Nelson Mandela's final journey home draws thousands to line the roads

Nelson Mandela's coffin lay in his childhood home of Qunu on Saturday, draped in the flag of the new South Africa that he helped to create; the colours of the African National Congress, which he led to power; and the skin of a lion, an honour normally reserved for kings of his native Xhosa people.

The funeral cortege of the country's first democratically elected president was met by a popular honour guard of ordinary South Africans, who lined the 20-mile final homecoming from the provincial city of Mthatha to Qunu.

The plain black hearse, declining to slow down even for a moment, was greeted with cheers and whoops and ululations as if for a film star walking down the red carpet. For many, even the fleeting glimpse had been worth the long wait behind a blue line of police.

Bonga Dlali, 32, brought his two-year-old twins so that they would later be able to say they had been there. "It's final closure for most of us," he said. "This is the last time we'll come close to the gentleman who inspired so many things."

In the different coloured faces among the army, navy and air force personnel who lined the Mthatha airstrip to receive his coffin, there were signs of the transformation that Mandela wrought after emerging from 27 years in prison under white rule.

Even the cortege offered reminders of the sometimes violent anti-apartheid struggle as his hearse was accompanied by the once notorious Casspir armoured personnel carriers. Known as "hippos" in the apartheid-era townships, the vehicles were often used to crush riots and sometimes people.

Outside the Mandela family's imposing home in Qunu, villagers, who were heavily outnumbered by security forces, gamely waved and called out "Aah Dalibhunga", meaning "welcome home" in Xhosa.

Earlier in the day, the ruling ANC party had bid its farewell in a sombre ceremony at the Waterkloof air base outside Pretoria before the coffin was put aboard a military transport plane and flown to Mthatha. Mandela's widow, Graça Machel, dressed in the mourning black she must wear for the next year according to the Xhosa custom of ukuzila, wept and wiped tears from under her glasses.

Source: theguardian

Japan, ASEAN agree on investment, services trade under EPA

Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations largely agreed Saturday on rules to promote bilateral investment and trade in services as part of their economic partnership agreement.

Investment and trade in services had been unresolved in the EPA between Japan and 10-nation ASEAN.

Japan and ASEAN agreed to ban forcing foreign companies doing business in their economies to provide their cutting-edge technologies to local companies, through joint ventures for instance, in order to protect domestic industries.

Source: Jiji Press

China slams Abe's comments on ADIZ

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei on Saturday night strongly refuted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's recent comments on China's East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone(ADIZ).

Hong expressed China's strong anger over the Japanese leader for his malicious slander against China in international arena, according to a Foreign Ministry press release.

It was reported that during a recent summit between Japan and Southeast Asian countries, Abe criticized China for its "unilateral action" to change the situation in the East China Sea and said that China's ADIZ is unjust violation against the freedom of aviation over the high seas as well as demanded China rescind relevant measures.

Hong reiterated China's stance on theDiaoyu Islands  and slammed Japan's unilateral actions to provoke disputes since last year.

China's necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty is in accordance with law and irreproachable,he said.

As a defensive measure to safeguard national air security, the establishment of the East China Sea ADIZ is in line with international law and practice, Hong said, stressing that it does not affect the freedom of aviation of the aircraft which is in accordance with international law.

The Japanese deliberate vilification over China on the ADIZ is doomed to failure, said the spokesman.

Source: Xinhua

China's 1st moon rover "Jade Rabbit" separates from lander

China's first moon rover, Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, separated from the lander early on Sunday, several hours after the Chang'e-3 probe soft-landed on the lunar surface.

The six-wheeled rover touched the lunar surface at 4:35 a.m., leaving deep trace on the loose lunar soil. The process was recorded by the camera on the lander and the images were sent to the earth.

The transfer mechanism with Yutu aboard unlocked at 4:06 a.m. with one side reaching the moon's surface, allowing the rover to descend to the surface following a ladder mechanism.

After the separation, the rover and lander will take photos of each other and start their own scientific explorations.

Chang'e-3 landed on the moon's Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows, at 9:11 p.m. Saturday, making China the third country in the world to carry out such a rover mission after the United Statesand former Soviet Union.

In ancient Chinese mythology, Yutu was the white pet rabbit of the lunar goddess Chang'e. The name for the rover was selected following an online poll that collected several million votes from people around the world.

Source: Xinhua

Merrill Lynch raises China GDP growth forecast

Based on China's macroeconomic data for November, Bank of America (BOA) Merrill Lynch has raised its forecast for China's GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2013 to 7.8 percent from its previous 7.7 percent.

China's November activity data came in with faster retail sales growth, slower fixed asset investment growth and softer industrial production growth.

The moderation of industrial production growth to 10 percent in November, from 10.3 percent in October, "was mainly a result of a high comparison base thanks to the strong rebound at the end of 2012", said BOA Merrill Lynch's chief China economist Lu Ting in the financial institution's latest report, released on Thursday.

For the full year of 2013, BOA Merrill Lynch maintained its GDP growth forecast for China at 7.7 percent.

With the current momentum, year-on-year GDP growth could rise to 8 percent in the first and second quarters of 2014, thanks to a fall in comparison base, according to the report.

The institution also said it expects the Chinese government to set its 2014 full-year growth target at 7.5 percent, the same as that for 2013, for three reasons.

Firstly, a growth of 7.5 percent is reachable given current domestic demand momentum and global prospects.

Secondly, Chinese leaders believe that some of their scheduled reforms could support growth if they help improve efficiency.

Thirdly, the Chinese government cut its growth target to 7.5 percent in 2012 from an 8-percent target in 2005-2011, and will be wary of cutting again for 2014 as people might lose confidence, said the report.

