Big news on ABY imo. A new avenue has opened - copper.
But with gold being produced that's the present thought. Copper can wait, but don't ignore it.
From today's SMH etc
"Gold leapt above $US1300 an ounce on Monday night, for the first time since January 2015, as traders speculated that central banks in Europe and the United States would keep interest rates low for the time being.
The precious metal hit a high of $US1302.13, up 0.7 per cent from the previous close. On Tuesday afternoon, it had fallen back to $US1294. Over the year so far, gold has gained 22 per cent.
"It's hard to see why it wouldn't keep heading up," said Ryan Armstrong, a mining and resources analyst at Taylor Collison. "The fundamentals are there with the current interest rate war and investors are looking for some value."
Last week, the US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged, as did the Bank of Japan, placing downward pressure on the greenback, the currency in which gold is largely priced.
Buyers outside the US have flocked into the commodity as the US dollar has fallen and concerns about global growth have fostered a risk-off sentiment.
"It's a perfect storm really, what with low interest rates now and the low dollar," Mr Armstrong said. "And it hardly seems likely the US will raise rates, growth is just way too slow. Gold is really going to keep pushing higher."
While gold has traditionally appeared an attractive protection against inflation, the current global deflationary environment has made it remain the flavour of the day.
"There appears to be increasing demand from both central banks and financial institutions to hedge their equity exposure with gold, instead of the traditional hedge which was owning bonds," Ben Cleary, portfolio manager at Tribeca Investment Partners, said.
"With negative real rates, investors are effectively having to pay to own government bonds and so gold is looking far more attractive as there is no holding cost."
Mr Armstrong said: "The performance of gold hasn't really relied on the inflation argument in the last few months. The recent run is more linked to risk-off period on equities that aren't performing." Financial stocks around the world have languished as central banks fiddle with unconventional monetary policy and governments increase capital controls. As such, investors have looked for alternative assets and gold has been the ticket, especially in Australia.
Newcrest Mining, Australia's largest gold producer, has risen 33 per cent so far this year. Saracen is up 94 per cent for the year, Northern Star 85 per cent, and Evolution Mining 121 per cent.
"Any gold company producing over 100,000 ounces is reaping the rewards," Mr Armstrong said. "They've also dropped costs and cleaned up their balance sheets. The beautiful part about all of this is it's filtered down to smaller stories."
Beadell Resources is on a roll, jumping 128 per cent this year, including an oversubscribed capital raising. Perseus Mining is also up almost 95 per cent for the year and several exploration companies in West Africa are feeling the push from a rising gold price.
"People are throwing money at these things," Mr Armstrong said. "The big guys have nothing else on their plate and are opening up their exploration budgets. And there doesn't seem like a reason for the price to stop now."
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