by The Doc, Silver Doctors:
Gold nearly touched $1700 Friday on speculation Ben Bernanke and The Fed will soon publicly announce QE3.
While additional QE impacts the price of gold from a demand side standpoint with traders and investors acquiring the asset in order to protect themselves from currency devaluation and debasement, gold’s supply side might have just experienced a black swan event, as 12,000 South African gold miners have followed their platinum miner counter-parts by going on strike from Gold Fields.
Gold Fields is the world’s 4th largest gold mine, and the strike is costing the firm 1,660 ounces of gold a day in lost production according to Gold Fields’ spokesman Sven Lunsche.
Not big enough to be a black swan event. 1660 oz/day is roughly 18.5 tons a year. Global production for gold is around 2000-2500 tons.