Record high gold prices may bring old mines back
Mining companies may bring closed mine sites back to life if elevated gold prices continue to prevail, according to the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP).
“This may incentivize our gold miners to boost output in order to optimize profits, expedite operations, and, if the price trend persists, even reopen closed mines,” COMP chair Michael Toledo told the Inquirer.
COMP made a similar remark in February, saying that rising gold prices will encourage local miners to increase output to boost earnings.
Toledo said the yellow metal’s price broke through the $3,000 per ounce level in mid-March as opposed to the mid-year projected by the COMP during its policy forum held last year.
“We stated in the same September forum that experts even predicted that the price of gold may hit $5,000,” he said.
“This might happen if supply chains are adversely impacted by the growing rift between the [United States] and its trading partners, as well as if other geopolitical issues, including the Russia-Ukraine war, persists,” he added.
Toledo noted that investors gravitate toward “safe” assets such as gold during geopolitical and economic uncertainties.
A report from Reuters said that although gold prices remained at the $3,000 per ounce mark, it dropped by almost 3 percent on Friday as investors unloaded their gold to recoup losses from “a wider market meltdown as an intensifying trade war sparked concerns of a global recession.”
The report said spot gold prices dropped to $3,024.2 per ounce, away from the high of $3,167.57 an ounce recorded on Thursday.
Meanwhile, US gold futures slipped by 2.8 percent to $3,035.40.
Research firm BMI, a unit of Fitch Solutions, said reciprocal tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump early this month rocked commodity markets, with almost all commodity sub-asset classes displaying losses and dragging down the Bloomberg Commodity Index.
However, gold has gained from escalating trade tensions and BMI expects this precious metal “to have further room to run and anticipate significant volatility as global markets remain on edge.”
