Citi Group (C) is predicting gold will reach $2000/oz in 2009. Morgan Stanley is reporting that their largest clients are exchanging more and more of their dollars for gold. As the rush into gold continues, the demand for gold production should steadily increase as well. Junior gold mining companies are well positioned to capitalize from this growing global demand for gold resources.
One company worth noting is called Arctic Oil and Gas (OTC: AOAG). The company recently announced a major joint venture in Alaska off the shore of Nome to dredge gold from open ocean claims they have acquired. The gold resource potential for the claim area is being put at over 3 million ounces - which could make it one of the largest gold recovery projects anywhere today.
Sound like a bit of a stretch?
Well not really according to the data compiled by Westgold Corporation who ran the BIMA dredge off the coast of Nome in the mid to late 80’s and recovered over 100,000 ounces of the precious metal. Even more interesting is the test results from the samples taken of the lease area which indicates some incredibly large placer gold deposits.
The company is currently meting with institutional investors interested in funding their gold project. If they can get funded, dredging for gold on a massive scale could become extremely popular. AOAG will be using high-capacity suction cutter dredges to suck sediment off the sea floor and filtering through it separating the gold from everything else. Typically hard rock gold mines take four to five years to bring into fruition. Placer gold mining is less capital intensive than hard rock gold mining and faster to bring into production, especially given our partner properties have granted leases and permits in place. The Nome offshore placer mining project has the potential to be implemented on an increasingly larger scale with the addition of new dredges due to the potentially large resources available.
As other mining companies focus on traditional means of recovering gold, AOAG seems to be miles ahead of the rest as it sets its eyes on the millions of ounces of gold sitting on the bottom of the ocean. With gold setting up for a major run in 2009, companies like AOAG will be poised to capitalize from the potential avalanche of investor money that will be pouring into gold production.
http://www.stockmarketsbest.com focuses on undiscovered junior mining companies with huge growth potential. AOAG is its most recent discovery and stockmarketsbest.com has made an investment in AOAG and owns shares in the company purchased directly out of the market.
