FOREX-Euro to fall on contagion fear; US jobs data eyed

  * Euro/dollar may decline towards $1.25 by year-end
* Euro zone debt crisis, Korean conflict to lift US dollar
* U.S. nonfarm payrolls report also in focus
(Adds comment, updates prices, changes byline)
By Wanfeng Zhou
NEW YORK, Nov 26 (Reuters) - The euro should extend losses against the dollar in the near term after its worst week in over three months on fears Portugal and Spain will be next to need bailouts after Ireland.
Technical charts and option trading also suggest increasing bearishness on the euro. The euro slid to a two-month low at $1.32 on Friday and was down 3.5 percent this week, on pace for its biggest weekly percentage drop since mid-August.
Concerns over a deepening debt crisis in the euro zone and escalating tensions in the Korean peninsula could lift the safe-haven U.S. dollar. The greenback could get an added boost if a key U.S. jobs report next Friday beats expectations.
"The bigger question is will Spain and Portugal remain immune and I would look and say, 'no'," said Greg Salvaggio, vice president of trading at Tempus Consulting in Washington.
"The situation in the euro zone will continue to deteriorate," he said, adding the euro could drop "below $1.30 and perhaps as low as $1.25 by year-end."
The premium investors demand to hold Irish and Spanish government bonds rather than German benchmark Bunds hit new euro lifetime highs on Friday. Portuguese bonds also underperformed after a report said the majority of euro zone states and the European Central Bank were urging Portugal to apply for a bailout. For details, see [ID:nLDE6AP08Y]
European officials said reports Portugal was under pressure to seek a bailout were "absolutely false". Spain on Friday ruled out that it needs help to manage its finances. [ID:nLDE6AP08Y]
Nomura currency strategists Jens Nordvig and Charles St-Arnaud said the outlook on Spain, which accounts for 11.8 percent of euro zone economy, will be a primary driver of the euro in the coming weeks.
"In a scenario where Spanish spreads widen to Portugal's current levels, we see the risk premium on the euro increasing from around 10 percent to above 20 percent, and this could see the euro trade all the way to 1.23 against the U.S. dollar," they wrote to clients. "The big question is whether this is the central case."
BEARISH ON EURO, KOREAN CONFLICT

Saudi Arabia's Gold Reserve Doubles

The World Gold Council in its June 2010 update of World Official Gold Holdings increased the gold reserves held by the Saudi Arabian central bank to 322.9 tons (10.38 million ounces).  This is more than double the previously reported 143 tons of reserves.

In a footnote to this report, the WGC states “Gold data have been modified from First Quarter 2008 as a result of the adjustment of the SAMA’s gold accounts.”  It is possible that the total amount of gold held by the Saudi Arabian government has not really changed, but has merely been reclassified from other accounts.  However, initial attempts to gain further information on this point were not immediately successful.
With the new reported gold reserves, Saudi Arabia’s central bank now ranks 16th, ahead of the United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Singapore, and Sweden. Only 13 other national central banks, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank have higher reported reserves.

This development has almost certainly contributed to the price of gold reaching an all-time high on June 18, as it demonstrates continuing strong demand from central banks to add to their gold reserves (Russia and the Philippines have been especially prominent in adding to their reserves so far in 2010). Coupled with the almost complete cessation of reported central bank gold sales, this shift in demand and supply will almost certainly help push up gold prices over the next year or so.

This report has even more ominous implications.  In April 2009, China admitted that it had acquired 454 tons (14.6 million ounces) of gold reserves from 2003 to 2009 without making any changes to their stated gold reserves as acquisitions were made.  It is quite possible that the Chinese central bank has continued to acquire gold since that report, but the stated reserves have not changed in the past 14 months.

The question becomes how many central banks are adding to their gold reserves without revealing their acquisitions.  There is a strong incentive to make purchases quietly, so as to avoid spooking the market and seeing the price jump “too soon.”

This is exactly the opposite of what has apparently happened for years, where some central banks (especially the U.S.) are suspected of surreptitiously leasing and selling their gold reserves to the market to help hold down gold prices.  Almost a decade ago, analyst Frank Veneroso used four different methods to calculate how much of the claimed central gold reserves were no longer held by them.  His conclusion then was that 25-50 percent of all reported official gold reserves were gone. In the years since, this percentage has only increased.

