Gold's Marches to Fresh Highs

Updated from 2:34 p.m. EDT

Gold and metals continued their seemingly unstoppable rally on Tuesday, supported by a weak dollar, the rising price of crude oil and ongoing tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Gold for June delivery jumped up $7.20, or 1%, to $667.40 an ounce, after earlier touching yet another quarter-century high at $669.30.

"We believe that the yellow metal remains on a bullish trend continuing to draw support from concerns over Iran's nuclear program and the weakening of the U.S. dollar," writes Frederic Panizzutti, metals analyst at MKS Finance in Geneva.

Among other metals, silver for May delivery gained 24.8 cents to $14.10 an ounce. May copper, however, dropped 4.30 cents to $3.41 a pound.

Canada's Aur Resources said on Tuesday it plans to triple production at its Andacollo copper mine in Chile. The new deposit at the mine could produce 68,700 metric tons of copper a year, according to Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, tensions in the standoff between Western countries and Iran, the world's fourth-largest producer of crude oil, continue to fuel the prices of both crude oil and gold. The precious metal acts as a hedge against inflation and as a safe-haven asset amid geopolitical uncertainties.

The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council -- the U.S., the UK, France, Russia and China -- are meeting in Paris on Tuesday to decide whether to impose sanctions on Iran, which has refused to bow to demands to stop its nuclear program.

The Security Council is planning a "stiff international message" for Iran that may include use of armed force, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, Nicholas Burns, told reporters in Paris.

But Iranian foreign minister Manuchehr Mottaki on Tuesday said that both China and Russia have assured Iran they are opposed to sanctions, according to United Press International.