The price of gold has been skyrocketing, and it’s having quite the impact on different industries in Manitoba—from the mines that pull the precious metal out of the ground to the jewellers who put it in your hand. In the three years Carter Bourke has been running Stack House Jewellery in downtown Winnipeg, he’s never seen gold prices like this. “Any new stock that we’re bringing in or making, our premium is insane. It’s kind of scary how high it’s getting,” Bourke told CTV News. Gold jumped by more than $100 Thursday, with its total price sitting at about $6,800 per ounce. It represents a roughly 76 per cent jump since the start of January. That’s led to somewhat of a gold rush from Bourke’s clientele. “Definitely, a lot of people are cashing in their gold,” he said. While some are looking to cash in on their gold, others are looking to buy up as much as they can. Jasmine Allen, the vice president of Gatewest Coin, said more people are looking to purchase gold as a form of investment. “Especially with the extra media attention around it, there’s a lot more curiosity around metals,” she said. “There’s a lot of people coming in and asking questions. Our phones are very busy.” University of Manitoba economics professor Fletcher Baragar said precious metals like gold often spike in times of political or economic uncertainty—though he said he’s never seen an increase quite like this. “What’s happened the last couple of months is sort of almost a panic response,” Baragar said. “There’s a great deal of additional uncertainty in the global economy, especially with the Trump administration beginning in 2025—that’s fuelled the increase of gold.” As for how long this spike will last, Baragar said he expects it to slow down eventually. Though, he isn’t anticipating a large crash, rather he guesses prices will plateau. Meanwhile, on the shores of Rice Lake, work to get a gold mine up and running has been put into high gear. “To be honest, we can’t get into production fast enough,” said Shaun Heinrichs, the president and CEO of 1911 Gold Corporation—the company that is currently recommissioning the mine near Bisset, Man. Over its 100-year lifetime, the mines in this area have produced nearly 2 million ounces of gold. Heinrich said 1911 Gold Corp. started work to recommission the mine back in 2022. “At the time, the gold price was still—if you can believe it today—it was still around $1,900 an ounce,” he said. “The first task at hand was to make sure that this was something that was economic at those gold price levels.” Since then, the price of gold has continued to rise. Heinrich said he hopes to begin some mining activity in the next 12 months, noting the work still needs to be done safely. “We are moving probably faster than we originally had thought we would, and we’re pushing along as quickly as we can,” he said. “But I think the general level of excitement is extremely high at the mine site in the community.” Back at Stack House Jewellery, this gold rush is also bringing some challenges. “When I’m ordering new stock, it’s insanely expensive,” Bourke said. “I just hope gold doesn’t crash, because then I’m going to lose out on a lot of money.”
