I have toiled with that exact issue for a while logger,,,,and the answer I come up with is the Boyz have to let gold appreciate around 20-30% per year.
If they were to kill gold,,,by taking it much below 700 an ouce,,,production would fall off a cliff. With the Central Banks cutting back sales,,,,,and production already down some 20% in South Africa,,,,the Boyz know the game. Sure,,,,,,they do not want gold to move too high which would draw funds from banks and deposit those funds into the gold sector,,,,,they also know that they need to allow gold to appreciate,,,in order to have an increase in production.
The bottom line is demand will propel the POG higher