I wish I had an ounce of gold for every time somebody told me an ounce of gold was a dumb thing to buy.

I wish I had listened to Pierre Lassonde.

I first wrote about Lassonde in August 2003 when gold prices soared to a then-unthinkable $375 an ounce.

Lassonde told me he had 60% of his liquid assets invested in the precious metal and claimed it had nowhere to go but up. By up, he meant, $500, $1,000 and then maybe even $6,500 an ounce.

"One thing I know for sure is that gold is going to have three zeros after the first number," he said. "I just don't know how big that number is going to be."

Some of my colleagues, sources and readers, scoffed as I touted this bold speculation.

Lassonde was then president of Denver, Colo.,-based Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM), one of the world's largest gold companies. He'd also written: "Gold Book: The Complete Investment Guide to Precious Metals." So maybe he was just another gold bug talking up his business.