Modern day gold rush: buyers, sellers try to keep pace as precious metals prices rage By: Malak Abas Posted: 5:53 PM CST Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026

Alli Firman carries the down payment for her future first home on her fingers, her neck — even her teeth.

Firman, 23, has watched the price of gold skyrocket to record highs from behind the counter at Golden Hand Jewellery, where she organizes the Winnipeg business’s social media content, and has shifted her savings to silver bars and gold jewelry from cash.

She is dripping with the stuff — large, ornate gold rings, a necklace lined with gold charms — and when she speaks, it reveals a gold “A” glued to one tooth, and most of her other front teeth lined by a gold- and diamond-studded grill.

“But diamonds, honestly, for resale value, it doesn’t really make too much of a difference,” she said Thursday. “At this stage, it’s just the gold that they care about anyways.”

The price of gold hit US$5,300 per ounce Wednesday, while silver hit US$114/oz. The price of gold had risen by about 64 per cent in 2025, the greatest increase since 1979.

While Firman estimates the gold she’s wearing alone would be worth about $8,000, she said she had bought a new ring just the day before, expecting the value to go up even further. She considers it an investment in her future.

“In my mind, I’d way rather have that bar that’s going to be growing in value sitting there, rather than my cash sitting there not going anywhere for you,” she said.

Customers at Golden Hand in the city’s North End area on Thursday felt the same way. Some told the Free Press they’d been inspired by the news to come and see what their gold jewelry might be worth. One customer, buying a small silver ring, called it an “investment.”

“We have a wide range of customers, from business professionals to everyday people who work construction (or at) Tim Hortons.”

Co-owner Paul Szurlej said he’s never seen anything like it since his father first opened the store in 1983. “(Customers) are bringing everything in, even gold teeth,” he said.

Szurlej suggested economic and political trouble around the world is resulting in “smart” countries putting less value into the dollar and investing more in gold and silver, driving demand.

“I feel like people see that they’re losing their purchasing power, and one thing that is keeping up is gold and silver,” he said.

It’s created a double-edged sword for gold buyers and sellers in Winnipeg. While it’s brought in more customers, it’s also created an unstable market for sellers trying to keep providing affordable jewelry options for buyers.

“I can sell a gold chain to somebody, let’s say, for $1,000 and they could come back two months later, and I’ll buy it back for $1,200, and they got to wear it and enjoy it, and I’m paying them more when they come back,” Szurlej said.

“It is a real thing with gold and silver nowadays, and it’s very hard for us to price.”

Carter Bourke, owner of Stack House Jewelry in the downtown Cityplace complex, said he’s trying to expand his selection to include more silver as gold becomes less accessible to some clientele.

“We have a wide range of customers, from business professionals to everyday people who work construction (or at) Tim Hortons,” he said.

Bourke opened his storefront about four years ago, and said he could not have imagined the value of his pieces shifting so much in such a short time. “If I’m buying and I’m paying so high for it, and then gold drops significantly, then I still have to charge the same to just recoup my money, if that makes sense, so it’s kind of hard.”

Meanwhile, a corporation currently working on recommissioning a gold mine near the southeast Manitoba town of Bissett is hoping by the time the project is ready in 2027, the gold rush is still going strong.

“Gold is looking very volatile today, but say we hang in there, around $4,500 to $5,000 an ounce, then you’re looking at well over $2.5 billion of revenue generated in that property,” said Shaun Heinrichs, president and CEO of 1911 Gold Corp.

1911 Gold began the work to recommission the mine, which sits on the north shore of Rice Lake, about 150 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, in 2023.

“It is what it is. It would be great if we could go quicker, but we’re doing this as quickly as we possibly can,” Heinrichs said. “I’d love to be producing right now, for sure.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca