Montreal-- (Kitco News) -- Delegates attending the London Bullion Market Association’s annual conference in Montreal this week look for gold to be above $2,000 an ounce when the group holds its next annual gathering in November 2012.

The LBMA polled the audience using an electronic system both at the end and start of the two-day event. Of the 530 delegates who voted, the average expectation as of Monday morning was $2,075 gold by Nov. 5, 2012. A second vote was taken early Tuesday afternoon as the conference wound down, and this time the average tally was $2,019.
Shortly after the votes were announced, gold was trading at $1,803.50 an ounce, according to prices on the Kitco Web site.

The delegates included representatives of banks and the trading community, as well as refiners, fabricators, some mining companies and others involved with the precious-metals industry.

The gathering collectively looked for all of the precious metals to be higher in a year. The end-of-conference vote showed an average expectation for silver to be $47 an ounce in November 2012. The metal was trading around $39.90 Tuesday afternoon.

Platinum was forecast to be at $2,163 around the time of the next LBMA conference, up from the current price of $1,771 Tuesday afternoon. Palladium was forecast at $826, compared to Tuesday's spot price of $714.

During the conference, Kitco.com conducted a poll of readers, who tended to be even more bullish for the metals. With around 1,100 responses, this poll put gold at $2,250 an ounce, silver at $67.57, platinum at $2,152 and palladium at $1,025.

At the end of the closing LBMA session, delegates were split when asked their view on some of the topics that have the potential to impact precious-metals prices in the future. Fifty-one percent see a weaker U.S. dollar when the next LBMA conference rolls around, while 49% said stronger. They were evenly split at 50%-50% when asked whether the European debt crisis would be better or worse by the next conference.

At the end of the 2010 LBMA conference in Berlin, delegates collectively forecast that gold would be at $1,450 an ounce when the 2011 event began Monday. Other forecasts made a year ago included silver, $24; platinum, $1,857; and palladium, $702.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

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