The Big Picture looks at gold.  The first picture:

A small-scale miner holds his gold that was melted together at a processing plant north of Ulan Bator on April 5, 2012. Mongolia is home to some of the world’s biggest unexploited mineral deposits, and has become one of the hottest destinations for billions of dollars of mining investment. (David Gray/Reuters)

And the second:

The gold and copper mine of US giant Newmont in Indonesia’s Sumbawa island dominates the landscape in a file photograph from April 4, 2007. (Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP/GettyImages) #