News

November 13, 2008

Some Of London’s Gold Miners Look A Lot Steadier Than Others At The Moment

By Alastair Ford

“What’s it like out there today?” asks one mining company chief of another, as he leans over an inexpensive glass of wine at the monthly mining company chief executives’ lunch, hosted by Minesite. “Carnage”, comes back the rueful answer, as if anyone expects anything else these days. This was the day in which broker Ambrian opened a commentary on the gold sector by noting that shares in Peter Hambro Mining had dropped by 22 per cent before the previous close, adding that the market appears now to be nervous about the ability of Peter Hambro to fund its expansion.

Interestingly, Peter Hambro himself dropped out of our chief executives’ lunch at the last minute, prompting much speculation at the actual event as to possible reasons for this late change of mind. Some of the talk was a bit rough and tumble, as you might expect from miners, but there may have been some truth in the comment from one of the other gold mining chiefs sitting at the table, that if Peter knew what he was about he’d be in non-stop talks with bankers. And by the time the lunch had...