Eldorado Gold (EGO) recently completed its purchase of European Goldfields creating a mid-major gold stock focused on the Romania/Greece/Turkey region with production for 2012 expected to be in the range of 730,000 to 775,000 ounces and a goal of 1.5 million ounces by 2015 and 1.7 million ounces by 2016.

The purchase of European Goldfields added a number of development projects and one producing mine to the roster. The three medium sized, low cost projects, Olympias, Skouries and Certej, are expected to be contributing to production in the next three years. Of the three, Olympias, holds the most potential with potential production from the reprocessing of tailings and additional drilling to raise estimates.

The Olympias project in Greece received approval for the Technical Study on March 22nd moving the project forward providing an example of the Greek government moving forward with projects despite the extreme circumstances. Mining and reprocessing of

According to a recent document published by the Silver Institute (pdf), industrial demand for silver is falling. The table below, taken from the Silver Institute's publication, tells the story.

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So what does this mean for silver prices, silver stocks (SIL) and silver ETFs like SLV and PSLV? Well, the table does show that monetary demand (listed as "coins and medals") is rising, and that this is offsetting the decline in industrial demand. But, as I've noted before, silver is inferior to gold as a monetary asset. Which begs the question: Is the increase in monetary demand in silver justified and sustainable?

In the United States, the state of Utah has taken the step of re-monetizing gold AND silver. Will other states, and more importantly other countries and supranational economic zones, follow? I'm a bit skeptical. If someone somewhere returns to a commodity-backed currency, I believe gold and

Diamonds are not the first thing to enter our minds when we think about India. India is a land of extreme inequality and abject economic conditions. Much of the misery that Indian people encounter is because of an inherent feudal mentality that is based on unquestioning acceptance of hierarchical roles. The top-down culture of India has affected its economy and has stalled its growth even after several decades of working towards prosperity and advancement. India liberalized its economy only at the beginning of the 1990s and invited foreign corporations to set up shop in the rural regions of the nation.

For instance, mining corporations, gas companies and Coca-Cola (KO) were some of the first ones to arrive. They set up plants and factories that helped many Indians to gain employment that they could only dream of. The multinational companies had to employ local populations in order to expand their businesses

By Edmund Moy and Michael Stojsavljevich

Gold prices have grown in value from the $400 level to over $1900 in the span of 10 years. But since last September, gold has been sliding downward and has been in a holding pattern around $1600 since about October of 2011. What is causing the holding pattern, how long will it last, and once it ends, will gold go up or down?

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Gold Prices Correlate with Fiscal Burden

When trying to forecast the price of gold, the most common methods are to correlate gold to either commodities or fiscal and monetary indicators.

Most commodities like gold and oil correlate well for short periods of time so many assume that oil prices are a good indicator for where gold prices will go. But gold has additional attributes that most commodities do not have: it is a luxury good as jewelry,

Gold's London AM fix yesterday morning was USD 1,590.25, EUR 1,245.20, and GBP 1,005.34 per ounce.

Friday's AM fix was USD 1,588.00, EUR 1,251.08 and GBP 1,005.13 per ounce.

Gold rose $17.70 or 1.12% in New York on Friday and closed at $1,591.40/oz. Gold has been trading up and down in Asia within a narrow 8 point range and is now trading in Europe near $1,592.16 at 1150 GMT. The Canadian markets were closed yesterday for Victoria Day.

9-11 Silver Medal produced at US Mint next to Military Academy at WestPoint, NY.

Gold edged up in line with the euro as G8 leaders pledged to keep Greece in the eurozone.

Investors remain cautious as the world leaders had no specific plan declared for Greece

When it comes to gold, everyone seems to have his or her favorite way to be long. From the miners, ETFs, futures, and equity options, to physical bars, American Eagle bullion, and numismatic coins, there is certainly no shortage of ways to have exposure to the direction of gold prices.

I would like to present a different way to have exposure to gold prices using a strategy that involves being long both deep in-the-money calls on your favorite physical gold ETF (GLD and IAU are two popular examples) as well as being long the senior bonds of a large, well-established gold miner.

