Platinum: 'Little Silver' v. Big Gold
Source: Adrian Ash, BullionVault  (7/27/12)
"Gold's use is ultimately social, having been a thing of beauty, symbol of power, store of value and a means of exchange since the earliest civilizations, while platinum is primarily an industrial metal, which isn't helping platinum versus the gold price one bit right now." More >

Investing in Silver: States Support Move to Metals as Dollar Weakens
Source: Diane Alter, Money Morning  (7/27/12)
"Worries that the U.S. dollar is on the cusp of a collapse have lawmakers from more than a dozen states (up from just three in the past few years) seeking approval from their state governments to either issue their own alternative currency or use gold and silver as a currency for settlement of state-related transactions." More >

Is Gold Ready to Run to All-Time Highs?
Source: David Banister, Market Trend Forecast  (7/26/12)
"I fully expect gold to continue past the $1,900/oz area and run to $2,300/oz or higher in a Wave 5 rally into the summer of 2013." More >

Two Keys to Gold's Next Breakout
Source: Clif Droke, Gold & Silver Stock Report  (7/26/12)
"If history repeats, gold will, by this fall, be poised to benefit from both a relative strength increase as well as a historic long-term 'oversold' signal." More >

London's Olympic Gold Medal Worth the Most in the History of the Games
Source: Forbes, Anthony DeMarco  (7/26/12)
"The 'podium value' of the London gold medal is worth approximately $708, according to the World Gold Council. It is the highest value of any gold medal in the history of the modern games, primarily because of the record high prices for gold and silver." More >

Vertical Integration: The Big Decision for REE Players
Source: REE World Report  (7/26/12)
"For REE miners, life is not so simple as it for those who mine gold, copper, coal or iron ore. You have to go a lot further downstream—but just how far?" More >

Three Steps to Rare Earth Mining Success: Alex Knox
Source: Brian Sylvester of The Critical Metals Report  (7/25/12)
It's a complicated business, but Alex Knox has a simple recipe for successful rare earth mining. In this exclusive interview with The Critical Metals Report, Alex Knox of AWK Geological Consulting discusses some exciting projects with all the right ingredients, as well as a technique that makes processing both profitable and environmentally friendly. More >

How to Find the Next Tenbagger in Peru: Maria Belen Vega and Ricardo Carrion
Source: Alec Gimurtu of The Gold Report   (7/25/12)
In a tough market for junior gold shares over the past three years, Peruvian mining stocks have outperformed the mining indexes. Peru is a booming economy with well-defined mining laws and a vocal mining protest movement that could be playing a constructive role in future development. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Maria Belen Vega and Ricardo Carrión of Kallpa Securities in Lima, Peru, analyze the protest situation and clarify the role of mining as one of the leading sectors of the economy. Junior companies they follow include mine developers, producers and a "pure Peru play" explorer; some of these companies could repeat the outsized performance of the last few years and become tenbaggers. More >

Gold Rallies with Euro
Source: Ben Traynor, BullionVault  (7/25/12)
"Gold prices have tended to rally this year in advance of events such as Fed announcements and Congressional testimony by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, but have subsequently retreated in the absence of explicit signals that more QE would take place." More >

Gold Will Regain Its Safe-Haven Appeal
Source: Lawrence Williams, Mineweb  (7/25/12)
"More and more of the people will stop being fooled by governments and their fiat currencies and move to protect whatever wealth they may have left. And the likely route for this will be by investing in gold." More >

Palladium: Nowhere But Up?
Source: Institutional Investor, Rosalyn Retkwa  (7/25/12)
"Of all the precious metals of interest to investors, palladium may be the one to watch going into the second half of 2012." More >

Potential for Stimulus Supports Gold
Source: Ira Epstein, The Linn Group  (7/25/12)
"Seasonally speaking, gold has entered the second half of the year where prices, at least on a seasonal basis, tend to have upside bias due to factors having little to do with world economies." More >

