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Gold is pushing higher today…as of 8:00 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $8 an ounce at $1,550…Silver is 87 cents higher at $37.02, crude oil is off $1.06 at $99.16 while the U.S. Dollar Index is up one-fifth of a point to 73.90…the World Resource Investment Conference wraps up today in Vancouver…despite the nicest weather of the year in Vancouver yesterday, turnout for the first day was strong though not quite as busy as we’ve seen it before…we had a chance to listen to two of our favorite speakers, Frank Holmes (CEO of U.S. Global Investors) and geologist, mining industry expert and newsletter writer Lawrence Roulston…both continue to be very bullish regarding the outlook for China which is really shaping the “big picture” as far as commodities are concerned…Holmes talked about the importance of “super city clusters” taking shape in China with high speed rail that “will change everything…it’s the big thing to recognize for all the metals…China is where America was in 1968, very similar metrics”, Holmes stated…$300 billion will be spent over the next decade to build 30,000 kilometres of light railway in China (trains traveling at 240 miles per hour), connecting 700 million people in 250 cities…this will have an enormous impact on economic development…total infrastructure spending in the E7 (China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Indonesia and Turkey) over just the next three years is expected to be $6 trillion…with low tax rates and little debt throughout the E7, these economies will continue to perform well…rapidly growing urban populations (in China alone, 25 million people a year are moving into the cities), the need for improved transportation systems, demand for commodities, and an affinity for Gold are all key themes in understanding what’s unfolding in the emerging economies in the years ahead…in North America, investors are far too focused on what’s happening in the United States on a day-to-day basis and can’t see the “big picture” which is a lot more positive than the doom and gloom being dished out on CNN and elsewhere…Roulston, who views the current market softness as a buying opportunity, is bullish on the Yukon, Alaska, northern BC, Quebec, the western U.S. and Guyana…one of his favorites, Romios Gold (RG, TSX-V), is looking very promising on the charts as it appears to have bottomed out in a consolidation…RG has just started an aggressive $6 million drilling and exploration program in the Galore Creek area of northwestern BC…the stock is off 2.5 cents this morning to 43 cents, just 7 pennies above its rising 100-day moving average (SMA) which it has not been below since early November of last year…leftist candidate Ollanta Humala has claimed victory in Peru’s presidential runoff as voters overlooked his past support for Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez…Humala has pledged to curb tax evasion and raise mining taxes to finance higher social spending, and claims he’ll resolve conflicts between farmers and mining companies that have caused companies including Southern Copper to shelve investments…capital flees quickly wherever it’s not welcome, so it’ll be interesting to see how things unfold in Peru with Humula as the new President…Peru is the world’s biggest Silver producer, and third in copper and zinc…mining investment helped bring in $7.3 billion in foreign direct investment last year and has helped fuel growth above 7% for 13 consecutive straight months…Bear Creek Mining (BCM, TSX) is encountering delays with the development of its Santa Ana project in Peru and the stock has dropped in half since early March, in part of course also due to the drop in Silver…a Humala regime in Peru is not good news for BCM investors and the stock, which has fallen from a high of $12 in early March, is off another 37 cents this morning to $5.83 after dropping as low as $5.21…Rio Alto Mining (RIO, TSX-V), focused on the development of on the development of its 21,000 hectare La Arena Gold/Copper Project in north central Peru, is the volume leader on the CDNX this morning, down 40 cents to $1.98…so Peru plays are certainly out of favor at the moment…Spanish Mountain Gold (SPA, TSX-V) is looking strong and is up a nickel to 74 cents as it tries to bust through resistance around the 70-cent level…SPA released positive early results last Thursday from infill drilling within the Main and North zones at its Spanish Mountain Gold Project in central British Columbia…it appears SPA wants to challenge its 2010 high of 83 cents…Gold Bullion Development (GBB, TSX-V) is up 1.5 cents at 48.5 cents on strong  volume so far today…we interviewed Visible Gold Mines‘ (VGD, TSX-V) President and CEO Martin Dallaire yesterday at the Resource Conference and we’ll be posting that very interesting discussion as soon as we can…VGD is in the midst of a 40,000 metre 2011 drill program managed by Robert Sansfacon, one of Quebec’s finest geologists who played a key role in the discovery of Osisko’s (OSK, TSX) Canadian Malartic deposit…the company is focused exclusively on northwestern Quebec and will soon be tackling a highly prospective project (Joutel) that we believe will generate a great deal of attention and excitement, similar to what developed last year at Granada…the Joutel Property, a significant former producer of Gold and Silver, is located approximately 150 kilometres north of Rouyn-Noranda…drilling will start this summer and is expected to continue through the remainder of the year at this 500 square kilometre property where over a million ounces of Gold and Silver were extracted from three zones by Agnico-Eagle (AEM, TSX) between 1974 and 1993…the theory is that there are extensions to those deposits as well as potential undiscovered deposits elsewhere on the large Joutel land package…it’s a geologist’s dream with a great story and it was Agnico-Eagle that actually approached VGD to take on this project through a joint venture – that’s the confidence they have in Visible Gold’s geological team…”When we picked up all the Joutel boxes and maps from the Agnico-Eagle exploration offices, it took us two pick-up trucks for all the data,” Dallaire told us…”We were flooded with data but we love it because we have the capacity to analyze all of it and bring some fresh ideas to the project…the trend is very large and there’s a lot of potential for many new mines in the area”…VGD also has three other projects – Silidor, Cadillac Break and Stadacona – which are equally capable of producing some eye-popping assay results but the company’s flagship project is clearly Joutel and the market hasn’t yet caught on to that story…when it does, VGD won’t be sitting in the mid-20′s anymore…VGD is currently off a penny at 25 cents…the company is armed with about $7 million in cash at the moment…with so much drilling this year in such a prolific area, directed by a strong geological group, it’s hard to imagine the company not making a significant discovery…