What follows is a reference chronology, not an argument. We wrote it because we kept re-looking up the same events when writing other pieces; publishing it saves us the trouble and gives readers the same skeleton of dates to reason from.
Entries include gold price milestones, exchange-mechanism events, policy changes with visible premium consequences, and physical-delivery-infrastructure incidents. Sources are exchange releases, national-bank statements, and the World Gold Council quarterly reports; we do not link out because the LBMA, PBOC, RBI, and CME URLs shift frequently, but everything below is verifiable through those bodies' current publication archives.
January 2020
Gold enters the year at $1,517 spot. SGE gold premium against COMEX averaging around +1% for the month.
MCX around +11% (India duty at 12.5%).
February–March 2020
COVID becomes a global market event. Gold falls from $1,672 (March 9) to $1,477 (March 20), a 12% drawdown driven by margin-call liquidations across asset classes.
Silver falls from $17 to $12 in the same window.
March 22 – April 3, 2020
COMEX–London EFP blows out from its usual $2–3 per ounce to over $80 briefly. The immediate cause: Swiss refineries (Argor-Heraeus, Metalor, PAMP, Valcambi) shut down under lockdown, breaking the London-to-New-York format-conversion pipeline for 400-ounce Good Delivery bars.
Normalizes by mid-May as refineries reopen.
April–August 2020
Gold rallies from $1,477 to $2,067 (August 6, then all-time high). Driven by Fed balance-sheet expansion, negative real rates, and Western ETF inflows.
SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) adds over 250 tonnes across this window. Notably, SGE and MCX premiums stay depressed or in discount during the same rally as Asian retail demand collapses under lockdown.
August 6, 2020
Gold's then-all-time high of $2,067. Peak occurs on a week where 10-year TIPS real yield rises from –1.10% to –0.90%, breaking the trend.
September 2020 – February 2022
Gold oscillates between $1,700 and $1,950. Real rates rise as Fed tapering expectations build.
SGE and MCX premiums recover to normal ranges as Asian demand rebuilds.
February 24, 2022
Russian invasion of Ukraine. Gold spikes from $1,900 to $2,050 in the following week.
LBMA suspends Russian refiners (Krastsvetmet, NovoChimet, Prioksky, Uralelectromed, Moscow Special Alloys) from the Good Delivery List in March.
July 2022
India raises gold import duty from 7.5% to a combined 15% (12.5% basic customs + 2.5% AIDC surcharge) overnight. MCX premium moves from around +7% to over +14% within days.
Sharpest single-day duty-driven regime shift in the 2012–2024 series.
November 2022
People's Bank of China resumes disclosed gold buying after a multi-year pause. Purchase disclosure continues nearly every month through mid-2025.
SGE premium regime shifts from historical +0.5% average to +1.5% average, and stays elevated.
March 2023
Regional US bank stress (SVB collapse). Gold rises from $1,830 to $2,000 in three weeks on flight-to-safety and Fed pivot expectations.
October 2023
Middle East conflict escalation. Gold breaks above $2,000 sustainably and enters the multi-year rally that would carry it above $4,000 by 2026.
May 2024
Metals.dev adds MCX-specific and LBMA-specific fields to its aggregate feed (mcx_gold, mcx_silver, lbma_gold_pm, lbma_silver), replacing the previous spot-derivation approach. Our own MCX and LBMA readings switch to these fields.
July 2024
India cuts gold import duty from 15% to a combined 9% in a surprise budget move. MCX premium moves from around +14% to +7% over six weeks.
First major duty cut in the 2012–2024 window.
September 2024
Fed begins its cutting cycle. Gold above $2,600.
March 2025
Gold breaks above $3,000 for the first time. LBMA-COMEX basis widens briefly as physical delivery demand into New York rises on tariff-uncertainty narratives.
April 2025
Trump administration tariff announcements cause acute short-term LBMA-to-COMEX physical flow. Airline cargo capacity used for gold shipments becomes a discussed constraint.
Basis normalizes within weeks.
June 2025
Central bank purchase totals for 2024 published; annual total of ~1,050 tonnes confirmed as second consecutive year above the 1,000-tonne mark. Turkey, Poland, and India lead the buying panel.
October 2025
Silver breaks above $50, its 1980 nominal high, for the first time. Gold-silver ratio drops toward 70 from previous 80–90 range.
Solar-panel-driven silver industrial demand cited as one component alongside monetary demand.
January 2026
Gold above $3,700. SGE premium averaging +1.6%, near the top of its post-2022 range.
April 2026
Gold above $4,000 for the first time. MCX premium spikes on Akshaya Tritiya demand.
June 2026
China's PBOC gold reserve reporting cadence shifts, adding to speculation about undisclosed accumulation. SGE premium remains elevated.
Mid-August 2026 (this piece's publication)
Gold in the $4,000–$4,200 range. SGE gold premium +1.5% average, MCX gold premium +8% average (post-duty-cut regime), LBMA in near-parity with COMEX.
No acute physical-delivery stress currently observed.
This chronology will be updated as further events warrant. If we missed something you consider important, contact us.
We are conservative about what qualifies as an "event" — we want to see either a persistent premium regime shift, a physical-delivery-infrastructure incident, or a milestone price level. Day-to-day noise does not qualify.
Chronology maintained by the Market Research Desk. Last verified against exchange releases: August 17, 2026.
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