Gold

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" .

Investors who were nervous about the looming debt ceiling showdown poured $3.5 billion in July into exchange-traded funds that own gold, according to fund tracking website IndexUniverse.com. The biggest gold ETF, the $65 billion SPDR Gold Trust managed by State Street, added $2.9 billion of net inflow, IndexUniverse said in its monthly report. BlackRock's $8 billion iShares Gold Trust took in $632 million.

Speaking at the Diggers & Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie Australia, Robert Friedland, executive chairman of Ivanhoe mines made big claims for the new mine his company is constructing in Mongolia together with major shareholder Rio Tinto. Oyu Tolgoi is now one third complete and according to Friedland would have a life of more than a century. The mine is on track to produce more than 1.2 billion pounds of copper and 650,000 ounces of gold each year. Oyu Tolgoi will also help turn Mongolia into the world's fastest-growing economy with staggering GDP growth of 35%. Just to make sure no-one has any misconceptions of the grand scale of the project Friedland boasted that Oyu Tolgoi has 14,200 builders, easily overshadowing the largest construction project in the US, the new World Trade Center with only 2,300. And just to top things off he said Ivanhoe is worth at least double the $15.6 billion valuation the market is affording it at the moment.

Reuters reports central banks of emerging market countries such as Korea and Thailand have added more than $10 billion of gold to their reserves this year in a sign of waning faith in the West's benchmark bonds and currencies like the dollar and the euro. International Monetary Fund data for June on Wednesday showed Thailand bought gold for the second time this year, raising its reserves by nearly 19 tonnes to over 127 tonnes, while Russia bought another 5.85 tonnes, bringing its reserves to 836.7 tonnes, the world's eighth largest official stash of the metal.

December gold futures traded at another record high hitting $1,664.50 in after hours trade on Tuesday on news that US consumers spent less in June, the first decline in more than two years. On top of that personal incomes gained only slightly and most consumers were using that money to pay off debt. Some 70% of the US economy is reliant on consumer spending therefore any belt-tightening has ripple effects across the globe. The Dow Jones blue-chip index ended down more than 2% or 266 points extending its losing streak into an eighth day – the worst performance since October 2008.

Silver Falcon Mining announced on Tuesday it had cast 17 troy ounces at War Eagle Mountain, making it the first report of precious metal smelting in over 100 years at the historic Idaho site. Stock in the tiny company rose as much as 24% on triple the usual volumes on the news bringing its gains for the year to over 72%. Silver Falcon said it will now switch focus from processing the old tailings and commence with exploration activities now that weather inaccessibility is no longer a problem.

Suriname's only commercial gold mine, the Rosebel Gold Mine which is majority owned by Canada's Iamgold, has been shut down by a strike by 1,100 workers protesting new longer shift hours. Rosebel is located some 118 kilometers south of Paramaribo (pictured), the capital of the South American nation. The mine produced 395,000 ounces in 2010 at cash cost of $484 per ounce. While Rosebel is the country's only commercially operated mine, there are believed to be thousands of small scale miners operating in the tiny, impoverished country.

A strike in South Africa's gold mining sector ended on Tuesday after a 2-year wage deal was clinched, unions and the Chamber of Mines said. The strike at AngloGold Ashanti , Gold Fields and Harmony began last Thursday and halted output worth up to $25 million a day at bullion's current record prices. About 100,000 gold mine workers will to return to work, starting with the Tuesday night shift. The companies' share prices extended gains on the news as gold scaled new highs over $1,635.00 an ounce on growing concerns about Europe's debt woes and anaemic U.S. growth data.

Mexico massively ramped up its gold reserves in the first quarter of this year, buying over $4 billion of bullion as emerging economies move away from the ailing U.S. dollar, which has dipped to 2-1/2-year lows.