Auteur : mining.com

Global gold mine production growth will rebound in the coming years underpinned by higher gold prices and mergers between major mining firms, market analyst Fitch Solutions forecasts in its latest industry report.

Major mergers among global miners and an improving gold price outlook will boost global mine supply in the coming quarters, and Fitch forecasts global gold production to increase from 106moz in 2020 to 134moz by 2029, averaging 2.5% annual growth.

Gold prices are expected to break out of the current narrow trading range and soar through 2021 as the coronavirus recession gives way to higher inflation, analysts at Goldman Sachs say.

Bullion hovered around $1,900/oz over the past few weeks after its summer rally to record highs fizzled out. While uncertainty surrounding the US election fueled a brief rally, positive news of covid-19 vaccine trials have pushed investors out of safe havens and into riskier assets.

Investors don’t really have a handle on what gold is or what it represents. Many erroneously believe gold is some sort of inflation hedge, because of our experience in the 1970s. It’s also not a hedge against stock market crashes, as we discovered in March.

Gold is a hedge on government authorities making poor economic choices. Inflation is usually the result of those poor decisions, but people confuse cause and effect here. Gold is a hedge on policymakers screwing up, and there has been a lot of screwing up in the last 20 years.