Source: Xinhua

China's Nov. power consumption rises 8.55%

China's electricity consumption, an indicator of economic activity, rose 8.5 percent year on year in November, official data showed on Saturday.

The growth was lower than October's 9.5-percent rise and September's 10.4-percent increase, according to figures released by the National Energy Administration.

Total power consumption by the end of November rose 7.5 percent year on year to 4.83 trillion kilowatt hours, accelerating from the 7.4-percent increase recorded in the first 10 months of 2013, the administration said.

Source: Xinhua

It could get worse before it gets better at Anadarko after $4B market cap hit

Source: Seeking Alpha

It could get worse before it gets better at Anadarko after $4B market cap hit

• A federal bankruptcy judge’s ruling that Anadarko Petroleum may have to pay up to US$ 14.2B in damages related to the Tronox spinoff shocked Wall Street, as investors erased nearly $4B from APC’s market cap Friday.
• U.S. officials say the award would be the largest ever in a bankruptcy case for federal environmental claims and liabilities, and it ranks among the largest environmental enforcement awards in U.S. history.
• A likely appeal could bring years of legal wrangling, prompting calls for a settlement  , which is perhaps what the judge is attempting to motivate; otherwise, APC faces a substantial overhang on its stock price - possibly for as long as 10 years , Citigroup says.
• The ruling ruined APC’s own $1.4B estimate of exposure in the case; if more money is needed to cover damages, APC could sell low cash-generating assets in Mozambique, Brazil and elsewhere for a combined $18B, leaving it with excess cash even in the face of a large judgment, Tudor Pickering says.
• Even a worst-case scenario isn't likely to torpedo APC, but the next question may be whether it might be weak enough to draw an unsolicited takeover bid.

Thursday, Dec 12 Anadarko falls -12.5%. Bankruptcy judge APC and Kerr-McGee acted improperly...

Source: Seeking Alpha

Anadarko -12.5% AH as Kerr-McGee unit held liable in Tronox spinoff

• Anadarko Petroleum -12.5% AH after a bankruptcy judge rules its Kerr-McGee unit Acted improperly in the 2005 spinoff of Tronox  and should pay for environmental cleanup and to compensate people who claim damage from toxins.
• The U.S. government had sought to recover $25B to clean ~2,700 polluted sites and compensate about ~8,100 tort claimants; a trust set up to pay plaintiffs calls for 88% of the judgment to go to trusts for cleanup, according to court papers, with the remainder going to toxin claimants.
• The judge says APC and Kerr-McGee intended to “hinder and delay" when they transferred out and spun off oil and gas assets.

In Russia, a Billionaire Scoffs at Oligarchs

   According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,Oleg Tinkov may have joined the ranks of Russia's billionaires when his online bank went public in October, but don't call him an oligarch.
Mr. Tinkov, 45 years old, is indeed a rarity on the Russian business scene. While most tycoons took advantage of close ties with the government to win control over huge oil, metals and other companies originally built by the Soviet government ("losers," says Mr. Tinkov), he founded a string of successful startups whose businesses range from selling electronics to making frozen Siberian ravioli. And in a country where prominent businesspeople keep their political views to themselves, Mr. Tinkov is a frenetic tweeter—outspoken and often critical of the Kremlin.

While he used to be able to stay under the radar, his latest venture, an online bank called Tinkoff Credit Systems (he uses the "Tinkoff" spelling for businesses), now finds itself a leader in an industry that has landed squarely in the cross hairs of regulators and legislators.

Mr. Tinkov and his colleagues learned that the hard way last month. A local newspaper reported that a draft of changes to the consumer-finance law in parliament would have essentially banned TCS's branchless distribution model. Stunned investors drove TCS's newly listed shares down over 40%. Within hours, legislators explained that the confusion was the result of a word that had been inadvertently left out of the draft. The stock bounced bank, but the shock remained.

"I didn't think we were that big, but it turned out we are," says Mr. Tinkov. He added that the bank, the third-largest issuer of credit cards in Russia, is now looking for its first full-time government-relations executive.

As the Soviet Union collapsed, he dropped out of school and went into retail, later founding a chain of electronics stores. A friend who married an American invited him to visit California, where he discovered what he calls "the entrepreneur's Mecca" of Silicon Valley.

But there was less competition back home, so he returned and started a line of frozen Siberian ravioli, naming it for his daughter, Daria. He sold the company, which had grown to become one of Russia's largest, for $21 million in 2001 to tycoon Roman Abramovich. From there, he went into premium beer, building the Tinkoff line until he sold it to InBev SA for €167 million ($229.7 million) in 2005.

Mr. Tinkov says the idea for the bank came during a visit to the U.S., when he grew fascinated with the model of Capital One. He took the direct-mail idea back to Russia and set up TCS in 2007. His drive and track record of success helped him win the backing of Goldman Sachs, his first investor. After struggling with the rest of the Russian economy through the global financial crisis, TCS then took off, doubling its assets annually for the next three years.

TCS is branching out into insurance and mobile payments, seeking to build on its customer base. The bank has also started taking deposits—including the roughly $200 million he got from the IPO, Mr. Tinkov says. (He still owns 51% of the bank's stock.)

But the stock is still trading about 16% below the IPO price. "It is going to take a while for investor confidence to recover" after the drop last month, says TCS President Oliver Hughes.

Keith Richards : Street Fighting Man and the events in the streets of London and Paris 1968

  From the Wall Street Journal.

