Virtual Gold Investment Conference: February 22, 2007 Featured Speakers: James Turk, Julian Phillips, Peter Schiff & Bill Murphy Featured Companies: Canarc Resource Corp., Gold Resource Corp., Sunridge Gold Corp. & Buffalo Gold Ltd.

The Metals:

Gold rose over $672 in early Asian trade on Monday, but it then fell back near unchanged by the open in London and traded mostly slightly higher heading into Tuesday.  Gold then fell slightly in late Asian trade on Tuesday and dropped another few dollars in London before it accelerated its losses in New York and fell to as low as $655.30 before a small rebound into the close that left it with a loss of 1.65%.  Silver rose over $14.00 in Asia on Monday before it also fell for much of trade on Tuesday and dropped to as low as $13.63 in New York before it rallied over 1% from its lows in the last 2 and ½ hours of trade and ended with a loss of 1.00%.

Euro gold fell near €500, platinum gained $8 to $1,210, palladium lost $1 to $336, and copper fell a couple cents to about $2.58.

Gold and silver equities fell about 2% in the first hour and a half of trade and remained near their lows into the close.

The Economy:

There were no major economic reports today, but some comments from fed governor Bies about the housing sector did have some talking (see more below).  Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings CPI for January expected at 0.1% and Core CPI expected at 0.2%.  At 10AM is the Leading Economic Indicators report for January expected at 0.2% and at 2PM is the release of FOMC minutes from the fed’s January 31^st meeting.

The Markets:

Charts Courtesy of http://finance.yahoo.com/

Oil fell nearly 2% on warm weather forecasts and optimism that Iran may halt its uranium enrichment program and return to negotiations.

The U.S. dollar index found slight gains as the yen fell on uncertainty about the Bank of Japan’s policy meeting that may or may not raise interest rates from 0.25% to 0.5%.

Treasuries rose after fed governor Bies said there was a high potential for a correction to occur in the housing market, but gains were limited as she stated that bad debt problems in the mortgage market were concentrated in the subprime, low-income sector.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell in early trade on disappointing earnings reports, but they then rose and ended slightly higher after oil prices fell and fed governor Bies said slumping demand for housing may have bottomed out.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Kraft, Nissan, EMI and Warner Music, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Sirius and XM, Shire and New River, and JetBlue.

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The Commentary:

“April Gold finished down 11.8 at 661, 9.7 off the high and 2 up from the low.

March Silver closed down 0.16 at 13.83. This was 0.15 up from the low and 0.17 off the high.

The gold market closed sharply lower today after lower energy markets and a stronger dollar sparked some liquidation selling, which in turn appeared to spark some technical selling. April gold fell below last week's consolidation lows around $666.5 and eventually traded below $650 before recovering slightly into the close. Energy prices were lower this morning after a warmer turn in the weather sparked ideas of lower heating oil consumption. The fact that the Dollar gained in the face of weaker US economic data (in the form of a softer than expected Chicago Fed National Activity Index reading this morning) might be considered especially troubling to gold. News that workers at a DRDGold returned to work after what the company called an illegal strike might also have given gold an additional downside push in the morning action.

After holding its own early in the session, silver sold off sharply around mid-morning, following steep declines in the gold and copper markets. There was strong, upbeat talk today that the amount of money flowing into commodities in the form of commodity funds could still expand by as much as 25% to 50% of current levels, which was probably a supportive development for all the physical commodities, especially against the backdrop of softening US numbers. However, it was difficult to fight long liquidation in the metals today, as well as declines in crude oil and surprising gains in the Dollar in the face of weak US economic data. The silver market didn't seem to garner any support from the idea that Mexico's Penoles mine was seeing some closures off labor issues. Apparently that strike was in response to unsafe mine conditions and is somewhat of an old issue from last year and that might be why the market discounted the development.” - The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Invest with Barclays and watch it sell you short

James Turk offers World Gold Council the evidence it missed

Bank of Nova Scotia identified as Indian gold ETF custodian

Who will get China -- the Chinese or Wall Street?

