Jordan Eliseo, general manager of ABC Bullion Australia, said demand was so strong that “more often than not there are queues of people lining up to buy outside” the company’s Sydney store on Martin Place. Similar queues have also been reported forming at the Perth Mint.
“It’s just extraordinary,” Eliseo said.
Eliseo said one of ABC’s most popular products had been its 10-gram bar, which is about one-third of the weight, and cost, of a traditional ounce bar. Currently those bars sell for about $2000.
Eliseo said other products, such as a direct debit program that allows customers to invest in gold at $50 a month, had experienced an “explosion” in demand. “It’s gone up by a factor of five in the last 12 months, it’s popular for people without huge capital.”
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There has also been a jump in people investing in gold through exchange-traded funds (ETFs). There was a 125 per cent increase in the number of customers trading in Australian gold ETFs from 2024 to 2025, according to NAB.
While visitors to ABC Bullion’s stores include those cashing in to sell their gold, the vast majority are buyers, Eliseo said. “Right now it’s very much a buyers’ market,” he said.
Who is buying gold?
Eliseo said the customers lining up at its store represented a range of investor types, with the number of accounts opened to buy gold over the past month running at more than triple the numbers than usual.
“You’re seeing mum-and-dad investors, you’re also seeing younger Australians beginning their wealth journey – they’re quite happy to start with gold as they can see other assets looking perhaps a bit more shaky.
“There’s also been a huge surge in demand from self-funded retirees, that’s been a huge growth area for demand,” Eliseo said.
Agata Pawlak with a 400oz gold cast bar at ABC Bullion in Sydney. Photo: Dylan Coker / The Sydney Morning HeraldCredit: Dylan Coker
Will jewellery and electronics become more expensive?
Allan Trench, a professor of mineral and energy economics at the University of Western Australia’s business school, said that the skyrocketing price of gold would make products that rely on it more expensive.
“Let’s say you had a gold necklace that had an ounce of gold in it. The cost of making that necklace has increased by at least the increase in the cost of gold as a commodity. Then you incorporate the premium for the item of jewellery’s aesthetic form,” he said.
“The cost of inputs has gone up, therefore the price of goods that use it will go up,” Trench said.
Global gold demand reached 4975 tonnes in 2024, according to the World Gold Council, with jewellery accounting for about 2000 tonnes of demand, while investment in gold bars and coins made up about 1180 tonnes and central banks bought about 1045 tonnes.
Gold was also used for electronics that rely on gold for components, accounting for about 326 tonnes, followed by other industrial uses, as well as dentistry, which required about nine tonnes of gold globally in 2024.
Consumers should brace themselves for rising jewellery prices.Credit:
Not only is the jewellery industry most reliant on gold, the amount of gold used to produce necklaces and rings is far larger than the tiny amounts used as electronic components, Trench said.
“In the context of an iPhone, it’d be maybe a microgram [of gold], so if the cost of gold is doubling, it doesn’t affect the end cost of the iPhone nearly as much as the piece of jewellery that uses 10 grams of gold, especially if it’s a purer carat,” Trench said.
Another reason why jewellery prices could spike is the dynamics of luxury good pricing, Trench said.
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“Jewellery is a status symbol. As a luxury good, its higher price itself adds to its appeal, so people will desire it more just because its price has gone up,” he said. “The higher prices go, the more people want it.”
Trench predicts that if the trend in gold prices continues, jewellery makers will begin making ranges of products with lower purities of gold, to maintain more affordable offerings.
What does the gold rally mean for Australia?
Trench said that Australia was lucky as a gold-rich country, with plenty of gold sitting in the ground.
If the price of gold continues to soar, the domestic capacity for drilling and exploring for metals – half of which is already focused on finding gold – could lean further into gold.
As a result, Australia’s energy transition could be set back, he warned. “It could take away effort from other metals, metals that can do wonderful things for us.
“Arguably it could slow down the energy transition because we’re spending all our time looking for gold. What we’re not doing is looking for critical minerals for the energy transition, such as lithium [used in batteries], vanadium [used in green hydrogen technologies] and other rare earths [useful for magnets in wind turbines].”
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