The yellow metal was subdued by rumours that EU states are looking to set up a European monetary fund, which would be backed by their gold reserves. Speculation of possible moves by the EU to confront its mounting debt problem have heated up amid the meeting of European finance ministers that has kicked off in Brussels today with debt issues in some of the euro zone countries, primarily Greece, being on top of the agenda.

The uncertainly over Greece’s debt crisis has kept the euro under pressure for weeks, though worries eased two weeks ago when the debt laden country introduced a fresh package of economic austerity measures aimed at saving some €4.8 billion and conducted a successful bond issue to raise another €5 billion to meet its near term commitments. However, last week rating agency Fitch triggered another wave of jitters by promising to cut the current AA rating of another troubled euro zone country Portugal if its fiscal consolidation proceeds at a slow pace and proves insufficient. Portugal also conducted a bond issue, raising US$1.34 billion.

A stronger US dollar weakens gold, which is seen as a riskier alternative and usually moves inversely to the American currency.

News from China also weighed on commodities after the country reported that its inflation rate reached an annualised 2.7% in February despite the government’s measures to curb lending that were introduced in the previous month. China said that the rate was still within its 2010 target of 3%, though it was not enough to eliminate speculation of further monetary policy tightening in the country.

Other precious metals headed in different directions as silver declined to US$17.04/oz, while platinum improved to US$1,613/oz.

Timmins (many would say wisely) has focused on moving the project into production, while also looking at adding additional resources outside of the existing pit as it looks to extend the mine life of the project.  This dual approach appears to be paying dividends for the company. It announced this morning that some 6,750 meters of reverse circulation (RC) drilling (85 holes) has now confirmed that the in-pit mineralization extends along strike to the north-west of the main gold structure.

“The results of the drill program show that the gold mineralization continues NW for at least 200 meters beyond the currently planned pit limit and includes multiple intersections of gold mineralization consistent with the width and grade of mineralization which is contained within the San Francisco pit and which is included in the current mine plan,” Timmins noted this morning.

Recent drill highlights from the 200 meter strike include 3 meters (true width) grading 1.73 grams per tonne gold from 54 meters in drill hole TF-173 and 9 meters (true width) grading 1 gram per tonne gold from 1.52 meters in drill hole TF-240.  All drilling reported today returned grades between 0.92 g/t gold and 4.56 g/t gold over widths between 3 and 23 meters (approximately).

Timmins Gold expects to report an updated resource estimate in April.

“This exploration success follows upon the completion of construction and successful commissioning of the process plant and first gold pour in late 2009. The size of the gold mineralization zone, its presence within large shear zones and the continuous nature of the gold within the zones form the basis of management's expectation that planned additional drilling could lead to a significant increase in the mineral resource at San Francisco and could potentially also lead to the discovery of additional satellite deposits within the existing land package,” Timmins stated.

As part of Timmins ongoing exploration at San Francisco, an additional 50,000 meters of RC drilling, which will focus both on infill and step-out drilling, will be undertaken.

The San Francisco Gold mine is a past-producing open pit heap leach operation from which Timmins Gold has projected production at a rate in excess of 80,000 ounces of gold per year at a life of mine cash cost of approximately $412 per ounce.

The Toronto headquartered company has two key divisions: Trusonic, a digital music and messaging company providing customized, branded in-store service for restaurants, retailers and high traffic businesses worldwide, and Somerset Entertainment, a the leading North American producer and distributor of specialty music sold internationally through non-traditional retailers using interactive displays. 

Fluid Music acquired Somerset Entertainment in October 2009.

The company has a market capitalization of CDN$89.81 million. Shares in the company have climbed from CDN$1.40 to CDN$1.71 over the past six months.

The Toronto listed group reported an operating loss of $6.6 million (Q1 2009: loss $3.9 million) and adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) of $9.3 million, down from $12.8 million in Q1 2009.

Q1 2010 gross profit decreased to $24.6 million from $30.7 million in the same quarter year, and gross profit margins fell sharply to 15.9% from 20.9% in the prior year.  “This decrease was due to $2.4 million of higher depreciation in part because of accelerated depreciation in connection with the planned Caguas closure, production delays due to customer-supplied material shortages that impacted revenues, unfavorable foreign exchange impact, and lower PDS volumes on a relatively fixed overhead cost basis. These factors were partially offset by a decrease to cost of goods sold due to realization this quarter of prior period Canadian R&D investment tax credits,” Patheon noted.

Selling, general and administrative costs rose to $28.8 million in the first quarter of 2010 (Q1 2009: $26.3 million), which was primarily due to a one off cost of $3 million for a special committee.

The loss per share from continuing operations for the quarter was 8.3 cents compared with a loss of 5.6 cents a year earlier.