Mining companies looking for takeovers find prospects growing thin

Report of Russian firm's bid for AngloGold disputed

Stephen Roach: Global TIC-tock

Central banks face rising pressures from politicians

Richard Russell agrees with GATA: Central banks rig gold

Will U.S. dollar coins build acceptance of monetary debasement?

Russian miner bids for AngloGold

John Mauldin: Gold is rising in all currencies

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul: Proposals for transparency at the Fed

Jason Hommel: Has the IMF admitted GATA is right?

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 2/16/2007

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

 Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.

COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)

 Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.

Silver Trust (SLV)

 Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.

The Stocks:

Silver Wheaton’s (SLW) earnings, Almaden’s purchase of Comaplex’s Caballo Blanco stake, Golden Star’s (GSS) public offering filing, Banro’s (BAA) drill results, Canyon’s (CAU) drill results, International Royalty’s (ROY) completed royalty acquisition, Northern Dynasty’s (NAK) new resource estimate, Seabridge’s (SA) new gold resource, Minco Silver’s (MSV.TO) vice president of operations appointment, Sterling Mining’s (SRLM.OB) power substation, and Bear Creek’s (BCM.V) drilling were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.

WINNERS

LOSERS

Winners & Losers tracks NYSE and AMEX listed gold and silver mining stocks that trade over $1.

All of today's gold and silver stock news:

Kinross and Bema Announce Acquisition Closing Date of February 27, 2007 - "Kinross Gold Corporation ("Kinross") (Toronto:K.TO - News)(NYSE:KGC - News) and Bema Gold Corporation ("Bema") (Toronto:BGO.TO - News)(NYSE:BGO - News)(AIM: BAU) announced today that the closing of the acquisition of Bema has been set for February 27, 2007. Bema shareholders voted 91 per cent in favour of the transaction on January 30, 2007, and the transaction was approved by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on January 31, 2007." More
- February 20, 2007 | Item | E-mail

Almaden Buys Comaplex Out of Caballo Blanco - "Almaden Minerals Ltd. ("Almaden") is pleased to announce that it has purchased Comaplex Minerals Corp.'s ("Comaplex") 60% interest in the Caballo Blanco project, Mexico. In 2006 Comaplax earned a 60% interest in the project by spending US$2 Million on exploration as stipulated in a 2002 option agreement between Almaden and Comaplex. Almaden purchased this 60% interest for a cash payment of US$1.25 Million. The Caballo Blanco project covers a large high sulphidation gold system where limited past drilling by Comaplex in one area of the property included 40 meters of 2.35 grams per tonne gold (in hole CB5-03) and 144 meters of 1 g/t (in hole CB06-03)." More
- February 20, 2007 | Item | E-mail

Acero Drills 29.50 Meters of 2.25 g/t (Gold Equivalent) and 12.00 Meters of 4.22 g/t (Gold Equivalent) at Pinaya - More
- February 20, 2007 | Item | E-mail

Copper Ridge options out Scheelite Dome Gold Property - More
- February 20, 2007 | Item | E-mail

Silver Wheaton in talks to acquire assets - "Silver Wheaton Corp. is in talks with “many different companies” about acquiring long-term silver purchase contracts and silver assets, the company said Tuesday.

“Discussions are at all sorts of different stages, but I would say there's a lot of interest in the Silver Wheaton model,” chief executive officer Peter Barnes told a conference call with analysts." More
- February 20, 2007 | Item | E-mail

GAIA Resources, Inc. Announces Frankfurt Trading - More
- February 20, 2007 | Item | E-mail

Canarc Resource Corp. to Present at GoldSeek.com Virtual Gold Investment Conference on February 22, 2007 - More
- February 20, 2007 | Item | E-mail

Firestone Ventures Finalizes Expansion of Alberta Sun Uranium Project - More
- February 20, 2007 | Item | E-mail

Calypso Reports Acquisition of the Rahueco Uranium District in Neuquen Province, Argentina - More
- February 20, 2007 | Item | E-mail

Capella Resources Ltd. Enters Into an Agreement to Acquire Tripple Uranium Resources -