Peter Klinger, The West Australian May 17, 2013, 8:23 am Some of WA's biggest gold bulls are staring at more than $100 million of paper losses on their shareholdings in the miners they help run. A sudden drop-off in the gold price at a time when operating costs are spiralling out of control have combined to scare off investors and lead to savage sell-downs of gold miners' share prices. The gold price was last night trading at $US1373 an ounce - near levels not seen since February 2011 - and heading south as investor appetite for precious metal evaporates in favour of a resurging US equities market. The fact the US Federal Reserve is expected to end its money-printing campaign is further bad news for gold. Even the sharp devaluation of the Australian dollar - the Aussie was at parity on Monday but down to US98.16 last night - is yet to assist a local gold price which, at $1398/oz, leaves many WA miner producing bullion at a loss. Hardest hit is among locally listed gold miners is Silver Lake Resources. Its shares have plummeted from $3.32 at the start of this year to 82.5c to leave the miner's market capitalisation at just $313 million. Silver Lake's board, led by managing director Les Davis and chairman Paul Chapman, holds big stakes in the miner and is nursing some significant paper losses. At the start of the year Silver Lake was worth $1.2 billion and jostling with Nick Giorgetta's Regis Resources for WA gold market leadership status. As with Silver Lake, Regis has encountered operational problems since the start of the year that have done little to appease already jittery investors. Regis' share price is down almost 30 per cent and chairman Mr Giorgetta's paper loss on his stake was $29 million at its $3.70 close last night. Managing director Mark Clark and operations director Morgan Hart are counting losses of more than $13 million. Industry veteran John Jones has seen $20 million wiped off the value of his stake in Troy Resources while Bill Beament, who runs one of the State's lower-cost producers Northern Star Resources, is lamenting a paper loss of more than $6 million. http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/bu...207793/gold-bulls-feel-pain-as-prices-plunge/
