Barrick Gold unveiled its first quarter earnings numbers, managing to beat profit estimates but giving a clear picture to what appears to be a new reality in the gold mining world: rising production costs and uncertain, and even falling, gold prices.

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Those higher inflation numbers were not enough to support the gold market, which has fallen this week.

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Those numbers are even more remarkable when you consider how gold mining stocks generally have performed.

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Reserve ratios for gold bullion alone would be, naturally, less than these numbers.

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Police in Ghana have arrested the owner of an illegal gold mine which collapsed on Sunday after heavy rains, burying large numbers of miners.

BBC: Illegal Ghana gold mine owner arrested after collapse

The company also released its third-quarter production numbers last week, which stood at 1.03 million ounces of gold, below the 1.07 million to 1.1 million ounce guidance.

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Gold dropped off its high level Friday, likely as a result of the encouraging jobs numbers.

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However, the real marketing gold mine lies in the data about patients that drug companies are collecting from calls to toll-free numbers and visits to websites.

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Everybody is rushing to buy gold, and I am telling my people it is time to start moving and rotating out of gold and selling gold, because it has reached its peak, but you cannot see that in your head with the numbers.

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