Gold

Net losses came in at a shade under $10.5 million for the year which as mainly due to what the company termed "administrative costs" that totaled $15.2 million (it was only $800,000 in 2010) in relation to the merger with Century Mining. In the process management's remuneration jumped to $3.9 million from $422,000 the year before.

The source of the surge in mining investment has been quite diverse, reflecting the widespread advance in prices. For 2012, gold leads the way with $3.6 billion of capital spending. But not far behind are copper-nickel-zinc mines at $3 billion, potash at $2.9 billion and iron ore at $2.7 billion as the Labrador Trough is developed.

Indian imports may have tanked over 80% in March and could drop 40% in the second quarter after gold traders and jewelers went on a three week strike over taxes.

June gold contracts ended the holiday shortened week at $1,632 an ounce, but the end of Indian strike and disappointing news out on Friday – a day the markets were closed and could not react – about job growth in the US should provide stimulus for renewed interest in the yellow metal.

The price of gold averaged $1,571 an ounce in 2011 meaning the South East Asian country missed out on $1,7 billion in potential revenue.

Reality show producers, who have made shows about ice road trucking and underground coal mining in Virginia and underwater gold miners that work the waters off Nome, Alaska are now turning their attention to one of mining’s last frontiers.

"We store significant amounts of commodities, for instance silver, on behalf of customers. We operate vaults in New York City, in Singapore and in London. Often when customers have that metal stored in our facilities they hedge it on a forward basis through JPMorgan, which in turn hedges in the commodities market," said Blythe Masters.

Felix Salmon, uber-blogger and columnist at Reuters, takes on the Economist's Matthew Bishop, author of In Gold We Trust?, on gold's value versus currencies, bonds and stocks.

"Resources groups and the bankers who promote them merit close scrutiny since minerals have been linked in the past with financial scandals and market manipulation, from the nickel bubble that captivated the City in the 1960s and ended in the Poseidon crash, to the Hunt brothers’ cornering of the silver market in 1980."