By Robb M. Stewart

While the price of gold appears to be well supported even after its jump this year to a series of fresh highs, heightened volatility is likely in store for the precious metal, Barrick Mining Chief Executive Mark Bristow said.

The price of gold, alongside strength in copper which Barrick also produced, buoyed the Toronto-based miner's earnings in the first quarter of the year.

The average gold price realized by Barrick was 38% higher in the first quarter than the same period of 2024, and the price for its copper was up 17% year-over-year as the market price for the industrial metal also appreciated. Market prices for gold jumped in the first quarter and hit more than a dozen closing highs in that time.

The strength has been driven by buying by central banks in countries such as China as they have sought to reduce exposure to the U.S. dollar, a process that Bristow said may have gone a little further than most people anticipated. At the same time there has been moves by investors to perceived safe-haven assets such as gold bullion or gold-backed exchange traded funds.

"I think there is a real worry when you boil it down that the Western World is highly indebted to the point where it isn't sustainable," Bristow said. "I think the efficiencies in most economies are poor, and that is manifesting in very clear risk-on gold purchases, in physical gold."

That will continue to support the metal, though Bristow expects the sharp swings in the gold price of $100 an ounce or more in the last couple week will continue for a metal that until recently has seen fairly steady moves.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 07, 2025 12:52 ET (16:52 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.