Hedge funds slash bullish wagers on gold over Trump election win
Hedge funds and other large speculators boosted net-long positions by 11% to 197,362 as of Nov. 12, the lowest in 14 weeks.
Australian miner Northern Star Resources Ltd. expects to “significantly increase” gold sales this quarter on higher production and better grades from its Kalgoorlie operations, including the Super Pit, as prices for the precious metal trade near record levels.
Increasing ore supply is a key goal for Northern Star, the nation’s largest listed gold miner. While the Perth-based company didn’t provide a sales forecast for the June quarter in a production report released Tuesday, full-year guidance for 2024 remained unchanged at 1.6 to 1.75 million ounces of gold sales.
Miners are capitalizing on a surge in bullion prices, which have rallied sharply since mid-February. Gold notched a record above $2,400 an ounce earlier in April as rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East stoked demand for haven assets, while strong appetite in China has also supported the metal.
Northern Star increased its guidance on costs for 2024 earlier this month, after significant weather events impacted its Western Australia operations. In March, the miner sought approval to expand and extend the life of its flagship Super Pit project to 2034, after committing A$1.5 billion ($968 million) to more than double processing capacity at its Kalgoorlie operations.
Northern Star’s shares fell as much as 4.5%, the most since January, in early trading on Tuesday after its quarterly production report showed unplanned outages at its Pogo project in Alaska resulted in lower mining and processing volumes.
(By Sybilla Gross)
Read More: Gold mining stocks retreat on signs Israel-Iran tensions ease
Comments