As gold set another record high, Canadian mining legends Frank Giustra, CEO of Fiore Group, and Pierre Lassonde, Chairman Emeritus at Franco-Nevada, say the West has lost its power to set the price of gold. Giustra and Lassonde also warn that in the new geopolitical reality of resource nationalism, Canada is failing its economy and citizens.

With gold futures hitting another record high of above $2,264 an ounce at the start of the second quarter, Giustra and Lassonde pointed to a major shift in the gold market.

“The world hasn’t woken up yet. The marginal buyer of gold is no longer the U.S. It’s no longer Europe. It’s China. Between the country’s central bank and the Chinese public, China takes up over two-thirds of all the annual production. They are the new marginal buyer. That’s where the gold price is set,” Lassonde told Michelle Makori, Lead Anchor and Editor-in-Chief at Kitco News, during Kitco Insights Interactive Mining Titans’ Power Panel.

For what this means for the U.S. dollar and gold this year and beyond, watch the video above.

BRICS Plus, which now includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, can get up one morning and say they are going “to back their collective new currency with gold,” which they can now set to create more credit and reserves, Giustra pointed out.

A coordinated move by the BRICS Plus against the U.S. dollar could lead to violent results, he warned.

“No one wants war, but here’s the problem: the U. S. is facing an existential threat. It’s a national security issue,” Giustra said. “If there’s a sudden move towards replacing the U.S. dollar, meaning perhaps a BRICS announcement of a new currency [backed by] gold, I think then it would react quite violently.”

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