"Our commercial operations performed reasonably well despite several disappointing supplier-related delays. However, PDS revenue was somewhat lower as we continued to see soft market demand, which appears to be consistent with the rest of the industry. New commercial business has been slow in coming due primarily to pending post-merger decision making at large pharmaceutical companies," said Wes Wheeler, Chief Executive Officer and President of Patheon. "However, since the beginning of calendar 2010, we have seen an encouraging increase in new sales activity as improved funding has become available for development stage companies. We have also begun active discussions in connection with the pending rationalization programs which will flow from the 2009 pharmaceutical industry merger activity."

Looking ahead, Patheon expects to report full fiscal 2010 revenues and Adjusted EBITDA to exceed its 2009 results, but the company did not elaborate further.

The New York listed shirt and neckwear company is paying €1.924 billion in cash and issuing €276 million in PVH common stock (approximately 8.7 million shares) to fund the transaction.

“The combination will create one of the world's largest and most profitable apparel companies; a global business with combined revenue of approximately $4.6 billion,” PVH stated this morning.

PVH expects the transaction to be immediately earnings enhancing and is looking to realize approximately US$40 million in annualized cost synergies.

"This is a unique opportunity to bring together two premier companies, each with iconic brands, which will deliver enhanced opportunities for our stockholders, business partners, customers and employees as we leverage a combined global platform in the years ahead," said Emanuel Chirico, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PVH.

"During almost four years as a private company under the leadership of Fred Gehring and his team, Tommy Hilfiger has continued to gain momentum in Europe and Asia, while successfully rebuilding its business in North America, producing impressive overall performance, and generating strong profitability and free cash flow even during the recession."

Upon the closing of the transaction, Tommy Hilfiger will remain in his role as Principal Designer and Visionary for the Tommy Hilfiger brand. Fred Gehring will continue as CEO of Tommy Hilfiger, will assume the added responsibility as CEO of PVH's international operations, and will join the PVH Board of Directors.

Tommy Hilfiger's revenue for its fiscal year ending March 31, 2010 is expected to be approximately $2.25 billion, with earnings before interest and taxes of approximately $280 million, excluding $40 million of impairment charges, and depreciation and amortization of approximately $100 million.

AsMin, which is part of an Indonesian coal mining and trading group, is an existing shareholder which together with its principle now holds a total of 33,616,666 shares in the Company (approximately 9.1%).

The food and beverage group, which owns several leading brands including Gatorade, Frito-Lay and Pepsi-Cola, is increasing the interim dividend by 7% to US$1.92 per share, from US$1.80 per share. In additional to the dividend boost, PepsiCo has also expanded its share repurchase program to US$15 billion through to June 2013. The US$60 billion revenue per annum group said the news reflected its confidence in the growth of its businesses and strong cash flow.

PepsiCo has already made US5600 million in voluntary pension contributions this year and is planning to repurchase US$4.4 billion in common stock in 2010. The NYSE listed group currently has authorization to acquire up to US$6.4 billion in common stock up to June 2010.

PepsiCo’s 19 product lines are sold in more than 200 countries.

Consultants, Netherland, Sewell and Associates released an initial resource estimate for the Monslatt Area of -  121PJ (2C Contingent Resource) and 3,411PJ (3C Contingent Resource).

Blue Energy chairman, Peter Cockcroft, said the establishment of the initial resource estimate for the Monslatt area was a significant milestone as the company maintained its short-to-medium term focus on establishing reserves, a producing asset and a revenue stream.

He said, “The recognition of this significant resource will require Blue to allocate appropriate resources to establish a series of pilot production wells in Monslatt."

The P1 seam at Monslatt is, on average, five metres thick and has gas content up to 23m3/tonne. In addition, recently received adsorption isotherm test results on the P1 seam at Monslatt indicate the P1 seam is fully gas saturated.

The other coal seams intersected in the drilling at Monslatt (up to 25 metres of total net coal) to date have been treated by NSAI as a 3C Contingent Resource. These seams will be investigated by a proposed pilot well drilling program to establish gas productivity and which will target the conversion of this 3C resource to a 2C or 2P category.

Activity will now focus on drilling several pilot production wells in the Monslatt block to convert the 2C/3C volumes into reserves (2P/3P).

Blue Energy is in advanced negotiations to secure a production drilling rig for this program and expects to commence drilling of the first pilot well by 1 April 2010.

A significant Prospective Resource (3,630PJ Gas in Place) has been identified by NSAI relating to the gas potential of the carbonaceous shales intersected in the Monslatt wells.  These shales have yielded gas contents of up to 10m3/tonne. The production pilot well program will also target this sequence to establish the capacity of these shales to flow gas.

Production data would then be used to establish gas flow capacity and well productivity data from the Monslatt coals.

These data will be critical in establishing accurate recovery factors and commerciality tests for the project.

Mr Cockcroft said today the company's Monslatt project could well be analogous to the nearby Moranbah Gas Project operated by Arrow Energy (ASX:AOE), as Moranbah produces from the same coals found in our Monslatt block.

