GOLD has reached an all-time Australian dollar high, after soaring past $1900poz to reach a peak of $1906 on June 4.
It marks an increase of more than $50 within a seven-day period in reaction to China-US tension and a weak Australian dollar.
Since 2015, industry has been coming to terms with the global depletion of gold deposits.
This has seen a steady rise in international gold prices, with the increased scarcity of the resource driving demand and creating new giants in the industry, like the Newmont Gold Corp merger at the beginning of the year.
This scarcity has been coupled with fears that the China-US trade war will spill over into the wider investment market.
Historically, gold has rallied when economic tensions threaten the security of paper-based investments.
These two factors have collided with a particularly weak Australian dollar – it is hanging on to US0.69c by its fingernails.
This couldn’t come at a better time for Australian gold miners, especially Gold Road’s Gruyere gold mine, set to begin production within the week.
As the world’s second largest gold producer, Australia’s gold industry is set to be worth significantly more than the $22b predicted in March by the Resources and Energy Quarterly if prices continue to rise.
But it’s not all good news.
Kirkland Lake has rued the imposition of a 2.75pc gold royalty on Victorian gold producers, fearing it will impact the viability of its Fosterville mine long term, as well as the security of the Victorian industry as a whole.
Gascoyne Resources has gone into voluntary administration with directors and executives quitting just weeks after shareholders raised $24m to prop up the failing miner, and Dacian Gold, the “darling” of the WA market, has crashed.
The company’s shares haemorrhaged overnight losing 92.5c, about 58pc of their value after downgrading its production guidance twice in two months.