This problem was compounded by a reporting rule imposed by the International Monetary Fund, where central banks were required to report leased gold as still being in their vaults whether or not it was there. In addition, the central bank that might actually be holding the first central bank’s gold was also required to report it as reserves, even if this second central bank didn’t actually own it.

The increase in the price of gold so far in 2010 definitely is influenced by continuing strong demand. However, it seems a safe bet that central banks are having greater difficulty trying to sneak their gold reserves onto the market – perhaps because the vaults are near empty.

Gold mine output has been declining, despite the ever higher spot prices, which seems counterintuitive. It is not. Costs of new mine development have soared.  The average time to take a mine from discovery has stretched out from about three years to maybe 10 years. Rising costs and longer time frames make lenders less willing to finance risky projects that would only pay off if prices stay at or above current levels.
There was a huge spurt in gold recycling in the first quarter of 2009, but volumes have fallen dramatically since then, even at current record-high prices (ignoring inflation).

In sum, gold demand, both official and private, is strong and growing. Gold supplies from central banks, mines and recycling are stable to declining. The expected result should be much higher prices in the future.
I would not be surprised to see gold and silver prices suppressed until after the COMEX silver options expiration on Thursday, June 24. You may have a bargain buying opportunity for the next couple of days. What are you going to do?

On June 19, the Chinese government stated that it was going to allow the value of its yuan float. Don’t for one minute believe that it will be allowed to trade freely. Pretty much everyone expects the yuan to appreciate slightly, then be managed to be stable, as has happened for almost the past two years. Chinese officials probably realize that they need the currency to appreciate against other currencies in order to help combat local inflation. However, letting the yuan appreciate more rapidly could be interpreted as the Chinese accepting orders from the U.S. government. Chinese officials would rather absorb greater domestic problems than seem to be obeying U.S. President Obama. The bottom line is that the value of the U.S. dollar is almost certain to fall against the yuan, which also means that the price of gold in U.S. dollars will continue to rise.

Demand for gold sovereigns in Europe (especially in Greece and the United Kingdom) remains so strong that American supplies are being shipped over to Europe. American wholesalers, partly to protect themselves from market fluctuations and somewhat to try to increase profit margins, have not raised their relative bid prices to the same degree as their selling prices. My previous anticipation that sovereign owners might be able to eventually swap their coins at a high enough premium to get lower premium coins (increasing their total gold position without having to pay out any funds) has not developed. There has been increased interest in liquidating sovereigns of late, so I am doubtful that the opportunity of a profit-making supply squeeze will develop this year.

The U.S. Mint has released 2010-dated fractional gold American Eagles much earlier than it came out with the 2009-dated issues.  At the moment, dealers have ample supplies at fairly reasonable premiums. I expect both the ready availability and reasonable premiums to be temporary situations. However, if premiums do rise well before the end of 2010, I anticipate that the Mint will release enough additional supplies to make them more affordable. It could easily happen that fractional gold Eagles could be an erratic market for the balance of the year.


Patrick A. Heller owns Liberty Coin Service in Lansing, Mich., and writes “Liberty’s Outlook,” the company’s monthly newsletter on rare coins and precious metals subjects. Past newsletter issues can be viewed at http://www.libertycoinservice.com/. Other commentaries are available at Coin Update (http://www.coinupdate.com/) and Financial Sense University (http://www.financialsense.com/).  

Saudi demand for gold 'booming'

Sales of gold in Saudi Arabia saw a near 17 per cent rise last year, according to the World Gold Council (WGC).

Speaking to Reuters, WGC Middle East, Turkey and Pakistan managing director Moaz Barakat said that the market for gold in the region is looking "positive" after also experiencing a 30 per cent surge in sales value in 2007.

Reasons for the sales increase included higher demand from tourists and rising Indian transactions, he remarked.

"Increasing demand from tourists lifted the market and if Dubai, the heart of the UAE, was not affected by volatile prices in September and October, we would have seen better figures," Mr Barakat went on to add.

Two gold and jewellery events are set to take place in Saudi Arabia next month, according to the Gulf Daily News.

These will take place between February 20th and 23rd at the Prince Sultan Grand Hall of Riyadh's Al Faisaliyah Hotel, and between February 26th and 29th at the Jeddah Hilton Hotel.