New Graphite Mines Coming On-Line Soon
Source: Nick Hodge, Energy & Capital  (7/25/12)
"Prices for graphite were some of the last to respond to the commodity supercycle." More >

With Gold Prices Flat, It's Time for Junior Miners to Shine
Source: G. S. Early, Money Morning  (7/24/12)
"The junior miners are undervalued enough that they still have some headroom, even given today's tepid metals market. And if things start to improve, they become buyout targets for the big miners." More >

Do Gold, Silver Prices Fall in a Shrinking, Debt-Distressed World?
Source: Julian Phillips,Gold Forecaster  (7/24/12)
"In the U.S. there have been three recorded deflationary periods and gold increased its purchasing power in each of them, by between 44% (1929–1933) and 100% (1814–1830)." More >

South, North Korea Secretly Met Twice over Rare Earth Minerals
Source: Korean KoonAng Daily, Lee Eun-joo  (7/24/12)
"Officials from South and North Korea secretly met twice last year to discuss the joint development of rare earth resources in South Hwanghae Province, on the western coast of North Korea, the South's state-run Korea Resources Corporation (Kores) said." More >

South, North Korea Secretly Met Twice over Rare Earth Minerals
Source: Korean JoonAng Daily, Lee Eun-joo  (7/24/12)
"Officials from South and North Korea secretly met twice last year to discuss the joint development of rare earth resources in South Hwanghae Province, on the western coast of North Korea, the South's state-run Korea Resources Corporation (Kores) said." More >

Summer Shopping Opportunities for Mining Equities Abound: Rick Mills
Source: Sally Lowder of The Gold Report   (7/23/12)
Equity valuations have so far failed to keep pace with rising bullion prices, but that makes for some outstanding investor opportunities among a few particularly well-positioned juniors that Rick Mills identifies as running ahead of the herd this summer. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Mills, publisher of Ahead of the Herd newsletter, points to continued low interest rates and increasing inflation as reasons that precious metals prices will keep climbing. And if discussions about elevating gold to Tier 1 asset status come to fruition, hold onto your hat, because that could shift the rate of ascent from steady to meteoric in a New York minute. More >

Gold Prices on Hold as the US Dollar Strengthens
Source: Bob Kirtley, SK Options Trading  (7/23/12)
"This period of stagnation can be used to do all the due diligence necessary for you to feel comfortable with the purchases that you intend to make. Formulate your plan now, execute it when you are ready and ignore the white noise generated by the naysayers." More >

'Dollar Danger' Threatens Gold
Source: Ben Traynor, BullionVault  (7/23/12)
"'The great danger for the gold price is the stronger dollar, because of its long-term negative correlation to gold,' says Eugen Weinberg, head of commodity research at Commerzbank." More >

Nuggets of Value Seen in Canada's Midtier Gold Miners
Source: Reuters, Julie Gordon  (7/23/12)
"Midtier miners with low cash costs and affordable, near-term development projects offer good value in the current market." More >

Leading Gold ETF Sees Biggest Weekly Outflow of 2012
Source: Reuters, Jan Harvey  (7/23/12)
"The SPDR's holdings have fallen nearly 25 mt so far in July, putting ETF on track for its biggest monthly outflow since December." More >

China's Baotou Plans to Start Rare Earths Trading Exchange
Source: Reuters  (7/23/12)
"China's Baotou Steel will join six other firms to invest over $10M to start a rare earths trading platform in early August." More >

Money Is Technology!
Source: Byron King, The Daily Reckoning  (7/23/12)
"Silver has a long, steadfast history as money, going back to ancient times. Yet it's also a substance with a promising future, thanks to its critical role as an industrial-technological metal." More >

Platinum Plumbs Deepest Discount to Gold in 7-1/2 Months
Source: Reuters, Jan Harvey  (7/23/12)
"Gold's premium over platinum reached its highest in 7-1/2 months on Wednesday at over $210 oz and could rise still further as the white metal suffers from its heavy exposure to the beleaguered European car market." More >