Despite the high unemployment rate in the United States, Catepillar's CEO says there is a desparate shortage of skilled workers, and many job vacancies are going unfilled in some of the most depressed regions of the country. "I talked to one of our great customers in Detroit. I spent some time with our distributors. They have 50 job openings today that they cannot fill, and guess what they are. They are service technician jobs," says Doug Oberhelman, chairman and CEO of Caterpillar. He was interviewed by CNBC on Friday.

Almost all major London-based bullion-dealing banks have started charging more for storing Gold in view of the increased demand and shortage of vault space, according to Financial Times.

For gold sellers on eBay, the recent stock market turmoil has been a boon for business. Gold and silver sales on eBay had already been rising steadily over the past several years – so much so that eBay Inc. created a special area in May to make it easier for buyers to find sellers.

The Ivory Coast’s gold production capacity will almost double to 13t a year by 2013, from its current annual output of 7t, according to the country’s energy and mines minister Adama Toungara. “We will be able to reach 13tpa by 2013 and 20tpa by

When it comes to turmoil in the global economy, the world’s pain could prove Denver’s gain. Gold prices have soared in recent weeks, reflecting the precious metal’s status as a hedge against financial turmoil. “Denver is ground zero for mining in the United States in terms of the capital that is concentrated here and the skills here,” said Tim Wood, executive director of the Denver Gold Group. Image from Wikipedia

Hiroko Kumagai will never forget the day in 1998 when she first stepped inside the red-brick building at the entrance to the closed and shuttered Miyahara shaft in the Miike coal mine. Image from YouTube

The FrumForum teased out an interesting factoid after Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney filed his financial disclosure report: he and his wife Ann own a significant amount of gold. Out of a personal wealth of $190 and $250 million, the couple own between $250,000 and $500,000 in gold. Given his personal wealth, however, that may be considered light. Some financial experts suggest that a minimum of 5% of an individual's wealth should go to gold as an insurance policy. In that case, the couple are about $2 million short.

Christina Romer, former economic advisor to Obama, says that the gold standard was not as great as we imagine it, and it didn't provide economic sability. "As we know in the 1930s gold flows were a big part of what was causing countries to raise interest rates in the middle of a Great Depression for heaven's sakes," said Romer in an interview with the New York Times on Friday. Romer says that unanticipated gold flows that filled the U.S. treasuries at the start of World War II allowed the country to shake off the depression, and says that monetary policy is an unappreciated policy tool that helped the U.S. restart the economy.

The number of deaths caused by coal mine gas explosions in China declined sharply during the first half of this year, coal mine safety authorities said. A total of 245 people died in 62 gas explosions that occurred between January and June this year, a year-on-year reduction of 31.2 and 25.3 percent respectively, the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety said.