Gold miners hard hit on Friday's sell-off

NEW YORK  (Sept 22)   New York spot gold closed down $39.50 to $1,325.60 Friday, ending the week down 30 cents. Investors will be watching the United States Federal Reserve closely next week for more signs of tapering. Also next week, the U.S. government will discuss raising the debt ceiling. It must be increased by Oct. 1, or the government will shut down. In Canada the TSX Venture Exchange lost 6.78 points to 946.10 and the TSX Gold Index dropped 10.28 points to 178.29.

Canadian gold miners followed bullion lower. Allied Nevada Gold Corp. (ANV) lost 17 cents to $4.80, Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. (AEM) dropped $1.74 to $27.70, Kinross Gold Corp. (K) dropped 41 cents to $5.27 and Yamana Gold Inc. (YRI) fell 76 cents to $10.88.

Mark O'Dea's True Gold Mining Inc. (TGM) slipped one-half cent to 32.5 cents on 156,000 shares. The company has received an environmental permit for its Karma gold project in Burkina Faso. Now, it just needs to obtain a mining permit, which the company says the government typically grants two months after granting an environmental permit. True Gold has plenty of cash, unlike most gold explorers, thanks to the money-raising efforts of Mr. O'Dea. He helped raise $33.5-million this summer. (Teck Resources Ltd. (TCK.B: $28.32) bought $10-million worth of True Gold stock, while Boston insurance company Liberty Metals & Mining Inc. bought the other $23.5-million.) Mr. O'Dea's services are not cheap. His management company, Oxygen Capital Corp., charges True Gold $413,000 a quarter, or $1.65-million a year.