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Opinion may be divided as to how long the gold price can maintain momentum from $422 an ounce and oil its progress from $45 a barrel. The future of the US dollar, until recently on a steady downtrend, is also keenly debated

This has not stopped gold and oil companies lining up for flotation, nor weakened investors' appetite, while diamond hopefuls are being groomed by Numis and WH Ireland. But a new mood has encouraged supporters of one long-forgotten metal to put their heads above the parapet for the first time in years.

Nuclear power

Uranium, needed to generate nuclear power, has been in the doldrums for years. Disasters at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, coupled with the cost of handling spent fuel, put it firmly on the back burner.

Thirty years ago uranium traded at $40 a lb and once even fetched more than $100, but five years ago it was down at $10. Now, rising oil and gas prices and fears of a shortfall in world power generation have cast the spotlight back on nuclear.

Lately, uranium has bounced to $25 per lb on the key long-term contract market. China, India, Russia and several European countries are to boost nuclear capacity.

Broker Hargreave Hale has introduced several uranium players to London investors. Among the Canadian groups is Altius Minerals, 175p on Toronto's Venture Exchange with uranium properties in North America and elsewhere and a £1.2 million joint venture at Rocky Brook in Canada.

Hargreave has toyed with an Altius London float, but at present says it is too tightly held. South Africa's Afrikander Lease, 29p, has interesting properties near Klerksdorp, is changing its name to Aflease and plans to divide its gold and uranium sides.

Toronto-listed International Uranium at £2 is considering re-opening mothballed mines around America and has a project in Mongolia, where Vancouver-based UGL Enterprises at 25p has a 2,500-hectare property. All are clearly speculative, but their time could be coming.

Bird crows at Jubilee

Colin Bird, boss of AIM-quoted Jubilee Platinum, is understandably pleased at the high gold grades, ranging from 42 to 108 grammes of gold per tonne or ore, found in drilling samples from its Ambonitra prospect in Madagascar. He now talks of a 'primary source of gold'.

However, Bird argues Madagascar adds to, but should not obscure, Jubilee's progress in South Africa's Bushveld, where drilling lately yielded particularly encouraging platinum group metal results. Fans say an AIM price of 26p does not reflect even this, let alone the Madagascar assets.

First Calgary fulfils promise

A doubling of potential reserves in Algeria to 13.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent, potentially worth between £2 billion and £4.8 billion, has borne out Growth Company Investor's optimism last July about First Calgary Petroleums. The new reserve figures for the Ledjmet 405b and Rhourde Yacoub 406a blocks in the Berkine Basin have helped push the shares to 952p, more than twice their level last summer.

President Richard Anderson sees this as the base for further growth and development. The shares should go further in today's market, though it might be prudent to lock in some gains with partial profit taking.

Beowulf targets AIM

Dr Bob Young says he is ready to take Beowulf, his OFEX-traded Swedish gold and copper explorer, up to AIM, a move he hopes to follow with a £2 million funding via a Swedish quote. With Beowulf at 5.25p a share now valued at only £2.1 million, the rationale for this would be new developments in northern Sweden's Kiruna mining district, where the company says it is in joint venture negotiations with a Canadian mining group and Britain's Greenwich Resources. For the bold.