According to Serbian Economist, Australian company Strickland Metals reported the discovery of rich gold-copper ores in the Šanac area of the Rogozna project in southern Serbia, potentially making this cluster one of the largest gold projects in the Balkans. The news was reported earlier by Australian business media.
According to the company, new drill results from the Šanac prospect indicate strong intervals of continuous gold and copper mineralization. The site is estimated to have a resource of about 165 tons of gold equivalent, and the combined potential of the entire Rogozna project is about 230 tons AuEq. A series of recent holes have shown extended intervals with gold grades well above initial expectations, including tens of meters of high grams-per-tonne equivalent.
A total of seven drill rigs are now active at Rogozna, including three at the equally prospective Gradina prospect, where over 700 meters of continuous gold and zinc mineralization was previously reported.
The Rogozna project is located in the Novi Pazar area, within the Tetian metallogenic belt, which hosts a number of large copper-gold deposits. According to Strickland’s corporate materials, the licensed area covers approximately 184 square kilometers and includes four exploration licenses; the resource is already estimated at millions of ounces of gold equivalent, placing Rogozna among the largest undeveloped gold projects in Europe.
Gold in the Serbian economy: production and reserves are growing
Serbia has been rapidly strengthening its position on the map of European gold mining in recent years. According to international statistical resources, the country’s gold production in 2023 was about 7 tons (7,000 kg), slightly lower than the record 7.29 tons in 2022, but many times higher than the average figures of the early 2000s.
The key industrial player is China’s Zijin Mining, which owns the Serbia Zijin Bor Copper complex and the Čukaru Peki deposit. In 2024, these assets jointly produced about 8 tons of gold as part of copper-gold mining, ensuring Serbia’s status as one of the fastest growing gold mining centers in the region.
In parallel, the National Bank of Serbia is actively building up its gold reserve. According to TradingEconomics and specialized industry surveys, the volume of the country’s official gold reserves has grown to 51 tons in the second-third quarter of 2025, compared to the average of 20-21 tons in the early 2000s.
Gold now accounts for about 17-18% of foreign exchange reserves, and Belgrade has been consistently repatriating the metal from foreign vaults back to the country.
Against the backdrop of growing production and increasing gold reserves, the Rogozna discoveries reinforce Serbia’s role as a promising hub for gold and base metals in Southeast Europe.
As the Rogozna resource base is refined and subsequent feasibility studies are conducted, the project could become one of the key arguments for further strengthening Serbia’s gold balance, but its realization, according to analysts, will require strict adherence to environmental standards and transparent agreements between investors, the state and local communities.
On Thursday, an official ceremony was held at the presidential administration in Bishkek, attended by the head of state, Sadyr Zhaparov. During the event, participants symbolically pressed the launch button, after which 50 million USDKG tokens were released into circulation on the Tron network, each of which corresponds to one US dollar and is fully backed by gold reserves.
According to the report, USDKG is designed as a transparent, secure, and stable digital currency that combines the reliability of gold with the efficiency of blockchain technology. The launch of the stablecoin should strengthen Kyrgyzstan’s position in the global financial ecosystem and lay the foundation for the development of Web3 infrastructure and decentralized services through which government agencies and businesses will be able to interact based on blockchain solutions.
The presidential administration notes that the new instrument is designed to increase the country’s investment attractiveness by creating conditions for capital inflows and technological partnerships. The authorities expect that the availability of a stablecoin backed by real assets will strengthen confidence in financial innovations and demonstrate the possibility of combining digital tools with material support in the interests of sustainable economic development.
The issuer of USDKG is JSC “Virtual Asset Issuer” with 100% state participation. The ceremony was attended by Kyrgyzstan’s Minister of Finance Almaz Baketaev and the company’s CEO Biibolot Mamitov, as well as representatives of the Gold Dollar project, who are involved in the technical and international aspects of the stablecoin’s implementation. In official materials, the project is positioned as the world’s first state-owned stablecoin backed by physical gold and pegged to the US dollar.
Gold prices are declining on Thursday amid the strengthening of the dollar before the publication of statistical data on the U.S. labor market. By 14:02 Q2 quotations of December gold futures on the Comex exchange fell by about 0.5% to $4061.5 per ounce.
The U.S. Department of Labor will release a report on the U.S. labor market for September at 15:30 Q2. The report is expected to show job growth of 50,000 and unemployment remaining at 4.3%, Trading Economics noted. It is published late due to the shutdown.
