What you say is very true, however, the price of gold wasn't the issue, it was about covering their shorts. We all know gold is rising, so is the volume of bullion bank shorts. Remember, their short positions are simply the opposite side of someone else's long positions. Their short positions are obviously losers, but they don't care. They're not in this market to profit, just to control gold, even if just to slow down gold's rate of rise.
Terry