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Some interesting reading on the price of gold....

Gold Targets
There is no doubt that gold is in a bull market, but the question remains: how high can it go and how painful will the current correction be?
In charting theory, each successive bull market will rise higher than the last. If you think of 1987 as the last bull market highs for the Australian stockmarket than you may be surprised to discover how much higher some key stocks has moved since their 1987 highs. National Australia Bank (NAB) topped at $5.73 in 1987 and BHP Billiton (BHP) made all-time highs at $4.18 in the same year. Fast forward to the recent highs and NAB traded at all-time highs $44.84 in November last year and BHP at $47.70 in October 2007. It is possible to conclude that the last major highs on these stocks were followed by a bull market that took the prices to around 10 times there former bull market highs.
Does that mean all bull markets, including gold, can make the same kinds of gains? If the high of the last gold boom, which occurred in 1980, was at US$873, then multiplying that by 10 would mean the potential for gold to reach US$8730 an ounce. Even the most bullish advocate of the shiny metal doesn’t have targets quite that high.
A variation on the above price target method is to use cycle lows to highs rather than highs to highs. If we take the low of the gold correction before Nixon’s gold window was reopened in 1973, the price was $35. If we divide US$873 by 35 we get a move of 25 times in value. If we apply this to the US$252 bear market lows of 1999 and multiply by 25 we get a target at US$6300 – which takes another dose of extreme optimism to believe.
A more realistic low point for the gold price would be the price from the time the US private citizens were once again allowed to own gold. That gives a starting point at around US$128 in 1975. If we take this low to the US$873 highs it’s possible to estimate the gold appreciation during the 1970s bull market at around 6.8 times. If we then project the price based on the same multiple of gains from a starting point of US$252, the target for gold is a minimum of US$1713.
Another approach to forecasting uses inflation-adjusted prices. Most analysts using this method estimate the real value of the 1980 gold price of US$873 adjusted for inflation to be around US$2500. That means, just to match that level, gold would have to rise around another US$1500 from current levels.
David Hunt, president of the Australian Professional Technical Analysts Association, told CommSec he has a long-term upside target on gold at around US$1580. “Gold is in the process of making its fourth wave correction which usually takes a lot longer than investors anticipate,” says Hunt who expect the downside target for this correction will be in the vicinity of US$800 to US$850 but could get as low as US$750. “I expect a choppy triangle-shaped correction while still being in a long-term uptrend. That may take at least six months but possibly longer. Once this correction is over the next move should take the gold price to $1024. If it can break that level there are three upside levels: US$1200, US$1320 and US$1540-1580.”