Gold fever around the world 2011

Gold fever around the world 2011
Gold fever around the world 2011



Alaska
On Dec. 3, Discovery Channel premièred reality show Gold Rush Alaska, which follows suburbanites who risk their lives in search of big gold finds.

Atlanta
Taking a leaf out of Tupperware and Mary Kay books, three Atlanta women founded Golden Girls, a franchise company that organizes in–home gold–buying parties aimed at relieving women of their excess jewelry. In Canada, Golden Girls now competes with Gold Party Princess, Vancouver Gold and GoldSmart Network.

Pompano Beach, Fla.
Just three years old, the leading Internet gold buyer Cash4Gold grossed US$160 million in 2009 and was expected to maintain its 77% growth rate in 2010. It receives up to 20,000 packages a week, and the U.S. Postal Service fielded 1,300 loss complaints in 2008 and 2009 from people claiming they had sent jewelry to the company.

Malartic, Que.
After discovering an untapped deposit underneath this depressed resource town, Osisko Mining Corp. arranged to relocate 200 houses and public buildings to make way for what promises to be Canada's largest open–pit gold mine.

Toronto
Heated competition between two cash–for–gold shops sharing a street corner culminated in charges related to an alleged murder plot and finally arson on Dec. 27, forcing the relocation of Harold the Jewellery Buyer.

Carlstadt, N.J.
Online retailers are doing brisk business selling items such as chemical and electronic gold testers, and Grobet USA's home gold–melting and –casting kilns.

London
SPDR Gold Trust, now the world's second–largest exchange–traded fund, holds about $60 billion worth of gold bullion in vaults scattered around London, the worldwide hub for gold trading.

Berlin
Germany's Gold–to–Go is installing gold–vending machines (or, as it calls them, gold ATMs) that sell coins and small bars in ritzy locations such as the Galeries Lafayette department store in Berlin and the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi.

India
The country is the world's largest consumer of gold jewelry, followed by China, Russia and Turkey. The four together account for nearly two–thirds of world demand — which has been dropping in response to gold's rising price.

Shenzhen
Late last year, Lion Fund Management announced plans to launch a bullion ETF, allowing Chinese investors (the world's No. 2 consumers of gold) to buy gold–backed units for the first time.

Boddington, Western Australia
Dozens of hard–rock gold mines and placer operations around the world previously considered exhausted have reopened in recent years, including the Boddington mine.