According to World Gold Council, global investment demand for gold climbed to a record 2,175 tonnes in 2025, defying prices that have nearly tripled since 2020 and marking the strongest year on record for investor buying. The surge reflects heightened geopolitical risk and policy uncertainty linked to renewed trade tensions under US President Donald Trump, which have weakened confidence in US Treasuries and increased demand for assets perceived as stores of value.
Despite gold setting more than 50 new price highs during the year, investors continued to allocate capital to the metal. Analysts note that the persistence of trade disputes and a more polarised international environment have raised risk premia across asset classes, sustaining the case for defensive positioning. As reported by Reuters, this shift has been accompanied by reduced appetite for bonds and the dollar, reinforcing gold’s role as an alternative reserve asset in portfolios.
The rally has placed South Africa’s largest gold producers in a stronger financial position. AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields together account for more than a tenth of the market value of the JSE’s ten biggest companies, with both stocks having roughly tripled over the past year. Higher cash flows have translated into renewed capital spending. AngloGold has committed additional investment at its Geita mine in Tanzania to expand reserves by about 60%, while Gold Fields plans to spend roughly $2bn over five years to lift output to around three million ounces.
Producers have also used the upswing to diversify. Harmony Gold completed a $1bn acquisition of Australia’s CSA copper mine, adding an estimated 40,000 tonnes of copper production to its portfolio and reducing reliance on a single commodity. The improved investment climate has drawn foreign capital back into South Africa’s gold sector, with Australia’s West Wits Mining developing Qala Shallows, the country’s first new underground gold mine in 15 years.
The composition of demand has shifted over the course of the rally. Central banks initially drove purchases as wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East unsettled financial markets. More recently, exchange-traded fund inflows have overtaken official sector buying. ETF investors added more than 800 tonnes in 2025, more than three times the amount acquired by central banks. Bar and coin purchases reached their highest level in more than a decade, indicating broader retail participation.
As investors rotated out of fixed income and the US currency, the total value of gold investment more than doubled to about $240bn last year. Higher prices have also stimulated supply. Global mine output rose 1% to a record 3,672 tonnes, while producers reduced hedging activity to around 120 tonnes in order to maintain exposure to elevated spot prices. According to Bloomberg, margins at major miners remain supportive of sustained production, even as costs rise in energy and labour.