"In late 1966, Keith Richards was hearing things. The Rolling Stones guitarist and songwriter had in mind a series of strong, bluesy chords and a melody line based on French police-car sirens. But he couldn't quite reproduce the way he envisioned it sounding—dry and crisp, with a "garage" feel. Then he purchased an early Philips cassette tape recorder and, using an acoustic guitar, created the basis for what would become "Street Fighting Man."
Recorded in March, April and May 1968 and released in the U.S. in August, the summer single from their album "Beggars Banquet," only managed to reach #48 on the Billboard pop chart—dwarfed by the band's #3 "Jumpin' Jack Flash." Nevertheless, "Street Fighting Man" featured one of Mr. Richards' now-famous chord riff intros and, with Mick Jagger's lyrics, became the Stones' first statement about the political unrest unfolding in Europe and marked the start of a new gritty phase for the band.

With the approach of his 70th birthday on Dec. 18, Mr. Richards talked about how he and drummer Charlie Watts crafted the song's minimalist acoustic sound, why Mr. Richards played electric bass and not Bill Wyman, and the special way he hit the strings to get his signature sound. Edited from an interview:

Keith Richards: "Street Fighting Man" is one of my favorite Rolling Stones songs—probably because the music came together through a series of accidents and experimentation. We recorded it in a totally different way than anything we had done up until that point and the results were pretty exciting and unexpected.

The music came first—before Mick [Jagger] wrote the lyrics. I had written most of the melody to "Street Fighting Man" sometime in late 1966 or early '67—before "Jumpin' Jack Flash"—but I couldn't figure out how to get the sound I wanted. It's hard to explain. If you think of a melody as a song's shape, then the sound is its texture. The two were inseparable in my mind. I tried recording the melody in the studio in '67 but nothing happened. So I took the concept home to my Redlands farmhouse in Sussex, England, to work on it.

Around this time, I became fascinated by one of the early cassette tape recorders made by Philips. The machine was compact, so it was portable, and it had this little stick microphone, which would allow me to capture song ideas on the fly. So I bought one, but as I watched the small tape-cartridge reels turn, I began to think of the machine not as a dictation device but as a mini recording studio. The problem is I couldn't use an electric guitar to record on it. The sound just overwhelmed the mike and speaker. I tried an acoustic guitar instead and got this dry, crisp guitar sound on the tape—the exact sound I had been looking for on the song.

At the time, I was experimenting with open tunings on the guitar—you know, tuning the strings to form specific chords so I could bang out the broadest possible sound. That's how I came up with "Street Fighting Man's" opening riff—even before I bought the Philips. I based the rest of the song's melody on the tone pattern of those odd sirens French police cars use [sings the siren and lyrics to illustrate].

Sometime in early '68, I took the Philips recorder into London's Olympic Sound Studios and had Charlie [Watts] meet me there. Charlie had this snap drum kit that was made in the 1930s. Jazz drummers used to carry around the small kit to practice when they were on the bus or train. It had this little spring-up hi-hat and a tambourine for a snare. It was perfect because, like the acoustic guitar, it wouldn't overpower the recorder's mike. I had Charlie sit right next to the mike with his little kit and I kneeled on the floor next to him with my acoustic Gibson Hummingbird. There we were in front of this little box hammering away [laughs]. After we listened to the playback, the sound was perfect.On that opening riff, I used enormous force on the strings. I always did that and still do. I'm looking at my hands now and they look like Mike Tyson's. They're pretty beat up. I'm not a hard hitter on the strings—more of a striker. It's not the force as much as it is a whip action. I'm almost releasing the power before my fingers actually meet the strings. I'm a big string-breaker, since I like to whip them pretty hard.

Once Charlie and I had the basic track down, we we played back what we had recorded through an extension speaker with a recording mike in front of it. We put that track onto an eight-track recorder, which gave us seven additional tracks for overdubbing. That damn little Philips recorder: I realize now I was using it as a pickup for the acoustic guitar—only it wasn't attached to the instrument.

Then Charlie added a bigger bass drum on one track, and I added another acoustic guitar to widen the sound. In fact, the only electric instrument on the entire recording is the bass. Bill [Wyman] wasn't around and things were moving fast, so I just recorded the bass line I had in my head. Everything happened so quickly. Dave Mason [of the band Traffic] came in later to add a bass drum and a shehnai [a South Asian oboe] at the end of the song. Brian [Jones] played sitar and tambura and Nicky Hopkins added the piano part.

Early on, when I had played the tape of my melody for Mick, his lyrics were about brutal adults. We recorded them and called the song, "Did Everyone Pay Their Dues?" But we weren't that crazy about the results, and the lyrics underwent several rewrites once we saw what was going on in the streets in London and Paris in 1968. While we were in the studio, Mick had been at a huge demonstration against the Vietnam War in London's Grosvenor Square in March. And we were both in Paris in May during the violent protests by students demanding reforms. The French cops were pretty nasty about it. As we traveled around, Mick and I would look at each other and realize something big was happening in two major capitols of the world and that our generation was bursting at the seams.

Mick knew that "Dues" needed an overhaul that better matched what was going on. I came up with the line, "What can a poor boy do" and threw it out to Mick. He completed the thought with " 'Cept to sing for a rock 'n' roll band" and he wrote the rest of the new lyrics in the studio. That's how we often worked. One of us would have a piece of a lyric that sounded interesting, then hand it off to the other to get things going.

I love the songwriting process, but I really don't like writing by myself. I love the bounce of one person's ideas off the other. Mick wrote down a ton of lines. Then we tore the lines into strips and moved them around. Reams of pages were flying around—and some of them wound up burned [laughs]. Eventually they took shape and we laid down the vocal tracks.

Like any of our songs, "Street Fighting Man" not only had to hold together musically and tell a story but it also had to work for a certain bunch of guys who played a very specific way. We had to make sure that what we came up with was something the other guys could get behind. For instance, if Charlie had turned up his nose at what we came up with, I knew the song wouldn't have worked. But he loved it.

