KNVN.com APR 2,2013

Less than a week after being identified as one of the suspects in major gold heist, David Johnson, 49 of El Cerrito, turned himself into Siskiyou County authorities on Monday. Siskiyou County Sheriff’s deputies recently identified a pair of suspects in the January 2012 theft of more than a million dollars in historic gold nuggets from the county courthouse.

Agents from the sheriff’s office searched parts of the Bay Area Thursday after getting million dollar search warrants for Johnson, and Scott Bailey, 51 of El Sobrante. The pair are the prime suspects in the January 31, 2012 theft of $1,257,500 worth of historic gold nuggets from the Siskiyou County Courthouse in Yreka. Investigators say they believe Johnson and Bailey used the stolen gold to purchase high value items. Johnson is being held in the Siskiyou County jail on $1,000,000 bail… >>MORE(KNVN.com)

Saturday, March 30, 2013 SFGate.com

YREKA, Calif. (AP) — Two San Francisco Bay area men have been named as suspects in connection with the theft of more than $1 million in gold from a county courthouse’s historical collection, Siskiyou County officials said.

David Dean Johnson, 49, of El Cerrito and Scott Wayne Bailey, 51, of El Sobrante, are wanted on $1 million arrest warrants issued earlier this week, The Redding Record-Searchlight reported Friday.

The two allegedly broke into the gold collection at the Siskiyou County Courthouse in Yreka in February 2012 and made off with $1,257,500 in gold, jewelry and artifacts.

“These thieves stole a part of Siskiyou County history, which represents the hard work, sacrifice, traditions, and pioneer spirit which characterizes the personality of Siskiyou County and its citizens – past and present,” Siskiyou County Sheriff Jon Lopey said in a statement.

After allegedly making off with the gold, jewelry and artifacts, Johnson and Bailey used the money from the sale of the goods to purchase “high-value” items, Lopey said.

The entire gold collection before the theft was valued at about $3 million. Lopey said it would be “highly speculative” to guess how much of the gold, if any, would eventually be recovered, Lopey said… >>MORE (sfgate.com)

by Kimberly Nordyke 3/29/2013 Hollywood Reporter.com

Captain Zeke Tenhoff faces the end of gold mining season without his friend and fellow dredger.

In Friday’s season finale, the dredgers break through Nome’s frozen harbor for one last shot at finding treasure… >>MORE+Video (hollywoodreporter)

Texas has $1B in physical gold Friday, 22 Mar 2013

Governor Perry is showing support for a bill to bring home rare and precious metals the state already owns.

Republican Rep. Giovanni Capriglione of Southlake introduced House Bill 35-05. It would create the Texas Bullion Depository, which would house the physical gold bars the state owns.

The Texas Tribune reports the state has a billion dollars in physical gold, which is owned by the University of Texas Investment Management Company.
The gold is currently stored in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

“If we can securely store this gold in Texas and do it at a lower cost to the state than where it is currently stored then we should take a look at that,” the Governor said in a statement from his press office to KXAN on Friday. “Number one priority is that it is securely stored.” —MORE>>(kxan.com)

Urs Geiser, swissinfo.ch Mar 20, 2013

A rightwing group has submitted more than 106,000 signatures to the federal authorities, seeking a vote on stopping the sale of gold reserves held by the Swiss National Bank (SNB). It also wants gold bars stored in the US to be returned.

 The group, led by members of the Swiss People’s Party, the far-right Swiss Democrats and the Lega dei Ticinesi movement, is confident a nationwide vote will be called on the issue once the signatures are verified. A date still has to be set by the government… >>MORE(swissinfo.ch)

21 Mar, 2013 The Economic Times

KOZHIKODE: A 21-year-old passenger, who arrived from Dubai, has been arrested at the airport here on charge of attempting to smuggle one kg gold biscuits valued at Rs 28.48 lakh, officials said today.

 Shamu Ali, hailing from Thamarassery in the district, was found carrying the gold biscuits hidden in the base of a table lamp…>>(MORE)(TheEconomicTimes)

A high loan value and delayed auctions owing to regulatory restrictions suggest a crisis in earnings is around the corner

Ravi Krishnan  livemint.com Wed, Mar 20 2013

Lending against gold is not a low-default business. Rather, it reports lower losses when defaults happen simply because the loans are secured by the precious metal. Even when gold prices are falling, risks increase, but only a bit as non-performing assets are auctioned and the money is recovered. But, when the loan value is a high portion of the gold taken as security, auctions are delayed owing to regulatory restrictions or otherwise and gold prices fall, a crisis in earnings is around the corner.

That’s precisely what has happened to Manappuram Finance Ltd. Before the Reserve Bank of India’s clampdown on interest rates and capping of advances at 60% of the value of jewellery, gold loan companies were on a credit spree. Manappuram had lent some Rs.10,500 crore in the quarter ended December 2011, analysts say. A portion of these loans were one-year bullet payment loans but have turned bad.

Here’s how it happens: A Rs.90 loan is taken for a collateral of Rs.100 worth of gold jewellery. At a 25% interest rate, the amount the financier hopes to collect a year later is Rs.112.5. If in the meanwhile the value of the collateral falls to Rs.95, it’s an incentive for borrowers to default. Sure, unless prices fall sharply, there are unlikely to be losses on the principal amount. But companies typically spread interest income over four quarters. Thus, such a situation forces them to reverse interest income…>>MORE>(Livemint.com)

Pressure changes cause precious metal to deposit each time the crust moves.
Richard A. Lovett  nature.com 17 March 2013

Scientists have long known that veins of gold are formed by mineral deposition from hot fluids flowing through cracks deep in Earth’s crust. But a study published today in Nature Geoscience1 has found that the process can occur almost instantaneously — possibly within a few tenths of a second.

The process takes place along ‘fault jogs’ — sideways zigzag cracks that connect the main fault lines in rock, says first author Dion Weatherley, a seismologist at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

When an earthquake hits, the sides of the main fault lines slip along the direction of the fault, rubbing against each other. But the fault jogs simply open up. Weatherley and his co-author, geochemist Richard Henley at the Australian National University in Canberra, wondered what happens to fluids circulating through these fault jogs at the time of the earthquake.

What their calculations revealed was stunning: a rapid depressurization that sees the normal high-pressure conditions deep within Earth drop to pressures close to those we experience at the surface…>>MORE>(Nature.com)