Cutting some hefty gold intercepts, Revolution Resources is following in the footsteps of Romarco Minerals and its multi-million ounce Haile gold mine in the Carolina Slate Belt. Image by Revolution Resources

Osisko Mining (TSX: OSK) poured its first gold at the Canadian Malartic open-pit gold mine in Quebec on Wednesday, April 13, 2011. The act ushered in not only one of Canada's newest miners, but one of its largest, with production at Malartic planned to hit 600,000 ounces gold a year, over a 12-year mine life.

Reuters reports: Canadian gold miner Northgate Minerals Corp expects production at its Young-Davidson mine in Northern Ontario to start in late first quarter of 2012.

A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of the Big Daddy chromite deposit in northern Ontario is recommending that the project advance to the feasibility stage. The PEA was commissioned by Montreal-based KWG Resources, which owns a 28% interest and a 1% net smelter royalty (NSR) in the deposit, located in the remote James Bay lowlands of northern Ontario. The company also has NSRs on the adjacent Black Thor and Black Label chromite deposits, and has the option to increase its interest in Big Daddy to 30%.

Professor Fathi Habashi, EduMine author and Professor Emeritus at Laval University, is bringing back interest in extractive metallurgy with his Comprehensive Extractive Metallurgical Workshop - "an important international learning platform where the latest advances in the field are shared amongst the participants both formally and informally."

GFMS says that investment demand will continue to drive gold higher, and analysts at the firm would not be surprised to see gold break through $1,600 before the end of the year. The findings were published in GFMS's Gold Survey 2011 that were released today. "Investors continue to be concerned about the outlook for inflation, with governments in general showing little appetite to tighten monetary policy significantly," says Philip Klapwijk, chairman at GFMS, in a news release.

Each year, Dr Murenbeeld chooses this event to present his views and forecasts for gold for the year ahead, and over the years he has proved to be one of the most accurate forecasters out there - but with three scenarios - cautious, middle and optimistic - he usually comes close with one or more of these - but he does give weighted likelihoods for each of his prediction scenarios.

Aquarius Platinum (AQP.L: Quote), the world's fourth-largest primary platinum producer, said it would buy 74 percent of Afarak Platinum for $109.7 million to build up its reserves of the precious metal and cash in on rising prices. Spot platinum prices XPT= gained over 20 percent in 2010 and are expected to continue rising this year as risk aversion and low interest rates boost their allure.

An organisation operating out of Dillon in Nevada has been formed as "Jewelers for Japan" to raise funds for the thousands of victims in Japan and it is asking jewelers and consumers to donate scrap gold and silver jewellery in lieu of cash. The refiner Rio Grande in Albuquerque, New Mexico will refine the gold and silver scrap without a fee with all proceeds going directly to the American Red Cross.