Goldbug, 07 Jan '08

Gold prices today in Saudi Arabia, 2010

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Average price of one gram Dahab in the currency in Saudi Arabia SR


24-- - - - 137.27 - - - - - $ 36.6
22 caliber - - - - 125.84 - - - - $ 33.55
Mm 21 - - - - 120.12 - - - - $ 32.03
Mm 18 - - - - 102.96 - - - - $ 27.45

Saudi minerals: an untapped gold mine for privatization

A big momentum is building to exploit and develop Saudi Arabia's vast but still largely untapped solid minerals resources. This follows a new investment code to stimulate local and foreign investment in Saudi mine ventures.

The Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority hopes that the Kingdom's mining sector will become a 'third pillar' of the economy after oil and petrochemicals.

Tens of thousands of square kilometres of hard rock and mountainous regions containing minerals ranging from gold silver lead and zinc, uranium to iron ore, copper, phosphates, bauxite, coal, tungsten, are available for exploration.

Saudi Arabia has some of world's largest phosphate reserves, for example, while estimated bauxite deposits could feed a planned 620,000 tonnes-a-year capacity aluminum smelter for more than 30 years.

Minister of Petroleum & Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi says 'lots of resources are yet to be discovered. Cement, limestone, and other mining sectors locally will help to substitute foreign products with our own domestic ones.'

A Mining Investment Service Centre has been set up to provide information and assistance to those interested in obtaining mineral concessions. This is aimed to provide a one-stop shop and help accelerate exploration licence applications by both foreign and local companies. A bonus for applicants will be access detailed mineral maps as well as some 2,800 technical reports that have been funded by the government over the last 25 years.

The main focus at present however, is on the Kingdom's Al Jalamid deposit near the northern border which will supply raw materials for a $2 billion fertiliser production complex to be built at Ras al-Zour.

The development will include plants to produce ammonia, sulphuric acid and phosphoric acid. These in turn will provide the feedstock d for a 3 million-tonnes-a year di-ammonium phosphate plant also at Ras al-Zour. Bids from companies to carry out project management consultancy for the various plants have been called for early June.

The chief executive of Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) Abdullah al-Dabbagh has said the Kingdom's plans for an integrated mining programme to utilise phosphate and bauxite deposits to produce fertilisers and aluminium will involve investments of more than $10 billion.

Sultan Ibn Jamal Shawli, assistant deputy minister for mining investment says that Maaden's major phosphate and bauxite projects will place the Kingdom on the world stage as a producer of downstream, value-added fertiliser and aluminium products.'

As interest intensifies in the Kingdom's minerals potential plans are going ahead for the sale of the state-sponsored Maaden's interests to the private sector. The process will see the privatisation of the company's gold, silver, copper and zinc mines starting next year through an initial public offering.

Maaden is also exploring for phosphates in the northern areas of Wadi Sirhan and Turaif and is developing magnesite deposits in the central area of the Kingdom. All of the company's activities are eventually due to be formed into self supporting business units for divestiture to the private sector.

Petroleum & Mineral Resources Minister Ali Naimi expects that liberalising the solid minerals area will create boom conditions for the Saudi mining sector which he expects to grow up to 10% a year. The Kingdom's seventh five year economic plan called for 9% growth in the non-oil mining sector making it the fastest growing area of the economy.