Actually, I think "Street Fighting Man" is Charlie's most important record. Listen to him on there—he has this Wall of Sound thing going the way he's hitting that snap kit and the bigger drum. When you experiment the way we did as a band, the smallest little things can happen that turn out to be a big deal. You just need the determination to go there. It's amazing what can happen when you have the right instruments—and the right amount of echo [laughs]. To his credit, our producer, [the late] Jimmy Miller, brought incredible enthusiasm to what we were doing on "Street Fighting Man." He was one of the warmest guys and an incredible friend. We made our best records with him. He always knew when to engage and when stay out of the picture. He knew I was going for something special on the song and interjected only when he thought we were losing it and needed a break.

"Street Fighting Man" was the first time I had a sound in my head that was bugging me. That would happen again many times, of course, but after that song I knew how to deal with it. Only in the studio could I put the two things together—the minimalist sound and the overdubbing. That's where the vision met reality. When we were completely done recording "Street Fighting Man" and played back the master, I just smiled. It's the kind of record you love to make—and they don't come that often".

China has decided to expand its over-the-counter market

China has decided to expand its over-the-counter (OTC) market to all qualified small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), according to an official statement released on Saturday.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, announced that the OTC market, a national share transfer system for SMEs that is also known as the New Third Board will be expanded to cover all innovative and promising companies.

Qualified companies can apply for listing on the board for public share transfer so as to realize equity and bond financing as well as asset restructuring, according to the statement.

The companies should ensure accurate and complete information disclosure on their operations.

The statement said that qualified enterprises can apply directly to be listed on the New Third Board through stock exchanges.

The State Council demanded the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) simplify approval procedures for higher efficiency in accordance with the reform plan for the initial public offering system unveiled on Nov. 30.

The CSRC will exempt approval procedures for applying joint-stock companies with 200 or fewer shareholders and listed ones with private placement and no more than 200 shareholders, according to the statement.

The State Council also required nurturing of institutional investors like security companies, insurance companies, investment funds and those overseas.

The CSRC vowed to enhance monitoring and strictly punish illegal activities like false disclosure, insider trading and market rigging, in order to preserve the rights of investors.

The country's OTC board was officially established in January after years of trials in several cities.

The New Third Board was initiated in 2006 as an experimental platform intended to facilitate financing for China's non-listed small, promising high-tech enterprises in Beijing's Zhongguancun Science Park, allowing them to transfer shares and raise funds for specified purposes.

The trial was later expanded to cover several high-tech zones in Shanghai, Wuhan and Tianjin. As of the end of 2012, around 200 companies traded on the New Third Board.

In 2012, transactions on the board decreased 22.8 percent from 2011, and the average funding per firm came in at only 33.8 million yuan (5.53 million U.S. dollars), far from enough to feed China's hungry SMEs.

China to expand domestic demand next year

 Expanding domestic demand will be a strategic basis for China's development next year, said a statement issued Sunday after a two-day central economic work conference closed.

New growth points should be created in domestic consumption, which will serve as both a strong pulling power and foundation for the sustained and healthy development of the country's economy, it said.

Source:  CCTV

China pledges steady, human-centered urbanization

China on Saturday pledged proactive yet steady moves in pushing forward human-centered urbanization as it looks to balance urban-rural development and unleash domestic demand.

Urbanization is the road China must take in its modernization drive, and it offers an important way to address rural problems, according to a statement released after a central urbanization work conference.

The two-day meeting, which ended on Friday, was attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and senior leaders Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli.

This was the most high-level meeting the Chinese leadership has ever convened on urbanization.

While promising to focus on the quality of urbanization and improve the living standards of urban residents, the statement said the primary task is to enable migrant workers to win urbanite status in an orderly manner.

The statement came as China's rigid "hukou" (household registration) system has prevented migrants from gaining equal access to services in cities, posing a major barrier holding back the country's urbanization process.

By the end of 2012, China has 710 million urban residents. For the first time in China's history, its urban population exceeded rural population, with city-dwellers accounting for 51.27 percent of the total population.

Caught between the urban and rural residents are an army of 260 million migrant workers who live in cities but do not have access to the same public services as other urbanites who hold a city "hukou".

Saturday's statement promised that endeavors would be exerted to gradually allow migrant workers to become more integrated in cities, fully remove hukou restrictions in towns and small cities, gradually ease restrictions in mid-sized cities, and set reasonable conditions for settling in big cities while strictly controlling the population in megacities.

Cities should develop their industries based on their unique resource advantages and enhance cooperation in professional services, especially the service sector, to consolidate industrial development foundation and encourage innovations.

Measures and policies to enable migrant workers to win urbanite status should be carried out in line with farmers' willingness, and should proceed in the light of local conditions, the statement said.

Priority should be given to urbanizing current rural population working in cities while guiding those new migrant workers, it said.

Quality development of urbanization, it said, is conducive to unleashing huge potential in domestic demand, lifting productivity and breaking up the city-country dualistic economic structure.

According to the statement, exertions will be made to build up a diverse and sustainable funding mechanism for the drive. It stressed the importance of green and low-carbon development in future urbanization.

It called for higher utilization rate of urban construction land, with new construction land being strictly controlled and inventory being efficiently used.

Urban construction will avoid excessive area expansion in developing cities and towns, as the bottom line of farmland's area and quality should be secured.

The statement put particular emphasis on urbanization in the less-developed central, west and northeast regions, with the aim at making growth more balanced.

Under the guidance of market and government planning, China should gradually form several city clusters in those regions to make them "important growth poles", the statement said.

It also called for better construction and governance in the cities.

The statement warned that development targets of urbanization should be practical and realistic, and they should not come as a result of administrative decrees.