Let me explain the strategy by addressing each portion of it individually:

Buying deep in-the-money calls on an ETF that tracks the price of physical gold is one way to leverage up your exposure from the long side. For example, at its recent close of $154.65, 300 shares

A prior article outlined broad problems facing the NEA (near-earth asteroid) mining business concept in order to balance the media attention afforded to Planetary Resources, an NEA venture in the limelight. Pitches from scientists and NEA ventures imply that payloads of platinum-group metals brought to earth would dramatically shock the precious metals markets. On the contrary, there are a myriad of reasons why this space "gold rush" will not have a significant impact on the economics of mining in the near future.

This article will question the validity of NEA mining's key assumption that we know the composition of NEAs, which represent a more plentiful supply of platinum group metals than prospects that can be found on earth. This misconception is based on extrapolation and dubious assumptions, rather than empirical evidence. In truth, we do not know enough about these bodies to say that several would make excellent mining prospects.

When you cross the border into Namibia, your first stop would probably be Fish River Canyon. It is the world's second largest canyon (the largest, of course, is the Grand Canyon). The arid and stark beauty of the canyon leaves the occasional traveler mesmerized and confused as it doesn't look anything like the Southern Africa that most of us imagine. To add to this surprise, as one drives through the desert and passes sand dunes that never seem to end, one encounters Swakopmund, a small German colonial town nestled on the Atlantic coast of Namibia.

Its tree-lined avenues, German architecture, impeccably maintained streets, and excellent cafes and bars leave you wondering if you are in a German town or in a corner of Africa. The city's historic area houses extremely well-preserved buildings that not only reveal a colonial history, but also the Namibian government's approach toward safeguarding its monuments, architecture,

Many of us in the gold bug community who have been holding on to our bullion and select stocks for at least several years now have been doing so in anticipation of a mania. I elaborated on this concept in my previous post entitled, "Why The Current Bull Market In Gold Is Bigger Than The One In The 1970s."

For those who accept this premise, the only remaining issue is one of timing: how long do we have to sit around waiting before the fun begins? To answer this question, I believe it is worth looking at two points:

1. The market for global sovereign debt. An article I frequently cite is this Bloomberg column which notes that nation-state governments face $7.6 trillion in maturing debt this year. With nearly half the year over, the

Gold has developed many diehard supporters over the past 10 or 12 years, due in large part to GLD and the other ETFs and funds that made it easy make gold a part of your portfolio. In fact, there has been an explosion in gold funds after State Street introduced GLD. According to the Investment Company Institute's 2012 fact book, money going into commodity ETFs grew from $1 billion in 2001 to over $109 billion in 2011, and it has been going up from there. People buy gold for a few reasons. Most people I talk to think of it as an alternative currency, the ultimate hard currency, to hedge exposure to all fiat currencies, especially now that euros, dollars and yen all look increasing weak. People have used gold as a currency for thousands of years and despite the attempts of alchemists shysters to debase it, gold has proven

Who are the "players" in the gold market? Well, each week the U.S. CFTC releases figures for futures contracts traded in the U.S. and regulated by this government watchdog. The reports are released each Friday at 4 p.m. EST and provide a snapshot of the market's composition as of the close the previous Tuesday.

Categories are reported as follows:

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The CFTC reports how much in each category is long, short or spreading. For my analysis of the gold market I took the net percentage reported in each category. I find this more meaningful then saying, "X is net long 10,000 contracts," since the open interest of futures contracts changes over time. As an example, if hedgers were 10% long and 25% short, then I would report the net being at negative 15%. Here is a chart from June 2006 to last week showing the net positions of

Unfortunately my forex trading has suffered a bit of late, most notably because I've been short the U.S. dollar. Because the U.S. continues to run both a budget deficit (federal government spends more than it takes in, thus adding to the national debt) and a trade deficit (imports greater than exports), I think the U.S. dollar will continue to fall in value, as it has been doing steadily for the past 11 years. However, in the short-term, I'm starting to think we may be in for some dollar strength.

