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.

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.