Showing posts with label 2011. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2011. Show all posts
Forecasts gold 11 year fiery run is over and a bear market is already in place
7:48 PM
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Forecasts gold 11 year fiery run is over and a bear market is already in place
mines,gold,silver,oil,gazz,coal,prices,market,asia,europa,america,africa
Dennis Gartman of Gartman Letter forecasts gold 11 year fiery run is over and a bear market is already in place. The pessimistic view comes as gold prices in mid-term analysis have lower highs and to confirm the downtrend prices need to go below the previous lows. This is in fact the definition of a downtrend and he predicts the trend will continue . "We have the beginnings of a real bear market, and the death of a bull.", says Gartman who correctly predicted the slump in commodities in 2008.He sold all of his gold in expectation that gold prices would drop more than 20 percent, the common definition of a bear market.
“Since the early autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere gold has failed to make a new high,” Gartman wrote. “Each high has been progressively lower than the previous high, and now we’ve confirmation that the new interim low is lower than the previous low. We have the beginnings of a real bear market, and the death of a bull.”......READ MORE
Expert Analysis Forecast Golds Prices 2012
7:38 PM
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Expert Analysis Forecast Golds Prices 2012
mines,gold,silver,oil,gazz,coal,prices,market,asia,europa,america,africa
Merrill Lynch Raises Its 2011 and 2012 Forecast of Gold Prices
Merrill Lynch raised its 2011 gold price forecast by 5.3% to $1,498 an ounce from $1,423. It also increased its 2012 gold price forecast by more than 3% to $1550 from $1,500. The main fundamentals reasons behind a more bullish view on gold are:
Many problems in the global economy that have still not been resolved,
Debt and fiscal issues in developed countries are unlikely to find a short-term fix....READ MORE
Bloomberg Survey Forecasts $1,938 Gold in 2012
According to a survey of the four most accurate precious metal forecasters tracked by Bloomberg over the past two years, gold prices will rise to $1,713 this year and $1,938 in 2012.
Option traders are also betting big on gold rally to continue. The number one spot is captured by the speculators betting on a $2,000 by November, followed by $1,800 for the same month, data shows as of July 29....READ MORE
Wells Fargo Forecasts a Gold Market Crash, Warns Clients
ells Fargo said on Wednesday that gold market is a “bubble that is poised to burst”. The bank did not provide specific details but mentioned that “There could be substantial risk to gold once the fear that the world is coming to an end subsides… We are worried about the downward risk.”
“We have seen the economic damage” of past bubbles and “feel compelled to ring the warning bells,”.....READ MORE
CEO of Gold Mining Companies Forecast Upbeat Gold Prices
Newmont Mining CEO Richard O'Brien expects gold prices to easily hit $2,300 an ounce by next year. AngloGold Ashanti CEO Mark Cutifani forecasts $2,200. Main reason is gold production slowly dwindles and economic uncertainty increases and therefore prices will rise. Debt problems in Greece, U.S. deficit concerns and political upheaval in the Middle East are all boosting gold's price.
The bullish outlook on gold prices has been contradicted recently by a surge of interest in U.S. government debt and the dollar, and a slight dip in gold prices, reports Reuters....READ MORE
Captures Wind Power on Massive Battery System Tech
3:47 AM
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Captures Wind Power on Massive Battery System Tech
mines,gold,silver,oil,gazz,coal,prices,market,asia,europa,america,africa
One of the biggest challenges facing wind energy is intermittency. Wind often blows strongest when power demand is lowest, and weakest when electricity is needed the most. Because today’s power grid needs electricity to be consumed the moment it’s generated, that means wind turbines send energy to the grid half as often as an average coal plant.
What if wind farms could store the power that isn’t needed right away and sell it later when demand is high? energyNOW! correspondent Patty Kim visited an energy storage system built alongside a wind farm in the heart of coal country. The full video is available below:
Wind energy has come a long way in the United States. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry that employs 75,000 people in 42 states and generates about 2 percent of the nation’s electricity. And, the Department of Energy says that number could grow to 20 percent of America’s electricity by 2030.
That potential is far from reality though, mainly because of wind’s intermittent nature. In order to reach 20 percent, one in five new turbines will have to be built offshore where the wind is faster and more consistent, and offshore wind is stalled in this country. But intermittency is only a problem because the energy industry hasn’t come up with an efficient way to store electricity on a large scale – until now.
A massive new battery storage system has sprung up in the heart of coal country, and it could change wind energy forever. AES Corporation, a global power project developer, has built a wind farm of more than 60 turbines spread across twelve miles of West Virginia’s Laurel Mountains. The farm generates enough power for 20,000 homes, and feeds power into the PJM Interconnection regional grid.
But the really impressive aspect of this wind farm is a series of white shipping containers, nondescriptly nestled into the hills, containing 1.3 million lithium ion batteries. Each battery is about the size of a typical C or D cell, and together they provide frequency regulation to the grid.
