THE WORLD IS RUNNING OUT OF GOLD

Fortune Magazine reports, “The World is Running of out of Gold” and suggests investors allocate a portion of their assets into the precious metal.

In an online posting, Fortune quotes the co-founder and chairman of Canada-based Franco-Nevada Corporation (NYSE: FNV), Pierre Lassonde, in an interview with the German business newspaper Financz und Wirtschaft, as saying gold miners have failed to invest adequately in exploration. “They have not put anywhere near enough money into research and development, particularly for new technologies with respect to exploration and processing,” Lassonde told the German paper. That lack of investment, he predicts, could lead to a price spike due to a diminishing supply of gold.

Franco-Nevada, an investment company spun off from Newmont Mining a decade ago, receives royalties from mining precious metals and energy resources.

The Fortune article quotes Lassonde’s suggestion that investors include gold in their portfolio. In the German interview Lassonde predicts gold may trade as high as $1,350 per ounce this year and as high as $1,400 an ounce next year. Lassonde, who has served as President of Newmont Mining and Chair of the World Gold Council, argues diminishing supply resulting from the lack of investment into precious metals mining will lead to a bull market in gold. “The upward pressure on the gold price could be very intense,” Lassonde tells Financz und Wirtschaft. “For the average investor, it should be the absolute rule to hold around 5 to 10 percent gold in your portfolio, like rule number one.”