Fortune Archives: Gold is booming like it’s 2009

Gold is back. After years of lagging growth, prices have more than doubled since 2016—to a recent high point of over $2,700 per ounce. We seem to be in the midst of a gold boom, as I wrote with Will Daniel in a new Fortune magazine feature. 

To see the source of this sought-after metal, we visited the most productive gold mine in the world: Nevada Gold Mines, a joint venture backed by leading mining conglomerates Barrick and Newmont on a sprawling complex outside Elko, Nev. 

The last time gold was on such a bullish run was in the aftermath of 2008’s Great Financial Crisis, when big returns were driven by hedge funders looking for a safe asset as the economy went haywire. Back in 2009, Fortune’s Richard B. Stolley visited Elko, too, and described how the booming gold market was helping the town cruise through the Great Recession unscathed.

When gold prices roared, Elko rode high—for a time. “Gold is a boom and bust industry,” Elko city manager Curtis Calder told Stolley. “When the rest of the economy drops, the price of gold goes up. We’re pretty vibrant right now.” 

Calder described a town that could have been in a John Wayne movie: “We have cowboys, Indians, gold, gambling, and legalized prostitution. We’re still part of the Old West.” That gold boom, like many in the past, ended in a bust: As the economy recovered, gold prices cratered, dropping some 40% between 2012 and 2015. 

In 2024, Elko is riding high again—with inflation, China’s struggling economy, and geopolitical fears driving central banks, institutional investors, and regular people to the haven of gold as an investment. But today Elko—and the entire gold industry—looks quite different. And this time, for various reasons that we explore in our feature, the bust may not come.