Grid operators at PJM send signals to the battery system every four seconds, telling it to either send the electricity generated by the wind farm onto the grid, or store it for later use when the wind isn’t blowing. “It’s a level of control over power that we haven’t seen,” said Praveen Kathpal, Vice President of Market and Regulatory Affairs for AES Energy Storage.
The storage system technology is impressive, but for now, its impact is relatively small. The West Virginia project can only hold enough electricity at any one time to power about 5,000 homes for 15 minutes. “Projects like these are the beginning of a long wave of energy storage projects to come,” said Kathpal. AES is taking the next step in West Texas, where it want to build a second battery project, roughly three times larger than the West Virginia system....READ MORE
Posted in
2011,
battery,
energy,
processing
China biggest world energy consumption 2011
3:36 AM
Unknown
China biggest world energy consumption 2011
mines,gold,silver,oil,gazz,coal,prices,market,asia,europa,america,africa
Rare earth minerals may be the most important, let least understood factor in America’s transition to a low-carbon, clean-tech future. They’re essential to virtually every source of renewable energy and consumer technology we use today.
But China dominates worldwide rare earth supplies and production, and their monopoly could corner the world economy. energyNOW! chief correspondent Tyler Suiters explores how U.S. dependence on China’s rare earths could affect our energy future and high-tech lifestyles. The full video is available below:
Americans are used to seeing the words “Made in China” on most things we buy, but could they soon also read “Mined in China?” The nation controls 97 percent of global production of the elements we rely upon in every aspect of modern life. Consider the technologies requiring rare earths: computers, smart phones, military jets, rocket systems, electric cars, wind turbines, energy-efficient light bulbs, and flat-screen televisions, to name a few.
China’s claim on the rare earths market began in the 1980’s. Premier Deng Xioping famously quipped “the Middle East has oil, but China has rare earths,” and the country ramped up mining efforts. This drove production costs down so sharply that rare earth mining became unprofitable in other countries, including the U.S., which had led global production since the 1960s. It also boosted China’s economy.
“They were very effectively using their control over the rare earth industry to force high-tech manufacturing into China,” said John Burba, CTO of Molycorp, operator of the only active rare earths mine in America. “I could look and see how fast it was leaving the United States.”
Molycorp hopes to counter China’s rare earths monopoly through its Mountain Pass mine in California. Until the 1980s, Mountain Pass was the single top producing rare earths mine in the world. Plunging commodity prices and a series of environmental accidents forced it to close.
Through a revamped approach that favors computer control and automation, Molycorp says it can safely produce 40,000 tons of rare earths a year by 2013 – equal to all U.S. demand. “A facility of this size in China would probably require 3,000 to 4,000 people,” said Mark Smith, Molycorp CEO. “We’ll have 300 or 400.”
Meeting that demand is critical to the burgeoning clean tech economy, which consumes 20 percent of the world’s rare earths. They coat the inside of compact fluorescent light bulbs, go into the magnets that turn electric vehicle batteries, and power the electrical generators inside wind turbines. For context, some of the biggest turbines can each use two tons of rare earths.
If production can’t be increased, another solution may be to find replacements. Companies with a big stake in renewables are actively looking for rare earth substitutes. General Electric says it has developed a higher-performance wind turbine magnetizer coil, completely free of rare earths, and Toyota is working on an EV motor that doesn’t need rare earths at all. But, both are still in the experimental phase and not yet market-ready.
So while breaking up the rare earths monopoly has environmental consequences, it also represents an economic imperative – and the window is closing. “The big danger is that China totally controls the production of all devices containing rare earths,” said Jack Lifton, of Technology Metals Research. “If we haven’t made any significant moves by 2015, we will simply no longer be a nation with any hope of doing so.”...READ MORE
Posted in
2011,
asia,
energy,
production,
world
gold prices in egypt december 2011
7:00 PM
Unknown
gold prices in egypt december 2011
mines,gold,silver,oil,gazz,coal,prices,market,asia,europa,america,africa
CAIRO: Gold prices declined by 3 EGP (U.S. $0.50) on Tuesday, according to Salah Abdel Hadi, head of the gold and jewelry division in the Egyptian chamber of commerce.
The price for one gram of 21-carat gold declined to 286 EGP (U.S $47.59) from it was sold at 289 EGP (U.S $48.09); a gram of 18-carat gold declined to 245 EGP (U.S $40.77); and a gram of 24-carat gold declined to 326 EGP (U.S $54.27).
The price of the Egyptian gold pound is 2,290 EGP (U.S $381).
The decline in gold prices is a response to the global decline of prices in the international stock markets, as an ounce of gold reached U.S. $1,712, said Abdel Hadi.
