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    Gold and silver prices plunge: planning and project risk notes for mine teams

    March 20, 2026|

    Reviewed by Tom Sullivan

    Gold and silver prices plunge: planning and project risk notes for mine teams

    First reported on MINING.com

    30 Second Briefing

    Gold and silver prices plunged on Thursday, with spot gold dropping as much as 6% towards $4,500/oz—over $1,000 below its record from two months ago—and silver sliding more than 10% to under $66/oz, now about 45% off January’s $121.65 peak. The Middle East war-driven surge in crude and gas prices is intensifying inflation risks, curbing expectations of US Federal Reserve rate cuts after the Fed signalled just one cut this year. Fund rotation into energy and chemicals, plus institutional profit-taking on the “debasement trade”, is leaving bullion exposed to further downside despite ongoing geopolitical tension.

    Technical Brief

    • Spot gold’s seven-session decline marks its longest losing streak since 2023, signalling sustained liquidation.
    • Silver’s intraday drop took it to its lowest level since late December, breaching prior technical support.
    • US-Israeli strike on Iran nearly three weeks ago is the temporal marker for the current volatility phase.
    • Plurimi Wealth now characterises gold as “speculative”, implying higher expected price variance in risk modelling.
    • BMO reports fund rotation into energy and chemicals, reducing institutional allocation to precious metals producers.
    • TD Securities notes gold remains widely held institutionally from the “debasement trade”, increasing downside if positions unwind.
    • Sucden Financial expects oil to capture the main safe-haven bid, capping bullion upside during the conflict.
    • Comparison with summer 2022: previous energy shock saw gold fall up to 18% from peak under aggressive Fed hikes.
    • Despite current drawdown, gold remains up nearly 7% year-to-date, while silver is down about 1%.

    Our Take

    With silver now more than 45% off its January peak of $121.65/oz, the metal has retraced far more than gold has from its 2022 high, which likely tightens margins first for high-cost silver-dominant operations while leaving gold-focused producers relatively better cushioned in current price scenarios.

    The $2–3.5 billion capex range flagged for the Salar Futuro lithium project sits at the larger end of project sizes in our mining database, meaning that sustained pressure on gold and silver prices could make diversified houses and sovereign funds relatively more inclined to prioritise long-life lithium assets over marginal precious metals expansions in their capital allocation cycles this year.

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    Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.

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