Anglo American (LON:AAL), Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC) and AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) All Drop As Gold Prices Fall

Gold miners have been taking a hit today, especially right before noon, when traders tend to make their moves, and gold prices along with it. Anglo American (LON:AAL) (AAUKF:PK), Kinross Gold Corp (TSE:K) (NYSE:KGC) and AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) all dropped in unison with gold prices during that time.

Anglo American was down to 2,358.00 in London, shedding $115.50, or 4.67 percent, as of 11:35 AM EDT. In New York there were no trades, and it stands at $38.90 in the pink sheets.

AngloGold Ashanti fell to $42.61, a loss of $0.53, or 1.23 percent, as of
12:44 PM EDT.

Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC) lost $0.51 to drop to $15.16, a loss of 3.25 percent at 12:46 PM EDT.

After a quick start today, spot gold prices started to fall a little before 11:00 AM, an are now at $1,193.50, a loss of $10.50.

Goldman (NYSE:GS) Downgrades Randgold (Nasdaq:GOLD), AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU)

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) downgraded Randgold (Nasdaq:GOLD) and AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) today, both from ""Neutral" to "Sell."

The reasoning behind the downgrades are the shares already have priced into them the value of the increase in gold prices, so they don't have a lot of room to grow.

Goldman's downgrade did have a negative impact on Randgold, as it dropped almost 1 percent to $93.30, falling $0.87, or 0.92 percent.

AngloGold Ashanti on the other hand, ended the day in positive range, finishing the trading session at $40.96, gaining $0.29, or 0.71 percent.

AngloGold (NYSE: AU) Commits to Tropicana Gold Project

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE:AU) announced it'll begin working on its Tropicana gold project in Western Australia, now that a deal has been reached with mining companies in Australia over the super tax.

The new so-called resources tax will entail only coal and iron ore, making the company change its mind over the project.

Many mining companies had decided to stop, delay or ignore Australia when they proposed the supertax on miners in the country, which left them with a bad taste in their mouth over the 40 percent tax on profits for raw materials.

After the changes, a spokesman for AngloGold Ashanti said they'll now continue on with the project on the prior schedule it had planned.

AngloGold has a 70 percent stake in Tropicana. The project will produce an estimated 400,000 troy ounces of gold a year starting in 2013.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) Down on Great Gold Day

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) was one of the few poor gold performers on Friday, on a day which broke another record at the close of $1,256.50, an increase of $11.30 on the day.

The news yesterday that they were going to focus on developing mining projects outside Australia because of the 40 percent super tax, seems to have overshadowed the rest of the good news related to gold.

This isn't necessarily looked upon as a negative in the long term, but it will probably extend the period of time for AngloGold to increase its gold reserves, as it had been looking to the Tropicana gold project in western Australia to boost it reserves, but now has relegated that to the back burner and is looking to other properties to develop.

AngloGold lost a penny in New York to close on Friday at $44.79.

AngloGold (NYSE:AU) Latest to Shrink Australian Investment on Mining Super Tax

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE:AU) is the latest mining company to put a hold on Australian projects, as the inability to turn much of a profit from mining operations in the country has miners fleeing to more profitable areas of the world.

"While we are still committed, what should be a 20-year development that our industry so desperately needs, has slipped back down the project priority list," CEO Mark Cutifani said. "It is very difficult for the Board to accept any recommendation when we don't know what it means in terms detail, or we can't guess what great new ideas the Government has up its sleeve."

Cutifani was referring to the Tropicana gold project in western Australia, which had become among the top priority projects the company was going to develop, until the misguided and unpopular tax imposed by the Rudd government on miners.

Other countries have been ecstatic over the situation, as they're promoting all over the place to draw mining companies to their borders, based on of course, less taxation.

Once miners decide to put off a project, it could end up being years, and even decades till they revisit the mine, as it can take up to 10 years just to get one running. If you add the additional years of abandoning the project, and it is increasingly seen the corner the Australian government has trapped itself in, and there's simply no way out until and unless they change or completely get rid of the tax.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU), Randgold (Nasdaq:GOLD), Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI), Harmony Gold (NYSE:HMY) Rise on Gold Prices

Like their American counterparts, gold ADRs like AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU), Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI), Randgold Resources (Nasdaq:GOLD), and Harmony Gold Mining (NYSE:HMY) have performed strongly today, as gold recovers from its recent plunge and price and continues its upward climb.

AngloGold continues with its nice recent run, as it was up $1.22, or 2.89 percent, as of 2:45 PM EDT, reaching $43.48 as of 2:45 PM EDT.

Gold Fields gained $0.35, or 2.62 percent, standing at $13.71 a share.

Randgold enjoyed an increase of $1.91, or 2.16 percent increase, reaching $90.54 a share, while Harmony gained $0.20, or 2.07 percent, to go to $9.85 a share, all as of about 2:45 PM EDT.

