Gold / CNMC

Gold / CNMC: Gold prices receive a boost as US lawmakers finally approved a bill to address the fiscal cliff. Price rose as much as US$29 an ounce from last week's close of US$1,655.70 a troy ounce on Dec28, as some investors expect gold prices to propel higher since the deal may lead to a weakening of the USD and higher gold prices as investors switch into the precious metal. Additionally CNMC announced that it has successfully produced 740.82 ounces of gold dore bars from its newly commissioned heap leach facility, from two months of heap leach operations, which is equivalent to about 70% of CNMC’s quarterly production based on vat leaching and alluvial production alone and will contribute towards 4Q 2012 performance. Grp add that it will be designing and building additional heap leaching pads to further boost production vol in 2013. Sias Research remains optimistic about output growth beyond 2013, expecting CNMC to report higher resources later in 2013 given efforts put into exploration following the completion of the construction of the heap leach. The Rixen Target gold deposit, that is currently the source of ore for the heap leach, has an estimated lifespan of six years based on the existing heap leaching facility. Sias has a $0.81 TP on grp.