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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

New York spot gold closed down $1 to $1,113.70 Friday, ending the week up $20. The TSX Venture Exchange fell 2.80 points to 573.21 and the TSX Gold Index lost 1.32 points to 130.23.

Gold miners in Canada ended the day slightly lower. Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) slipped six cents to $10.07, Detour Gold Corp. (DGC) lost 22 cents to $14.02, Alamos Gold Inc. (AGI) fell two cents to $4.69 and Iamgold Corp. (IMG) fell five cents to $2.32.

Meanwhile, Jim Bannantine's Aura Minerals Inc. (ORA) remained unchanged at 8.5 cents on 42,000 shares, as investors pondered the future of this penny stock that actually produces gold. Aura aims to produce 155,000 ounces of gold this year at its two mines, San Andres in Honduras and Sao Francisco in Brazil, where cash costs for both are too high at $1,000 an ounce, not all-in. The company had to shut down its third gold mine, Sao Vicente, in Brazil last fall because its cash costs were $2,296 an ounce, also not all-in. Aura's mines are all over a decade old. The company would like to build a new one in Brazil, but for that it will need at least $400-million. At 8.5 cents, it would need to issue 4.7 billion shares. The company might have to issue five million shares to president Bannantine this year. He is entitled to $425,000 in salary, but on June 30 the company had negative $8-million in working capital. Mr. Bannantine received no bonus for his work last year, but in 2013 he received $425,000 plus a $391,000 bonus. Since he joined the company in October, 2011, the stock has fallen from $1.60. It has dropped from $4.50 in late 2010 along with the price of gold. Mr. Bannantine appears to have no mining experience, but he is now the largest shareholder of Aura Minerals with 1.2 million shares, so fixing the company's gold mining problems is his immediate task. He worked in Honduras in the Army Corps. of Engineers but the Corps. does not usually engage in mining. He spent a decade, 1990 through 2000, working as Enron's chief executive officer of South America. He left that company one year before it declared bankruptcy.

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