Fresnillo silver, gold output jump on San Julian ramp up, higher ores

South Africa’s gold production fell 6.4 percent in 2010, an industry body said on Monday, moving the country further away from its […]

Eurasian Minerals Inc. (TSX-V: EMX) announced the completion of the second tranche of its CAD $17.875 million private placement by the sale of 921,000 units for proceeds of CAD $2,993,250. Each unit, priced at CAD $3.25, consisted of one common share and one-half of one common share purchase warrant. Each full warrant entitles the warrant holder to purchase one additional common share of EMX until March 14, 2013 at a purchase price of CAD $4.00.

Gold futures rose for the second straight session as Japan’s strongest earthquake on record boosted demand for a haven asset, reports Bloomberg. Palladium fell for an eighth straight session, the longest slump since July 2008. Equities declined worldwide as officials said the death toll from the earthquake and tsunami may top 10,000. Technicians tried to contain damage from a second explosion at a nuclear plant north of Tokyo.

As the country still reels from the devastation of a massive earthquake and tsunami, we provide a brief view of where Japan […]

Canadian gold miner White Tiger Gold Inc. has offered 0.40 of its share for each Century Mining share. The offer values Century at about C$1.82 a share -- more than three times the stock's Friday closing, according to Reuters: White Tiger's operations are mainly in Russia, including the Savkino and the Nasedkino project, while Century Mining's primary asset is the Lamaque gold mine in Quebec. The boards of both companies support the deal and White Tiger shareholders will own about 39 percent of the company.

Are we headed for a major stock market downturn? If so what could be the effect on gold and silver? The portents are there for problems ahead short term, but probably are positive for gold at least longer term. The global political situation, with unrest still simmering in the Midde East and the fighting in Libya, will have a continuing impact and even the slight dissent seen so far in Saudi Arabia's oil producing area does raise some serious warning flags.

Investors banking on an across-the-board rise in commodity prices this year are setting themselves up for a fall and they should instead be actively managing for winners, Investec Asset Management said. After several years of commodity prices moving largely as one, Investec's co-chief investment officer Mimi Ferrini looks favourably on active strategies that are bullish on natural gas and crude oil, while playing the interaction between the asset class and related equities, like gold mining companies.

The most active gold contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, February 2012 , inched up after an earthquake of magnitute 8.8 struck the north coast of Japan, while the rubber contract for August 2011 barely moved, dealers said on Friday.

The gold:silver ratio, which describes silver's buying power by dividing the per-ounce price of gold by that of silver, has averaged 60:1 over the past 35 years, meaning it's taken 60 ounces of silver to purchase one ounce of gold. Though with silver's most recent push to the $36/oz level, it now takes much less.