The central banks' shift from net buying to selling has weakened the support beneath gold prices, while price movements still show a continued downward trend. At the same time, silver production from key producers is higher than the same period last year - according to precious metal analysts at Heraeus.
In the latest update, analysts warn that central bank gold sales have lost an important driving force for gold demand.
The Central Bank of Turkey is said to have reduced its gold reserves by about 53 tons, down to 772 tons. This is due to selling 22 tons, along with 31 tons of gold used for gold-backed currency swaps.
Although this is only a central bank and other banks may still be continuing to accumulate reserves, this development shows that the central bank's gold reserves will be used in periods of financial and economic tension, with gold playing the role of a liquid asset, without partner risk" - Heraeus's analyst wrote.
Central banks added 863 tons of gold to reserves last year. If market volatility causes central banks to reduce buying or switch to selling gold, it will affect a very large part of demand" - analysts noted.
Heraeus said that US President Donald Trump's statements related to Iran continue to cause volatility in the metal market. Gold prices plummeted early Monday morning last week, hitting a bottom of 4.099 USD/ounce, before rebounding to the 4,400 USD/ounce zone, which was also the bottom set in early February.
Last weekend, President Trump threatened to attack Iranian power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened within 48 hours. However, later on Monday, he postponed the air strike plan.
Although price fluctuations in a very short time may be influenced by US foreign policy statements, the short-term trend still seems to lean towards downwards as prices are in an accumulation phase after the record high increase in January," analysts added.
Gold prices jumped to a session high of 4,580 USD/ounce right before 8 am US Eastern time, and continued to test this threshold in the first minutes of the opening session of the North American stock market on Monday morning.
Switching to silver, Heraeus analysts said that KGHM Group's silver production has recovered in the first two months of 2026.
This is a copper mining company but also produces a significant amount of silver as a by-product. In 2025, the Group's silver production reached 1,323 tons (42.5 million ounces) from mines in Poland, North America and Chile.
Last year, production in February was affected by processing plant maintenance, reducing refined silver production. This year, production in the first two months of the year reached 252.3 tons (8.1 million ounces)" - they said.
Coeur Mining has also updated production guidelines after completing the acquisition of New Gold. "New Gold's portfolio includes two gold mines with sub-products of silver and copper. Coeur is currently expected to produce from 18,680 thousand ounces to 21,930 thousand ounces of silver this year.
This figure is up from 17.9 million ounces in 2025, of which 480,000 to 630,000 ounces came from newly acquired mines. This shows that existing mines also have the potential to expand production" - they wrote.
Silver is also developing positively on Monday morning, hitting a session high of 71.763 right after 9 am US Eastern time, and continuing to trade in the highest range of the day at the time the article was written.
Prices have recovered above 70 USD/ounce, but if the support level around 64 USD/ounce is broken, the next level could be 55 USD/ounce" - analysts warned.
Spot silver price at 0:35 on March 31 (Vietnam time) was traded at 70.2 USD/ounce.
