Brit gold sale clobbers miners

Denver — The Dow Jones industrial average fell 443.94 points, or 3.9%, during the report period ended Sept. 19 to close at 10,789.29 amid inflationary fears.

The price of gold edged off slightly to US$271.90 per oz. on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange as the British auctioned another 25 tonnes of the yellow metal. Most producers companies were clobbered as a result, including Newmont Mining, which lost $1.50 to close at US$17.19. South Africa’s AngloGold slipped $1.76 to close at US$18.12, while New York Stock Exchange-listed Homestake Mining dipped 56 to a new low of US$5.19. Other casualties include: Peru’s Compania de Minas Buenaventura, which fell $1.06 to US$14.69; Ashanti Goldfields, which dropped 38 to close at US$2.62; Nasdaq-listed Randgold, which shed 35 to end up at US$2.56; and mid-sized Meridian Gold, which lost 69 to close at US$6.06.

Comex copper crept back to US92 per lb., sending Class B shares of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold down $1.06 to US$9.12. Phelps Dodge plunged $3.31 to close at US$42, while Australia’s Broken Hill Proprietary slipped 38 to US$22.62.

Silver continued languishing under US$5 per oz., sending Apex Silver Mines down 44 to US$10.12, though Coeur d’Alene Mines bucked the downward trend, picking up 19 to close at US$1.88. Platinum-miner Stillwater Mining plunged $3.37 to US$27.25

Anglo American lost $3.87 to close at US$54.88, De Beers Consolidated Mines dropped a buck to finish at US$25.94, and Rio Tinto shed $2.50 to wind up at US$64.75.