

Buys outweigh sells by more than 2:1.

Price closing unchanged at 8.0-9.5 pence with healthier volumes.

Only a matter of time before we start seeing the big rises again.

BUSINESS NEWS
Gold touches $412 month high
Justin Brown
Posted Thu, 18 Mar 2004

Spot gold on Thursday touched a month high, due to increasing security concerns following bombings in Spain and Iraq, as well as expectations that the US dollar could weaken further, especially against the yen.

At 5.20pm, gold was quoted at $411.70 a troy ounce, up $4.32/oz from Wednesday's New York close of $407.38/oz. Earlier in the afternoon gold touched a month high of $412.40/oz.

"Gold is up, like silver, on good investor buying. Gold is also up on increased security concerns, following the bombings in Madrid and Iraq. There are expectations that there will be a more broad based weakening of the dollar, following the news that Japan won't intervene as much in the foreign exchange market," said London-based Barclays Capital analyst Kamal Naqvi.

Short-term Naqvi sees gold targeting $418/oz to $420/oz.

At 5.20pm, the euro was quoted at $1.2353 up $0.0116 from late trade in New York of $1.2237, while the yen last traded at 106.64 to the dollar, 1.61 yen firmer than late trade in New York of 108.25 on Wednesday.

The yen is currently trading at month highs.

"After the profit taking seen in late January and February, there are strong indications that speculators have begun to rebuild their long positions in gold," London-based UBS analyst John Reade said in a note on Thursday.

There has also been a reasonable increase in Asian physical demand for gold, due to seasonal demand out of India, which has been boosted by a good Monsoon, Reade added.

UBS is forecasting a higher dollar gold price with a one-month target of $420/oz and if the dollar does weaken sufficiently then a year-end target of $480/oz.

I-Net Bridge

There was a 250,000 buy today at 9.37 pence earlier on.

BUYS = 1,209,226 vs SELLS = 567,484 including trades reported after close.

Big return of buyers today with better volume closing at 1,841,710.

Buys outweighing Sells by more than 2:1.

Interest setting in again and with news on the horizon the share price is going to go very far north.

Make a change from going south!

Good news and should help confidence all round....breaking news from Sky

AL QAEDA TARGET TRAPPED



Osama bin Laden's second in command has been surrounded in Pakistan, officials have said.

Troops say they have cornered Ayman al-Zawahri in an operation near the Afghan border.

The operation, involving hundreds of troops and paramilitary rangers, has been carried out in the South Waziristan region.

The identity of the man surrounded has not been confirmed.

But President Pervez Musharraf said: "(Judging by) the resistance that is being offered by the people there, we feel that there may be a high value target."

Sky News' Foreign Affairs Editor Tim Marshall said: "Most people believe the number two is actually the brains (behind the al Qaeda network)."

And he added: "If it's true it is an enormous strike. It cannot be underestimated."

On Tuesday at least 41 people, including 15 soldiers and 26 suspected militants were killed in fighting in the area.

Army spokesman General Shaukat Sultan said there had been an unknown number of casualties in continuing action Thursday.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1127982,00.html

The "surprise inside" awaiting the bears

By Clif Droke
March 17, 2004

www.clifdroke.com

(A positive for gold stock investors?)

There is a potent "surprise inside" the broad market awaiting the bears like a trap in the forest. Once this trap springs shut it will produce the bears worst nightmare in the form of a massive short-covering rally. It could also produce a nice rally in the gold stocks, particularly among those listed on the NASDAQ.

What am I referring to? The "surprise inside" awaiting the bears when they start growling too loudly is the phenomenally high level of short interest on the QQQ. Right now it reads something like 60%, which is undoubtedly an all-time high reading. Do you realize what that means? That means the majority of all shares outstanding in the "Cubes" (which track the NASDAQ 100 index) are sold short. This high reading, in and of itself, is a major support undergirding this market and will also be the catalyst for a huge short covering rally in the not-too-distant future. I fail to see how this market can outright collapse in the face of such astronomical short interest. I also would be very surprised if this market didnt get an extraordinary short-covering rally in the near future based on this high reading. This should also have the effect of boosting the recently-depressed gold stocks, particularly on the NASDAQ.

To take one example, there is a well-known gold stock listed on the NASDAQ which currently has a short interest of over 11%! Thats pretty high for a gold stock, especially given where we are in the overall gold stock cycle (i.e., still early in the cycle). This could easily result in a nice-sized rally off the recent lows in this stock, especially once that tech sector short interest kicks in.

