Eric Lemieux, metals and mining analyst with Laurentian Bank Securities, focuses on the emerging mineral wealth of the James Bay area of Quebec and discusses his favorite explorers in this exclusive interview with The Gold Report. Despite producers being more in favor, he believes the James Bay area with its exploration plays and favorable geological, geographic, and social fundamentals retains its advantages.

The Gold Report: Eric, when we last spoke (October 2008), you were focusing on mining companies in the James Bay area. You liked the area because it provided good infrastructure, a skilled workforce and promising geography. Do these advantages hold true today?

Eric Lemieux: Many things have happened since last fall that have made long-term focus and exploration plays much less attractive. Cash (the U.S. dollar) is said to be king and with gold’s rebound in December 2008, quality gold producers have been more in favor as opposed to speculative …

Gold was yet again the big winner, with investors bailing out of the broader bourse during Wednesday trading on the Canadian markets. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange plunged 2.42%, while the TSX Gold Index added another 0.8% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, fell 0.36%, with the decliners swamping the advancers by a 460 to 336 margin on 137 million shares traded.

Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC) tabled a fourth quarter loss of $968.8 million, or $1.47 per share thanks to a writedown associated with its $3 billion acquisition of Bema Gold two years ago. That’s down from the $173.1 million or $0.028 per share profit hit in the same period a year earlier. The major produced 550,221 gold equivalent ounces in the fourth quarter at cash costs of $375 per ounce. Kinross ended the day up C$0.04 at $24.43.

Agnico-Eagle Mines (NYSE:AEM)

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A gold bug who prefers equities as investments to bullion and bars, Midas Letter publisher James West expects his portfolio picks to shine to the tune of at least 15% appreciation on average. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, that sunny outlook stands in stark contrast to other things the well-regarded adviser sees on the horizon. He anticipates no letup in the storm of market volatility and holds out even less hope for the U.S. currency’s ability to stay afloat in a multi-trillion-dollar flood of new money.

The Gold Report: You’ve predicted that the United States’ defaulting on its debt is not just likely; it’s inevitable and imminent. Given the state of the world economy, can the federal government do anything to avoid this—and the resulting monetary collapse it would trigger?

James West: In pure theoretical terms, absolutely. Stop printing money and put the whole American system on a …

Yamana’s (NYSE: AUY) Golden Place to Be

Trillions and trillions of new paper is flooding Wall Street. While it’s working to stabilize world markets in the short term, it will result in longer-term debasement of paper currencies. And it’s making gold the place to be right now.

Here’s the interesting thing. Gold is normally a hedge against inflation and financial catastrophe, but it’s really not acting out its part very well. Gold stores are up. Investors are so preoccupied with the financial meltdown and the short-term weakness in the economy, that they’re ignoring the coming inflation.

Gold has moved up a little over the past few weeks, but it pulled back yesterday and gold stocks have been hammered mercilessly. This is partly due to the drop in commodity prices that have negatively impacted gold shares.

Now is a great time to establish a position in undervalued, low-cost producers of gold.

The

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It's been one hell of a week. And today, September 19th, is Talk Like a Pirate Day. Argh, Matey! In that spirit, I notice a very nice finish to gold today ...Gold finished near its highs, and has closed (again) above the 50-day moving average. I'd wait for a pullback, but maybe the fact that the US government printing presses are running at full speed is revving up the yellow metal. I'm glad we bought Agnico Eagle Mines in Red-Hot Canadian Small-Caps yesterday -- nice finish to that, too, as well as the entire portfolio.Also, since it's Talk Like a Pirate Day, here's a video to set you sailing off into a nice weekend.

It's been one hell of a week. And today, September 19th, is Talk Like a Pirate Day. Argh, Matey! In that spirit, I notice a very nice finish to gold today ...Gold finished near its highs, and has closed (again) above the 50-day moving average. I'd wait for a pullback, but maybe the fact that the US government printing presses are running at full speed is revving up the yellow metal. I'm glad we bought Agnico Eagle Mines in Red-Hot Canadian Small-Caps yesterday -- nice finish to that, too, as well as the entire portfolio.Also, since it's Talk Like a Pirate Day, here's a video to set you sailing off into a nice weekend.