Silver

Swiss mining giant Xstrata Zinc has begun construction on its A$246 million Lady Loretta zinc, lead and silver underground mine. The mine, located in 140 kilometres north Xstrata’s Mount Isa operations in Queensland, has been scheduled to be in production by the end of 2013.

Despite a flurry of mergers and acquisitions and a robust IPO market reports out on Wednesday suggest that fear is slowly replacing greed in the mining finance business. The Financial Post reports for investment bankers, the low-hanging fruit is long gone and the biggest financings are now high-risk: gold juniors in Africa, coal in Colombia and an infamous Quebec lithium play that overstated its resource. Global Mining Finance's July round-up says untrustworthy financial and resource reporting, threats of new royalty regimes, "super-profit" and carbon taxes, political turmoil, strikes and government takeovers are worrying resource investors all around the world.

Gold is sidelining platinum and palladium and could hit $1 800/oz by Christmas, says UBS bullion bank precious metals strategist Dr Edel Tully, who describes the present as “an extremely exciting time” to be in precious metals. Tully expects gold to be in deficit in 2011 as a result of only moderate mine-supply growth, a lower level of recycling than in 2009 and the steady buying of gold by central banks.

Gold bullion prices set a new intraday record of $1,625 per ounce in Wednesday's Asian trade – 1.5% up on Friday's close – before easing back slightly after London opened. Stocks and commodities fell but US Treasury bonds were up, as the US Congress had to postpone a vote on the $14.2 trillion debt ceiling. Image of Johh Boehner, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

While commodities ETFs - led by precious metals funds like the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) and the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) - are hot, currency ETFs are even hotter. Flows into 38 U.S.-listed currency ETFs this year stood at $2.2 billion through last week, according to a new review of fund flows by ConvergEx Group.

Jayden Resources Inc., ("Jayden" or "the Company") (TSX:JDN) is pleased to announce assay results from the first 17 holes received from its planned 100 hole - 15,000 meter drilling program at Silver Coin. The drilling program is composed of approximately 80% infill and close offset holes, and 20% exploration holes outside of the current resource. The primary goal of the program is to upgrade the existing inferred resource to the measured and indicated categories. Drilling began in mid-May at the south end of the resource area and has been progressing to the north.

The tide of deaths of infants and young children from an outbreak of lead poisoning in Zamfara State, in North West Nigeria did not come like a thief in the night. The stage had been set for the tragic incident several years earlier. Increasing activities of illegal miners and improper processing of lead-contaminated gold ore within households in the community, were largely responsible for the high death toll. Image of an artisinal miner holding wolframite is from Julien Harneis. 

The race to mine the seafloor took another step forward today. Diamond Fields International said it has completed the world's first NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate for its Atlantis II sea-floor deposit, located about 115 kilometres from Jeddah in the Red Sea. DFI has been exploring the deposit with joint venture partner Manafa International.

Comex gold and silver futures prices closed the day session higher Monday, with August gold powering to another new all-time record high of $1,624.30 an ounce. The precious metal was lifted by the breakdown in debt talks in the US over the weekend and news that ratings agency Moody's has downgraded Greece's debt again saying default is now almost a certainty. December Comex silver also traded up $40.44 after hitting a new 11-week high early on Monday. The gold:silver ratio – the number of ounces of silver needed to buy an ounce of gold: eased back below 40.