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...seems to be having a positive impact on the share price? LONDON--Gold producer African Barrick Gold PLC (ABG.LN), said Friday it is has reached an agreement with STAMICO, whereby STAMICO will acquire the Tulawaka Gold Mine and certain exploration licenses surrounding Tulawaka for $4.5 million. MAIN FACTS: -STAMICO, the Tanzanian State Mining Corporation, will acquire the Tulawaka Gold Mine and certain exploration licenses surrounding Tulawaka for $4.5 million and the grant of a 2% net smelter royalty on future production in excess of 500,000 ounces, capped at $0.5 million. -STAMICO will take ownership and management of the rehabilitation fund established as part of the closure plan for the mine, in return for the assumption of all remaining past and future closure and rehabilitation liabilities for Tulawaka, and will indemnify the other parties to the agreement in relation to these liabilities. -This will result in a cash payment by African Barrick Gold to STAMICO of the balance of the rehabilitation fund, which currently stands at $17.6 million, less the transaction consideration on completion. -Tulawaka is owned by the Tulawaka Joint Venture, in which African Barrick Gold holds a 70% economic interest through a subsidiary, with MDN Inc holding the remaining 30% of the Joint Venture. -Production at Tulawaka ceased in second quarter of 2013. -The transaction, which has been approved by the Board of African Barrick and its subsidiaries and STAMICO, is subject to the satisfaction of regulatory approvals before completion. -African Barrick shares at 0920 GMT traded up 3 pence, or 1.1%, at 196.0 pence, valuing the company at GBP803.8 million.

ABG is about the only gold share buckling the downward trend this morning (tapering fears again?). No smoke without Chinese fireworks?

It can only be a matter of time before the Chinese are back sniffing around? They are buying up all the bullion that is for sale so they may as well buy up the sources of production and cut-out the middle-man?

We must have had that mad moment about the same time - must have read something bullish and believed it! MoneyWeek? Happily this is the only miner that is showing me a profit - average £1.82 on 5x £5k purchases all the way down. Proves averaging down does work! Hope it works for AVM, GDP and POG too. CRND is a more recent punt which is a feisty little devil!

Tanzania's largest gold producer African Barrick Gold PLC (ABG.LN) expects to generate free cash flow from next year, aided by cost savings from an operational review aimed at making the company more profitable in a lower gold-price environment. African Barrick Gold started an operational review earlier this year after a takeover approach from China National Gold Group failed to acquire Barrick Gold Corp's (ABX) 74% stake in the Tanzanian miner. African Barrick Gold's new Chief Executive, Brad Gordon, said it wants to achieve $185 million in annual cost savings by the end of 2014. Mr. Gordon, who took over in August, added in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that the company is already on track to deliver more than $100 million of those savings by the end of 2013 through head count reduction and corporate restructuring, among other things. He said he sees further scope for additional savings beyond the $185 million by making the company's Bulyanhulu mine more efficient. "I expect big things from Bulyanhulu over the next six to 12 months," he said, noting that the company hasn't yet identified how big those savings could be. African Barrick confirmed that the Bulyanhulu plant expansion is on track to start production in the first quarter of next year. The company is set to produce more than its previous guidance of 540,000oz to 600,000oz of gold after it produced 164,719oz in the third quarter, up 11% on year. Meanwhile this year's cash cost is now forecast to be at the lower end of its previous guidance range of $925 to $975 per ounce of gold, due in part to higher output. Although the company is still burning cash, it should start to generate free cashflow after capital spend on expansion projects from the start of 2014, said Andrew Wray, the company's chief financial officer. Mr. Gordon said African Barrick Gold wants to ensure it can sustain operations at its three Tanzanian mines--Buzwagi, North Mara and Bulyanhulu--and in its overall business at below an average gold price of $1,300/oz. The company said its all-in sustaining costs, including those related to building and operating its mines, dropped 25% on year to $1,275/oz in the third quarter.

Investec aside ABG currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of GBX 163.60 so on that basis we are outperforming. Hopefully we can expect some to revise upwards after this positive Q3 update?

Its on the ABG website under the investors calendar. I make a point of putting these in my Outlook calendar well in advance. I also subscribe to news release direct from ABG so I dont miss anything they announce. For any comments from the press I set up a Yahoo email alert too so that I can get the wider market interpretation of the results.

Well he delivered ok (even if it wasnt all his work) but unfortunately the gold price is a bit flat at the moment so the news has fallen a bit flat I feel. If this RNS had come out a week or so ago on the back of strongly rising gold prices I think we would have seen the SP fly. I've been averaging down from £3.52 to £1.07 so the current SP is near my average with £25k holdings. I prefer to hold a wider spread of gold miners at £5k each but will not reduce ABG until I can clear at least 10% so I may have to be patient a little longer.

Q3 results are out 30th October (Wednesday). Will the new CEO have got to grips with costs (currently ~$1500 vs gold price of ~$1350)? Will output be up? My guess is that it is early days and we can't expect too much. Markets must be expecting some improvement though so it needs to be positive!

Im not familiar with OVG as I picked your question from POG so am not placed to answer questions related to their history. I expect like all other gold miners, OVG is also very undervalued and I think that now is a great time to buy into the sector. Miners who have low costs of production and cash reserves to see them through this period of low gold prices should do well. Also if they have hedged this year's production output at ~ $1600/oz this also helps (i.e. POG)!

Have a tap at the "fundementals" icon above. The market cap is just the number of shares in issue x the current share price. The net assets (assets-liabilities), of which cash is a part, represent shareholder funds, currently ~£48m. Hope that helps?

Interesting interview on Morningstar today with fund manager Evy Hambro (related?) reflecting on performance of the gold shares in his portfolio. Seems to blame management for doing everything to destroy value chasing marginal production. Believes that concentration on profitable production will turn round their fortunes in tandem with a rising gold price of course

Its difficult to see an end to this manipulation, especially as the major beneficiaries are those who are stockpiling gold i.e.. China, who wield massive financial power. If you read Zero Hedge you will see that someone is slamming the price of gold so hard with massive sells of futures contracts that it is causing the market to "go dark" until liquidity can be recovered. The US regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission seems to turn a blind eye and of course at the moment they are shutdown anyway. See Zero Hedge: "Expect market halting gold trading dumps to continue indefinitely, and certainly for the duration of the CFTC's "shutdown", which of course is helpful to those, like China, who continue to convert increasingly more diluted fiat into hard stores of value." My advice is follow the Chinese and buy physical gold at these depressed prices.

As reported at the AGM today (5 months). Money is being made by licensing their technology and there should be plenty of scope to continue this expansion globally. If they can get the costs of the finished product down further, this should make major inroads into the environment-construction industry. A long-term prospect for me that is a pleasure to hold.

If you think all gold miners are "in the pits", take a look at Central Rand Gold today - up 200%! Special circumstances of course but it shows that a lot can change for gold mining investors in just one day !

See FT article "Gold miners slump on surprise index exclusion" http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2b7ed8e4-1ef4-11e3-b80b-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=uk#axzz2fEu6Zu4O