"The Gas in Place is similar to Moranbah, and it is not unreasonable to expect similar 2P and 3P reserves after positive results from our pilot and production wells in the next few months,” Mr Cockcroft said.

Data from Blue Energy’s Galilee Basin Project (ATP813P) will also shortly be forwarded to NSAI and is likely to significantly increase the company's resource base.

The tenements host a remnant resource of 38 million tonnes (Mt) of 0.8% Ni and 0.05% Co.

The company is specifically targeting high grade zones (>1.5% Ni Eq or Ni+2Co) at the historic Greenvale mine site and nearby to the Lucknow deposit in southern portion of Metallica’s flagship NORNICO Ni-Co project northwest of Townsville, Queensland.

An 8,000m Reverse Circulation (RC) Queensland drilling program is planned for around 300 holes, for the project acquired in 2009.

Straits Resources carried out drilling in 2008 at Greenvale.  In areas of shallow mineralisation, better drill results returned by Straits included 15m @ 1.69% Ni and 0.03% Co and 24m @ 1.51% Ni and 0.04% Co.

At the Lucknow Nickel – Cobalt deposit, Anaconda Resources (2001) and QNI intersected high nickel and cobalt zones in several holes in the 1970's with results including 16m @ 1.09% Ni and 0.26% Co and 9m @ 0.76% Ni and 0.38% Co.

Drill results will be incorporated in current scoping/prefeasibility study to establish initial NORNICO Stage 1 processing operation at Greenvale.

The proposed NORNICO Stage 1 operation under study is for a 180,000 tpa sized heated atmospheric acid leach operation (AAL) extracting Ni-Co & Sc, sourcing key reagents; acid from Townsville and limestone/lime locally and producing ~ 2,900 t Ni metal or Ni sulphate, ~ 200 t Co sulphide and ~5,000 kg Sc oxide per annum.

A new resource estimate for Greenvale & Lucknow Ni-Co projects will be prepared once RC assay results are available.

An indicative mine schedule will then be prepared for study, sourcing and blending high grade nickel ores from Greenvale, high grade cobalt nickel ores from Lucknow, and high grade cobalt and scandium (a rare earth element/tech metal) ores trucked from the Kokomo deposit in the central NORNICO project area.

‘Stirling Health’ was launched with an initial select range of products to be sold throughout Australian pharmacies.

The range will be progressively extended as individual products are added and as the Australian Therapeutics Goods Administration approves registration and/or Listing of other products, all adding to an expanding Company range.

Stirling Health will market its products across several sectors of the 16 major pharmacy categories. With the initial range offering its own branded OTC and health and beauty products as well as third party products, including product the company has exclusively been appointed to manage for major pharma.

The company has also appointed a national pharmacy sales team to ‘Stirling Health’ which was formalised during the course of the Conference.

Under the company’s sales & marketing director, Neil Covey, the Stirling Health team will be headed up by Michael Elliott who has over 20 years of senior industry management experience.

According to figures produced by South Africa's Chamber of Mines, a further decline in the country's mined gold output in 2009 has now relegated it to fourth position in the World Gold production stakes.  It had been the world's largest gold producer for most of the 20th Century and early 21st until it lost that position to China.  Now, the latest figures also put it behind Australia and the U.S. in global gold output.

In 2009, South Africa produced 204.9 tonnes of gold, a 5.8% decline on the 2008 production number.  The 5.8% year-on-year decline in production in 2009 was, however, not as large a fall as in 2008 when the drop was 14.5%, mostly as a result of the country's electricity crisis when power shortages early in the year forced most mines to cut production.

Nevertheless, the Chamber states, the country's gold mining industry remains critically important to its economy. In 2009, the industry earned about R48.7 billion (around US$6.6 billion at the current exchange rate) in foreign exchange making it the country's second largest exporter behind platinum group metals (at R58 billion - around US$7.8 billion). The gold sector employed about 159,000 workers and paid about R17 billion in salaries and wages, spent R10.3 billion on capital expenditure, paid R1.4 billion in direct tax to government, paid R506 million in dividends, procured about R3.6 billion worth of electricity and spent another R8.6 billion on the procurement of other goods and services in the economy.

In the fourth quarter of 2009, South Africa's gold production only fell by 1.8% to 51.68 tonnes when compared to the third quarter. On a year-on-year basis gold production was down by 5.4% in the fourth quarter of 2009.

While the fall in South Africa's gold output appears to be slowing, there are particular difficulties facing the country's gold miners - mainly due to the great depths at which many mines operate and declining grades in the older mining operations.  This is also having an impact on mine safety and although the industry has made great strides in improving this, safety-related closures following mine accidents continue to have an impact.  From a mining point of view the depths at which many of the mines operate, make them difficult to work in total safety due to the unpredictability of extreme rock pressure related seismic events.  The level of deaths, although it has fallen over the years, remains unacceptable although it is probably far safer to be a miner in South Africa than in say China, or in a number of countries where mining accident rates per capita employed are far greater - and often not reported in the global press.