With few safe havens left for investors, the price of an ounce of gold has broken $1,700 for the first time ever this week, and some analysts believe it could reach $2,500 an ounce by the end of this year.

When investors are nervous of currencies, treasury bonds and just about everything else, their last resort seems always to be gold. Despite the efforts of Barrick Gold, Newmont Mining and Goldcorp, however, supply can never keep up with this kind of demand, so these price predictions could well prove to be true.

Canary Wharf Group is to construct a new office building of over 500,000 square feet at Canary Wharf in London.     

Work on the substructure at 25 Churchill Place has already been completed, with construction of the 20-storey tower due to begin in the fourth quarter of this year.

Canary Wharf Group has called the building of the tower “a symbolic milestone”, as it completes the development of the original Canary Wharf masterplan.

Boeing and Siemens are to form a strategic alliance for the joint development and marketing of "smart grid" technologies to improve energy access and security for the US Department of Defense.

The alliance's microgrid management solution will be designed to implement economical energy-efficiency tools that allow for analysis, control and automation of energy processes; use smart energy controls to provide real-time data to manage energy use; and integrate renewable energy sources and storage.

London-based oil and gas company Terra Resources has entered into a financial partnership with Hendon Energy Fund 2011 to develop an oil and gas concession in Russia.

Hendon has agreed to partner with Terra Resources to fulfil its funding commitments, which are estimated to be $90 million, for the development of the 85,000 acre oil and gas concession in Kalmykia.

Coincident with the announcement of its second quarter results, the board of Kraft Foods revealed plans to separate the business into two independent public companies.

The board believes that the global snacks business and the North American grocery business would benefit from being run separately, as they differ in their future strategic priorities, growth profiles and operational focus.

Ireland’s PetroNeft Resources has announced a “significant” oil discovery in one of its two Russian licence areas.

The discovery was made at Sibkrayevskaya, in Licence 61 at Tomsk Oblast, Siberia.

PetroNeft holds a 100 per cent interest in Licence 61, a 4,991 square kilometre oil and gas licence; as well as a 50 per cent operating interest in Licence 67, which covers an area of 2,447 square kilometres.

Reporting its sixth consecutive profitable quarter, General Motors today announced second quarter net income attributable to common stockholders of $2.5 billion, an increase of over 90 percent on Q2 of 2010.

Revenue for the quarter ended 30 June 2011 increased $6.2 billion to $39.4 billion, compared with the second quarter of 2010. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) adjusted was $3.0 billion compared with $2.0 billion in the second quarter of 2010. There were no special items in either period.

Valiant Investments has announced that it has invested a further US$50,000 into Trilith Resources.

Valiant said that the funds will be used by UK-based Trilith to acquire natural resource projects in Zambia and Tanzania, with a principle focus on gold and copper mineralisation.

UK-based Valiant has now invested a total of $150,000 (approximately €104,000) into Trilith.

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