World Gold Council annual meeting draws top mining executives to New York.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 20, 1996--Senior executives from many of the world's largest gold producing companies will gather at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City on Thursday, June 20, for the 10th Annual Meeting of the World Gold Council.

They will join with leaders of the gold trade and the financial community to discuss current trends in the gold market and the role gold is playing as a commodity and as a monetary instrument in today's fast changing world.

The meeting -- the first to be held in the U.S. in ten years -- comes at a particularly interesting time for gold as globalization of the mining industry moves forward at an unprecedented pace and producers seek new ways to satisfy the demand for the precious metal in many of the world's markets. For the sixth consecutive year, jewelry demand exceeded mine production and the size of the gap between these two important components of the gold market was only just short of the record-breaking year of 1992.

The event, which will be opened by Harry Conger, chairman of Homestake Mining and current chairman of the WGC, will, in examining gold demand, go beyond the regular parameters of aggregate tonnage, forward markets, derivatives, options and the like, to study the gold buying habits of "real people" -- the consumers in major markets throughout the world.

Individual presentations given by the Council's country managers will examine regulatory matters, demand trends and gold buying characteristics arising from research and strategies initiated by the WGC in the United States, Japan, Italy, Korea, Indonesia, Turkey, India and China -- eight of the 11 major markets with over 100 tons of consumption per year.

According to Elliot M. Hood, chief executive officer of the Council, the research conducted by the WGC has shown that some 700 million individuals -- one in seven of the world's population -- bought real gold last year and approximately 3.5 billion people own at least one gold piece in one form or another.

In his strategic overview, Hood notes that the gold buying experiences of consumers varies tremendously from country to country and that it is the goal of the WGC, on behalf of the gold producers, to level the playing field in the marketplace. "Unlike their purchase of any decent branded good, which pretty much looks, feels and performs identically wherever it is purchased, their experience of finding, buying and, usually, wearing a gold product is markedly different from place to place," he said.

With this in mind the Council is working toward three goals:

-- first, removing the structural barriers to the flow of gold within and between markets. A structural barrier could mean anything from a discriminatory tax on gold to an upright prohibition on gold ownership;

-- second, providing consumers with ready access to a full and appealing range of quality products;

-- and third, helping the gold trade itself to become more effective through better business and marketing practices.

Attendees to the conference will also be told that in going about its mission of increasing the demand for gold, the WGC monitors 23 countries accounting for some 80 percent of all gold consumption. In addition to undertaking regularly scheduled quantitative studies, consumer research and sales audits of gold jewelry, bars and coins, the Council commissions research studies and analysis from leading economists, bankers, analysts and academia on the monetary role of gold.

Michael Barlerin, chief executive officer, The Americas, said that the annual meeting was an occasion on which to forcefully underscore the strategic purposes of the Council and was this year perhaps more special in that it marked the tenth anniversary of the WGC in its present form -- a decade in which the gold market had experienced considerable change. He said that each of the Council's many strategic programs had been crafted to identify and capitalize on the opportunities which change had brought about and that, as a result, the Council was now widely acknowledged as a reliable and thoroughly objective information resource for the gold industry.

The World Gold Council is a non-profit association of gold producers worldwide. Headquartered in Geneva and with offices in major markets around the world, the Council seeks to increase the consumption and retention of gold by working toward the removal of regulatory and other barriers to gold ownership and by helping to generate a competitive and sustainable level of marketing support for gold products by manufacturers and distributors.

The Council monitors demand in India, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Italy, France, Germany, U.K., U.S. and Japan. These countries account for approximately 80 percent of global gold demand.

CONTACT: Marston Webb & Associates, New York 

Victor Webb, 212/684-6601