As gold prices pushed to fresh records this month, a veteran British Columbia geologist says the metal’s appeal remains straightforward, even as investors debate whether the rally has gone too far.
“Gold price is rocketing,” Clayton Jones of Trailbreaker Resources Ltd. said in an interview at the Association for Mineral Exploration’s AME Roundup in Vancouver on Jan. 26.
Spot gold broke above US$5,200 a troy ounce on Wednesday, extending a surge that has added more than 20 per cent since the start of the year, according to market reporting by Reuters.
A historic rally
The move follows a year of strong gains. Bullion rose about 64 per cent in 2025, its biggest annual increase since 1979, as investors sought protection from geopolitical risk, currency volatility and expectations that U.S. interest rates could fall.
Jones, a geologist who said he has spent about a decade with Trailbreaker, linked the market’s pull to a familiar set of motivations, from wealth preservation to the practical uses that keep demand broad.
Asked what B.C. gold is ultimately used for, Jones said, “I’m assuming wealth. The countries are buying it to hedge against the U.S. dollar, [or] jewelry, electronics.”
Gold’s modern investment case has widened beyond coin shops and bullion dealers. Investors can buy exposure through futures markets and exchange traded funds backed by physical metal.
Central banks and ‘mystical allure’
The World Gold Council reported central banks added 1,045 tonnes to global gold reserves in 2024, marking a third straight year of purchases above 1,000 tonnes.
Beyond macroeconomics, gold’s attraction is also cultural, psychological and, at times, stubbornly hard to quantify. The metal has a “mystical allure,” says economist John Rapley, who has argued gold’s value is reinforced by social belief, a self-sustaining logic that persists even in modern financial systems.
For Jones, that enduring status is part of the point.
“Gold is gold. It’ll always be gold,” he said.
The B.C. context
Still, the enthusiasm can collide with the practical realities of bringing ounces to market. Jones said exploration companies continue to cycle through prospects, with regulatory friction a persistent constraint.
“Permitting is always tough,” he said, adding his company has multiple projects it hopes to advance this year.
In British Columbia, gold production is anchored by a mix of long running operations, newer mines and a pipeline of proposed projects, particularly in the Northwest.
The B.C. Geological Survey reported two metal mines operated in the province’s Northwest Region in 2024, the Brucejack gold silver mine and the Red Chris copper gold mine, and noted placer gold mining continues, predominantly in the Atlin and Turnagain areas.
In 2024, production through the third quarter came to 52,241 ounces of gold, alongside copper output, reflecting the province’s significant gold byproduct stream from copper gold systems.
B.C.’s mining and mineral industries, which include gold, produced an estimated $16.7 billion worth of mine products in 2024 and contributed about $6.8 billion to provincial GDP, according to a provincial critical minerals brochure.
Whether the rally continues will depend on the same forces that pushed gold higher, including geopolitical risk, the U.S. dollar and interest rate expectations. For now, Jones said, the market’s message is that investors are paying attention.
“I feel like we are being rewarded right now with interest,” he said.
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