Gold

nnounced today. Under the arrangement, Richfield shareholders will receive 0.9217 of a New Gold share for each Richfield share, valued at $10.38. The offer represents a 31% premium to Richfield's share price as of Friday's market close. The deal has been approved by both company's boards.

Speculators in gold and copper futures and options raised their net long positions in the week ended March 29, while they trimmed bullish bets in the silver market, according to the latest report by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Denver-based Midway Gold is eyeing an additional underground resource at its Midway project in Nye County, Nevada. The company said on Friday that an NI 43101- compliant technical report updates a 2005 resource estimate that envisioned an open-pit mine. That estimate, prepared by Mine Development Associates, calculated an inferred low-grade resource of 5.5 million short tons containing 215,500 ounces of gold, with an average grade of 0.039 oz/ton.

Shareholders of New York-based Capital Gold (TSX:CGC) have approved a merger with TSX-listed Gammon Gold, BIV Business Today is reporting. The approval takes Timmins Gold Corp. out of the picture as a potential buyer of Capital Gold:

Greystar Resources Ltd. (TSX:GSL)(AIM:GSL) reports that diamond drilling continues to encounter significant gold-silver-copper mineralization below and to the south of the oxide/transitional mineral resource on the multi-million ounce Angostura deposit in northeastern Colombia.

Thompson Creek Metals completed a $132 million equipment financing facility with Cat Financial Services Limited. Cat Financial has agreed to underwrite up to $132 million in mobile fleet equipment financing for Thompson Creek’s Mt. Milligan copper-gold mine located in British Columbia.

Newmont Mining is nearing completion of 100% ownership of what it believes will be Nevada’s latest major gold trend-Long Canyon.

Lago Dourado Minerals Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:LDM) (the "Company") announced today that it has signed an agreement with Geomin to acquire a 100% interest in the remaining 16 exploration licenses, previously under option, at its flagship gold project Juruena, in the Mato Grosso state of Brazil. The Company will now hold a 100% interest in the entire project which consists of 25 exploration licenses, covering approximately 70,000 hectares. There is currently one drill rig turning at Juruena with two rigs expected to be added in the coming weeks.

Canada's Kinross Gold (K.TO: Quote) will invest $1.1 billion in Ecuador's Fruta del Norte gold project until 2016 and could begin digging an underground mine next year, a company executive said on Wednesday.