Simmering geopolitical issues could heat up this week, including China-US trade tensions, although the gold price has moved lower to around US$1,264 an ounce.

In Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite Index's metals and mining sector had closed up 1.24% overall.

Gold miner Detour Gold (TSX: DGC) rose 5.58% on Friday. Its board has reportedly been urged to consider a sale of the company by Paulson & Co, partly prompted by a low stock price compared with its peers.

Also on the rise in Toronto, Canada Cobalt Works (TSXV: CCW) reached a 52-week high intraday of C65c on Friday and closed up 26% to 63c on no news.

The company, which changed name from Castle Silver Resources earlier this year, had reported assays of 5.2% cobalt from underground sampling earlier this month, ahead of its first underground drill programme at the historic Castle mine in northern Ontario.

In London, miners had a better Friday than the previous week, with Glencore (LSE: GLEN) up 4.18% and Anglo American (LSE: AAL) up 2.71%.

In Australian trade, BHP (ASX: BHP) was up more than 1.4% in afternoon trade and gold miner Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST) was 5.3% higher, having achieved its production rate target of 600,000 ounces per annum last week.