Brett Heath, CEO and director of Metalla Royalty & Streaming (TSXV:MTA,NYSEAMERICAN:MTA), believes gold is only at the beginning of its current cycle, with US$2,600 to US$3,000 per ounce potentially in sight this year.

However, that’s starting to change, with some investors at both the retail and institutional levels getting interested.

‘What we’re seeing is a little bit of that start to tick up into physical, mainly into the physical exchange-traded funds (ETFs),’ he said. ‘We’re seeing … inflows (into GLD) in the last three months — I believe it was a little over a billion dollars. And into the other major gold ETFS, which is a good way to measure where capital is flowing.’

In Heath’s view, more of that participation could push gold and gold stocks even higher.

‘You’ve seen such an incredible breakout, such an incredible setup — and the public’s just not in the trade yet,’ he emphasized. ‘When they do come back in, I think on the back of some of these capital flows, then that’ll be a big driver of not only gold, but the equities, which today we still really have not seen any material inflows.’

Watch the interview above for more from Heath on the outlook for gold, as well as Metalla’s plans.

Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.