The Midas Touch

Even in ancient Greece, man’s love of gold was renowned and caused no end of trouble. King Midas of Phrygia (now part of Turkey) helped the satyr, part man & part goat, Silenus. The god Dionysus offered Midas a boon for his actions. Midas knew gold was needed for a successful economy so he asked that everything he touched be turned to gold (in order to replenish the royal treasury).

The first sign that things were not quite the way Midas had envisioned came about when he was showing off to his daughter. After turning his chariot into a mass of gold, he headed for the gardens – unfortunately for him he took her by the hand. You guessed it – she turned into a golden statue. He quickly realized that this wasn’t going to work well with food either. Being an understanding god Dionysus allowed Midas to wash the magic off his hands in the Pactolus river. The river became known for its beautiful, shimmering gold deposits.

Western Goldfields (WGW: AMEX) gained $0.098 (2.79%) to $3.61 in mid day trading Friday on volumes of 84,800, only $0.56 shy of its 52 week high. Western recently announced a first gold pour of $1,000 ounces for 2008 production at its Mesquite Mine.  "The announcement of the first gold pour at Mesquite is the final milestone in the transformation of Western Goldfields from a developer to a producer," said Mr. Randall Oliphant, Chairman. "Now that we have achieved production at Mesquite -- three months ahead of the Feasibility Study schedule and on budget -- we are now focused on growth strategies to enhance shareholder value." Exploration at Western‘s Brownie Hill deposit was scheduled to begin this week and approximately $1 million is to be spent on additional definition and exploratory drilling.

Gammon Gold (GRS:AMEX) fell $0.04 or -0.58% to $6.86 on trading values of 450,762, slightly above its 52 week low of $5.63.  The company has operations in Ocampo and El Cubo and is currently exploring the Guadalupe y Calvo area in the Sierra Madre Occidental. The historic gold and silver mining district is estimated to have produced 2 million ounces of gold and 28 million ounces of silver. Due to more advanced mining techniques and the ability to mine deeper, current estimates are 1 million ounces of gold and 46 million ounces of silver. The estimates is for immediately accessible zones and does not address significant additional mineralized structures known t be present or the potential for large strike extensions.

General Moly Inc (GMO:AMEX) was down %$0.18 (-1.78%) on volumes of 266,140 to sit $2.66 below its 52 week high of $12.57. Earlier this month, General Moly announced a contract with M3 Engineering & Technology Corporation to provide engineering, procurement and construction management services for its Mt. Hope molybdenum project. M3 completed the Bankable Feasibility study at Mt. Hope in August of 2007 and is continuing to advance engineering of the project.  The Mt. Hope project in central Nevada is considered one of the largest and highest grade molybdenum deposits in the world.  The project contains 1.3 billion pounds of Proven and Probable reserves with a Net Present Value of 1.4 billion. The company expects to be able to begin construction at the undeveloped site in 2009.