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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

New York spot gold closed up $3.20 to $1,228.30 Tuesday, rising after the United States said orders for durable goods dropped last month. Analysts had been predicting an increase. The Federal Reserve will wrap up its two-day meeting tomorrow. There is speculation it will formally end its monthly program of money-printing. Here in Canada, the TSX Venture Exchange lost 2.33 points to 788.02 while the TSX Gold Index rose 1.73 points to 158.78.

Major Canadian gold miners ended the day slightly higher. Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) rose 14 cents to $15.10, Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. (AEM) gained 70 cents to $32.91, Yamana Gold Inc. (YRI) rose 10 cents to $6.27 and Kinross Gold Corp. (K) added four cents to $3.07.

Declan Franzmann's Lachlan Star Ltd. (LSA) remained unchanged at 3.5 cents on a busier-than-usual 1.35 million shares. The stock has been trading heavy volume all month as the company tries to close $5-million (U.S.) in financings from Peter Babin's Hamilton Place Associates LLC. First, Hamilton must visit the company's CMD gold mine in Chile. Mr. Babin knows the mine well. He and James Stuckert, a director of Royal Gold Ltd. (RGL: $73.84), sold it to Lachlan in 2010 for 728 million shares at a deemed value of 1.5 Australian cents (about $11-million). There were 50,000 ounces of gold remaining at the time, which meant Lachlan needed to get to work. It rolled back its stock 1:60 and listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in October, 2011. By the fall of 2012, it had found three million more ounces of gold, and its stock had risen to $1.75, from 90 cents months earlier. Mr. Babin (now a director) and Mr. Stuckert's 12 million postconsolidated shares were worth $21-million on paper. Then the price of gold started to tumble, taking with it Lachlan's share price. By mid-2013 the stock was trading at 20 cents, and it has been drifting lower ever since. A dissatisfied Mr. Babin tried to take over as president in the summer of 2013, but he needed Lachlan to relocate its head office to Denver from Perth. The company tried to raise $13-million to cover the cost of relocation (apparently it is dreadfully expensive to move from Australia), but it could only manage $4-million. Mr. Babin decided to retire last fall, by which time he and Mr. Stuckert's shares were worth $2.76-million. Assuming they have held on to them (which seems likely given Mr. Babin's reappearance) they would be worth a sad $420,000 today.

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