Gold and silver futures added to their recent stretch of declines on Friday amid weakness in the precious metals complex.
COMEX gold for February delivery settled down by $13.30, or 0.8%, at $1,656.60 per ounce. In doing so, the yellow metal posted a weekly loss of 1.8% and turned lower on a year-to-date basis by 1.2%.
March silver futures at the COMEX closed down by $0.52, or 1.6%, at $31.21 per ounce. With the slide, silver stretched its weekly loss to 2.3%, but remains up by 3.2% thus far in 2013.
Gold and silver stocks came under heavy selling pressure as well, as earlier today the Philadelphia Gold & Silver Index (XAU) fell by as much as 2.7% to 150.53 – its lowest level since August 3rd of last year.
This afternoon, notable XAU components in the red included Barrick Gold (ABX), IAMGOLD (IAG), and Silver Standard Resources (SSRI). Shares of ABX dropped by 1.3% to $32.85, IAG by 3.6% to $8.44, and SSRI by 2.1% to $12.32.
The broader equity markets fared quite better than most gold and silver stocks, as the S&P 500 Index traded up by 0.4% at 1,500.68.
Premier Gold Mines Expands Mineralization in Nevada
The Helen Zone deposit represents a prospective, high-grade, Carlin-style, gold deposit and is the focus of an ongoing drill program which is to extend the mineralization within both the Upper and Lower Helen Zone horizons. Drilling has now expanded this mineralization by 213 meters (700 feet) to the southeast of previously drilled mineralization with the Helen Zones and the favourable horizons remain wide open. Full Premier Gold Mines Press Release.
- 9.16 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold across 16.00 meters (m) including 14.15 g/t across 6.25 m in the Lower Helen Zone hole AX-18
- 33.43 g/t across 3.51 m in the Lower Helen Zone in hole AX-16
- 7.19 g/t across 7.56 m in the Lower Helen Zone in hole AX-14
