Webinar: The Shine & the Shadows – What the Gold Boom Means for Producing Countries

Gold prices have reached historic highs in 2025. While gold is considered a safe haven for investors in uncertain times, the consequences in producing countries are far less shiny. Higher prices can bring increased revenues, yet they also fuel large-scale mining projects often associated with enormous energy and water consumption, toxic waste, and deforestation. At the same time, artisanal and small-scale mining is expanding, typically under precarious conditions and with severe mercury pollution affecting both people and the environment. Moreover, gold trading often operates in grey zones between informal economies, smuggling, and organized crime, and despite numerous reform efforts, the sector remains one of the most opaque in the global commodities landscape.

The webinar examines the political economy of gold and offers insights into the complex interactions between global demand and local realities. It explores how the dynamics of rising gold prices affect producing countries, what role international regulatory approaches and initiatives play and where their limits lie. In addition, it discusses ways to strengthen responsibility and transparency along supply chains and considers further-reaching reform proposals for the sector.

> Registration: registration@oefse.at

After Registration the access code will be sent to you. The event will be recorded. By participating in this event, you consent to the publication of photographs and film footage that are produced by the organizers during the event.

Organised by ÖFSE and DKA Austria