Copper, after all, is the ultimate bellwether of industrial activity thanks to its uses in everything from plumbing and electric cabling to computers and armaments.

Gold also has multiple uses, but its major appeal today is as a de-facto global currency as investors seek a safe haven.

So, how can the metal for good economic times (copper), be in strong demand while the metal for uncertain economic times (gold), heads in the same direction?

The only explanation Blower can dream up is that we must be in a boom and everything is rising in value in accordance with the old stockbroking maxim that “all boats lift in a rising tide”

There is, obviously, a big problem with that rationalisation because we are not in a boom. We might be crawling out of a worldwide recession – at best.

When you weigh up the evidence it is hard to avoid the conclusion one of the metals is sending a false signal, and it is more likely copper is the guilty party, unless there has been a sudden change in the supply/demand equation of the metal, which doesn’t seem likely.

Gold, however, is being exposed to a number of changes in the conditions which push its price up, or down, including the European debt crisis, and the market-changing announcement last week that interest rates in the US will be kept close to zero for at least another two or three years.

Before considering what this means for mining (though a quick heads up is “go-gold”) here’s a bit of evidence from Blower’ notebook in which he tracks the movement of metal prices – a habit practised for some 40 years – though in this case we only need to go back a month.

When 2012 kicked off, after a horrible 2011, gold started at around $US1590 an ounce. It has then risen, week-on-week, to $US1618/oz, $US1643/oz, $US1675/oz, and most recently to around $US1739/oz.

If your investments are in US dollars you have just enjoyed a 9.4% rise in the value of your gold in 28 days which implies an annualised gain of around 112%.

There is only one word for a rise like that: wow!

There is also only one explanation. Investors are stampeding back into gold because they do not believe Europe has sorted out its debt mess, and they cannot see the point in keeping their money in US dollars which are yielding close to 0%, and with little hope of an increase until sometime beyond 2014.

But, if that’s the story for gold, what about copper, because it started the year at around $US3.35 a pound, and then progressively over the course of January (on a week by week basis) rose to $US3.43/lb, $US3.62, $US3.78/lb, and most recently $US3.84/lb.

If you invest in US dollars you have just enjoyed a 14.6% gain in the value of your copper in 28 days which implies an annualised gain of around 175%.

Currency factors alter the equation with Australian investors not doing so well given the rise in the value of their currency from $US1.01 at the start of the year to around $US1.06 now.

Trying to understand (let alone explain) the movements in the copper, gold and currency values is enough to make your head hurt, which is why so many sensible people can be seen shaking their head today.

Quite simply, it doesn’t make sense, and something has to give because the underlying economic fundamentals are not strong anywhere in the world, not even China, which is trying to deflate a property bubble, and switch its economy from over-reliance on exports to increased domestic consumption.

Of all the factors influencing the value of commodities, property, money (and just about anything else you care to name) it is hard to escape the cost of money and, the ultimate measure of the cost of money is the interest rate available on US government bonds.

That’s when the destructive power of 0% on deposits (and an ultra-low cost when borrowing) becomes the big issue because there is no incentive to put your money in a bank, and there’s no rush to borrow money to grow your business as the central bank has just signalled that rates will stay low for years. You can wait until you are convinced any recovery is genuine and will be long-lasting.

That’s why January’s mini-boom in copper could be a dead-cat bounce, and why gold’s mini-boom is the real thing – with more to come.