"Considering the safety of the Company's employees, and the integrity of the mine's infrastructure and that of the surrounding area, the decision was made to stop production indefinitely" said Sean Boyd, Vice-Chairman and CEO.

Analysts at Jefferies initiated Barrick Gold with a buy on valuation, setting a price target of $65. Separately, Deutsche Bank cut their price target from $76 to $67 and now has a buy rating on the stock.

Shares of Barrick are trending up as shares of the mining companies are in a race to catch up with the gold prices.

Shares of the Ivanhoe Mines (IVN) was up almost 20% after TD Newcrest upgrades shares to Speculative Buy on positive prospects of the Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia which is scheduled to go in production in first quarter 2013.

Agnico Eagle Mines gave second quarter EPS of $0.47, in line with expectations. Revenue of $453M, +23% year to year. Goldcorp responded with earnings in line with expecations as well. EPS of $0.52, revenues of $1.38B up 62% year to year.

Agnico made a C$70 million strategic investment in Rubicon Minerals and also plans to enter into a technical services agreement to help advance their high grade Phoenix deposit in Red Lake, Ontario.

Today, 36 out of 45 gold stocks finished in green while gold future prices rose by only 0.35% a very bullish sing for the lagging shares. Is this a short term rally or big comeback?