Officials should not make unrealistic pursuit of quick results over urbanization, and instead, they should push forward with urbanization in an active and steady manner, it stressed.

Source: CCTV

China vows to boost opening-up

 China will continue to boost opening-up in 2014, according to a statement issued after the annual central economic work conference which ended on Friday.

Traditional export strengths should be maintained and new comparative advantages and competitive strengths should be created, the statement said.

Source: CCTV

Contrarian Investment Advice

"With the gold price at $1 300/oz, the global gold industry is loss-making. He says that the industry has been remiss for many years for failing to report what it really costs miners to produce an ounce of gold, a pound of copper and a ton of coal. "We've got an industry that is actually going through cost escalations that are slowly driving it into the ground," he adds. Cost per ton rising 12% a year in the last five years means a doubling of costs every four years; simultaneously, yields are falling. Exploration budgets are rising and mining companies are spending more to find less. "Gold is becoming scarce and resources are becoming scarce," says Holland. Even though the speech as given a few months ago, the points apply even more today than they did back then. The gold miners have cut costs, but many of them have done it by "high-grading" their ore and sacrificing future production to produce low-cost ounces today".
"As with all commodity investments, as the price drops below the costs of production, miners keep up production simply to survive but even that at a point must end, and we gradually see them slow down production and conserve cash. We're heading that direction, and as exploration budgets are cut (investors need only look at third quarter company financials to see the drastic drops in exploration budgets) we're going to see less future gold production."
Buying gold has been a losing investment for the last two years, but the fundamentals of the investment remain the same and future supply is dropping drastically the longer the price remains at levels below the cost of production".

"Investors should remember that being a contrarian means buying an asset with strong fundamentals that nobody likes - in the last two years gold has become that investment.
Investors need to be very careful which gold miners they buy though, because as Mr. Holland makes clear, many miners will struggle to make a profit at current gold prices and are not as sure as the gold price. Look to the miners with low costs of production and strong balance sheets such as Goldcorp (GG), Agnico-Eagle (AEM), Randgold (GOLD), or even some of the explorers and silver miners such as First Majestic (AG)".

Source:  Seeking Alpha

Nick Holland* speach at Gordon Institute of Business Science August '13 *CEO of Gold Fields

The cost of producing an ounce of gold under the World Gold Council's new all-in cost metric is $1 500/oz, says Gold Fields CEO Nick Holland.

Holland, who addressed the Gordon Institute of Business Science last week, says that, with the gold price at $1 300/oz, the global gold industry is loss-making.

He says that the industry has been remiss for many years for failing to report what it really costs miners to produce an ounce of gold, a pound of copper and a ton of coal.

“We’ve got an industry that is actually going through cost escalations that are slowly driving it into the ground,” he adds.

Cost per ton rising 12% a year in the last five years means a doubling of costs every four years; simultaneously, yields are falling.

Exploration budgets are rising and mining companies are spending more to find less.

“Gold is becoming scarce and resources are becoming scarce,” says Holland.

Return on equity and return on capital employed have been in decline for the last three years in a row to 2012 and gearing ratios have rocketed as a result of troubled companies borrowing more money to keep existing operations afloat.

The top 40 mining companies are in serious financial trouble and operating cash flows are insufficient to cover investments.

The unprecedented drop of the HSBC global mining index, made up of 183 mining companies worldwide, clearly illustrates that investors are turning to other sectors and stretching mining's equity model to breaking point.

A lack of money translates into an absence of mining projects, which augurs badly for the future.

Multibillion-dollar projects are being delayed and cancelled the world over, existing operations are being cut back and there are weekly reports of mining companies downsizing and retrenching.

“The industry is in crisis and it’s under threat,” Holland says.

Although governments the world over are wanting more taxes and royalties from mines, there is very little for governments to take.

Investors are similarly stricken with only 10% for spread around from the $2-trillion revenue of the top 40 companies, which indicates that revenue from the first 27 working days of mining is going towards paying the bills and from the last three working days towards providing a return to investors.

The Dow Jones industrial index and the FTSE 100 index are both rising sharply as investors desert the sector and put their money elsewhere.

Platinum mining, which, with gold, employed up to three-quarters of the 500 000 people employed directly by the South African mining industry as a whole, was also under water.

Source: Mining Weekly

Xinhua Insight: Rags-to-riches tales expected from micro-financing growth

Rags-to-riches tales are no longer the stuff of fiction in China's villages, where grassroots financial institutions are making it possible to start a business from scratch.

And the fast development of such micro-financing is set to further accelerate after an announcement from a just-concluded key economic meeting of the central authorities.

The motivation to bolster rural micro-credit comes from success stories like that of Liang Anxue. When a typhoon destroyed more than half of his 70 hectares of betel nut and rubber plants in 2005, Liang, a farmer in south China's Hainan Province, felt desperate as he had little money left and no qualification to borrow from banks.

However, he was advised by a rural credit cooperative to mortgage his forest right certificate for financial aid to restart his business, and now, eight years later, Liang has his own betel nut business thanks to micro-credit aid from the cooperative.

The co-op that helped change Liang's life is one form of grassroots financial institutions that have flourished in recent years as China looks to redirect its reforms to benefit the real economy.

Now, China has vowed to improve the efficiency of its financial functions and bring more benefit to the real economy, according to a statement released on Friday after a four-day central economic work conference held to set the tone for policymaking for the year ahead.

Meanwhile, a decision was made at the major Communist Party of China meeting in November to push financial reform by encouraging innovation in products to benefit the grassroots.

"Instead of a government-led policy push, financial reforms in recent years have focused more on bottom-up innovations, which nurture small businesses and farmers," said Yang Tao, director of the Financial Market Research Office with the China Academy of Social Sciences.

