Frik Els , Editor

The price of gold zoomed to an all-time high of Rs24,770 per 10 grams by adding Rs420 in New Delhi, India on Saturday on frantic buying by stockists and investors. India is the world's number one consumer of gold and official figures released on Friday show the country's revenue from the importation of gold almost doubled in 2010-11 compared to the previous year. The news follows the announcement by the World Gold Council that it is teaming up with jewellers to sell discounted gold to price-conscious Indians during the all-important Shraavan Aavani month that culminates in a festival next Friday.

Sesa Goa, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources, on Saturday said it will buy 51% stake in an iron ore making firm in Liberia for $90 million in an all-cash deal. Located in Western part of Liberia and spread over 270 sq km area, the company has an estimated reserve of over 1.05 billion tonnes iron ore. Vedanta's investment follows iron ore giant ArcelorMittal which after five years of ground work started operations at the country's Tokadeh mine earlier this year and is spending $800 million in the first phase of the project to rehabilitate the rail link and port. ArcelorMittal exported the first iron ore from Liberia after a 20 year hiatus on June 11 from the port of Buchanan.

Canadian Natural Resources announced this week it is poised to restart its Horizon plant seven months after it went up in flames and aims to spend over $2 billion to more than double its capacity. The Horizon outage led to a shortage of syncrude – a light oil manufactured from bitumen – which helped Alberta's producers attract a premium of $18 above benchmark US oil prices. That nice little earner will now likely melt away and follows a Reuters poll that showed a majority of analysts and oil traders expect the spread between US and international crude prices to surpass $30 in the next year.

The Navajo Nation's allegations that a coal mining company conspired with others to cheat the tribe out of as much as $600 million in royalties was settled in federal court on Thursday. The tribe sued what is now Peabody Energy in 1999. The terms of the agreement are confidential. The US Supreme Court ruled against the Navajo in a similar lawsuit filed against the federal government. Peabody has operated through a business partnership with the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe for more than 40 years in Northeastern Arizona.

Canada's Northgate Minerals reported a wider quarterly net loss of $13 million hit by lower production and higher costs, and it lowered its full-year production forecast. Revenue fell 45% to $67.4 million. In July, Northgate Minerals said it would buy Primero Mining to form a new mid-tier gold producer, which will have a combined market capitalization of approximately $1.2 billion and will tie together the San Dimas mine in Mexico; the Fosterville and Stawell gold mines in Australia; and the Young-Davidson gold development project in Ontario. Investors shrugged off the news and the Vancouver-based company's shares opened barely changed in Toronto at C$3.15 on Friday giving it a market valuation of some $920 million.

Russia's Uralkali, who together with Belaruskali and North-American producers represented by Canpotex, control almost 60% of world production, said on Thursday its trading company raised prices for India by 32%. Uralkali's export arm will supply 1.2 million tonnes to India at $490/tonne (up from $370/tonne) through the end of March 2012. On Wednesday arduous negotiations between Canpotex and India ended in a two-step deal that increases the export price to $470/tonne for the fourth quarter and adding another $60/tonne next year. India has some 55 million small farmers and is the world's number one importer at over 6 million tonnes per year.

AngloGold Ashanti reported record quarterly profits on Thursday of $342 million, up a whopping 68%, boosted by the precious metal's longest winning streak in almost a century. The world’s third-largest gold miner cut production guidance by over 4% and said it expected its cash costs to rise as much as $80/oz however. The Johannesburg-based company's CEO said the gold market is entering "a perfect storm" and that gold could “easily” break through $1,700 an ounce. December gold reversed its record setting pace by midday on Thursday to trade at $1,661.70 after touching $1,684.90 in early trade.

Rio Tinto reported a surge in profits due to strong demand in Asia and higher metals prices on Thursday but shares in the company spiked lower in New York, opening down more than 7% and wiping more than $10 billion off the value of the globe's second largest miner. Net earnings for the first half year were $7.6bn, up 30% on the $5.8bn the firm made a year earlier. Commenting on the results chairman Jan du Plessis said the economic environment remains volatile but expected the Australia-based company continue to experience higher than average growth for the rest of the year. The company also said it was experiencing high cost inflation in some "mining hotspots" and cautioned that the strong Australian and Canadian dollar were impacting its profitability.

Gabriel Resources announced on Wednesday that it has accumulated over $175 million in cash and equivalents to move ahead its gold mining project in Transylvania in an area where tunnels used by Roman miners during the first century still exists. It has been more than a decade since Gabriel Resources first obtained the Rosia Montana concession, believed the be one of the richest in Europe, and the Canadian firm has faced protests since receiving an archaeological discharge certificate from Bucharest authorities in July. More recently the site was a Romanian state-owned open pit operation (pictured) and Gabriel Resources has set aside $35 million for what it calls "rescue archaeology" .

Bloomberg reports Antofagasta Plc, the copper giant controlled by Chile’s Luksic family, on Wednesday said second-quarter output increased 17% boosted by additional ore from the Esperanza mine in Chile that began shipping at the start of the year. Antofagasta is actively diversifying outside of its home base and is awaiting the outcome of a joint bid for a mine in Pakistan that has the potential to add 200,000 tonnes of copper annually.