Last year was a record year for precious metals, particularly gold and silver. I mentioned in my Innovation at the beginning of last year that gold could benefit from an AI bubble burst. We didn’t quite see a bubble burst, but we did see a wobble in the AI story and another excellent year for gold and an even better year for silver. Other precious metals also did well throughout 2025, platinum had a fantastic year and was up 127%. Palladium, often grouped with platinum, was up over 80%.
(I will use $ terms as it’s the most globally quoted price for precious metals)
Gold was up 71% in 2025, reaching the price of over $4,500/oz just before the end of the year, a new all time high. I also mentioned last year that gold miners had their own rally, going up 160% in 2025, I used the VanEck Gold Miners ETF for the reference. Precious metals miner’s share prices typically lag the gold spot price rally, so this was predicted by gold investors.
Now for the exciting bit, silver was up 148% in 2025, reaching a record price of $78/oz. This is the first time silver has breached this price, and it did it between Christmas and New Year. So far in January 2026 it reached a new record high and surpassed the $80/oz mark last week.
Silver is currently hovering around $78/oz at time of writing. Some precious metals traders and investors think it could go up to $300/oz, time will tell. Silver miners, which mostly also mine gold too have seen their share prices rally last year as well – the Global X Silver Miners ETF went up 166%. Silver is a higher beta play on gold. Usually moving between 2 and 4 times the price of gold, which we have seen starting to play out.
In the late 1970s, gold and silver had significant rallies. (I’ve used 1975 to the end of 1979 for this example). Gold went up from around $199 to over $600, which is over a 200% increase. Silver went up from about $5 to over $38, that’s a 660% increase. During the GFC and just after (I’ve used mid 2007 to the end of 2010 for this example) gold rallied from around $670 to over $1,421, a 111% increase. Silver in the same period went up from around $13 to over $30, a 130% increase. Both gold and silver continued to rally beyond these numbers. Gold rallied to over $1,800 in 2011 and silver rallied to over $48 as well.
It’s worth mentioning these historic rallies span a number of years. So, the question is, what is to play for in 2026?
Firstly, geopolitical tensions are high so demand for safe-haven assets might remain level with previous years. In 2025 gold overtook US treasuries in central bank reserves. We were barely in the new year when the US captured Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro, something which many investors thought markets would react to, especially oil. We haven’t really seen that, but now US President, Donald Trump, has turned his attention back to Greenland. This is new territory for NATO and the EU. There is an ongoing conflict in Europe still and we are quickly approaching the four-year anniversary of Russia invading Ukraine. There are very high tensions between US and China as well as civil unrest in Iran all in all, a lot of uncertainty, which markets hate. So, I believe there will be a role for safe-haven assets, particularly gold and silver, and an increase in demand for them.
Secondly, for silver specifically there is industrial demand with a supply deficit. Silver is the most electrically conductive metal. Solar panels are particularly significant in the silver demand, around 15g of silver is used per solar panel. Silver is also used in small electronic devices, such as phones and medical devices, as well as computers and cars. It is essential to modern living.
Finally, as interest rates continue to come down in 2026, the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as precious metals decreases. This makes holding precious metals in a portfolio relatively more attractive..
Emily Cave – Research Analyst
FPC26613
All charts and data sourced from FactSet
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