"That lays a more solid foundation for China's overall financial reform," Yang added.

China has over 60 million enterprises, about 99 percent of which are small firms, and about 800 million farmers, who usually lack access to traditional banking and other services due to limited collateral and credit records.

But the boom of micro-credit is making a difference. According to a report from China's central bank, by the end of September, 7,398 micro-credit firms were dotted around the country with their outstanding loans reaching over 753.5 billion yuan (123.23 billion U.S. dollars).

Over 86,000 micro-credit practitioners, China's answer to Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi banker credited with pioneering the concept of micro-finance, have been going door to door to visit small business owners and farmers to offer them financial advice and services.

Short-term business or farming investment demands boosted grassroots finance for those who lack access to traditional loans. In China, grassroots financial institutions generally include township banks, rural mutual funds and micro-credit loan and guarantee firms whose main clients are small businesses and farmers.

They have a lot to offer in China's push to speed up urbanization, alleviate poverty and beef up employment, according to renowned economist Li Yining.

Li called for more support policies to nurture grassroots finance, such as relaxing access thresholds, and setting up tailored insurance firms to offer guarantees as well as guilds to supervise them.

It is not just specialized financial institutions' mission to promote grassroots finance; larger banks also have a big role to play in tapping the micro-credit services market, he added.

However, high costs and risks may challenge the growth of grassroots finance as most small businesses and farmers lack sufficient credit records and awareness of banking norms. Non-performing loans and even "runaway bosses" who abscond with unpaid debt are undermining grassroots finance's sustainable growth.

A more rigid and sound law system is needed, and the cultivation of a credit-value culture is important for the development of this sector, said Tang Ning, CEO of CreditEase, a Chinese micro-credit firm.

Over the next five years, China will cultivate a social credit mechanism by expansively recording and sharing credit information, especially for small businesses and farmers, according to a report released by China's central bank.

The development of grassroots finance depends on improving the credit culture and legal environment, and will in turn speed up the reform of China's financial system, Tang added.

Xinhua Insight: China to pursue reforms while steadying growth

An annual tone-setting economic meeting, attended by top Chinese leaders, ended on Friday with a statement calling for deeper reforms while keeping growth steady and listing six major tasks for 2014.

Analysts believe the leadership will vigorously pursue reforms next year while keeping its monetary and fiscal policies broadly unchanged, so as to keep the world's second-largest economy growing within its comfort zone.

The statement gave no specific economic targets for 2014, with these usually made public in March.

Analysts, however, have forecast that the Chinese government is most likely to set the same targets for 2014 as in 2013 on key indicators -- aiming for GDP growth of around 7.5 percent and capping the consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, at around 3.5 percent.

GROWTH AND REFORM

Reform should be integrated into all sectors of China's economic and social development in 2014, and China should maintain continuous and stable macroeconomic policies, said the statement issued after the four-day Central Economic Work Conference.

To soundly manage economic work next year, "the core is to seek steady progress and promote reforms and innovations," it said. It is necessary to fully understand the relationship between "sustainable and healthy development" and "economic output growth", and China should improve the "quality of growth" while avoiding "side-effects."

Also, China should continue implementing proactive fiscal and prudent monetary policies in 2014, added the statement.

It also outlined six major economic tasks for 2014 -- ensuring food security, reducing overcapacity, containing debt risks, improving regional development and social welfare, as well as promoting further opening up.

This year's meeting came about one month after the Communist Party of China Central Committee unveiled a landmark plan to deepen reforms.

"Since 2014 will be the first year for Beijing to step up reform efforts to full capacity, the annual central economic work conference this year took four days, much longer than the previous year's two-day session," said HSBC chief China economist Qu Hongbin in a research note.

Qu said the Chinese leaders made it clear that a stable economic growth and pushing reform are mutually supportive.

Peng Wensheng, chief economist of the China International Capital Corporation, said reform will undoubtedly be the most important theme for China in 2014 since it is the first year to implement the reform blueprint unveiled on Nov. 15.

The message from the economic conference is that many ongoing reform measures could be more beneficial to private companies than to state-owned enterprises, Peng said.

He predicted China will accelerate reforms in 2014, as this is the only means by which the country can meet its targets put down in the reform blueprint, which vowed decisive results by 2020.

Ireland becomes first country to exit eurozone bailout programme

Three years after being saved from bankruptcy by a trio of international lenders with a €67.5bn loan,Ireland has become the first stricken eurozone state to exit its rescue programme.

Describing the crisis as the country's worst period since the potato famine, Ireland's finance minister said there must be no repeat of the debt-fuelled property spree that brought the Celtic Tiger boom to a disastrous end. "We can't go mad again," said Michael Noonan.

Ireland's announcement that it will not seek more funds from the International Monetary Fund, European commission and European Central Bank - with the rescue scheme to end formally on Sunday - was seized upon by the EC president, José Manuel Barroso, as evidence that the eurozone can stage a full recovery.

"Ireland's success sends an important message - that with determination and support from partner countries we can and will emerge stronger from this deep crisis," he said.

Greece, Cyprus and Portugal are still working through rescue programmes, which include external scrutiny of government budgets, while Spain has received funds to recapitalise its banks. Ireland's bailout - which came after the state guaranteeed the investments of depositors and bondholders in its stricken banks - was comprised of €22.5bn from each of the co-called "troika" members over three years, topped up to a total of €85bn with the country's cash reserves.

Having implemented the spending cuts, asset sales and reforms required under the bailout, Ireland has been embraced again by the debt markets that shut out the country at the turn of the decade. It has raised enough debt independently to fund itself into 2015 and has more than €20bn (£17bn) in the bank.

