In my most recent portfolio updates, I have written about how miners and metals appear to me today to be like energy was in April 2020: completely thrown out to trash and forgotten.

You can read my most recent update here.

Being unloved, of course, presents opportunity, in my opinion. But the best part is that the backdrop with which the metals are selling off against makes it even more appealing. For months, I have been writing about how we are witnessing, in real-time, a bifurcation of the global economy the likes of which we have never seen before. The BRIC nations - now inclusive of Saudi Arabia - are purposefully separating from the West and looking to forge forward with their own economy.

And did I mention they have all of the oil, productive capacity and gold?

Reuters reported this week:

Central banks bought a record 399 tonnes of gold worth around $20 billion in the third quarter of 2022, helping to lift global demand for the metal, the World Gold Council (WGC) said on Tuesday.

Demand for gold was also strong from jewellers and buyers of gold bars and coins, the WGC said in its latest quarterly report, but exchange traded funds (ETFs) storing bullion for investors shrank.

Bloomberg called the buyers "mystery whales" and postulated that the mystery buyers were likely either China, Russia, Saudi Arabia or India.

It noted that the Central Bank purchases were nearly double the previous record.