The chart below of the U.S. dollar/Canadian dollar exchange rate is the first exhibit supporting this thesis. I was expecting a break below the bottom of the green range. Instead, we broke out to the upside. Do we have even more room to the upside?

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Of course, the situation in Europe, Japan and Britain are all characterized by

The World Gold Council released the Gold Demand Trends report for the 1st quarter 2012 Thursday and it continues to show increasing supply and decreasing basic demand. More importantly, gold may have just had what I'll call a reverse Hotelling Moment when investor confidence that gold will continue to go higher is shattered. I'll go over the details below and you can decide.

The chart below highlights the decreasing annual demand for gold in everything except investment (or speculation, your choice). Gold price appreciation flattened out from the end of 2011 to the 1st quarter 2012 but jewelry and technology use continued to drop.

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I've left central bank (AKA Official Sector) sales and purchasing off the above chart as the wild swings from selling to buying distort what the private market is doing. The World Gold Council has finally recognized that central bank purchases and sales are

Gold's London AM fix this morning was USD 1,588.00, EUR 1,251.08, and GBP 1,005.13 per ounce.
Yesterday's AM fix was USD 1,547.00, EUR 1,217.44and GBP 974.00 per ounce.

Gold climbed $34.30 or 2.23% in New York yesterday and closed at $1,573.70/oz. Gold began trading sideways in Asia then climbed over 12 points reaching a high of $1,589.31. Gold edged off a bit in Europe and is now trading near the $1,587/oz level at 1055GMT.

Gold rose for its 2nd day on concerns that Europe's debt crisis is growing and the yellow metal is once again seeing increased demand as a safe haven asset.

Fitch's downgrade of Greece's credit rating sent the euro to a 4 month low against the dollar and investors wonder if Greece will be able to continue in the EU fiscal union. The gold price jumped over $30 yesterday its most since January, and news from a

Last week gold and silver changed direction from a downward trend to a sudden steep increase on Thursday and Friday. Could this mean there is some fundamental shift in the bullion market that warrants such a shift? The main noteworthy news that might have affected metals was the tumble in the Philly Fed Index and the minutes of the recent FOMC meeting. I suspect these two items may have rekindled the old question "will there be another QE program in the near future?"

This upcoming week there are items on the agenda that may affect the bullion. The main publications will revolve around the U.S core durable goods, China's manufacturing PMI, U.S new and existing home sales Japan's trade balance, and Germany's business climate. Of course, the ongoing political developments in Greece and the economic slowdown in Spain may also keep the news cycle busy.

During last week gold rose

Gold and silver have languished since reaching their last peaks in 2011. Gold topped out in September and has lost as much as 21% from its peak. Silver topped out a little over a year ago and has lost as much as 50%. Last week, gold and silver reawakened and made sharp reversals. The dollar index's (UUP) recent surge stopped cold on the heels of a weak Philadelphia Federal Reserve Business Outlook (Philly Fed) which showed manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region contracted this month for the first time since September 2011. For both gold and silver, their reversals appeared to create successful tests of recent lows. Here are the various near-term charts using the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) to represent gold and the iShares Silver Trust ETF (SLV) to represent silver. I use weekly charts for GLD and SLV to incorporate a view including their peaks.

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by Evan Pierce

When it comes to markets that move quickly, silver is rivaled only by natural gas for volatility. If you have ever invested in silver, you can relate to the notion that silver and natural gas are the "$1,000 craps tables" of commodity trading.

Because their price action corresponds directly with silver's, companies that mine and trade silver have extremely high risk factors as well. One such company, Silver Wheaton (SLW), is currently trading around $25 per share, well off its 52-week high of $42.50 in spite of a rising stock market. However, as with any industry, if you like the underlying business, it's a good option to invest in the biggest and the best. Silver is solidly positioned for upward price momentum, and Silver Wheaton stands ready to profit.

Company Profile

The strength of Silver Wheaton lies in its ability to finance mining projects with upfront payments