(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-01-29 09:46

LONDON -- The price of gold shot to a record 927.77 dollars here Monday as investors looked for safe havens from financial market turbulence and in response to stoppages at mines in South Africa.

Platinum too hit a record, rising to 1,705 dollars an ounce.

Power shortages in South Africa paralyzed mining activity for the fourth straight day.

Major mining houses said that while the state utility Eskom did agree during weekend talks to provide a limited amount of power, it was not enough for normal production to resume.

"We are continuing with maintenance and other things we can do without Eskom but none of our mines are operating at the present moment," said Tom Tweedy, spokesman for De Beers, the world's biggest diamond producer on Monday.

De Beers and the country's three main gold mining companies -- Gold Fields, Harmony and AngloGold Ashanti -- were all forced to halt production on Friday after Eskom switched off their power supplies.

Gold, seen as a safe haven, is also getting a boost from continued unrest on global stock markets, which in most cases fell again Monday on fears for the health of the US economy and ahead of an interest rate decision by the Federal Reserve later in the week.