Angle Gold Ashanti CEO Sees $1,600 Gold By End Of 2012

From current prices, the forecast is moderate and it's not unusual for a CEO of a senior producer to expect the product his company sells to go up in price. Still, Anglo Gold Ashanti's CEO's words provide some encouragement.

“You could say we should breach US$1,500 next year, and we use an increase of about US$100 an ounce a year on the supply side to give a sense of where the market goes over the long term,” he said.

“Basically I'm saying that towards the end of next year, we should hit US$1,600, based on those numbers."

There are some important gold figures who given long-term forecasts way above the current price, but they tend to be investment advisors. From the standpoint of management, those figures are outliers. Only Rob McEwan is an exception. Typically, moderate bullishness is the norm. That lack of excitedness suggests that gold is not in a bubble yet; no-one except for the usual suspects are making forecasts consistent with inhaling the fumes. Given gold's ten year bull market, that normality is reassuring.