December gold futures traded at a record $1,633 on Friday morning before pulling back to the $1,625 level by early afternoon lifted by 11th hour political wrangling about the US debt plan, news that Great Recession in that country was deeper than previously thought and the Euro debt crisis spreading to Spain. Silver tracked gold with September contracts adding 48 cents, or 1.2%, to trade at $40.28 an ounce early on before slipping back to below $40 by early afternoon. The S&P 500 was poised to drop for a third straight month, the longest slump since 2008.

The United States Congress still can't pass legislation to raise the nation's debt ceiling, but a Yale Law professor suggests that President Obama could sidestep lawmakers and ensure that bills keep getting paid by minting platinum coins—about $2 trillion worth. Writing for CNN, law professor Jack Balkin outlines three ways that President Obama could keep paying the bills while congress dithers.

Investors rewarded Centerra Gold on Friday after the company reported it more than doubled net profits at $71.1 million on revenues of $243.8 million, up over 60% compared to the same quarter last year and announced a special and annual dividend payment of $99.3 million. Centerra Gold, which owns gold properties in Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia and has earn-in agreements in Nevada and Turkey, added 1% by midday Friday and was one of the few gainers among precious metals miners. Sector heavyweights Goldcorp and Kinross lost over 1.5% while Barrick was also trading weaker despite a rampant gold price.

Iron ore miner Vale announced plans to invest more than USD 6 billion in expanding its port, railway and potash production capacity to keep up with booming demand for raw materials in Brazil such as fertilizer, sugar and grains.

Arch Coal Inc.'s (ACI: News ) second-quarter net income plummeted to $11.1 million or $0.06 per share from $66.2 million or $0.41 per share a year earlier. Excluding charges, adjusted net income for the second quarter of 2011 was $78 million, or $0.44 per share, the company said. On average, 22 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings per share of $0.60 for the quarter.

Anglo American, one of the world's largest miners, today reported strong first half growth with operating profit ahead 40% to $6bn. Chief Executive Cynthia Carroll said that investments made during the downturn would stand them in good stead in the near-term future. "We believe that the fundamentals for the mining industry are very, very strong, and therefore the longer-term outlook is extremely positive." Image by shizhao

Sixteen miners died and another 10 were missing after a nighttime explosion in a coal mine in the Lugansk region in eastern Ukraine, the emergencies ministry said on Friday. As a result of the early Friday accident, two more workers received burn injuries and were hospitalized, the ministry said in a statement.

The world's biggest mining company will expand its manganese operation at Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory.BHP Billiton announced the $254 million expansion of the GEMCO mine in a statement this morning. The company says this expansion will increase production from 4.2 to 4.8 million tonnes of ore a year.

NMDC Ltd, India's largest iron ore producer and exporter in the public sector, said on Thursday it plans to open a new iron ore mine in Chhattisgarh.