Gold Seeker Weekly Wrap-Up - Gold & Silver Fall From New 25 and 18 Year Highs

	Close	Gain/Loss	On Week
Gold	$553.60	-$4.60	-0.52%
Silver	$8.85	-$0.18	-2.64%
XAU	140.13	-1.23%	-1.30%
HUI	303.60	-1.68%	-2.17%
GDM	969.53	-1.29%	-1.92%
JSE Gold	2804.44	+1.91	+6.77%
USD	88.95	-0.41	+0.06%
Euro	121.36	+0.44	-0.01%
Yen	86.77	+0.16	-0.90%
Oil	$68.35	+$1.52	+6.93%
10-Year	4.361%	-0.018	+0.25%
Bond	114.625	+0.21875	-0.05%
Dow	10667.39	-1.96%	-2.67%
Nasdaq	2247.70	-2.35%	-2.99%
S&P	1261.49	-1.83%	-2.03%

Next week’s economic highlights include Leading Economic Indicators for December expected at 0.2% on Monday, Existing Home Sales on Wednesday, Durable Goods Orders on Thursday, and Q4 GDP and New Home Sales on Friday.

Gold started off overseas trade by rising above $560, but it then fell off to around $555 in late Asian trade before it rose throughout trade in London and made a new 25 year high of $568.50 in morning New York trade. Gold then fell off from there, however, and ended near its lows of the session with a 0.82% loss. Silver followed a similar pattern and ended 1.99% lower on the day.

Gold and silver equities jumped about 2% higher at the open Friday, but they soon dropped off to find about 1.5% losses and remained at about that level into the close.

Euro gold fell from all-time highs above €460 set Thursday, platinum fell $7 to $1,024, palladium held unchanged at $273, copper fell near $2.10, and the CRB Index made new 25 year highs as it gained 3.81 to 345.15.

“The April gold market forged a $17 trading range but failed to hold a sharp early run to news highs. We suspect that some traders feared significant slow down in the world economy off soaring oil prices and or an Iranian show down. Surprisingly the Gold market was not supported by a weak Dollar or the rising anxiety associated with events in Iran and Nigeria. We do think that some longs were simply banking profits because of the overbought status and the potential to see a large spec long position in the COT report. In short, some traders might be suggesting that too much strength in the energy complex is bad for long gold positions!” - The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

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The U.S. dollar index fell on worries over

Iran

and on the view that the fed will stop raising interest rates soon.

Oil climbed throughout trade to new 3 and ½ month highs as Iran pushed for an OPEC output decrease of 1 million barrels and troubles in Nigeria continued. Oil is now just $2.50 from passing the all-time high of $70.85 made on August 30^th.

Treasuries gained on comments from San Francisco Fed president Janet Yellen that hinted towards an end to interest rate hikes soon. Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker conversely commented that the fed will remain vigilant to combat a rise in inflation expectations, creating some uneasiness in the bond pits as to what the fed will actually do in the coming months.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell throughout trade on poor earnings reports from Citigroup and General Electric that led to broader earnings worries, especially after disappointments from Intel and Yahoo earlier in the week. Worries over Iran and Nigeria that caused oil to go higher also contributed to negative sentiment on Wall Street. The Dow had its biggest one-day percentage drop since last April and erased all of its gains from earlier in the year after setting a new 4 and ½ year high just over a week ago on January 11^th.

Among the big names making news in the market Friday were United, BlackRock, Citigroup, General Electric, Albertson’s, Ford Motor, and Schlumberger.

Barrick’s acquired 81% of Placer Dome, Rio Narcea’s high grade intersections at El Valle, NovaGold’s expanded Donlin Creek resources, and Vista Gold’s proposed $3.3 million non-brokered private placement announced late Thursday were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines Friday.

Phoenix Matachewan Mines Inc.: Announcement - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

South American Gold and Copper Company Limited Provides Update on Timing of Late Filings of Financial Statements - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Royal Standard Announces Grant of Options - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Wildcat Exploration Ltd. - Final Close on Non-Brokered Private Placements - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Cypress Development Corp.: Acquiring 100% Interest in Broulan Reef Property, Red Lake, Northwestern Ontario - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Avalon Closes $1,575,000 Private Placement and Receives Additional Funding from Exercise of Warrants - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Coastport Options Shyri Gold Properties - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Tyler Announces High Grade Zone Intersected in Porphyry at Bahuerachi - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Earth's Limited Supply of Metals Raises Concern - "If all nations were to use the same services enjoyed in developed nations, even the full extraction of metals from the Earth's crust and extensive recycling may not be enough to meet metal demands in the future, according to a new study." More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Barrick Gains Control of Placer Dome - "Placer Dome Inc. advises that earlier today, Barrick Gold Corporation announced it has received 81% of Placer Dome shares tendered to their offer to purchase all of the outstanding shares of Placer Dome. Barrick also announced they have taken up and accepted these shares for payment on or before January 23, 2006. The offer has been extended and will now expire on February 3, 2006 at 6:00pm EST." More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Barrick Gold Becomes Biggest Gold Miner - "Barrick Gold Corp. became the world's largest gold miner on Friday after announcing it has acquired 81 percent of former rival Placer Dome Inc.'s outstanding stock. Vancouver-based Placer Dome agreed in December to accept Toronto-based Barrick's sweetened bid to buy the company for $10.4 billion, up from an earlier offer of $9.2 billion." More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

