The spot price of gold closed at USD$680.50 per fine ounce on Friday, an increase of USD$5.45 on Thursday’s US close. The gold miners were up; Lihir (ASX:LHG) added 4c to AUD$3.01, while Newcrest (ASX:NCM) climbed 58c to AUD$22.98.
India’s Economic Times reports that DSP Merrill Lynch Mutual Fund is set to launch an open-ended gold-linked fund next month. The fund will raise USD$100 million to invest in the group’s world gold fund program, which invests predominantly in global companies engaged in gold mining.
Nevada has slipped one place in the list of top gold producing regions, and now sits fourth behind South Africa, Australia and China. The US state produced 6.3 million ounces of gold in 2006, an 8% slump on the previous year, the Las Vegas Sun reports.
The Indian government is set to introduce mandatory gold hallmarking in metro areas from January next year, Zee News reports. Presently, only a small proportion of gold used for jewellery and ornaments is hallmarked for purity by government approved centres.
Vancouver miner Great Basin Gold’s (AMEX:GBN) plans bring its Hollister and Burnstone gold projects in Nevada’s Carlin Trend and South Africa’s Witwatersrand Basin into production are progressing quickly, Resource Investor reports.
Last week, the company announced positive results from the first bulk ore sample from the high-grade Clementine and Gwenivere veins in the Hollister Development Block in Nevada. In South Africa’s Witwatersrand Basin, Great Basin’s program to expand and upgrade mineral resources at the Burnstone Project, 80 km southeast of Johannesburg, is nearing completion.
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