Philippines’ Duterte holds open pit mining ban despite pressure

Bloomberg interviewed Richard O'Brien, CEO of Newmont, on Friday who said gold could reach $2,000 in the next six months. O'Brien also said more certainty is needed around taxes and regulations before companies start hiring again. O'Brien said that the financial uncertainty in Europe and U.S.A. will probably drive gold to $2,000. O'Brien was asked about President Obama's $447 billion job plan announced on Thursday and what CEOs need to see before they start hiring again.

Lumina Copper (CVE:LCC) announced on Thursday intersects of 646 meters grading of .93% copper equivalent at the Taca Taca copper-gold-molybedenum project in Argentina. Lumina also reported drilling results of 2.69% copper equivalent in 50 meters of grading. Lumina was up 23 cents to 7.08 on Thursday. At the end of the week, was back down $6.71.

Guinea's parliament adopted a new mining code that more than doubles the share the West African state can take in mining projects to 35 percent and toughens procedures for acquiring development permits, the government said on Saturday.

Barrick Gold Corp. ABX -0.07% said that its Pierina gold mine in Peru may operate until 2018. Minera Barrick Misquichilca SA, the company’s Peruvian unit, told the Peruvian securities regulatory agency on Wednesday

Alaska's Pebble deposit presents big problems for Northern Dynasty, the junior Canadian miner that wants to cash out of its sole asset. Pebble has an eye-popping recoverable resource of 67 million ounces of gold and 55 billion pounds copper with some molybdenum thrown in for good measure which at today's prices is worth over $300 billion in total. The Vancouver company shares the venture with Anglo-American but the $4.7 billion development costs could be too rich even for the London-listed giant's blood. Apart from the problem of finding a heavyweight buyer for its 50%, Dynasty also faces opposition from a $150 million a year salmon fishery near the site and local environmental protesters who have enlisted the support of Hollywood celebrities like Robert Redford.

Gold demand, which dropped in the second quarter of this year, is expected to strengthen by the end of 2011, driven by robust jewelry buying in India and China and recovery in investment demand, senior World Gold Council (WGC) officials said.

Gold slid on Friday, closing its worst week since June, as profit-taking by investors and a spike in the U.S. dollar outweighed the desire for a safer haven. Gold tumbled in early U.S. hours on apparent investor liquidation, but clawed back much of its loss by mid-afternoon as the resignation of European Central Bank policymaker Juergen Stark reignited aversion to riskier assets. But even as US stocks fell nearly 3 percent and other commodities tumbled, gold came under renewed pressure as two weeks of extreme volatility for bullion rattled some confidence in its bull run -- despite the prospect of a second recession.

Bitcoin, a new and private form of currency exchange, got some attention from Paul Krugman in a column who drew parallels between it and gold, finding that both markets are susceptible to underlying problems of "money-hoarding, deflation, and depression." BitCoin, which is well-examined in an article by James Surkowieki, is an alternative form of currency exchange.

Shares of Primero Minerals (TSX:P) crashed 13% Thursday after a month-long strike and lower-than-anticipated gold grades at its San Dimas silver/gold mine in Mexico forced it to revise its 2011 guidance. The Toronto-based company said it will produce 80-85,000 ounces of gold this year compared to the previous estimate of 90-100,000 ounces. The silver production target remains unchanged at 4.5 to 5 million ounces of silver.