China may ban export of gold, silver

2009-09-16

"Last week Alan Greenspan noted that "Rising prices of precious metals and other commodities are an indication of a very early stage of an endeavor to move away from paper currencies.”

In other words, people are buying gold as a hedge against inflation.

Here in China, our firm SinoLatin Capital has been approached by numerous Chinese companies specifically looking to acquire gold mines in Latin America. We've studied the market for some time and we see China making several Latin American gold mining acquisitions over the next few years. How can retail investors benefit from these trends? One interesting way to play the South American gold market is AngloGold Ashanti (AU).

The South African mining company is moving forward on what they consider to be "one of the most important gold discoveries worldwide in the past decade" in the country of Colombia. The project, known as The Colossus (La Colosa in Spanish), is reputed to contain reserves of over 12 million ounces. The project is facing considerable environmental scrutiny but it looks like it will move forward this year.

But back to China. How could China affect the price of gold? We live in China and spend a lot of time with local industry leaders and policy makers. We hear repeatedly that the time has come to think seriously about how to survive the perceived dollar devaluation. In some cases we note serious concern, and in other cases absolute dread over a perceived dollar crash.
Over the past six months Beijing has made a series of moves to protect itself against a dollar devaluation. In a recent "BRIC Summit" in Russia several months ago, Chinese leaders came out strongly in favor of a new reserve currency to replace the dollar (including the IMF's "SDR" currency). China is also quietly purchasing mining assets and gold bullion. But the government has recently gone further."

http://www.commodityonline.com/news/China-may-ban-export-of-gold-silver-21219-3-1.html