Gold

The stock hit a high of $50 in May 2008 and came close again in April 2011, but at $170 billion, the Melbourne-based company is now valued at some $80 billion less that at its peak.

"The cult of equity may be dying, but the cult of inflation may only have just begun."

The company is sticking to plans to spend $680 million this year including ramping up production at its Noche Buena mine. The firm has five operating mines and this year forecasts 41 million ounces of silver produced and 460,000 ounces of gold.

Barrick announced last week  a 50-60% cost blow-out for the copper-gold-silver  project straddling the Chile–Argentina border which could end up with a final bill of as much as $8 billion with $3 billion already spent.

Business Insider has the story about Greenland and global warming, which is peeling back thick ice and uncovering vast mineral wealth.

Natural Resources Holdings produced a terrific report—which lists the world's top 50 producing mine and undeveloped deposits—that warns there is a paucity of exploitable gold in the coming years.

This week we have meetings involving the ECB and the Federal Reserve followed by the job numbers on Friday. These meetings, summits, announcements have an effect on the investment community in that investment funds tend to stay on the sidelines until the direction of the markets becomes clear.

US Silver's (TSX-V:USA) board of directors has spurned an unsolicited all-cash take-over bid from Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) and unanimously recommended that shareholders reject the offer by instead voting for the combination of US Silver with RX Gold (TSX-V:RXE).

Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM) is the one Australian mining major exposed to the greatest level of country risk with 63% of its assets situated in nation-states categorized as 'very high-risk' by analysts.