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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

New York spot gold closed up $1.60 to $1,224.80 Thursday, recovering slightly from Wednesday's $11.40 drop. Yesterday, the United States Federal Reserve said it would maintain low interest rates for a "considerable time," yet some analysts are speculating the Fed will increase rates more quickly than first projected. Here in Canada, the TSX Venture Exchange lost 6.72 points to 965.79 and the TSX Gold Index lost 3.72 points to 176.38.

Canada's major gold miners ended the day down. Detour Gold Corp. (DGC) lost 64 cents to $9.26, Goldcorp Inc. (G) lost 71 cents to $26.63 and Yamana Gold Inc. (YRI) dropped 14 cents to $7.69.

Bucking the trend, Alacer Gold Corp. (ASR) climbed to an intraday high of $2.25 before closing up 13 cents to $2.10 on 4.25 million shares. After the market closed, Alacer said it had been approached by multiple third parties regarding a potential corporate transaction, but it has no intention of pursuing one for now. Earlier this week, Alacer appointed two new directors, Alan Krusi and Anna Kolonchina. Mr. Krusi is also on the board of an American solar-power provider, Blue Earth Inc. (BBLU: $3.05 (U.S.)), and Ms. Kolonchina is a director of Russia's largest gold miner, Polyus Gold (PGLIF: $3.11 U.S.)). Polyus has six operating gold mines in Russia. Alacer has one, Copler, in Turkey. There, the company is hoping to increase production with a $600-million expansion and it has raised about half of that so far. It needs to hurry, as grades at Copler have been decreasing rapidly. The mine produced 370,000 ounces of gold in 2013, but Alacer targets only 180,000 ounces of gold this year. The stock has fallen from $12 in early 2012.

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