The surge in the price of gold has fueled a "gold rush"! Australian mining companies' exploration spending reached a 31-year high, betting that the bull market for gold is not yet at its end.

As gold prices skyrocketed to record highs this year, Australian mining companies are ramping up exploration efforts to search for new gold deposits. According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in the three months ending in September, Australian mining companies collectively spent AU$431.5 million (approximately US$238 million) on exploration, the highest quarterly exploration expenditure since 1994. Newmont Mining (NEM.US), Northern Star Resources, and Evolution Mining are the major gold producers in Australia. Warren Pearce, CEO of the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies in Australia, stated in a release, "Gold has proven itself to be exceptional and resilient in maintaining exploration interest, with recent high gold prices and ongoing global market uncertainty providing support." Gold prices have recently rebounded, partly due to renewed expectations of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. As of the time of writing, spot gold rose by 0.54% to $4,253.68 per ounce. Is the gold bull market far from over? Since the beginning of the year, from retail investors to hedge funds, various types of investors have turned to gold as a traditional safe haven asset during turbulent times, using it as a protective hedge against inflation risks, political fractures like those seen in the GEO Group Inc, and dollar devaluation. Central banks around the world have also entered the gold market, attracted by its high liquidity, lack of default risk, and roughly neutral status as a reserve asset. Driven by multiple factors, gold prices have risen by over 60% in the past year. Despite the substantial increase in gold prices, a survey by Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. shows that many investors believe that this precious metal will hit a new historical high of $5,000 per ounce before the end of 2026. In a survey conducted on Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.'s Marquee platform of over 900 institutional investor clients between November 12 and 14, 36% (the largest group) of respondents expect gold to maintain momentum and exceed $5,000 per ounce by the end of next year; another 33% of respondents predict that gold will rise to the range of $4,500 to $5,000 per ounce before the end of next year. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. concluded that over 70% of institutional investors expect gold to continue rising next year, slightly higher than 5% who believe that gold prices will fall to the range of $3,500 to $4,000 per ounce in the next 12 months. In the survey by Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., 38% of respondents believe that the main driving force behind the rise in gold prices comes from the continued buying of gold by central banks, while 27% of respondents attribute it to fiscal issues. Phil Streible, Chief Market Strategist at Blue Line Futures, also stated that the uptrend in gold prices may continue until 2026, with many countries facing the dual pressures of slowing growth and rising inflation, supporting gold prices. Other Wall Street institutions also have a similarly optimistic outlook. JPMorgan predicts that gold prices will surpass $5,055 per ounce in the fourth quarter of 2026. Morgan Stanley predicts that by the end of next year, gold prices will reach $4,400 per ounce. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft has raised its gold price forecast for 2026 from $4,000 per ounce to $4,450 per ounce, pointing out that under the push of structural factors tightening the market, gold prices may approach the $5,000 mark. In a November release of the "Precious Metals Report," Sprott Asset Management pointed out that the structural factors driving the rise in gold prices are far from depleted, and investors are selling assets such as bonds priced in dollars and stocks susceptible to currency devaluation effects, and turning to invest in precious metals and cryptocurrencies.