Friday, January 25, 2008

Gold price soars as SAfrican power crisis halts production

As we said in the post below, everything is connected. The first hint we saw was "Zimbabwe: Power Cuts Worsen As South Africa Cuts Supplies" on Monday.
From AFP:

The price of gold hit a record high Friday as production ground to a halt in South Africa on the back of a spiralling electricity crisis the government has labelled a national emergency.

The three main companies operating in a country with a long record as the world's biggest gold producer announced they had suspended production because of unreliable energy supplies.

Gold Fields, Harmony and AngloGold Ashanti said in separate statements they had been notified by state energy utility Eskom that it could not guarantee supplies to their mines, adding they did not know when operations would resume.

Their announcement propelled the price of the yellow metal to a record high 923.73 dollars, and that of platinum to 1,701 dollars per ounce....MORE