NCM

Australian Gold production is set to reach $10 billion in 2010 as output is increased at a time of historically high gold prices. In 2009, Australia produced 227 tonnes (or 7.3 million ounces) of Gold (increase of 3 percent on 2008). At current gold prices of $1250 for an ounce of Gold, the Australian gold output of 2009 would have fetched $9 billion. With the high gold prices, this precious metal is set to be Australia's third biggest export earner after iron ore and coking coal.

Lihir Gold Limited (LGL), an Australia based that is engaged in gold mining, exploration and gold processing in the Australasian region was the best performer of the 36th week in ASX100 with a gain of 9.5 percent or 26 cents closing the week at $2.98.

Newcrest Mining (NCM) has posted a 16% jump in half-year underlying earnings, boosted by higher gold prices, but said it was under pressure from rising costs and lower copper prices. The company’s first half profit has lifted to $154 million from a loss in the prior corresponding period, and said it was in a strong position in a weak economy. The profit was up from an $8.1 million loss in the first half of fiscal 2008.

Newcrest (NCM) has raise 750$ million on Monday through an institutional share placement. The company has raised the share capital to repay debts and replenish reserves. Newcrest Mining has revealed that it has increased its share placement to $750 million from $500 million because of strong investor interest. Newcrest shares were placed on trading halt to complete the placement.

Newcrest Mining (NCM) has announced in the second quarter report that there was fall in the output and raise in the cost. The company’s output fell by 16.2 per cent to 382,584 ounces during the 4Q of 2008 after a drop in production from Gosowong in Indonesia and Cadia Hill in NSW. The miner is planning to expand its existing mines including Gosowong, where $179 million is being spent to lift annual output to 450,000 ounces, and the Hidden Valley mine in Papua New Guinea.

Many ASX listed companies had a boost in the stock market yesterday. Trading was thin ahead of a U.S. market holiday on Monday, and largely followed Wall Street's lead from last Friday. It was the miners that contributed most to the market's rise. This was particularly true for the gold stocks, which were helped by a more than 4% bounce in the price of the precious metal. Newcrest mining (NCM) that was the real standout performer, with shares shooting almost 9% higher.

Seek (SEK) was the overall worst performing stock taking in a 13.95 percent decrease. It was a mixture of gaming machine manufacturing, support services, gold mining and Internet job recruitment companies who were among the worst performing stocks for the week 17 of 2008 on the Australian sharemarket: Aristocrat (ALL), Brambles (BXB), Newcrest (NCM), Seek (SEK), Sino Gold (SGX). These worst performing stocks for the week 17 recorded losses above 11.89 percent by the end of the trading week.