From : http://www.ameinfo.com/61566.html

Gold and Diamonds

South Africa Table of Contents South Africa's modern history has often been dated from the first commercial mining of diamonds and gold in the 1870s and the 1880s, when the region became a magnet for European investment (see Diamond Jewelry). Mining in the region predated European arrivals by several centuries, however, as the new government recalled in its minerals policy statements in 1994 and 1995. Iron mining and smelting sites in the northeast were used as much as 1,700 years ago; copper was mined south of the Limpopo River more than 1,000 years ago; and historians describe early mining activities in the Witwatersrand (literally, "Ridge of White Waters" in Afrikaans, commonly shortened to Rand) area, which attracted miners from elsewhere in Africa as early as the thirteenth century. Soon after the European rush for gold and diamonds in the late nineteenth century, mining operations expanded to include more than two dozen other minerals. By the mid-twentieth century, South Africa was the world's largest producer or second largest producer of gold, diamonds, platinum, chromium, manganese, and vanadium; and it ranked high among producers of coal, iron ore, uranium, copper, silver, fluorspar, asbestos, and limestone. Clusters of minerals occur in five major mineral complexes--the Bushveld, Transvaal, Witwatersrand, Northern Cape, and Western Cape complexes. Whereas most mines were originally funded and managed from European centers, by the 1970s most were managed by South Africa's large diversified corporations, which controlled assets around the world. Despite its importance in export revenues, the mining industry contributes only about 9.6 percent of GDP in the mid-1990s, down from an average of nearly 15 percent during the 1980s. The mining sector had been gradually surpassed by manufacturing and financial services both in terms of national output and labor force participation. The mines still account for a greater share of export revenues than any other single economic activity in the 1990s. The mineowners' association, the South African Chamber of Mines, was formed in 1889 to represent the industry in dealings with the government. In the 1990s, the Chamber of Mines includes six major mining finance houses, with thirty-six gold mines, twenty-two coal mines, and sixteen diamond, platinum, antimony, asbestos, manganese, lead, and copper mines. Together they account for 85 percent of South Africa's mineral output. The Chamber of Mines negotiates labor concerns on behalf of mineowners, administers training programs for mineworkers, trains mineworkers in rescue and safety procedures, oversees pension and benefit funds, coordinates research programs, and refines and processes some minerals before sale. Gold, first mined by Europeans in 1886 near Johannesburg, soon became the most important sector in the mining industry. South Africa has almost one-half of the world's known gold reserves, located primarily in the Rand in what was once a prehistoric lake. Gold is also mined in the Free State. Industry analysts estimated in the early 1990s that South Africa had produced more than 43,000 tons of gold in the past century, and that at least that amount remained in reserves. Gold occurs in seams embedded in rock strata, sometimes more than a mile below the surface. Deep shafts must be sunk, large amounts of rock must be blasted and brought to the surface, and the rock must be crushed and chemically separated from the gold. Some gold mines then pump processed mine tailings underground to serve as backfill. Mining and processing are costly, especially in deposits where the gold seam is extremely thin compared with the surrounding rock. For example, in the early 1990s industry analysts estimated that only 5.6 grams of gold were extracted from each ton of ore excavated. Nevertheless, the industry has consistently earned high profits and has accounted for one-third to one-half of the world's gold production in the 1980s and 1990s. The country's fifty-seven operating gold mines produce between 600 and 620 tons of gold per year, representing almost 30 percent of the world production. Gold production in 1994 and 1995 fell below 600 tons for the first time since the 1960s. Gold mining companies traditionally kept expenses to a minimum by paying low wages. Gold mines became known for their often exploitative labor policies, including the use of migrant workers on limited contracts, strict worker control in company compounds, and difficult working conditions. Labor costs were especially important in determining profits, because the price of gold was set at US$35 per ounce through the 1960s. After the price of gold was allowed to float in 1968, it gradually rose in response to market demand, and companies could afford to produce less and still earn even greater profits. They then began to expand operations into so-called low-grade-ore mines. The volume of South African gold production fell, and gold prices skyrocketed to an all-time high of US$613 per ounce in 1980. During the 1980s, the dollar price of gold fluctuated widely, but because of devaluations of the rand, the rand price of gold generally advanced. When gold prices fell in 1989, the industry found that many of the low-grade-ore mines were no longer profitable. As the average value of the rand increased against the dollar, overall industry profits declined, and nearly half of the gold mines in operation were running at a loss. At least 40,000 gold mine workers were laid off in 1990, according to government estimates, and layoffs continued through 1993. During 1994 all major gold mining houses except Johannesburg Consolidated Investments (JCI) were reporting lower profits as output fell in response to labor unrest and other factors. Randgold closed its Durban gold mine in mid-1994, owing primarily to poor grades of available ore, and other mines were threatening to close within the next few years unless profits improved. In 1994 JCI began to "unbundle" its corporate structure by dividing into three separate companies. Anglo American, JCI's largest shareholder (with 48 percent), retained its platinum and some diamond interests in one company, Anglo American Platinum. JCI's gold mining and other industrial interests were separated into two companies, JCI Limited and Johnnies Industrial Corporation. Shares for these companies are being offered to the public, primarily as a vehicle for black investment and broadening participation in this sector of the economy. Diamonds and Platinum South Africa's diamond mining industry dates back to 1867, when diamonds were discovered near Kimberley, now in the Northern Cape. The Kimberley diamond fields, and later discoveries in Gauteng, the Free State, and along the Atlantic coast, emerged as major sources of gem-quality diamonds, securing South Africa's position as the world's leading producer in the mid-twentieth century. (Rough diamonds were produced in larger quantities in Australia, Zaire, Botswana, and Russia.) Through 1991 most of South Africa's diamonds were mined at only five locations, but a sixth mine, Venetia--in the Northern Cape--opened in 1992 and was expected to become a major diamond producer later in the decade. The De Beers Consolidated Mines Company controlled most diamond mining in South Africa and influenced international trade through a diamond-producers' alliance, or cartel--the Central Selling Organisation. The cartel enabled diamond producers to control the number of gems put on the market and thereby to maintain high prices for gem-quality diamonds. The cartel was able to react to marketing efforts outside its control by temporarily flooding the market, and thereby driving down the price paid for an outsider's product. Diamond prices fluctuated in the early 1980s, but the industry continued to expand even in the face of international recession and the discovery of the diamond-like cubic zirconia. Dollar prices for diamonds improved in 1985 but dropped again in 1987, requiring De Beers to support the market by withholding diamonds from dealers. Thus, annual production of more than 10 million carats in 1985 and in 1986 dropped to 9.1 million in the late 1980s. Gem and industrial diamond output in 1994 was 10.8 million carats, or roughly 11 percent of world production. In 1990 the Soviet Union signed and openly acknowledged a contract to sell its diamonds (estimated at a value of about R13 billion over a five-year period) exclusively through De Beers. The action marked the first time in nearly thirty years that the Soviet Union had openly associated itself in commodity dealings with South Africa. Later that year, De Beers announced a loan of R2.63 million to the Soviet Union, against the security of an equivalent amount in diamonds. Platinum group metals (platinum, palladium, ruthenium, rhodium, iridium, and osmium), which occur together in ore seams and are mined in one operation, were discovered in South Africa in 1924. Most of the estimated 59,000 tons of reserves are in the Bushveld complex of minerals; some concentrations are also found in the Transvaal and the Witwatersrand complexes. Platinum is used in automobile catalytic converters to reduce fuel emissions, as a catalyst in industrial processes, and in making jewelry. South Africa is the world's leading producer of platinum. Its output of about ninety tons in 1993 accounted for almost 49 percent of world production. South Africa's platinum mines have profited, in particular, from the sale of rhodium, which sold for almost US$6,000 an ounce in the early 1990s, but world market prices fell after that.