UC Resources Closes $720,000 for Growth in Mexico - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Great China Mining Inc. Allocated Symbol: GCHA.OB - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Telkwa Finalizes Agreements, Stakes New Claims and Closes Financing - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Goldcliff Resource Corporation: Panorama Drilling Results from the York-Viking Gold Zone - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Rio Narcea Announces High Grade Intersections In Follow Up Underground Drilling At El Valle - "Rio Narcea Gold Mines. Ltd. is pleased to announce the results of the underground exploration drilling of the mineralized structure known as "Area 107", which includes some very high grades and shows strong continuity of the mineralized zone. The mineralization remains open at depth and towards the southeast where the best intersections have been encountered. All the results are shown in the attached table. The approximate position of each intercept is shown in the attached sketch that corresponds to a vertical projection of the mineralized structure." More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Aurelian Reports Porphyry Copper Targets For The Condor Project - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Midway Cuts 27.4 Metres Grading 6.82g/t Gold in Porphyry Zone at Spring Valley, Nevada - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Firestone Ventures and MacLellan Mining Sign Letter of Intent on 'Morris' Gold-Silver-Antimony Project, British Columbia - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Formation Capital Corporation: Cobalt Project Drilling Update - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Kodiak VTEM Survey Indicates 3.3 Kilometres of Massive Sulphide Bodies at Caribou Lake Copper-Nickel-PGE Prospect: Drilling to Commence - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Geologix Explorations Inc.: New Drill Targets Discovered at Jersey Canyon-Drilling to Commence First Quarter, 2006 - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

La Fortuna Yields High Grade Drill Results - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

EKWAN-X: Discussions in Progress Regarding Precious Metals Properties in Nevada, USA - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

NORMABEC: Update on The Pitt Gold Property - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

NovaGold Resources Inc.: Donlin Creek Project Gold Resources Expanded by 3 Million Ounces - "The Donlin Creek Joint Venture has completed a new resource estimate for the Donlin Creek gold deposit in Alaska. This new resource estimate significantly increases the Measured and Indicated Resource category. Compared with the last estimates completed in April 2003, the Measured and Indicated Resource categories (using a 1.2 gram-per-tonne (g/t) cut-off grade) have increased 3.7 million ounces or 33% to 14.8 million ounces of gold grading an average of 2.76 g/t gold. The Inferred Resource decreased by 0.7 million ounces to 13.6 million ounces of gold grading 2.72 g/t through conversion to the Measured and Indicated category." More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Report: Indonesia's Mining Prospects Good - "In 2004, the average net profit margin of mining companies in Indonesia was 19.3 percent, compared with 15.2 percent elsewhere, while returns on shareholders' funds was 27.3 percent compared with 18.9 percent -- both for the top 40 companies globally. A handful of global mining companies have large investments in Indonesia, including Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. and Newmont Mining Corp." More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Latin America: a miner's playground in 2006 - "With strong demand for metals for everything from pipes to computers and air conditioning units in rapidly industrializing China and India, Brazil also plans to expand iron ore, copper and gold production. Venezuela hopes to hike its aluminum smelter output to more than 1 million tonnes this year." More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Mirasol's Joaquin Project Discovers New High-Grade Gold Zone and Upgrades the Morocha, Negra and Joaquin Main Targets - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Crew Gold Corp.: Notification of Trade - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Lake Shore Gold Intersects 9.70 Metres Grading 11.29 Grams Per Tonne Gold, Timmins West Gold Project, Ontario - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Norsemont closes private placement with the Sentient Group - More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Barrick Acquires 81% of Placer Dome and Extends Offer to February 3, 2006 - "Barrick Gold Corporation is pleased to announce that as of midnight on January 19, 2006, approximately 358 million common shares of Placer Dome Inc. had been validly deposited to Barrick's offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Placer Dome. Barrick has taken up and accepted for payment all of such shares, which represent approximately 81% of the common shares of Placer Dome (78% on a fully diluted basis). Barrick will pay for such shares on or before January 23, 2006." More
- January 20, 2006 | Item | E-mail

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