BofA-North American Precious Metals Weekly A flood of Q125 results this week；WGC reports Q125 gold...-20250504

Q1’25 results for North American precious metals

We expect a flood of Q1’25 reporting in the precious metals space this week, startingwith Centerra Gold (CG) on Tuesday (6-May-25), before market open (BMO), followed byten of its peers. We preview our estimates and key themes, which include capitalallocation priorities, the M&A backdrop, and geopolitics.

World Gold Council Q1’25 demand trends: flat QoQ

The World Gold Council (WGC) released its “Gold Demand Trends Q1 2025” report on30-Apr-25. Q1’25 total global gold demand was flat quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) at 1,310tonnes (t). High gold prices curbed jewelry consumption to 380t, down 31% QoQ. Centralbank net buying for Q1’25 totaled 244t, down 33% QoQ and 21% year-over-year (YoY),but still remained at a high level historically. Total physical retail investment remainedflat QoQ at 325t, while gold exchange traded fund (ETF) buying of 227t was up 1,114%vs. 19t in Q4’24. Total gold supply fell 7% QoQ to 1,206t driven by lower mineproduction (-11% QoQ) and recycling (-4% QoQ). (See exhibit 7, page 6). The WGC seesthe gold price holding up throughout the rest of 2025 (see write-up on pages 4-7).