Precious Metals
December 23, 2024
1 min
Precious Metals
As 2024 comes to a close, gold, silver, and copper have experienced notable price growth. Gold has had an outstanding year so far, with prices rising by more than 27%. The precious metal soared to an all-time high of $2,790 per ounce in October 2024, marking its strongest performance in decades. Investor demand surged amid geopolitical tensions, inflationary concerns, and a flight to safe-haven assets during periods of uncertainty. Gold’s enduring appeal as a store of value was reinforced as inflation and market volatility spooked investors, leading to a steady climb in its price throughout the year.
Silver also experienced substantial growth so far in 2024, gaining over 24%. Its price peaked at $34.72 per ounce on October 22, 2024, the highest level in 12 years. Silver’s rise was largely driven by booming industrial demand, particularly from the solar energy and electric vehicle sectors. As global economies accelerated their sustainability initiatives, silver became an increasingly critical material due to its key role in green technologies, such as photovoltaic cells and battery production.
Copper’s YTD growth of 5.37% reflects its steady demand, although it did not experience the same dramatic percentage increases as gold and silver. However, copper hit a record high of $5.20 per pound in May 2024, driven by its critical role in the renewable energy transition and advanced technologies. The metal is essential for clean energy infrastructure, electric vehicles, and the rapidly expanding AI industry, positioning copper as a cornerstone for future industrial development.
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Charted: Fifty Years of Gold Production in West Africa
Charted: Fifty Years of Gold Production in West Africa
West Africa is in the middle of a gold run. In 2025 Ghana's output climbed more than 23 percent to a record 5.94 million ounces, holding its place as Africa's largest producer and now the sixth-largest in the world, and analysts expect the wider region to rebound about 8 percent in 2026.
Ghana's Gold Mining Landscape: A Story Written in Ancient Rock
Ghana's Gold Mining Landscape: A Story Written in Ancient Rock
Ghana is one of the world's most significant gold-producing countries, and in 2025 it remained the largest in Africa, with national output reaching about 6 million ounces. But the numbers are only the surface. Ghana's gold reaches back more than two billion years into the rock beneath it, shaped by ancient mountain-building forces and worked by human hands for well over a century.
Solar Is Silver's Largest Industrial Market, and Not Easily Replaced
Solar Is Silver's Largest Industrial Market, and Not Easily Replaced
When LONGi Green Energy, the world's largest solar module maker, told investors on January 5, 2026 that it would begin mass-producing base-metal solar cells in the second quarter, it put a number on a pressure the whole industry feels. Solar is the largest single application within silver's industrial demand, and as the metal ran to a record above $121 an ounce in January, rising silver costs pushed manufacturers to accelerate efforts to reduce the metal per cell.
Silver in the Data Center: How AI's Power Crunch Is Building a New Pillar of Industrial Demand
Silver in the Data Center: How AI's Power Crunch Is Building a New Pillar of Industrial Demand
In early 2026, the artificial intelligence narrative shifted abruptly from software capabilities to physical hardware constraints. With tech giants committing hundreds of billions to new infrastructure—pushing global hyperscaler capital expenditures past $600 billion this year—the industry has collided with a new primary bottleneck: a severe power and thermal crunch.
