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Want to know where gold prices are headed? It might make sense to track the stocks of gold mining companies.

What is much more interesting is that Standard Bank is 20% owned by China’s Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — which is also in the process of buying a majority stake in Standard’s UK-based markets business, including commodities.

Gold stocks have been on fire this year, blasting higher to 2014’s pole position of best-performing sector.

Crocodile Gold Corp. is raising $18 million through a private placement financing with Sprott Asset Management, Eric Sprott, and Luxor Capital, the company announced Thursday.

Using technological advances in machinery, AngloGold Ashanti could unlock 6-million ounces of gold that is currently locked up in areas that are deemed to be unsafe to mine or in thin reefs that are uneconomic to extract.

Canadian mining companies must still find ways to conserve cash to deal with lower commodity prices or risk downgrades from credit rating agencies.

The recent spike in the gold price has seen renewed investor interest in heavily beaten-down gold mining stocks. This not surprisingly sees two of the biggest gainers on the TSX for the year-to-date being gold mining stocks.

Institutional investors may not have been too keen on gold last year but other consumers certainly were: According to the World Gold Council’s (WGC) 2013 report.

If the price of gold continues its recovery there could be some big money to be made on gold mining companies which still have a long way to go to recover themselves.