Speaking of the tech sector, some would undoubtedly find it strange that the XAU in recent months has actually been somewhat of a leading indicator for the NASDAQ itself. Strange? Not really, especially when you consider what is driving this market right now, which is inflation from the past two years financial stimulus efforts of the Fed. In an inflation-driven market the sectors that are closest to real wealth will always lead the pack. This is now the time for the natural resource sector to shine.



As for the recent stock market decline, it was mainly a function of the terrorist scare in Spain on Thursday. If you look back at the Dows recent history youll see that a few days before a major terrorist episode hits, the market will have a 3-5 day plunge before reversing after the event is over and has been completely discounted. Usually thereafter the previous losses are retraced and the market continues its upward path.

Last week was the anniversary date of the 2003 major stock market low. Does this have any significance right now? Of course it does, especially since the famed trader and market technician W.D. Gann put such a big emphasis on the concept of anniversary dates in the market. A breakdown below the 1-year uptrend line in the Dow this week would have been an extremely bearish signal for this market, but by holding up and reversing above the 1-year uptrend (and 30-week moving average) the Dow keeps its uptrend intact and passes its first major test of the trend in terms of time.

Assuming the market finds support near its recent lows and turns around this week we should finally get a taste of that "surprise inside" that the bears will find so distasteful, yet gold bulls and stock bulls should enjoy.




***

Clif Droke is the editor of the Bear Market Report newsletter, a 3-times weekly forecast and analysis of stocks, markets, gold stocks, and equity cycles. He is also the author of numerous books on finance and investing, including the top-selling "Moving Averages Simplified." Visit his web site for free samples of his analysis at www.clifdroke.com

Asia

Gold Futures Rise to One-Month High as Dollar Falls Against Yen
March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Gold futures in New York rose to a one-month high as the dollar fell against the euro and yen, boosting the appeal of precious metals that hold their value better than stocks and bonds priced in U.S. dollars. Silver also rose, extending a rally to a six-year high.

The four-day rally in gold is its longest this year, mirroring the dollar's drop this week against the yen. Pierre Lassonde, president of Newmont Mining Corp., the world's largest gold producer, said last month that gold would rally as Asian currencies rise against the dollar, catching up with the two-year drop in the dollar against the euro.

``The next step is for gold to ignore currencies and go up even when the dollar is stable or going up because it would be a sign that gold has truly become a substitute currency,'' said Jean-Marie Eveillard, manager of the New York-based First Eagle Gold Fund, with $525 million in gold investments, including $55 million in gold bars. ``Instead of cash under the mattress, people will have gold there.''

Gold for April delivery rose $4.40, or 1.1 percent, to $411.50 an ounce at 10:48 a.m. on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, after earlier touching $412.70, the highest price for a most-active contract since Feb. 18. The four- day rally is the longest since the end of December.

Gold has climbed 22 percent in the past year, reaching a 15- year high of $431.50 on Jan. 6.

The lowest U.S. interest rates in more than 45 years contributed to a 14 percent decline in the dollar against the euro during the past year and a 10 percent drop against the yen. Some investors buy gold as a hedge against declines in the dollar against other currencies.

Currency Link

Gold has tended to rise when the euro gains against the dollar since mid-September. The correlation between daily moves in the metal and the euro is 0.887. The figure can be between 0, showing no relationship between the two, and 1, indicating they move in lockstep.

Hedge funds and other large speculators bought 60,539 more gold futures than they had sold as of March 9, up 38 percent from a week earlier and the first increase since Feb. 17, a weekly report from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed.

The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Gold and Silver Index, which tracks 12 mining companies such as Newmont, Barrick Gold Corp. and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., had its biggest gain in almost six weeks. The index rose 3.28 to 102.32, the biggest gain since Feb. 6.

Shares of Denver-based Newmont rose $4.20, or 1.8 percent to $44.87 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. New Orleans- based Freeport rose $1.42, or 3.4 percent, to $42.80.

Silver for May delivery rose 13 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $7.39 an ounce on the Comex. A close at that price would be the highest since reaching $7.50 in February 1998, when Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. disclosed he had acquired 130 million ounces of silver, or about a quarter of global production at the time.



To contact the reporter on this story:
Claudia Carpenter in New York at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor of this story:
Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: March 18, 2004 11:12 EST