The government has a nasty habit of twisting facts to their best interest. The Republic
of South Africa is no different. Any idea that the sole cause of the shutdown of major
gold producers is electrical power outage based is WRONG. I cannot go into detail
any further because of a confidentiality agreement. Be assured this is part of a
greater long term infrastructure problem. All shutdowns end, but the situation
of declining production is only going get more pronounced than previously expected.

This is serious but limited to several important mines in the Republic of South
Africa. How long the shutdowns will last is anyone's guess. Neither the power
suppliers nor the mining companies involved can know at this time. The cut-off of
RSA gold supply to the global marketplace is no small matter.

Tanzania is not prone to these types of problems!

The impact of any shutdown of gold production in the RSA depends upon the duration
of the situation. More importantly, the shutdown of major gold mines there
focuses attention on the well-established trend of declining gold production,
coupled with the lack of significant new gold projects coming on stream.

Gold is being influenced now by the magnet at $1,050 pulling from the front. Sellers
exist at $950 to $960. The breaching of the $887.50 level multiple times as the gold
price gyrated back and forth before reaching its present historic high is quite important.

Electricity Supply Interruptions Stop AngloGold Ashanti's South African Mining Operations
Friday January 25, 3:54 am ET

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA--(MARKET WIRE)--Jan 25, 2008 -- AngloGold
Ashanti (NYSE:AU - News) stops its South African operations after electricity
supply interruptions.

Following notification from Eskom regarding interruptions to power supplies,
AngloGold Ashanti has halted mining and gold recovery operations on all of its
South African operations. Only underground emergency pumping work is being carried
out. According to Eskom, the current situation arises from reduced generating
capacity aggravated by problems associated with coal supplies to power stations caused
by unusually heavy rainfall. Eskom has not yet indicated how long the present situation
will continue but the company is in contact with the electricity supply body.