Mostly: Classical

[amarksp]

Martin M sighting...

The biggest chunk went to gold exploration. The gold price, which was near $650 (U.S.) an ounce Friday, hit a 26-year high of $730 in May, 2006, and economist Martin Murenbeeld, a regular commentator at global mining conferences, sees it heading higher.

He projected a probability-weighted average gold price of $674 an ounce in 2007, rising to $755 in 2008 as a declining U.S. dollar, looser global monetary policy, rising Asian demand and geopolitics play supportive roles.

Looking at historical gold-price cycles, Mr. Murenbeeld said the shortest cyclical upswing lasted for 10 years, between 1970 and 1980.

"Today, we're at the end of the sixth [year]," he said.

But Mr. Murenbeeld, based in Victoria, also offered a caveat: Every commodity chart, whether gold, oil or copper, shows reversals within the main trend. "In an up cycle, there's a down year and in a down cycle, there's an up year. Bear that in mind."