Gold of the Desert Kings™

Gold of the Desert Kings addresses the issue of effort versus productivity. Participants are placed in circumstances with limited time and resources and must rely on their team to achieve their goals. The pressures and anxiety experienced in Gold of the Desert Kings are similar to those experienced daily in a hectic work schedule. Participants contend with deadlines, a perceived lack of resources, others’ point of view and the pressure to just do something while trying to accomplish team objectives.

From : http://www.eaglesflight.com/pa-conference-programs.php?p=2

Gold in the Desert

For six millennia, we have been drawn to gold. As our civilizations – defined in terms of settled communities, complex social structures, agriculture, written language and technology – have risen and vanished, we have used gold as a medium for artistic expression, a symbol of stature and wealth, a spur for commerce, a plea for spiritual favor, a celebration of kings and gods, and a clarion call to conquest.

Our yearning for gold has been one of the steering currents of history.

For instance, as Spain launched her exploration and colonization of the Americas, King Ferdinand, according to the National Mining Association’s The History of Gold, exorted his conquistadors to “Get gold, humanely if you can, but all hazards, get gold.” Columbus, describing the results of his first voyage in a letter to Ferdinand, spoke of rivers that “contain gold,” great “mines of gold,” and “incalculable gold.” Hernan Cortes, explaining why he set out to conquer Mexico’s golden Aztec empire in 1519, said that “I came here to get rich, not to till the soil like a peasant.” In 1540, Don Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led his epic expedition across our Southwest desert land in a chimerical search for the Seven Cities of Gold. By 1660, said J. H. Elliott in his Imperial Spain, 1469 – 1716, the progeny of Columbus and Cortez had delivered more than 200 tons of the gold of the Americas to the famous Gold Tower on the Guadalquivir River in Sevilla. That gold helped rejuvenate the moribund economy of Europe.

