Gold futures on the COMEX traded above $1,800/oz on Thursday as bad economic news continues to mount and market sentiment turns. On Thursday, the S&P/TSX Composite index fell nearly three percent. The S&P/ASX 200 was off 3.51%. Markets worry that Europe could pull the world economy down due to a spreading euro-zone fiscal crisis.

The world Zinc surplus for the first half of 2011 has increased by 8% compared to the entire 2010, with the Chinese inventories at historically highest levels reported the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS)

The South Korean market led the way for hefty stock losses in Asia Friday, as risk appetite evaporated on a fresh wave of concerns about global growth, with shipbuilders, exporters and financials among the hardest hit.

While Venezuela President Hugo Chavez may have little to gain from seizing the half he did not already own of the only private gold miner left in the country, bringing home the 211 tonnes of gold reserves, worth $12.3 billion, held overseas, is a different story altogether. CTV news reports bullion traders are preparing for one of the largest transfers of physical gold in recent history – about 17,000 standard 400-ounce bars – from Europe back to the South American state. While billions of dollars worth of gold is traded every day, only a tiny proportion of it moves from vaults in London, New York and Zurich.

Bloomberg reports prices in the $150 billion fertilizer market are lagging behind gains in food costs, providing farmers another incentive to boost production and leaving a gap for potash producers to further increase prices which have already surged 29% this year. Potash is 36% cheaper than in June 2008 when corn rose to a record, according to data from ICIS, a commodity-pricing company. In contrast food prices gained 4.3% over the same period, an index of the United Nations shows.

Mining Review reports Newcrest Mining CEO Greg Robinson told reporters on Friday it would acquire Harmony Gold Mining’s 50% stake in their massive Wafi-Golpu joint venture in Papua New Guinea if it was for sale. Last month Harmony Gold upgraded the resource estimate for Wafi-Golpu increasing it by 57% to over 1 billion metric tons, making it one of the highest grade copper-gold porphyry systems on the planet. Rumours about a possible sale by Harmony have been swirling for months and estimates of the value of the mine forecast to start production only in 2017 have bounced up and down with one investment bank pegging it at $9.9 billion.

Great Panther escaped the mayhem on the markets and ended Thursday up 3.6% on the TSX after announcing it shipped 100 tonnes of silver-gold pyrite concentrates from its Guanajuato operation to a new buyer in Mexico. Last week the company disappointed the markets with quarterly results that showed a drop in revenues due to the shipping delays and lower silver production as a result of falling grades. The volatile stock is down almost a quarter over the last month.

One year ago, the board of directors of Potash Corp of Saskatchewan announced they had received and rejected a $38.6 billion hostile bid from BHP Billiton. The Globe and Mail argues the deal had a profound impact on the country and is best remembered by the confusion it revealed around the Investment Canada Act. And while the federal government's blocking of the deal certainly hurt the reputation of BHP Billiton and its CEO Marius Kloppers, the miner is now accelerating development of its massive Jansen potash project in the province, one of $13 billion worth of approved projects at the resource giant.

Gold futures hit a record high of $1,829/oz on Thursday while global stock markets suffered one of the bloodiest days of an already disastrous month with banks and miners bearing the brunt. The losses came after renewed fears about Europe's debt crisis and more bad news about the US economy. In the flight to safe havens, gold and silver were the only gainers. The value of the precious metal is up sevenfold from its August 1999 low of $251/oz shortly before global central banks started limiting bullion sales. Many observers believe that decision was the turning point for gold although it would take almost another decade before breaching the $1,000/oz level.