I don't see how they can keep prices down.
It is easy to understand how gold can go down even though physical demand is very strong. The paper market for gold is 100x-150x bigger than the physical market, so when prices for gold are set at any given moment in time, the paper market determines the price, not the physical market. To make matter worse, many to almost all of the paper instruments are not convertible to physical gold, so an unlimited number of paper shares can be created out of thin air or shorted out of thin air with 20:1-25:1 leverage with a push of a button. For me to trade 100oz of gold futures round trip costs $4 in commissions and $10 in bid/ask spread with a margin requirement of $6400, compare that to buying physical which costs $1500 in bid/ask spread (this is wholesale spread, retail spread is $6000) and $130,000 of margin requirement. So the paper markets transaction costs are 1% of the physical market costs and investment capital requirement for paper market are 5% of the physical market requirement. You can see why the big money prefers to trade paper vs physical.
Back in late 70s and early 80s when Hunt brothers cornered the market, they cornered both the physical and paper markets simultaneously, which is why silver and gold prices spiked. Then the paper regulators prevented customers from initiating new long paper positions in silver and gold and instantaneously the paper market crashed and concurrently physical market followed. Today the paper market is overwhelming for the physical market and until everyone gets out of the paper market and invests solely in the physical market the price of gold will remain muted under normal economic conditions. It will take serious inflation, war or major country default event to get gold to create a super spike like we had in the 1980s.
The good news is many numismatic items can do well in a flat or lower gold environment simply because the supply is so limited compared to the potential number of collectors. The key is we need economic prosperity in China to continue, as long as you believe that number of upper middle class will rise greatly over the next 10 years everything should do well regardless of the paper gold price. US coins market peaked in 1987, despite a 7 years bear market in gold, but a 7 year bull market in economic prosperity.
Arif