When John Marshall discovered gold while building John Sutter’s sawmill near Sacramento in 1848, he triggered the California gold rush, a human tide of migration across the deserts and prairies of the West. In following years, prospectors invaded the mountain ranges that crossed the Chihuahuan, Sonoran and Mojave Deserts, heedless of Apaches and terrible hardships in an obsessive search for gold. They left abandoned mines, tailings, rusting shovels and pans, gloomy cemetaries, ghost towns and legends as their legacy.
What is Gold, Anyway?

Pure gold – like, for example, pure mercury, lead, silver, copper, iron or aluminum – is classified as a metallic element. (By definition, an element comprises only a single type of atom.) For comparable volumes, gold weighs some 19.3 times more than water, 1.4 times more than mercury, 1.7 times more than lead, 1.8 times more than silver, 2.2 times more than copper, 2.4 times more than iron and 7.1 times more than aluminum.

If comparatively rare, gold nevertheless occurs on every continent on earth and in the waters of the sea. It is, according to the Prospectors Paradise Internet site, “mined in deserts, high mountain ranges, in the deeply weathered soil of the tropics and in the permanently frozen ground of the Arctic.

“In America nature was extremely generous. Thirty-two states have recorded significant commercial gold production. The highest yield areas are located within the western states. The recreational gold prospector can find gold in practically every state of the union.”

Treasured by the craftsman, gold, more than any of the other pure metals, can be hammered, bent, drawn and carved into shapes as massive as the dome of an Islamic mosque and as delicate as the web of a spider. “A solitary ounce of gold,” says Prospectors Paradise, “can be drawn and stretched into an ultra fine wire of 50 miles in length without breaking or hammered to the amazing thinness of one hundred thousandth of an inch without disintegrating.” Further, gold resists corrosion and rust even when exposed for thousands of years to seawater, soil, air, heat or cold.

Also treasured by scientists and technologists, gold has been used to treat some forms of arthritis and related conditions. It has been used to tag proteins in studies of human disease. It has been used to tint the visors of astronauts’ helmets, coat the impellers in the space shuttles’ liquid hydrogen pumps, and to coat the mirror of the Mars Global Surveyor telescope.

It is no wonder, as Prospectors Paradise says, that our ancestors “believed gold contained a hidden, internal fire, a gift from the Gods with mysterious healing and magical powers.”

Video- Riding Your SUV or ATV Over Gold One of the most famous prospectors of the time, trapper/gold seeker “Pegleg Smith” traveled through the Anza Borrego region. It's rumored he discovered black gold somewhere in the east part of the Borrego desert.

How Did Gold Get Here?
Gold, the alchemists believed, could be made in their dark and primitive laboratories, provided they could just find the magic tincture they called “Philosopher’s Stone.” They believed that this mysterious substance could not only heal the soul, cure the sick and extend life, it could transform the lesser metals into gold. It would open the way to universal happiness. (If the alchemists failed in their search for Philosopher’s stone, they did lay the foundation for modern chemistry.)

Gold, a part of the primal stew of elements that gave birth to our planet, settled well below the surface. With the passage of time, some gold came into contact with ground water that had been heated by molten rock. If pressures were high and the geochemistry was right, the gold as well as other minerals like quartz, galena and pyrites dissolved into the water. Superheated, the water, laden with its burden of gold and other materials, surged upward, driven by pressure toward the surface. It intruded into fractures and folds of fault zones, contacts between differing rock types, openings of porous rock formations, and other cavities near the surface. As heat and pressure diminished, the water yielded back to the earth its load of gold and the companion materials, which precipitated out of solution to form veins, or lodes.

Chris Ralph, in an Internet paper called “The Geology of Coarse Gold Formation,” said that “The most common conduits for these solutions are natural fault zones; this is why most veins are shaped like fault zones, a long and narrow plane. This is the process that forms nearly all gold-quartz veins.” In other instances, gold and accompanying precipitates may have filled small parallel fissures, creating a network of veins called “stockwork zones.” In still other instances, they may have filled tube-shape cavities to form “plugs.” Where the water invaded porous rock formations, “you may get a big disseminated deposit,” says Ralph.

In those instances in which the water flowed rapidly into large openings, where temperatures and pressures drop rapidly, the gold precipitated out of the solution quickly, often in the form of fine grains. When the water flowed into small openings, where temperatures and pressures fell less rapidly, the gold precipitated more slowly, as larger, if often dispersed, nuggets.

