More bulls weigh in on the gold run; here's where they reckon it will go in the short-term

Sentiment for the world’s most popular precious metal remains solidly positive with more investment voices piping up in support of further growth.

Gold is currently trading at $US1,702.90 per ounce with the Australian price standing at $2,649.82 per ounce thanks to the currency exchange rate.

Bloomberg Intelligence has flagged that gold could easily reach the $US1,900 per ounce peak that it last scaled in 2011.

“It was the cut to zero interest rates by the Federal Reserve in December 2008 that accelerated the gold bull market to the 2011 peak. COVID-19 is a worthy catalyst to buoy gold toward its highs,” Bloomberg Intelligence senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone said.

He added that with the US Federal Reserve’s monetary stimulus program, there was little to stop gold from hitting its previous peak price.

UBS Investment Bank is also betting that gold will continue to rise, albeit to a more conservative level.

It predicted that in the near term, gold will break the $US1,800 per ounce mark as investors are desperate for a safe haven amid global uncertainty.

The latest predictions add to the chorus that have forecast gold rising to anywhere from $US1,800 to $US3,000 per ounce.

ASX small cap gold companies

Metallurgical leach testwork conducted by Alt Resources (ASX:ARS) has indicated that ore from its Mt Ida and Bottle Creek projects is generally free milling with average life of mine gold extraction rates of 91.8 per cent.

No unfavourable elements such as arsenic, antimony and tellurium were present while comminution tests highlight that the ore has low to moderate hardness abrasion.

Reagent consumption rates are in the low to moderate range, which is similar to other oxide gold projects.

Alt expects to deliver its pre-feasibility study for the projects in May 2020, while final pit designs for the 10 Mt Ida and Bottle Creek open pits are expected to be completed this week.

Metal Bank (ASX:MBK) has defined a 7sqkm drill ready target at its Eidsvold project in southeast Queensland that has similar scale and geophysical response to the 3-million-ounce Mt Leyshon deposit.

The untested target is located within the highly prospective Eidsvold intrusive prospect, which is host to the historical mine of the same name that produced 100,000 ounces of gold.

Meanwhile, Raiden Resources (ASX:RDN) has defined a large magnetic anomaly underlying a copper-gold-molybdenum geochemical anomaly and alteration zones at its Kalabak project in Bulgeria.

The anomaly was identified after the company completed the reinterpretation of the 2019 ground magnetic survey and historical gravity data.

It said the result supports its belief that a significant mineralised system remains untested at the Sbor prospect.