Gold gains again as dollar resumes decline

The price of gold was higher Wednesday as the US dollar resumed declines.

December gold added $5.90 to $1,064.50 per troy ounce in New York trade after dropping as much as $10.50 over yesterday’s closing price earlier in the session.

Gold is presently attractive to investors, who are concerned that continuing weakening of the US dollar could cut the value of paper assets.

Other precious metals also saw price gains as December silver gained 27 cents to $17.83 per troy ounce and January platinum was up $18.10 to $1,374.40 per troy ounce.

Earlier in the day, in mid-morning trade, December palladium added $2.85 to $340.50 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, December copper was up 10 cents to $3.04 per pound in New York trade after Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE: FCX) said that it is not yet prepared to restart production at its copper mines in Arizona.

Freeport’s reluctance to resume mining there comes, it said, because it has not yet seen enough of an uptick in demand to warrant that action, but it left the door open for a return to some limited production in the near future.