Peak Gold? No: Peak Gold Production? Perhaps

Last September, Bloomberg reported We're Reaching Peak Gold.

The world may have already produced the most gold in a year it ever will, according to the chairman of the World Gold Council.

Production is likely to plateau at best, before slowly declining as demand rises, especially given global political risks and robust purchases by consumers in India and China, Randall Oliphant said in an interview Monday.

“It’s not clear how the whole U.S. political system will play out,” said Oliphant, an industry veteran who’s been an executive at some of the world’s biggest gold miners. “All this uncertainty seems very fertile ground for people to get into gold.”

“We’re not going to fall off a cliff in the near term, but in the same time it’s really hard to see how we’re going to produce enough gold to meet all this demand,” Oliphant said.

Meeting Demand

The last statement by Oliphant, the chairman of the World Gold Conference is absurd.

There is ample gold to meet demand. Unlike energy or silver, gold is not used up.

Nearly every ounce of gold ever mined is still in existence. The exchanges would not run out of gold even if production fell to zero tomorrow and stayed that way for the next decade.

What’s the Real Long-Term Driver for Gold?

Most analysts are totally clueless about gold and gold markets. They cite jewelry, mining production, central bank sales, and all sorts of other irrelevant factors in their analysis.

If you really want to understand what gold is all about, I suggest you read an interview on Gold Switzerland with Robert Blumen: “What’s really key for the price formation of gold?”

Blumen discusses assets vs. consumption, mine supply, jewelry, marginal demand, the alleged (and nonexistent “gold deficit”), and sentiment.

Reserve Exhaustion

Gold will not run out, but gold mining companies can and do exhaust their reserves. If reserves drop to a level where production no longer makes any sense, the company goes out of business.

Therefore, the major mining companies are always on the lookout to replenish reserves.

Glimpse of the Future

John Rubino tackles the reserves idea in a Glimpse of Precious Metal Mining’s Future: Hecla Buys Klondex for 59% Premium.

Big gold and silver miners have a problem: They’re evaporating. Each year they take more metal out of the ground than they discover, which brings them ever-closer to the end of the road. They know it and their shareholders know it, which means their stock prices tend to languish in the shadow of falling production and depressed future earnings.

The solution? Buy out junior miners sitting on resources big enough to arrest the majors’ decline. There aren’t that many such juniors, which points to a bidding war as the best are snapped up and the rest rise in sympathy.

The Trick

The trick is to find undervalued junior miners that are likely to be bought out.

Good management teams are critical. Look for companies where drilling is about to begin or has already begun as opposed to buying companies that promise to find something.

Many companies do nothing but provide perpetual shareholder dilution selling shares and raising money to stay in business.

It takes effort. Newsletters can be helpful. So can following the news.

Rubino mentions five possible plays.

My opinion?

1. Do own due diligence.
2. Stay away from nonsense like this: Harry Dent Warns of "$700 Gold by 2018"