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China is probably growing in importance to the gold market the same way it is growing in importance to the global economy.

By contrast, the hegemonic dominance of the United States is continuing to deteriorate amid and the Middle East war having a very negative consequence for its global role. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

The gold market is being impacted by scam artists using AI to flood the internet with bad information and there's also a lot of misinformation about central banks buying much more gold than the correct level of about ten-million ounces a year.

The reason to be bullish on gold is that investment demand is up very sharply and is likely to grow further.

These and many more highlights have been brought to the fore in Mining Weekly's interview with precious metals analyst Jeffrey Christian, the MD of the CPM Group, which has just published its CPM Gold Yearbook 2026.

Mining Weekly: The chapter on central bank and dollar activity is particularly key. What should be read into it?

Christian: The gold price is at record levels. It's risen very strongly, primarily driven by investment demand. Central banks have been buying gold but given the secrecy and the opacity and the asymmetrical information in the gold market, there's a lot of misinformation about central banks. Central banks are buying about ten-million ounces a year, but you're hearing much higher numbers that are just not accurate. In addition to that, you keep hearing that the world is moving away from the dollar, that central banks are dumping the dollar, and that foreign investors are not investing in treasury bonds. The amount of dollars that central banks have now is very high. It's up 3% from a year ago or two years ago. It's up 6% on a decade ago, and the amount of treasury securities held by international and overseas investors and governments is also at record levels of more than $9-trillion.

It's been increasing at a record 11.6% per annum over the last two years and the dollar's exchange rate is up 6% or 8% from the beginning of 2025. It's still up 10% from the 2021 end of the covid lockdown, and it's up something like 40%, 45% from 2011 after the great recession and global financial crisis. So, the talk in the gold market about how the world's moving away from the dollar and dumping the dollar, and central banks are buying gold hand over fist, is just not true. That's not a reason to not be bullish on gold. The reason to be bullish on gold is that investment demand is up very sharply and is in fact at record levels. But if you understand and you have a more granular view of what's really going on, you might be a little bit less bullish about gold than you would otherwise, and you might have a more rational expectation of where the prices could be.

What impact is the Middle East crisis having gold and gold prospects?

You've seen oil prices rise, although not as much as perhaps one would have thought, and you've seen gold and silver and platinum prices fall, and it's kind of weird that you would see increased political tensions, but lower precious metals prices. I think those lower prices partly reflect that you had a lot of new investors pour into gold in the period September through January, and some of that money has come out of the gold market, because the gold price rose from $4 000/oz to $5 500/oz and it's still at $4 700 /oz, so we've seen some investors backing away. That war, and the potential for it, continues to fester, and it could drive gold prices up in the short term, but I think in the long term, it has a very negative consequence for the role of the United States in the world, which sort of sounds diametrically opposed to what I was just saying. The world right now is still beholden to...