SURVEY: Gold prices and output to go higher in 2011, PwC

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TORONTO - Despite the current strength in the price of gold, mining companies in Canada and globally are predicting high gold prices to continue throughout 2011, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' 2010 Global Gold Price Survey Report released in mid-December

Key findings:

• A majority of 82% of gold producers expect their forecasted production levels to increase.
• Nearly 75%of gold mining companies expect the price of gold to continue to rise until Q4 2011. However, the current price of gold is still far below the high of 1980 in real terms.
• Gold companies predict the price of gold will peak between US$1,400 and US$3,000, with 40% believing the price will peak around US$1,500 when the survey was conducted in November 2010.

"Given the high demand for gold, it will be interesting to see if companies that have located marginal deposits of gold will kick-start their production and move faster than they would under normal circumstances," says John Gravelle, Canadian mining leader, PwC.

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