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In former times, the rise in the gold price was held down by central banks selling gold or leasing gold to bullion dealers who sold the gold. The supply added in this way to the market absorbed some of the demand, thus holding down the rise in the gold price.

Evidence is mounting that the bottom for gold may be in. While there’s still risk, there’s a new air of bullishness in the industry, something we haven’t seen in over two years.

The commodities supercycle of 2000-2008, which produced roughly 20% compound annual returns, was driven by scarcity of supply to meet the demands of emerging nations — notably China.

Austria’s mint is running 24 hours a day to meet orders for gold coins, joining counterparts from the U.S. to the U.K. to Australia in reporting accelerating demand boosted by the bear market in bullion.

El Tigre Silver Corp. is raising $1.5 million through a non-brokered private placement financing, the company announced late Monday.

Junior venture companies in Canada are finally seeing a significant lift. In early January, the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index rose above the 200-day moving average for the first time in three years.

One of the worst-hit commodities has been gold, which has been plunging inversely to optimism in the US economy, falling from record highs of over $1,900 (£1,175) an ounce in August 2011 to below $1,260.

There’s been much chatter in gold markets about the size of Comex precious metals warehouse stocks and what this may mean for the market, but much of that chatter is at best misinformed, say veteran futures traders.