Wheaton Precious Metals president and chief executive, Randy Smallwood. (Photo: Wheaton Precious Metals)
Gold could climb to $5,000 an ounce within a year and double that by the end of the decade, according to the head of Wheaton Precious Metals Corp.
“I’m confident that we will see gold over $5,000 within the next year,” chief executive officer Randy Smallwood said Friday in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “It’s a trajectory that could easily put it up to $10,000 an ounce before the end of the decade. It wouldn’t surprise me at all.”
Smallwood’s bullish outlook comes after spot gold hit fresh records this week, surpassing $4,000 an ounce. Silver also rallied toward a record above $50 amid a historic supply squeeze in London vaults.
“We’ve been operating in a deficit mode in the silver market for a long time,” Smallwood said. Vaulted silver has been feeding the deficit but now those vaults are “running dry.”
Wheaton, which provides upfront financing to miners in exchange for discounted future output, has benefited from the surge in bullion prices as investors flock to precious metals, driven by mounting geopolitical risks and tight physical supply.
(By Veena Ali-Khan, Matthew Miller and Dani Burger)