Precious metals are wrapping up a record-setting week once again.
Silver was in the spotlight, pushing past US$46 per ounce, a price not seen since 2011. At that level, it’s up about 55 percent year-to-date, a better performance than gold.
Still, gold’s price activity is nothing to sneeze at. The yellow metal had another record-setting week, this time getting close to US$3,800 per ounce. It continues to see support from a variety of underlying factors, but turning heads this week was the news that China is looking to boost its position in the global gold market by becoming a custodian of foreign sovereign gold reserves.
People familiar with the matter said that in recent months the Asian nation has been approaching central banks in ‘friendly’ countries with the aim of encouraging them to buy gold and store it in China. Experts see the move as yet another part of the de-dollarization trend.
If China is successful, foreign gold reserves would be held in custodian warehouses linked to the international board of the Shanghai Gold Exchange. The board was set up by the People’s Bank of China in 2014, and is where foreign entities trade gold with Chinese counterparts.
Also relevant for gold this week were comments from US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. During a Providence, Rhode Island, speech on Tuesday (September 23), he indicated that the central bank will take a cautious approach to interest rates after last week’s 25 basis point cut.
The Fed has faced ongoing calls from US President Donald Trump to make bigger cuts more quickly, and while Powell continues to resist pressure, CME Group’s (NASDAQ:CME) Fedwatch tool still shows that a reduction is highly likely at the Fed’s October meeting.
With gold trading at or near all-time highs, a key question for investors is whether the price has more room to run. I’ve been speaking with a variety experts about that topic, and I encourage you to go check out the interviews on our YouTube channel to hear their full thoughts.
For now I’ll sum up the view points I’ve been hearing most often.
First and foremost, the message I’ve been getting is that gold’s run is not over — US$4,000, which once sounded like a fairly distant number, is now only US$200 to US$300 away, and many market watchers see it getting there by the end of the year, if not sooner.
Prices beyond US$4,000 are also being talked about as attainable.
There is of course a caveat, and that is that nothing can go straight up, including gold. Especially now after its rapid upward momentum, the broad consensus is that a correction is all but guaranteed, and perhaps soon. Here’s how Steve Barton of In It To Win It explained it:
‘I would be pretty shocked if we got up to US$4,000 and didn’t have some type of corrective move. I suppose anything’s possible — we blew through US$3,750, I didn’t expect that. So maybe it’ll go on up. But we’re getting pretty stretched here.’
Bullet briefing — Freeport drops, Lithium Americas spikes
Copper up on Freeport force majeure
Copper prices were on the rise this week after major miner Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) declared force majeure at its Indonesia-based Grasberg copper-gold mine.
Grasberg has been offline since September 8, when around 800,000 metric tons of mud flowed into underground levels at the operation. Seven employees went missing during the incident, with two now confirmed to have died; search efforts continue for the other five.
Freeport has cut its copper and gold sales guidance for the third quarter of the year, and expects to defer ‘significant’ production in Q4 as well as 2026. Preliminary assessments suggest that Grasberg may not return to pre-incident operating rates until 2027.
The company’s share price took a dive on the back of the news.
Putting the impact into context, Bloomberg notes that prior to the disruption, Grasberg accounted for about 3.2 percent of copper mine supply this year, as well as 30 percent of Freeport’s copper output and 70 percent of its gold production.
Lithium Americas shares spike
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Nevada-focused Lithium Americas (TSX:LAC,NYSE:LAC) saw its share price spike over 100 percent this week after Reuters reported that the Trump administration may be gearing up to take a 10 percent equity stake in the company.
Lithium Americas finalized a US$2.26 billion loan from the US Department of Energy last year, but the government has been looking to renegotiate terms due to concerns about low lithium prices.
Lithium Americas reportedly proposed a change in the loan’s amortization schedule, with the request for an equity stake in the company coming during those discussions.
Reuters states that to secure its funding, Lithium Americas offered the government no-cost warrants that would equate to 5 to 10 percent of its common shares.
The loan is tied to the company’s Thacker Pass lithium project, which is set to open in 2028.
‘President Trump supports this project. He wants it to succeed and also be fair to taxpayers. But there’s no such thing as free money,’ an anonymous White House official told the news outlet.
Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.