The precious metal rose to $US1044.40 per ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, while spot gold reached an all-time high of $1053.44/oz, where it was last trading at 4:15pm EDT.

Analysts believe gold might hit a stumbling block tomorrow when Chinese traders re-enter the market after a week-long holiday.

"Gold is up more than $50 since they went on holiday so we will see some profit taking,” Mitsui precious metals director Anderson Cheung told Dow Jones Newswires.

“They always buy on the dips and try and sell at high levels, so I can't see them missing this."

Gold miner Apex Minerals rose 14% or A0.6c to 5c after announcing a resource upgrade, while the latest drilling results from Frieda River boosted Highlands Pacific 11% to 24.5c.

The surprise economic news of the day was that the unemployment rate actually fell 0.1% to a seasonally adjusted 5.7% in September, reiterating the strength of our economy and justifying the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to lift interest rates so soon.

BHP Billiton rose 0.93% or 35c to $38.16, while Rio Tinto gained 0.91% or 55c to $61.30.

Meanwhile, Dow Jones reported that Macquarie Bank analysts expect BHP’s copper production to fall by 55,000 tonnes and uranium by 1140t in the wake of Tuesday night’s mechanical failure at Olympic Dam.

Alumina rose 4.6% to $1.93 after joint venture partner Alcoa released its third quarter results, with both companies saying the aluminium market was improving.

Royal Resources jumped 28% or 8c to 36c on a proposed joint venture deal with Singapore-based Sing-Tang Development for its newly-acquired Razorback magnetite project in South Australia.

Explorer Mindax also rose 27% or 9.5c to 44.5c after announcing encouraging drill results at its Western Australian uranium project.

Renison Consolidated was heavily traded, with more than 160 million shares changing hands, prompting a query from the ASX.

The junior’s shares rose 29% to 0.2c to 0.9c and the company was unable to explain the increased interest.