However relief that Ireland will officially exit the rescue programme on Sunday was tempered with warnings from Irish ministers that the policy of austerity must continue, in order to drive down the country's mountain of debt. Noonan said: "This isn't the end of the road. This is a very significant milestone on the road.

In its final report on Ireland's progress under the rescue scheme, published on Friday,the European commission said: "With public debt level at 124% of GDP in 2013, Ireland needs to continue with fiscal consolidation, reduce the private-sector debt overhang, and improve bank profitability to revive lending."

Source: theguardian

The Central Economic Work Conference has concluded in Beijing, announcing that proactive fiscal policies and prudent monetary policies will continue in 2014

The Central Economic Work Conference has concluded in Beijing, announcing that proactive fiscal policies and prudent monetary policies will continue in 2014. At this year’s conference, President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, and other members of the standing committee of the CPC Central Committee came together to plan economic policies for the year ahead.

The meeting summarized the economic work in 2013 and put forward major tasks for the next year. It’s pointed out that the most important goal for next year is to seek further stabilized growth and reforms. China will expand reforms into different sectors. The market’s role will be emphasized and transforming China’s economic growth pattern will be accelerated.

Other targets include promoting innovation, reducing taxes and lowering funding costs. This year’s meeting, lasting four-days has been the longest session in over a decade, and took special importance as it followed last month’s Party session that laid out outlines for reform.

Source:  CCTV

Asian nations address sea disputes at Japan-Asean summit

Asian nations must ensure that territorial disputes do not erupt into conflict, leaders said on Friday, with Japan and the Philippines reaffirming their commitment to freedom of flight as concerns grow over China's new air defence zone.

Beijing's growing military strength has sparked concern in Asia, and tension has spiked in the last month after China announced the air defence zone including islands in the East China Sea also claimed by Japan.

The air defence identification zone has triggered protests from the United States and its close allies, Japan and South Korea

China is also locked in territorial rows with other Asian nations, including the Philippines, over wide swathes of the South China Sea and has said it might set up a similar zone there.

"We reiterated our commitment to uphold the rule of law, promote the peaceful settlement of disputes, and to assure freedom of flight in international air space," Philippine President Benigno Aquino told reporters in Tokyo after meeting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Aquino stopped short of mentioning China in the media appearance with Abe, who has made stronger ties with the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) a priority, visiting all of them during his first year in office.

South China Morning Post

China's Urbanization Targets: better city, better life

Although the issue of urbanization was not discussed at the economic work conference, it has been a hot topic nationwide recently. With more than 200 million people expected to move into the country’s cities over the coming decades, reforms to better manage the issue are desperately needed. What does urbanization exactly entail, and how is China tackling the challenges?

Urbanization refers to the rapidly rising population living in cities. It’s a process that either arises from new cities mushrooming across the country, or migrant workers abandoning their homes and farmlands and moving to urban areas.

Although urbanization tends to improve the average living standard, one of the major negative impacts is the excessive exploitation of rural land once farmers move away. Further, the people moving to the cities are greeted by numerous unexpected difficulties, such as the hukou system, and getting entitled to social services like pension, healthcare and schooling.

Balancing the two sides of the urbanization coin has become crucial. Instead of blindly expanding urban areas, integration, helping the newcomers settle down, and turning the cities into more attractive dwelling areas is becoming a top priority.

Last year, at China’s 18th National Congress of the Communist Party, policymakers unveiled new plans to push forward more adequate urbanization reforms for China. The recent 3rd plenary session called for new urbanization strategies to guarantee equal access to social security, education and housing for the new city dwellers.

Source:  CCTV

Japan should embrace nuclear power, government panel says

Japan should embrace nuclear power as an "important and fundamental" energy source, a government panel said on Friday, in advice that looks almost certain to be accepted, despite widespread anti-nuclear feeling after the Fukushima disaster.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is keen to restart Japan's idled nuclear reactors to cut the cost of fossil fuel imports used by power stations, which have swelled the trade deficit to a record and driven up electricity prices.The recommendation, if adopted, could put atomic power back into Japan's energy mix after the previous government decided to abandon it following triple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant north of Tokyo, the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
"Nuclear energy is an important and fundamental base energy source that will support the stability of energy demand and supply," the panel wrote in its report, adding that securing safety was paramount in utilizing atomic power.
There was no recommendation on the proportion of energy that should come from nuclear power.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Japan, led by hawkish PM Shinzo Abe Will raise its defending spending by 5% in next five years.

Japan, led by hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will raise its defense spending over the next five years by about 5 percent to 24.6 trillion yen ($239 billion) to respond to China's growing military budget, the Nikkei financial daily reported.

Defense Minister Itsunori Odonera and Finance Minister Taro Aso reached a compromise on Thursday to free up funds, the Nikkei reported, citing people familiar with the matter.The defense ministry had sought 24.9 trillion yen but faced resistance from the finance ministry, the paper said, adding that the cabinet was expected to approve the plan on Tuesday.
Japan's plan to spend more on defense comes as tensions with China have risen over tiny islands in the East China Sea - known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.
The spending plan includes an additional purchase of F-35 fighters, made by Lockheed Martin Corp, as well as two more Aegis warships, bringing the total to eight.
Japan is also buying the tilt-rotor Osprey surveillance aircraft, built by Boeing Co and Textron Inc's Bell Helicopter unit, and drones including Northrop Grumman Corp's Global Hawk.

Source: Nikkei Financial

Japan Defense Minister wants Ospreys for Self-Defence Forces

Japan's Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera says he wants to introduce a controversial US military aircraft to the Self-Defense Forces.

He said in a speech on Thursday that Osprey tilt-rotor planes are easy to store onboard ships and useful for disaster relief in remote areas.

Onodera said Ground SDF personnel can only load their helicopters onto Maritime SDF vessels after removing the rotors.

