The spot gold price was about US$7 an ounce lower than this time yesterday, around $1,275/oz.

Meanwhile as the summer/winter solstice nears (depending on your hemisphere), Solstice Gold (TSXV: SGC) was one of the standouts among juniors in Toronto as it announced "gold grains" from exploration at its Kahuna gold project in Nunavut.

Shares in the company, which listed on the TSX Venture Exchange a month ago, rose 35.14% yesterday to C25c.

Candelaria Mining (TSXV: CAND) also jumped, closing  up close to 39% yesterday to C38c, with no news to share since May 2 when it said it had received permits for its Pinos gold project in Mexico's Zacatecas state.

At the bigger end of town, miners on the S&P/TSX Composite Index were down 0.59% overall, with copper miners lower including Lundin Mining (TSX: LUN) down 3.65%.

The gold sector on the index was book-ended by SSR Mining (TSX: SSRM) down 7.02% and Yamana Gold (TSX: YRI) up 3.05%.

London's metals and miners on the FTSE100 were down 2.51% overall yesterday with Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) down 3.24%.

Finally in Australia, BHP (ASX: BHP) - which reportedly could be putting its Nickel West division back on the market - was up just over 0.5% in late afternoon trade.