Gold prices and gold miners continue to move up on worries over the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and China dealing with inflation in its property markets.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Covering Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI) and AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU)

South African-based gold miners Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI) and AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) are now being covered by Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), and they opened their ratings with an "Equal Weight" on Gold Fields and an "Underweight" on Anglogold Ashanti.

Both gold companies were down in New York today as a slight correction took place after another recent session breaking all-time highs.

Gold Fields ended the day at $13.43, down $0.08, or 0.59 percent a share.

AngloGold Ashanti finished the session at $42.11 in New York, dropping $0.28, or 0.66 percent.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU), Gammon (NYSE:GRS), Iamgold (NYSE:IAG) All Down

Even though macro-economic conditions are positive for gold and gold mining companies, the news that job creation was only about 5 percent in the private sector of America wasn't enough to quickly turn around gold miners like AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU), Gammon (NYSE:GRS), Iamgold (NYSE:IAG), who along with most gold companies trading in New York dropped on the day.

Gold futures on the other hand were able to quickly turn around an end the day up by $12.20, and finished the week at $1,220 an ounce.

For AngloGold Ashanti, they ended the day at $41.67, down $0.90 on Friday, or 2.11 percent.

Anglogold didn't have any direction during the week, and were up and down in price while remaining level overall.

Gammon Gold finished the session at $7.43 a share, falling $0.06 on Friday, or 0.80 percent.

They performed similar to Anglogold, rising and falling throughout the week without taking any particular direction, while remaining level as well.

Iamgold was more consistently down throughout the week, and ended at $16.49 a share, falling $0.43 on Friday, a 2.54 percent drop.

Iamgold started higher, and other than a big bump, dropped consistently over the last five trading days, making them probably ready for a rebound starting on Monday.

Economic news has been mixed over the last week, and that has caused a lot of concern in the market, as one day you'll hear positive news on the EU sovereign debt crisis, and the next day something which will contradict it. This happened with Greece all through the decision-making process leading up to the announced bailout.

Now that Hungary has implied they're in a similar situation as Greece, the expected line of countries looking for a handout has began, and you'll probably see a few more other than the usual suspects of Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain.

Add the China inflation crisis and there's a lot not to like about the global economics, which could be worse than the housing crisis in America.

Anyone that says we're in a recovery has to be in bed with the government or ignorant and clueless. The negative economic forces are probably far more powerful than is being let on, and take everything you hear with a grain of salt, and keep gold and solid gold mining companies in mind as you make your decisions based on the best and most accurate available data.

John Paulson's Gold Investments Mixed in 2010

Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC), SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD) and Anglogold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) are all part of the massive gold holdings of hedge fund manager John Paulson, and so far in 2010 they haven't done a lot to increase the value of the fund, although Anglogold and the SPDR Gold Trust have helped some over the last six months, at least generating gains during that time.

Although that is the case so far, the gold miners are poised to take off, along with gold prices in general, as they've lagged behind the price movements of gold for some time, and signs are there showing that has began to change.

As far as the numerous gold holdings of Paulson, they should contribute strongly to his fund over the rest of the year, and it'll be surprising if he doesn't have positive returns for the third year in a row.

Rumors are so far he's down by close to 3.3 percent for the year.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) Stops Services to Pamodzi Gold Liquidators

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) said they have stopped supplying services to Orkney mines, which had been owned by Pamodzi Gold Ltd.

The mines are under provisional liquidations at this time.

“Our decision follows the failure of the liquidators of Pamodzi Gold Orkney to settle debt of about 38 million rand owed to us for services supplied to the operation over the past 10 months,” the company said in a statement today. “An additional 59 million rand of debt has been due since before Pamodzi Orkney’s provisional liquidation in March 2009.”

It's surprising that AngloGold Ashanti has waited this long to get paid. More than likely it's because they didn't want to look like the bad guy, but at the same time they were probably hoping to not press things too hard before pulling the plug.

The liquidators evidently have no intention of paying AngloGold, otherwise this length of time wouldn't have been allowed to go on.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU), Newmont (NYSE:NEM) Not Affected by Ghana Royalty Increase

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) and Newmont (NYSE:NEM) will not be immediately affected by the increase in royalties from Ghana, the second-largest gold producer in Africa, behind South Africa.

Royalties for other gold miners in the country have been increased from 3 percent to 6 percent, with some like AngloGold Ashanti and Newmont Mining receiving temporary exemptions.

Gold production in Ghana stood at 2.9 million ounces in 2009, with gold prices increasing from $930 at the end of 2008 to $1,100 at the end of 2009, a 11.5 percent rise.

Ghana Chamber of Mines Chief Executive Joyce Aryee said this to Reuters about the situation, "Ghana does not have all the infrastructure in place ... so the government signed such stability agreements with the mines to promote their investment and also to ensure that too many goal posts will not be changed too quickly."

