USD $4,127.96
Wayne McCrae Demand so high, may outprice gold — US$10,000 an ounce?
Platinum the runaway winner with a +100% increase in 6 months, outshining both its buddies Gold and Silver.
Why is platinum in runaway mode?
Simply put, platinum is in demand because the supply line is only 170 tonnes of global production per year.
Gold: 3,700 tonnes per year.
Silver—well, it’s like salt in the ocean; it’s everywhere, and even this abundant metal has risen from US$29 an ounce to US$71 an ounce during the year.
The main supply of silver is as a by-product from lead and zinc mines.
Platinum is a big metal in the jewellery trade, retailing at double the gold price.
So manufacturers are buying all the platinum. The biggest buyer of platinum now is China.
Six months ago platinum was trading in the US$900–US$1,000 per ounce range. At that time it was only one-quarter of the gold price. Who would have thought?
Now, just under half a year later, it is moving up in price very quickly. Why? Because supply has dried up completely. Analysts predict that due to supply shortages and industrial demand, platinum could quite easily overtake gold.
Platinum is used in a variety of industries—not least renewables, circuitry for rockets, high-powered computers, car catalytic converters, AI, and more. Then there is platinum for jewellery.
Then add the cost of mining and processing platinum.
There are three prime sources of platinum: South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Russia.
South Africa, the largest producer, supplies 144 metric tonnes of the total 170 tonnes. Mining is conducted kilometres underground, extracting seams sometimes only 2–3 inches wide, with costs rising rapidly and fatalities increasing.
The cost to produce one fine ounce (31.1 grams) of platinum is the same cost as producing one fine ounce of gold.
If Australia was producing any real quantity of platinum, the cost for mining and production would be US$2,300–US$2,700 per ounce—more than the current price of platinum. A “platinum-only” mine in Australia would not survive a day.
The same applies to silver.
The cost to mine and produce silver is the same as producing gold in Australia and most of the world. A stand-alone silver mine in Australia would require a grade of not less than 25 ounces (770 grams) per tonne just to break even.
So mining silver as a stand-alone operation in Australia is only a pipe dream.
The Cannington silver mine, south of Cloncurry, when owned by BHP until the merger with South32, was the world’s largest silver mine. Silver was produced as a by-product from 10.6% lead and 4.6% zinc, with grades of 460–640 grams per tonne, later reduced to 150 grams per tonne in 2020.
Even as the largest silver producer in the world, it was not sustainable as a stand-alone silver mine, even at grades up to 640 grams per tonne.
For a silver mine to stand alone in the Western world, silver would need to trade at US$100 per ounce, with grades of not less than 1,000 grams per tonne.
MY FORECAST IS:
Gold price (end 2026):
US$5,500 – US$10,000 per ounce
(Don’t laugh at the range.) It may seem optimistic, but with trillions of dollars floating around the world trying to find a home, it is more likely than unlikely that gold trades even beyond these forecasts. Expect the unexpected.
Platinum forecast price (end 2026):
US$3,500 – US$25,000 per ounce
Why? Because platinum is 22 times more rare than gold, far more difficult to mine and process, and heavily concentrated in South Africa—the largest global producer. The mines are owned by white-controlled mining companies, while political pressure in South Africa continues to escalate. Remove white ownership, and platinum production collapses.
The mines are extremely deep, fatalities are common, and black uprisings have already occurred at some operations. Platinum is mined in seams only 2–3 inches thick, kilometres beneath the Earth’s crust. It will take only a couple of major strikes for platinum supply to dwindle rapidly.
In 2024, there was a production shortfall of 929,000 ounces. Bullion dealers cannot even source physical platinum and are now trading paper instead. As usual, paper markets will turn to dust when physical delivery is required—and that is the big kicker for platinum to outpace and overtake the gold price.
Silver forecast (end 2026):
US$50 – US$250 per ounce
Silver is arguably the most dangerous, volatile metal to trade due to its abundance and availability, even when trading in 1,000-ounce bars as silver has a history of massive price collapses, due to its oversupply and abundance due to it being produced in the main, as being a by-product metal.. However, it remains the poor man’s gold and is now attracting large buyers from the jewellery trade, as gold and platinum become unaffordable.
These forecasts are based on KitcoGold’s own research into supply and demand, global production, mining and processing costs, geopolitical conflicts, and the increasing use of precious metals as a safe haven against currency devaluation.
These forecasts should not be read as financial advice, and we do not recommend buying or selling any of these metals.
In today’s world, it’s every man for himself.
You make your own decisions based on your own due diligence, investigation, and research.
