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September 30, 2005

The Gold Bull, Fri., Sept. 30, 2005, 8:40 AM

The biggest Gold Bull of them all is Pierre Lassonde, president of Newmont Mining, which is the biggest gold producer in North America, and one of the biggest in the world. Pierre is also head of the World Gold Council in London UK.

I knew Pierre when he and Austin Beutel split from the Beutel-Goodman Partners money management firm to form Franco Nevada, which became a highly successful gold royalty company that they eventually merged into Newmont.

Austin and Pierre were so convinced that gold was a solid long-term bet that they did two remarkable things: (1) they built the world's best database of precious metals resources in the world, and travelled far and wide to check them out, and (2) they never took cash compensation from their employment, as they believed that the millions of shares they held in Franco Nevada and associated companies would make them rich men.

Both decisions worked out in spades.

Analysts, money managers, competitors and traders at gold industry conferences follow Pierre around like politicians hound Bono. The man is good.

So when I reported last evening that Newmont was forecasting $525 gold in the next year, I am really referring to Pierre Lassonde.

I remember a trip from hell that Pierre, his late wife (who had been a brilliant engineer), and I took, returning from New Orleans. Due to a snow storm, our Chicago-bound flight was diverted to Oshkosh Wisconsin. After a wait on the runway there, we took off for Chicago where the large plane never got higher than 8,000 feet I believe. Then we were stacked up 35 to 40 deep before we could get to the gate. Once inside we were told we might have to stay all night in the terminal. Then we were put on a flight to Buffalo, and then on to Toronto very very late. That was a tough flight, and I can assure you nobody was in good humor.

But that's the thing I most remember about Pierre Lassonde. He is perpetually smiling. He is a man at peace with himself.

He knows all about the dance.

Newmont is the institutional favorite goldminer. It's my favorite for trading in options, although the smaller cap major goldminer producers like Goldcorp and Glamis Gold are probably the better choices for trading the equities " bearing in mind the share prices are also more volatile.

Gold (Dec-05) futures are up +$0.90 to $476.70 this morning. It had been trading at $477.

The USD is a little weaker across the board.

Crude oil is now down -$0.43, and gasoline futures are also down a bit.

Posted by Posted by Bill Cara on September 30, 2005 08:40:34 AM | Category: Gold

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