This past quarter, gold hasn’t just glittered – surpassing nearly every record and putting producers directly into the sunshine – it has beamed, similar to a lighthouse in a stormy financial sea.
Amid choppy markets and deepening global uncertainty, the precious metal has become a compass for investors navigating volatile markets.
Since the beginning of 2025, gold has charted an impressive course, rising 23.27% and smashing through 28 all-time records in just four months.
In Q2 2025 alone, gold’s price increased just shy of 6%, setting sail into the new financial year at $5,037.68 per ounce as previously reported.
“The gold price is a rising tide, lifting all ships,” says Campbell Olsen, CEO of North Stawell Minerals (ASX:NSM), who sees the current market’s momentum as more than a passing squall.
Cassiar Gold (TSX-V:GLDC) CEO Marco Roque notes that this rally has been powered by a unique convergence of forces; central bank buying, sovereign wealth funds, and Asian retail investors.
“Actually, this combination has never been seen before. For the first time, it’s not western investors leading the charge on the metal,” Roque tells this news service.
Flood or flow?
Interestingly, policy tailwinds from China, including government support for gold investment across new sectors like insurance, appear to have set a new heading for local demand.
According to State Street Investment Management, these policies may have signalled a rebound in local buying activity, contributing to gold’s enhancement.
Speaking to Mining.com.au, Midas Discovery Fund Portfolio Manager Tim Winmill says there are numerous factors that are driving the gold price.
“Gold buying by central banks of creditor nations, such as China, as they seek to diversify out of the USD, due to its recent weaponisation in sanctions, tariffs, etcetera, and due to the US Government’s fiscal policy of massive deficit spending and debts,” Winmill says.
State Street Investment Management highlights the long-term role of central banks as a steady tailwind – purchasing over 1,000 tonnes of gold per year since the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022.
The Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR) outlines this surge in demand, linking it to growing investor concern over the US’ deteriorating fiscal outlook and the broader fog of geopolitical risk.
Analysts are saying that what we are witnessing is not just a passing rally, but the dawn of a new super cycle in the gold market.
Rising tides
Speaking to Mining.com.au, Antipa Minerals (ASX:AZY) CEO Roger Mason says the macroeconomic environment has continued to support gold as a strategic asset class.
“We believe what we’ve seen so far is not a short-term spike, but a structural revaluation,” Mason says.
“With gold continuing to make new highs, we believe the market is entering a sustained upward cycle.”
Escalating conflicts, notably between Israel and Iran, have heightened investor demand for gold as a safe-haven asset.
Rua Gold (TSX-V:RUA) CEO Robert Eckford believes the market will continue to see the same that has been seen over the last six months into the back end of 2025 and beyond.
“Government spending worldwide is still unchecked, everywhere you look there are more deficits, more money printing and more devaluation of currency,” Eckford says.
“From this, investors are going back to the tried and tested store of wealth which is gold and it may ripsaw up and down with fed rate decisions and geopolitical instability but overall the trend will continue upwards for the foreseeable future.”
As Q3 2025 has come in full force, the question isn’t about whether gold can stay afloat — it’s how far it may sail on these ruthless winds.
Buoyant market in chopper waters
New gold discoveries are continually expanding the map and opening new harbours of opportunity, as Opawica Explorations (TSX-V:OPW) CEO Blake Morgan says millions of new ounces are being discovered and new mines are being permitted.
“I like regions that are proven, mines are found in the shadows of other mines. I think I heard my grandfather rattle on about that many years ago. But to this day, he isn’t wrong,” Morgan says.
“Abitibi, Québec, is my pick. The Abibiti is one of the most prolific gold bearing regions on earth with over 170 million ounces produced.”
Opawica’s assets are located within a 10km radius of seven active producing mines, situated along the Cadillac-Larder Lake Fault. The Bazooka Project is adjacent to the Wasamac property which boasts a gold resource of 1.767 million ounces.
Meanwhile in the Southern Hemisphere, the outlook is equally buoyant.
“If you are involved in the gold industry, particularly in Australia, at the moment, then you are having the best time of your career,” says North Stawell’s Campbell Olsen.
North Stawell is a Victoria-focused gold explorer planning to accelerate exploration and drilling operations at its Darlington and Lubeck Tip tenements, in conjunction with reviewing and progressing Wildwood and other prospects.
“We believe a number of our projects have potential and can be moved through to production relatively quickly given our relationship with the nearby mine,” Olsen says.
Antipa Minerals shares a similar sentiment, as Mason explains that the strength in the gold price during H1 2025 has been a “significant tailwind” for the sector.
“Investor appetite has clearly shifted in favour of gold names,” he tells this news service.
“For Antipa, this convergence of strong gold pricing and growing recognition of Paterson’s tier one potential has underpinned renewed engagement from both institutional and strategic investors.
“Our wholly owned Minyari Project is certainly seen as key to the next wave of production in the province.”
The Minyari Project – which contains a resource of 2.5 million ounces of gold, 84,000 tonnes of copper, 666,000 ounces of silver and 13,000 tonnes of cobalt – is forecast to have a 10-year initial processing life with a nameplate throughput of 3 million tonnes per year.
Antipa recently announced plans to conduct a Prefeasibility Study for Minyari, with various technical and non-technical workstreams advancing to de-risk and refine the project’s development opportunity.
Across the Tasman Sea, Rua Gold’s Eckford says New Zealand is emerging as a new destination on gold’s global voyage.
“Its an amazing turn around in the mining space that we’re seeing, the pro-mining government and the put permitting times being slashed six months is game changing for anyone with a project there and we’re very excited about the outlook,” he says.
Rua Gold owns a district-scale land package, covering more than 120,000 hectares, in the Reefton Goldfields in the South Island of New Zealand. The gold-focused explorer recently completed a capital raise of C$13.8 million to fund exploration across its New Zealand projects.
A golden buoy
Gold continues to sail through volatile markets, rough fiscal conditions, and geopolitical cross winds, not just staying afloat, but proving itself sea worthy.
Cassiar Gold’s CEO Marco Roque says all tides lead to a higher gold price.
“I think we’re in a consolidation phase right now,” Although we never know where the gold price is going to end. It can be anywhere really,” Roque says.
Meanwhile, Renforth Resources (CSE:RFR) CEO Nicole Brewster describes gold’s future as “bright”.
“I don’t think there’s any expectation that, given the geopolitical realities we live with, the price of gold is going to go down too far,” Brewster tells Mining.com.au.
“As long as the central banks are buying it, I don’t think we have to worry about the price of gold retrenching drastically.”
In the World Gold Council’s 2025 Central Bank Gold Reserves survey, 95% of respondents believe that gold central bank reserves will increase over the next 12 months, while also this year, a record 43% of respondents believe that their own gold reserves will also increase over the same period.
Interestingly, the World Gold Council reveals that none of the survey respondents anticipated a decline in their gold reserves.
Morgan says “gold is just getting started in my opinion and should make for a very exciting next 18 months”.
As Q3 2025 unfolds, the forecast for gold seems to be far from stormy.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: North Stawell Minerals, ABC Bullion, Rua Gold, Opawica
