Virtual Metals Group

Media/Press

Gold slot: The Fortis/VM Group Yellow Book. Jessica Cross – CEO, VM Group

The VM Group’s Yellow Book is a bi-annual analysis of the global fundamentals and outlook for the gold market.

12 August 2008 23:07 (Moneyweb.com) Interview by Alec Hogg

MONEYWEB: It's a warm welcome to Jessica Cross, who's actually visiting us here in South Africa at the moment. She's the chief executive of Virtual Metals, and Virtual Metals brings out the Yellow Book which, Jessica - I don't suppose you're going to contradict this - certainly is, datawise, the richest data that one can get on supply and demand on the gold market. However, looking at 2008, net supply the highest that it's been - that is, if you take the supply and take away the amount of demand - in five years. So I suppose it's not surprising that the gold price should be under some pressure.

JESSICA CROSS: You know, Alec, that's residual as we calculate it in the Yellow Book. And the Yellow Book is freely available to anyone who wants it. They are very welcome to it. That residual is really the gold we reckon is available to investors. So if it's a very high plus, positive residual, we reckon there has to be a fair amount of investment interest to mop it up and then keep the gold price on its upward trend. If obviously it goes negative, and in some of our years it does, that means there are investors out there who are wanting gold that perhaps physically isn't there. Ergo we would expect the price to go a lot higher.

MONEYWEB: And the current decline in the gold price - is that worrying you, or is that consistent with your numbers?

JESSICA CROSS: Absolutely consistent with what is going on internally and externally to the market. Really what we're seeing at the moment is a sort of perception that maybe the dollar has turned, seen its worth, maybe starting to strengthen. All the commodity prices came down in dollar terms. The dollar weakened a bit today, gold rallied. It's kind of a see-saw constant relationship between the two. Internal to the gold market, the gold market was very long, and we were expecting some profit-taking. You know, you can't have this very high commitment of traders' figures with long positions plus long positions in the ETF forever. It is a two-way street. That is why it is such a freely tradable commodity. People do buy, they profit-take, they will come back in again.

MONEYWEB: The Yellow Book will be on the Moneyweb website where you can pick it up. Just a little voorsmakie there, an appetiser from Jessica Cross.

VM Group in the News

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2005

  • September 26th - Europe's central banks seen queuing up to sell gold (Reuters)
  • THE YELLOW BOOK - Virtual Metals Research & Consulting and Fortis Bank in a new analysis of the global fundamentals and outlook for the international gold market.
  • Virtual Metals Research & Consulting announces today the launch of an innovative mechanism for the funding and development of sustainability projects in the minerals extraction industry. The new entity – called MineLife - is a collaboration between Virtual Metals, Barrick Gold Corporation, Gold Fields Limited, and Harmony Gold Mining Limited. It is dedicated to alleviating poverty and building long-term socio-economic development in Africa and, ultimately, in other developing markets.
  • Q2 05 The Hedge Book - Global hedging falls 2.5 Moz to 53.1 Moz
  • The latest edition of the Hedge Book, sponsored by Mitsui, shows dehedging quickened to 2.5 Moz in Q2 05, up from just 1.3 Moz in Q1 05. For the press release and full report click here

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