Thursday, November 12, 2009

Peak Gold - a shortage of the precious metal?

Provocative article on the gold market in the Telegraph, Barrick shuts hedge fund book as world gold supply runs out. Gold production has been falling by about 1 million ounces a year for this decade and the quality of the ore has fallen. (Ore grade has fallen from 12 grams per tonne to 3 grams in the some major mining areas since 1950.) Less supply at higher cost. We may have hit peak gold at exactly the time that more people want it as a substitute for fiat money. There is no reason for a mining company to run a hedge book under the type of environment.

You have emerging market central banks bigger buyers of gold. Central banks used o be the largest sellers of gold especially those int he EU, but now gold is being shuffled between central banks. If central banks want to diversify their foreign exchange holding as a percentage their total then it would be a significant increase in gold holding only because the amount of fiat money is higher.

Those with excess foreign exchange reserves are trading paper money for a hard asset. Gold ETF's what some have called the "People's Central Bank" is now the fifth largest holder of gold bullion at 1778 tonnes.

Short of a decline in money outstanding, there is little reason to see a significant reversal of the gold price increase.

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