A team of SDF personnel used the helicopters in the Philippines last month to help survivors of Typhoon Haiyan.

Onodera says it took 2 days to remove the rotors and another 2 days to re-attach them. He says personnel had to spend time doing this before starting their rescue work.

The Defense Minister said when he was in the disaster zone he watched as an Osprey landed on a Japanese vessel and folded its rotors in 2 minutes. He said this convinced him to seek the aircraft for the SDF.

Source: NHK

Japan, Asean can play 'proactive role for peace', says Abe

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has always been "at the centre" of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's diplomacy, and he hopes the regional body will play a more proactive role for global peace and prosperity, Abe said in an English article he contributed exclusively for The Japan News on Thursday ahead of a key Asean-Japan summit meeting.

"Ever since I assumed the office of prime minister at the end of last year, I have been conducting strategic diplomacy looking over the entire globe, and Asean has always been at the center of my diplomacy as a special partner for Japan," Abe said in his article titled, "A future vision for Asean and Japan."

He added that it was a "great pleasure and honor" to host the Asean-Japan Commemorative Summit in Tokyo, which is a centerpiece of events held to celebrate the 40th anniversary of relations between Asean and Japan.

In an indication of the value Abe attaches to ties with Asean, he has visited all 10 member states since he became prime minister in December last year.

Although Abe did not mention China by name, he apparently referred to Beijing's recent declaration of an air defence identification zone over the East China Sea that covers the Senkaku Islands, and stressed the necessity of Japan-Asean cooperation to counter China's move to change the status quo in the region by force.

"Asean and Japan share the high seas that stretch between the two," Abe said. "The same can be said for the air space above. There is no need to mention how significantly important it is for Asean as an entity to ensure and promote fundamental values such as freedom, democracy and human rights and rule of law in order to maintain peace and stability of the region."

Abe said he believes Japan and Asean, through their commitment to the renunciation of the threat or use of force or coercion, and to peaceful dispute resolutions, can play a more "proactive role for peace, stability and prosperity" in the whole global community.

Source: Jakarta Post

Japan agrees to expand currency swap deals with Indonesia, Philippines

The Japanese government on Friday agreed to expand its currency swap deals with Indonesia and the Philippines while maintaining the arrangement with Singapore so as to help stabilize financial markets in Asia.

The expansion of the currency deals with the countries, major economies in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), would help strengthen their emergency response abilities in the case of financial crisis, said the Japanese Finance Ministry.

Japan will raise 12 billion U.S. dollar currency swap with Indonesia to 22.76 billion dollars and raise the deals with the Philippines to 12 billion dollars, said the ministry, adding the country will maintain 3 billion swap deal with Singapore.

Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso said that currency stabilization in the three countries would contribute to Japan's interests, according to local media.

The agreement came ahead of a special summit, which will kick off Friday evening to commemorating 40th anniversary of ties between Japans and ASEAN.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Huawei inaugurates pilot distribution center at Piraeus port

Chinese technology and communication solutions giant Huawei inaugurated on Thursday a pilot distribution center at Piraeus port, another significant step enhancing cooperation between Greece and China.

The official opening of the distribution center, at the premises of Chinese multinational shipping conglomerate Cosco's subsidiary Piraeus Container Terminal SA (PCT) at Greece's biggest port, is the fulfillment of Huawei's commitment made in May 2013 to the Greek government, during Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' official visit to China.

From now on Huawei, a leading global provider of technology and communications solutions (ICT) which serves more than one-third of the world's population in 140 countries and regions, will be distributing its products to European markets through Greece.

In 2012, the company's turnover amounted to some 35.4 billion U.S. dollars, 66 percent of which came from sales outside China. In the first half of 2013 the group's revenue stood at 18.5 billion dollars, representing a 10.8-percent year on year increase.

"The Huawei distribution center strengthens Piraeus and Greece's position on the global transportation map," Development and Competitiveness Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said during the opening ceremony, which was also attended by Shipping Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis.

The investment is regarded as a "confidence vote for Greece by a robust multinational company," Hatzidakis said.

Hatzidakis said he was very happy to celebrate one more Chinese investment in Greece, a country which is thirsty for investment and committed to become a business friendly country.

Varvitsiotis told the audience that the Greek government wants Pireaus to become the number one port and logistic center in the Mediterranean Sea.

"Until now our partnership with COSCO has been an example of how do serious partners can make a big dream come true. We are fully committed in exploiting and increasing our cooperation," said Varvitsiotis.

He said Greece is changing and the ports of Greece are becoming the new gates of European continent and EU market.

On his part, Chinese ambassador to Greece Du Qiwen welcomed the pilot operation of the distribution center, saying that the project will help "translate the advantages of the geographical location of the Port of Piraeus into a tangible competitive edge for long-term development of the Port of Piraeus and of Greece as a whole."

Zhou Jun, Managing Director of Huawei Technologies Greece, noted that the first container with Huawei products arrived in Greece in November, marking the start of the new cooperation with PCT.

"We believe that our presence in the country will contribute to the Greek economy. With the launch of this program, we will confirm the potential for future expansion," he said.

Captain Fu Chengqiu, PCT CEO, expressed gratitude for the Greek government's support to the investment.

With a capacity of handling more than 4 million TEUs per year, PCT has become an important partner for the strategic goals of Huawei, as well as for other multinational giants.

Earlier this year U.S. electronics giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) signed a deal with PCT for the distribution of HP products to Europe, Northern African countries and the Middle East through Piraeus port.

PCT launched operations in the country at Pier II at Piraeus port in 2009 with a plan to turn it into a leading container terminal in the Mediterranean Sea region and ever since has posted remarkable results.

Source: Xinhua