Gold cracks US$500 per oz.

With gold briefly topping US$500 per oz. in Asian trading on Nov. 29, gold miners dominated the most-active list in U.S. trading, with Newmont Mining rising US48 to US$47.68, Placer Dome advancing US64 to US$22.03, DRDGold easing back US4 to US$1.45 and Barrick Gold falling US13 to US$27.19.

However, U.S. aluminum giant Alcoa ruled the most-active list, moving up US89 to US$27.60 as it announced the startup of the third expansion at its Alumar Consortium in Sao Luis, Brazil. When the expansion’s 100 new pots are up and running, plant capacity will rise 17% to 440,000 tonnes per year. Alcoa shares have been on a tear since early October, when they bottomed out at around US$23.

Brazil’s Companhia Vale do Rio Doce announced the extension of its sweetened bid for Canadian nickel junior Canico Resource to Dec. 9 from Nov. 28. CVRD has already locked up 93% of Canico’s shares, for which it is paying C$20.80 in cash apiece, or C$876 million in total.

One of the best-performing juniors was Linux Gold, which rose 35% on the week to US25, and traded at US27 at presstime. Based in Vancouver, but only traded on the pink sheets in the U.S., the company has recently carried out geological mapping and geochemical sampling of its Granite Mountain properties in western Alaska. Linux also holds an option to acquire a gold property in China’s Hebei province.

Leading the charge on the downside was Denver-based Apollo Gold, which fell another 17% to US20, continuing its gradual, miserable decline from above US$2.50 per share two years ago. Apollo recently closed the US$14-million sale of its Florida Canyon and Standard gold mines in the U.S. to Japan’s Jipangu, which is also taking down a US$3.5-million private placement in Apollo.