Gold will hit $2,000 an ounce within decade, says Jim Rogers

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold prices, which just reached a new record high above $1,060 an ounce Thursday, will top $2,000 in a decade, according to Jim Rogers, a famed investor known for his bullish calls on commodities.

Rogers, speaking Thursday at the sidelines in a conference held by ETF Securities in New York, said gold prices will keep rising as a protection against a weaker U.S. dollar.

The dollar "is a terribly flawed" currency, he said. "Foreign debts are increasing rapidly every year, and I don't think Washington seems to care."

Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, said prices of other commodities, such as oil, copper, and sugar, will continue to rise in the long term as the world will face more demand but shrinking supplies.

"There was very, very few new production capacity brought on line in the past 30 years for commodities," he said. "We have shortages developing throughout the world."

Demand, meanwhile, is on the rise, especially from Asia, he said.

"Thirty years ago, the last time we had a bull market in commodities, Asia was not in the game," said Rogers, who moved from New York to Singapore in late 2007. "And now they are all trying to live like we do."

"If you are going to diversify [your portfolio,] it's got to be commodities, because they will go in a different direction from your other assets," he said.

Rogers's remarks came as commodities prices, after suffering a big slump in the second half of last year and early this year, have mostly rebounded.

Oil prices, which tumbled below $35 a barrel in February, recently rose to as high as $75 a barrel. Crude futures ended Thursday's trading up 3% at $71.69 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. See Futures Movers.

Gold futures, meanwhile, made a fresh record high Thursday for the third session in a row. SPDR Gold Trust /quotes/comstock/13*!gld/quotes/nls/gld (GLD 102.96, -0.68, -0.66%) , the biggest gold exchange-traded fund, ended at $103.64. See Metals Stocks.

Rogers, who also wrote several books including "Hot Commodities" and "A Bull in China," said he owned gold futures, ETFs, and physical gold.

"I like gold," he said in the interview, pulling a Chinese Panda gold coin from his pocket.

While bullish on gold, Rogers said silver and palladium will perform even better.

"There are better opportunities in silver and palladium," he said. "Silver is still 70% below its all-time high," while palladium, standing at around $310 an ounce, is also much lower than its high above $1,000 an ounce hit in early 2001.

Rogers said he owns all four major precious metals: gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. He also owns currencies such as the Japanese yen and the Singapore dollar and agriculture commodities such as sugar.

A native of Demopolis, Ala., Rogers co-founded the Quantum Fund in the early 1970s with George Soros.

He retired in the 1980s at age 37. While continuing to manage his own portfolio, he embarked on two round-the-world voyages, concluding the most recent in 2001.

In 1998 he founded the Rogers International Commodity Index, which consists of 36 commodities, including some not traded on U.S. exchanges such as azuki beans, silk, rubber, and wool. The index has risen 13% this year.

Moming Zhou is a MarketWatch reporter based in New