Abdel Hadi said that the gold stores' owners are closing their shops as a precaution in case any clashes take place because of the elections
Gold Price in Egypt (EGP)Last update: Monday 19th December 2011 12:00 am According to the time zone of Cairo | |||
Note: Gold prices are updated every 6 hours | |||
| Gold Unit | Current Price Monday 19th December 2011 | Previous Price Sunday 18th December 2011 | Change Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold Ounce | 9,597.23 | 9,594.28 | 0.03 % |
| Gold Pound | 2,160.15 | 2,159.48 | |
| Gold Gram Karat 24 | 308.59 | 308.50 | |
| Gold Gram Karat 22 | 282.85 | 282.77 | |
| Gold Gram Karat 21 | 269.96 | 269.88 | |
| Gold Gram Karat 18 | 231.37 | 231.30 | |
| Gold Gram Karat 14 | 180.06 | 180.01 | |
.... READ MORE
Crashed drone was looking at Iran nuclear sites december 2011
6:46 PM
Unknown
Crashed drone was looking at Iran nuclear sites december 2011
mines,gold,silver,oil,gazz,coal,prices,market,asia,europa,america,africa
The Sentinel drone that crashed in Iran last week was on a surveillance mission of suspected nuclear sites in the country, U.S. military officials tell CNN.
Previously, U.S. and NATO officials had said the drone was on a mission to patrol the Afghan-Iran border and had veered off course.
The officials say the Afghan government was unaware of the use of its territory to fly surveillance drones over Iran, and that the CIA had not informed the Defense Department of the drone's mission when reports first emerged that it had crashed. One official told CNN that the U.S. military "did not have a good understanding of what was going on because it was a CIA mission."
In Kabul Wednesday U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta refused to comment directly on the specifics of the drone's mission but did not deny that it had been spying on Iran and said the drone program carried out "important intelligence operations which we will continue to pursue."
The RQ-170 Sentinel is one of the United States' most sophisticated drones and flies at up to 50,000 feet. It is designed to evade sophisticated air defenses. One former intelligence official told CNN that it's "impossible to see" and discounted Iranian claims that it had been brought down by some form of electronic counter-measures.
"It simply fell into their laps," he said - after satellite communication was lost.
An Iranian engineer working on the captured drone claimed to the Christian Science Monitor that Iran was able to overtake the drone control system and land it. The engineer described to reporter Scott Peterson how Iran was able to exploit a vulnerability in the drone system.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said categorically that Iran had nothing to do with the fate of the aircraft.
"I will say without hesitation that this was not something that anyone had anything to do with, coming down with, other than a technical problem," he said. "I will tell you there was a technical problem that was our problem, nobody else's problem. I think there is a lot of PR going on."
But Panetta did not categorically rule out the possibility when asked whether the drone could have been taken down by a cyberattack or jamming.
"You can make all kinds of guesses at this point. Obviously there's nothing that you can rule out and nothing that you can rule in right now," Panetta told Fox News earlier this week.
The former official doubted the intelligence value of the drone to the Iranians. For example, the sensors on the underbelly of the drone would have been badly damaged, he said. And coolant could have damaged the main computer. The sensors are designed to detect airborne chemical traces that might come from a nuclear facility or intercept cell-phone conversations.
But Bill Sweetman, the editor in chief of Defense Technology International, believed everything inside the plane would be in one piece based on what he could see from the video released by the Iranians. Sweetman added this aircraft did not represent the crown jewels of U.S. technology. "This is not the most advanced stealth technology out there."
Iranian officials have said the drone came down over eastern Iran, hundreds of miles from the cluster of nuclear sites in central and north-western Iran. Some said it came down close to the city of Kashmar in Khorasan province; others that it was recovered in the Tabas desert to the south-west.
The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaei, told CNN, "It was brought down somewhere in about some 150 miles or 250 kilometers deep into the Iranian territory in the province of Khorasan in the northern city of Tabas."
The Tabas desert is a remote region used by the U.S. military in 1980 as a staging area during the abortive attempt to rescue the hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
According to experts who follow Iran's nuclear program, this part of the country is not known for nuclear facilities. More than a decade ago there were reports that Iran had developed an enrichment facility with North Korean help in the Tabas Desert. But its existence was never confirmed, and an official at the International Atomic Energy Agency said its delegations had not been to the area.
David Albright, the president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), expressed doubts that North Korea would have shared centrifuge technology with Iran at a time it was developing its own enrichment facilities.
The area is known for its uranium mines. which Iran is under no obligation to subject to international inspection. The main mine is at Saghand in Yazd province, to the south-west of the Tabas desert. According to ISIS, it supplies uranium ore concentrate to a facility at Ardakan. Other mines in Iran's eastern provinces are being developed, according to the IAEA.
Equally the drone may have been traveling across eastern Iran toward other known or suspected nuclear sites, experts say. In its most recent report, the IAEA identified many of these in and around Tehran as well as around Qom and Isfahan.
It is still unclear where the drone was based in Afghanistan. Previously reported sightings of the RQ-170 Sentinel were at the Kandahar base in southern Afghanistan. But Afghan officials say this mission began at the former Soviet air base at Shindand in western Herat province. A straight line from there to known nuclear facilities identified by the IAEA in north and central Iran would have taken the drone close to Kashmar.
The International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan has refused to confirm the Sentinel left Shindand.
CNN's Kathleen Johnston and Pam Benson contributed to this report....READ MORE
Posted in
2011,
asia,
energy,
nuclear,
production
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