It's unclear as to how long AngloGold Ashanti and Newmont Mining will be exempt from the increased royalties, as official stated the stability agreement is under review in order to see if the exemptions need to be changed in any way.

I haven't heard anything, but I'm sure their competitors are putting pressure on Ghana officials to change the exemptions.

Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI), AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) Continue Plunge

South African miners Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI) and AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) continued their plunge, along with the prices of gold today, as the gold correction continues, and investors put their money into what they consider safer investments.

Many investors have also been taking profits from the recent soaring gold prices, as well as the shorts have been betting against it, pushing down prices even more.

In New York, Anglogold was donw 3.72 percent of $1.52 with volume at 3,167,022, far above its 3-month average of 1,978,980.

Gold Fields ended the session down 2.62 percent, or $0.34, also in New York.

Volume on the day was 9,511,019, up from their three month average of 6,013,870.

Novagold (AMEX:NG) Iamgold (TSE:IMO) Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) (TSE:ABX) Randgold Resources (Nasdaq:GOLD) Added by Paulson & Co

John Paulson continues to like the gold market, and he backed that up with four new positions for his Paulson & Co. hedge fund, adding Novagold (AMEX:NG), Iamgold (TSE:IMO), Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) (TSE:ABX) and Randgold Resources (Nasdaq:GOLD), growing the number of gold investments to his already-significant gold positions in SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE:GLD), which is the largest holding in the fund, Kinross Gold Corp. (NYSE:KGC), and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE:AU).

Competitor George Soros, in my opinion, wrongly, reduced his stake in SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE:GLD) by just under 10 percent.

I believe we are far from any type of gold bubble as Soros has stated in the past, and think he's misreading the market by only measuring the idea of a bubble by the price of gold going up, rather than who it is that is investing in it.

There won't be a gold bubble until a huge number of non-institutional investors enter the gold market, and then the underlying fundamentals will have to had reached their full play before a bubble can be formed, let alone burst.

A bubble happens when there is no reason for the price of something going up. If there is a reason, it doesn't matter if the price is bid up, as it is based on fundamentals, whether or not the investors know it or not.

Not only is there very little to cheer about in the global economy, including the U.S., but there is more pressure and danger now than there ever was with the housing bubble and banking bailouts.

Now we're talking of entire countries being bailed out, and inflation in China being a real threat to demand for raw materials, which many around the world have been counting on for growth and an eventual and sustainable economic recovery.

All that may be off the table, and consequently, gold and gold mining companies should continue to go up in value and price as people continue to look for a safe haven outside of paper currencies.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) La Colosa Gold Mine Water Permits

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) has waited two years to resume exploration at its $2.7 billion La Colosa gold project in Colombia, ant that seems to be close to happening, as the effects froms El Nino, which dried up the area, are receding, and it looks like they'll be awarded water permits sometime in July to resume operations.

President of AngloGold’s Colombian division, Rafael Herz, said this about the water situation, “The next step with Colosa is to have water available in order to restart exploration.”

Estimates are the mine will produce as high as 800,000 ounces of gold in its lifetime, which at today's prices would be about $950 million worth of gold. But with gold prices sure to rise over time, that will surely rise above $1 trillion, assuming the estimates are close to being accurate.

AngloGold will invest close to $200 million to explore the gold mine over the next three years.

They also could resume exploration at their Gramalote gold project, also in Columbia, which they joint venture with B2Gold Corp on.

Get these two mining projects going and AngloGold has a solid source of revenue and profits for years into the future, even above their present sources.

Eldorado Gold (TSE:ELD), Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY), AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU), All Close Session Higher

It was interesting watching gold mining companies like Eldorado Gold
(NYSE:EGO) (TSE:ELD), Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY) and AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE: AU) rose uniformly with the price of gold today, and they weren't the only gold miners doing that.

I checked out about 15 gold miners, and everyone of them moved in sync with gold prices throughout the day.

It went like this. First there was a huge increase in the price of gold, rising to record levels again, reaching just below $1,250 an ounce. Then right before noon there was a quick downward plunge, and not too long after noon, gold prices started upwards again.

Go and look at the charts of the companies listed above, and a number of others like NovaGold Resources (AMEX:NG), Apollo Gold (AMEX:AGT) Iamgold (NYSE:IAG), Barrick (NYSE:ABX) and Newmont (NYSE:NEM), and you'll see the same behavior. Pretty interesting.

That brings me to the conclusion that gold miners in general are starting to finally move in step with gold, and that gold prices have now seemingly taken them under their wing so to speak, and are driving the gold miners along with it.

A lot of gold mining investors have been waiting for this to happen on this large scale, and now it seems to be locked it; at least for a period of time.

Obviously fundamentals will be significant in the long term, but for now, it seems like this is going to be the trend, albeit one that could change just as quickly as it began.

Two things are driving this now, the fears over the repercussions of China dealing with their inflation problems, and the European debt crisis which will drag on for many years, and of which there is no way of knowing where it will all go or end.

A growing number of analysts and economists believe this is the end of the euro, as Europe didn't have the will to defend it and not bail out their socialist, welfare neighbors.

To the contrary, they're encouraging the behavior by bailing them out, although in reality they're directly bailing out the banks which hold the debt or bonds which have provided the good life for the socialist, who continue spending and consuming, using other people's money.

For gold investors this is good news, as there is absolutely no short-term fix for this, and no matter how much money is ended up thrown at it, it won't solve the problem, only extend it down the road, and how far down the road will only be determined by how many trillions they end up throwing at it.

So maybe the socialists will get there way (for a very short time), but sooner or later the bill will come due, and if this goes like I think it will, with the Federal Reserve, central banks and governments around the world still drunk with spending from the bailout of banks and businesses around the globe, we'll probably see the most extraordinary and outrageous behavior from these people that will be unprecedented in history as to its scope, and gold and well-run gold mining companies should continue to flourish as this plays out over the years.

AngloGold Ashanti rose by $0.19, Yamana Gold increased $0.13 and Eldorado Gold was up $0.25, all in New York.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) Cutting Costs

Even though there is strong cost pressures on AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU), they have plans to cut costs by 10 percent in 2010, even as estimates that energy and wages will increase significantly by 2012, with power costs expected to double by then.

AngloGold did slow down some in the last quarter, as earnings came in at $150 million, far below the quarter before.

Production also fell to 1.08 million ounces of gold for the quarter, a 9 percent decline.

Cost for each ounce of gold was $619, a 4 percent rise.

Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC), AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) Underperforming Peers

When Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC) and AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) can't excel in the hot gold market, you know there are some issues with the companies, as they've widely underperformed their competitors during the gold bull run.

Kinross does have some potential if they can take their approximate $1 billion in cash and equivalents, which they received when selling a portion of their stake in Cerro Casale stake to Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX), and invest it in quality projects.

AngloGold Ashanti has a lot of challenges as their gold production decreases from quarter to quarter, while cost continue to rise, especially those they have no control over like royalties and tariffs.

AngloGold said cost will increase 10 percent to $660 an ounce, while production in the first quarter will fall again, this time by about 9 percent.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX), AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) and Changing Rules in Tanzania

A couple of weeks ago the Tanzanian parliament passed a new mining law which will alter the gold mining landscape for Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) and AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) in the country.

Some of the major changes included in the Mining Act 2010 law will be that royalties on minerals and gold will rise from three to four percent.

The government of Tanzania will also have a stake in the future projects of miners, and all mining companies now must be listed on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange.

Some in the country are calling for a stronger national ownership of their natural resources.

Lihir Gold (ASE:LGL) Getting More Attention

News is out that Lihir Gold (ASE:LGL) has possibly prepared a 'data room' for those intersted in bidding on the company.

This could be a strategic move to pressure Newcrest Mining to increase its bid of $8.9 billion, which Lihir has rejected.

Other potential suitors of Lihi which have named include Goldcorp (TSE:G), Kinross Gold (TSE:K) and AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU), although none of them have been confirmed as absolute.

Dirty Little Secret of Gold Companies

With the extraordinary run of gold prices, and what looks like a gold bull run which will go on for years, a number of "gold companies" have been communicating in a manner which doesn't reflect what the company actually is.

Does the company have a variety of precious metals they mine? Many do, yet they continue to market themselves as "gold companies," when in many cases gold isn't the primary metal that is mined by them.

Major mining companies which have fallen into this practice include Goldcorp (TSE:G) and Barrick Gold (TSE:ABX), which most investors consider primarily gold mining companies, when in fact they have numerous metals they extract from the ground.

Under normal conditions this would be a positive to have a variety of revenue sources, but in the age of the gold bull run, solely focusing on gold posititions them stronger in the mind of investors and the market.

Just keep in mind when evaluating gold mining companies, that most aren't solely gold miners, and research how many other metals they mine and the percentage of that in relationship to revenue and profits. You don't want to fall asleep at the wheel thinking you're strong in gold by investing in a company that may only be a gold mining company in name, but in fact is a metals mining company with gold as one of the various metals they generate revenue and profits from.

Who are some of the real gold mining companies in the world, as measured by almost completely mining gold? They would include Harmony Gold (NYSE:HMY), Kinross (NYSE:KGC), Lihir (Nasdaq:LIHR), Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI) and AngloGold Ashanti NYSE:AU), among others.

While these mine other metals, their primary source of revenue and profits is gold. All of this can change as they bring new projects online, but for now, they are the more pure plays in the gold mining industry.