More and more Chileans are buying 24-karat gold bars (virtually pure gold) as an investment. This product is exempt from VAT (value-added tax, the 19% you pay on almost everything you buy), and at least three businesses now sell it in the country.
BioBioChile reported this based on an interview that Juan Carlos Cano, commercial director of Aurus Joyería, gave to La Tercera. According to the executive, gold bars have been available in Chile for about five years.
The difference in tax treatment explains much of the interest. Cano describes three segments: 18-karat jewelry, with a luxury tax of up to 34%; gold sheet for goldsmiths, taxed at 19%; and gold coins, which were traditionally traded on the Santiago Stock Exchange. Investment gold bars are exempt from VAT.
To illustrate this with an example, a gold ring includes the cost of design, manufacturing and a high tax. A gold bar, by contrast, is metal with a defined shape, stamp and serial number. According to Cano, it can weigh from half a gram to between 30 and 50 kilograms.
Besides Aurus, investment products are sold by Joyería Puma, which makes gold nuggets, and the Chilean Mint, the latest business to enter the market. Aurus, controlled by Farellones Holding, has 78 stores between Arica and Punta Arenas. Cano estimates that his company accounts for more than 90% of market sales, a figure that has not been independently verified.
At Aurus, bars and coins account for between 40% and 50% of revenue and exceed US$1 million per month. The company sells between 70 and 100 kilograms of gold a year. According to Cano, that gold does not come from mines, but from jewelry that people no longer use, which the company buys from individuals and melts down.
The executive traces the start of the boom to the pandemic. Withdrawals from AFPs (pension fund administrators) put money in many people's pockets, and demand surged. "Gold coins in Chile sold out completely," he recalled. That year Aurus sold about 2,000 coins and, with no imported supply, began making bars.
The global context also helped. The international price of gold rose 65% in 2025, driven by investors and central banks such as China's. In early 2026, it reached a record of nearly US$5,000 per ounce (about 31 grams), according to BioBioChile. La Tercera puts that peak at US$5,200.
This year the trend changed. Gold has fallen by about 4.7%, and an ounce is trading at around US$4,100. Cano sees this as positive: "a market with gold rising like that is not healthy," he said.
The sources differ on what fell 40% in 2026. BioBioChile attributes the drop to gold sales in Chile, while in La Tercera Cano refers specifically to jewelry sales compared with 2025. That decline, according to the executive, caused several traditional jewelry stores in central Santiago to close.
For anyone thinking of buying, this year's example is useful. If you bought gold at the beginning of the year, it is worth less today. The sources do not specify the price per gram of the bars, the difference between the purchase and resale prices, or other risks, such as storing the metal. It is advisable to ask for those details before investing.
Despite the price decline, Cano projects that demand for gold will grow "by a double-digit percentage" next year.
