Gold remains near a six-year high, having reached US$1,553.87 on the spot market on Monday and worth $1,536/oz at the time of writing.

Silver is trading about a two-year high, reaching US$18.34 on the spot market earlier.

It had fallen below $14/oz briefly in December.

Silver stocks were up 4.5% collectively on Toronto's S&P/TSX Composite Index, where both Pan American Silver (TSX: PAAS) and MAG Silver Corp (TSX: MAG) were up almost 8%.

Pan American touched a 52-week high intraday and is up more than 26% so far this year.

Gold equities not far off the pace were IAMGOLD (TSX: IMG), up 7.87%, and Centerra Gold (TSX: CG), up 7.69%.

IAMGOLD this week partially resumed operations at the Rosebel mine in Suriname and Centerra announced the long-awaited finalisation of a deal to end disputes in the Kyrgyz Republic over its Kumtor gold mine.

Precious metals miner Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) rose 1.93% as London's metals and mining sector closed up 0.02%.

Australia's metals and mining stocks on the S&P/ASX were higher at the time of writing.

Copper-gold miner Sandfire Resources (ASX: SFR) was up more than 8% and BHP (ASX: BHP) was up 1.55% in afternoon trade.

Copper had closed about 0.9% higher on the London Metal Exchange yesterday.