GOLD

Gold prices will climb to $2,075 next year on six key variables that, UBS said Friday in a report on the precious metal.

Gold mining has been a boon --not a curse -- to the Peruvian national economy over the past decade, helping lift specific mining communities out of poverty, a report released Friday by the gold-mining industry group World Gold Council, said.

Russian gold and silver miner Polymetal has secured a $100 million investment from Moscow investment bank VTB Capital as part of its planned listing on the London Stock Exchange, the company's deal prospectus showed on Friday.

South Africa is looking at establishing its own metals exchange as part of a wider government plan to extract more value from the country's huge mineral wealth, much of which is exported as ore rather than being refined and processed locally.

Russian metals giant Norilsk Nickel posted a 22 percent fall in first half profit on Friday after taking a one-off hit from the disposal of its loss-making electricity unit.

Three people were killed on Friday at a gold and copper mine run by PT Freeport Indonesia, a unit of U.S miner Freeport McMoRan , local police in Mimika in the Indonesian province of Papua said.

Russia's top gold miner Polyus Gold said on Friday its output of the precious metal rose 16 percent year on year to 1.1 million ounces in the first nine months of this year.

Swiss investment bank UBS disclosed Friday its top 10 commodity stock picks, all of which fall into one of four categories, thermal coal, iron ore, gold and merger and acquisition opportunities.

Australia-based Republic Gold Ltd. said Friday it will sell its assets in far north Queensland to Territory Minerals Pty. Ltd.

Gold prices ticked up Friday as market sentiment swung back towards risk and away from safety, but there was little evidence the yellow metal was ready to break out of recent trading limits.

Gold was slightly higher on Friday and headed for its biggest weekly gain in more than a month, shrugging off the credit rating downgrade of Spain ahead of a G20 meeting whose agenda will be dominated by the euro zone debt crisis.

Gold and silver prices rose modestly in electronic trading late Thursday, helping lift shares of some companies that mine the precious metals.

Gold fell nearly one percent and silver dropped three percent as precious metals followed the stocks down in a generally gloomy outlook for U.S. and European economies.

BNP Paribas cut its gold price forecasts for 2011 through 2013, following the recent pullback in the precious metal's prices and said a further correction may be possible in the near term.

Orosur Mining Inc.'s gold production in the first quarter of fiscal 2012 fell from the year-earlier period on a lower grade of ore, but higher prices helped lift net income 25 percent, the company said Thursday.

Violence and the threat of worse violence has idled a major gold exploration project in a highly prospective area of the central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan.

Crocodile Gold Corp. said Thursday it discovered more high-grade gold at an Australian site already under development by the Canadian company.

Gold production in the third quarter rose seven percent from the previous three months at Brigus Gold Corp.'s Ontario mine, the Canadian company said Thursday.

ValGold Resources Ltd. is using cash and stock to gain access to a prospective gold producing areas of western Ukraine.

Slovakia's parliament ratified a plan to bolster the euro zone's EFSF rescue fund on Thursday, after voting to hold an early election as demanded by the opposition.

Gold prices fell modestly Thursday as a rising dollar, boosted by signs the world's No. 2 economy is slowing, offset both steady Asian demand for jewelry and bullion as well as safe-haven buying by Euro-wary investors.

Gold prices held steady on Thursday, as optimism for a solution to the Eurozone crisis underpinned sentiment, while tight physical supply in Asia continued to lend support.

Gold and silver production soars at SilverCrest Mines as crusher throughput exceeds design specifications

Quarterly gold production soars at El Dorado Gold, driven by Turkish mine

Drop in quality of ore hurts First Majestic quarterly silver production totals; company looks forward to fourth quarter

Gold prices rose 1 percent in Europe on Wednesday as the dollar fell to a three-week low against the euro, and after the Slovak parliament's rejection of a plan to expand the bloc's rescue fund stoked concerns over the Eurozone debt crisis.

Slovakian lawmakers late Tuesday rejected their governing coalition's bid to expand the Eurozone's bailout fund, toppling the government but heightening prospects a new coalition can push the measure through this week.

Gold prices settled where they started Tuesday, virtually unchanged, as uncertainty about Europe's banks offset Asian demand for physical gold.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has gotten its first new commercial gold mine in 50 years, mining company Banro Corp. said Tuesday.