Gold futures settled markedly lower Tuesday, but were able to trim their intra-day losses by roughly half.
Gold futures for December 2011 delivery on the COMEX closed lower by $23.80, or 1.4%, at $1,652.80 per ounce. The December contract had been down as much as $48.40 at $1,628.20 at approximately 10:00am ET, but pared its decline as the U.S. dollar headed south against a composite of the world’s leading currencies.
The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) climbed to as high as 77.55 this morning, but fell to near 77.17 this afternoon. The dollar’s slide coincided with a rebound in the euro currency, which bounced from as low as 1.3654 to trade higher by 0.5% at 1.3803 against the greenback.
Silver rebounded alongside gold, but by far more than the yellow metal. COMEX silver, per the December 2011 contract, settled higher by $0.01 at $31.83 per ounce after tumbling as much as 4.6% to $30.37 this morning.
Gold and silver stocks, along with the broader equity markets, turned higher as well this afternoon. The Philadelphia Gold & Silver Index (XAU) rose 0.2% to 193.24 after being down as much as 4.2% this morning, while the S&P 500 Index surged 2.4% to 1,229.61 following a 0.8% drop earlier in the day.
Premier Gold Hits High-Grade at Trans-Canada
The PEA will consider several possible options available to Premier in assessing how best to optimize key assets in the Trans-Canada Project – including the Hardrock, Brookbank, Key Lake and Kailey Deposits. The JDS team of experienced mining professionals will augment Premier's exploration expertise to provide, in 2012, a clear economic framework and vision to advance the project toward development. Full Premier Gold Mines Press Release.
- Initial follow-up drilling returned some of the highest recorded assays, resulting in multiple ounce intercepts in several of the target areas.
- The Trans-Canada Project is host to several past-producing mines which collectively produced more than 4 million ounces of gold from depths within 600 meters of surface between 1938 and 1968.
- The Hardrock Deposit is host to a NI43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate that includes 3.6 million gold resources.