Over long periods of time, the gold, freed by erosion or disintegration of its host rock, issued into washes to be transported downstream as flakes or grains or nuggets by the flow of water. According to Prospectors Paradise, “Gold particles in stream deposits are often concentrated on or near bedrock, because they move downward during high-water periods when the entire bed load of sand, gravel, and boulders is agitated and is moving downstream. Fine gold particles collect in depressions or in pockets in sand and gravel bars where the stream current slackens. Concentrations of gold in gravel are called ‘pay streaks,’ or placers.

Although they probably did not understand the geologic processes that delivered gold to the earth’s surface, many early prospectors, often possessed by their dreams of a rich strike, knew enough to search the deformed and fractured rocks of faults, the contacts between strata, the cavities of geologic formations, the bed-rock exposures and sand and gravel bars of streams across the desert basins and mountain ranges of the Southwest.

If you are interested in prospecting for gold, you can follow in the footsteps of those early prospectors. You will likely find that the most immediately rewarding places will be possible placer deposits in the sand or gravel bars in washes downstream from known lodes. You will need no more than the simplest of the prospector’s tools—a shovel and a pan.

By Jay W. Sharp

Saudi Desert Landscape

Many people think of Saudi Arabia as a barren desert landscape populated by Bedouins living in tents. Well, the desert part is true... The land of Saudi Arabia is mostly desert, although it also has oases, mountains, and coastal areas.

Huda, About.com Guide to Islam
From : http://islam.about.com/od/saudiarabia/ig/Riyadh/Desert.htm

the animals are living in sudan desert

•The Sudan desert is located in the Republic of the Sudan, the largest country on the continent of Africa. Most of the country is covered in desert and savanna; however, the southern region of the country is tropical. With such a range of climates and terrain, the Sudan desert is home to a wide variety of wildlife.
Nubian Ibex
•The Nubian Ibex lives in the Alpine regions of the north Sudan desert. Once widespread in the region, the Nubian Ibex is now an endangered species, thanks to Arabian hunters that prey on the animal for its hide and horns.
Barbary Sheep
•Barbary sheep, or Auodad, is large, big-horned sheep native to much of northern Africa, including the Sudan desert. With strong, muscular legs designed for climbing and jumping, Barbary sheep are well-suited for the mountainous, dry regions of the desert.
Klipspringer
•The Klipspringer is a very small antelope that stands approximately 22 inches high. They are native to the continent of Africa and inhabit savannas from the southern tip of the continent to the northern Sudan deserts.
Baboon
•Baboons live throughout most of Africa, including the Nubian and Sudan deserts in the Republic of Sudan. Highly adaptable, the baboon can survive in almost any habitat within these regions, including tall trees, cliff faces or even urban areas. The olive and the yellow baboon are the two most commonly found baboons in the region.
Addax
•The addax is a large antelope native to the Sudan desert region of Africa. Both male and female addaxes have long, swirling horns that can grow more than 40 inches in length. Addax antelope are well-suited for desert habitation, as they possess flat hooves suitable for walking on soft desert sand, and coats that change colors with the seasons to regulate body temperature.


Read more: What Animals Live in the Sudan Desert? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_6658562_animals-live-sudan-desert_.html#ixzz17nbEaiZu
From : http://www.ehow.com/list_6658562_animals-live-sudan-desert_.html

Geoff Soden (AKA Zippy) Paramotoring in Saudi Desert Thumamah Riyadh 2002

this is the geoff soden aka zippy
paramotoring in saudi arabia desert

Where Can I find desert in Saudi Arabia

hello there are many desert places in saudi arabia ,, like for example in Riyadh there is Thmamah ,, this is the name for it ,, and you can go for camping there ,, there are many places to camp in ,, you will like it ,, and im going to pring some picture for Thmamah











that picture from Thmamh desert in saudi arabia

Live in the desert

Why desert?

I’ve been to different geographical climates and I prefer the desert. One simple fact here: when you are in the desert, you can feel yourself…your being …with all you can’t recall in your mind from the civilized modern life you left out…there is no mind there!There is you breathing, eating,drinking,...and being.
Although these experiences are based on a few times going there with tours. Perhaps moving there is something a little different!?

copy right from : http://www.43things.com/entries/view/3591232