Frik Els , Editor

Many investors are calling into question billionaire hedge-fund manager George Soros’s commitment to gold. With higher highs no longer a regular occurrence in the gold market, some see Soros’s dumping of gold ETFs as a clear sign that the party is over. But as trading in the first Asian precious metal futures contract opens on Wednesday, bearish investors may want to take a cue from the millions — maybe billions — of investors in India, China, Vietnam and across the region who are pouring money into gold and are willing to pay a premium.

TSX and Amex-listed Extorre Gold Mines took a step closer to the development of its flagship mine Cerro Moro in Argentina on Tuesday with the approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment and the purchase of the 14,000 ha that cover the project. Extorre, which was spun out of Exeter Resource Corporation last year, said the Project Pre-Feasibility Study is expected in June 2011 and start-up for the high grade gold and silver mine is scheduled for 2012. Capital costs for the mine are some $130m and cash costs are estimated at $201/ounce. Extorre is worth close to $800m on the TSX and is sitting on roughly $33m in cash. The company also owns the Don Sixto projects, and other mineral exploration properties in Argentina.

After sitting idly by and watching China monopolize the industry – the country is responsible for upwards of 95% of global supply – a rush to bring rare earth mine to production is on: There are now 251 rare earth projects being undertaken by 165 different companies in 24 countries. While prices have been rising rapidly, rare earth production is an expensive and complex undertaking. Very few projects can be developed for under $1bn and as the rest of the world shuttered rare earth mines metallurgical skills languished along with it.

In results released on Friday, Australia’s Paladin Energy showed a 47% increase in production from its Namibian and Malawian operations and record revenues of $208.7m on the back of a 31% increase in sales volumes for the nine months to March. The company said despite the concerns about the nuclear energy market following the tsunami damage to Japan’s Fukushima plant, it believes supply and demand imbalances will only widen in future as more plants, such as the 25 under construction in China, come on stream. Paladin is on an aggressive growth drive. Stage 3 of the expansion of its Langer Heinrich mine that would bring capacity to 5.2m lb is 92% complete and in February 2011 the company announced that it completed its acquisition of the uranium assets of Aurora Energy in Labrador, Canada for C$260.8m.