Gold

Gold futures surged as much as $45 in Tokyo trade on Monday to a record $1,697.70 an ounce on demand for an investment haven. The dollar slumped following Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the US long-term credit rating from AAA. Gold futures for December delivery was trading at $1,687, up $36 or 2,17% at 8:30 am Tokyo local time in electronic trading after reaching the all time high.

Dow Jones reports resource nationalism is the top business risk for the top 30 global miners, while supply capacity constraints ranging from skills shortage to infrastructure bottlenecks continue to dominate the top ten list, according to an annual survey by consultants Ernst & Young. Resource nationalism jumped to the top of the list this year from fourth in 2010 after 25 countries announced their intentions to increase their take of the mining industry's profits and others contemplate outright nationalization. Fraud, bribery and corruption sneaked onto the list of top concerns for the first time as a number of countries introduce or tighten rules for executives operating in countries that rank high on corruption indices.

Newmont Nusa Tenggara, a unit of US miner Newmont Mining Corp , said on Sunday there had been no significant impact on production from several days of protests at its Indonesian copper and gold mine. Local authorities have dispersed the protesters who since Aug. 2 had been blocking access and disrupting operations at the Batu Hijau copper and gold mine in the island of West Sumbawa. Newmont also plans to review its job application process, which had been the focus of the protests. Batu Hijau aims to produce around 275 million pounds of copper and 275,000 ounces of gold in 2011.

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.

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.

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (ANG), which owns the world’s deepest mine, will within two years trial new mining methods in South Africa to access almost $118 billion worth of gold lying more than three miles underground as it expects gold prices to keep rising from this year’s record. The world’s third-largest gold producer wants to gain access to an estimated 70 million ounces of gold more than 3.1 miles below the surface to extend the lives of its South African mines. The metal is worth $117.6 billion at current prices.

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.

Newcrest Mining suspended work at its Gosowong gold mine in Indonesia on Thursday after it said nine people, mostly mine workers or contractors, were killed when a helicopter crashed en route to the mine.

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" .