ICE’s DXY index, which shows the dollar’s performance against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and Swedish krona), added about 0.1%.
Meanwhile, analysts at UBS upgraded their forecast for gold to $4500 an ounce from $4200 an ounce by mid-2026. They believe that gold will be supported by the Federal Reserve’s easing monetary policy, as well as geopolitical uncertainty, increasing demand for protective assets.
Earlier, the Experts Club think tank presented an analysis of the world’s leading gold-producing countries in its video on Youtube channel – https://youtube.com/shorts/DWbzJ1e2tJc?si=YuRnDiu7jtfUPBR9.
India imported $14.72 billion worth of gold in October 2025, according to data from the country’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry. This is three times more than in October last year, 1.5 times more than in September this year, and is set to be a historic record (last year, a slightly higher figure was reported in November, but it was later revised).
“The growth in gold imports in October was phenomenal, despite very high world prices,” said Indian Deputy Minister of Commerce and Industry Rajesh Agrawal, according to The Hindu. “The growth in silver was also phenomenal.” Silver imports increased 6.3 times, to $2.72 billion.
“The continuous rise in gold prices ahead of the festive season could have led to speculative demand, which may not be sustained in the future, possibly leading to some decline in imports in the coming months,” warns Aditi Nayar of Indian rating agency ICRA.
In just 10 months of 2025, India imported $50.74 billion worth of gold, up 17% from the same period last year (October’s results reversed the trend).
India is one of the world’s largest consumers of gold, producing virtually none itself.
Earlier, the Experts Club analytical center presented an analysis of the world’s leading gold-producing countries in its video on YouTube channel — https://youtube.com/shorts/DWbzJ1e2tJc?si=YuRnDiu7jtfUPBR9
China’s actual gold purchases this year may exceed officially declared volumes by several times and have already become one of the key drivers of record growth in precious metal prices, the Financial Times writes, citing analysts and market data.
According to official statistics from the People’s Bank of China, in 2025 the regulator purchased only about 25 tons of gold, with an increase in reserves of approximately 2 tons in some months. However, analysts at Société Générale, assessing trade flows of large bars and import data, believe that Beijing’s actual purchases could reach up to 250 tons per year, or more than a third of the total demand of global central banks. According to their estimates, actual purchases may exceed the officially disclosed figures by ten times or more.
Bruce Ikemizu, director of the Japan Precious Metals Market Association, said that market participants this year “practically do not believe official statistics, especially for China,” and estimates the country’s current gold reserves at nearly 5,000 tons — about twice the level reported publicly by the Chinese authorities.
According to the FT and experts, a significant portion of purchases are made opaquely — through the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), the sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation, and other entities that are not required to publish detailed reports on gold reserves. This makes it difficult to assess the real scale of operations and increases market uncertainty.
Analysts note that the secretive accumulation of gold is linked to a strategy of de-dollarization. “China is buying gold as part of its strategy to reduce its dependence on the dollar,” the press quotes Jeff Currie, a strategist at Carlyle, as saying. Gold is seen as a hedge against currency and geopolitical risks, including against the backdrop of tensions with the US.
According to estimates by the World Gold Council, over the past decade, the share of gold in the international reserves of countries outside the US has grown from about 10% to 26%, making the metal the second most important reserve asset after the US dollar. Large-scale purchases by central banks have helped push the price of gold above $4,300 per troy ounce, according to the FT and industry publications.
China remains the world’s largest producer and consumer of gold, accounting for about 10% of global production, which allows Beijing to increase its reserves not only through imports but also through the domestic market.
World demand for gold excluding over-the-counter (OTC) transactions in the third quarter of 2025 amounted to 1.26 thousand tons, which is 5% higher than the result of the corresponding period last year, calculated by the World Gold Council (WGC).
Investors continued to play a key role: purchases in ETFs in the third quarter amounted to 222 tons, demand for coins and bars – 316 tons (for the fourth consecutive quarter it exceeded 300 tons). Central bank purchases also remain at a high level of 220 tons – 28% more than in the previous quarter.
Supply in the gold market increased by 3% to 1.31 thousand tons. This is a quarterly record in the history of observations. The excess supply, 55 tons, was absorbed by the OTC market.
Earlier, the Experts Club think tank presented an analysis of the world’s leading gold producing countries in its Youtube channel video – https://youtube.com/shorts/DWbzJ1e2tJc?si=YuRnDiu7jtfUPBR9.
