08:18 AM EDT, 08/20/2025 (MT Newswires) -- A recent item noted that China's number one import from Canada is gold, as per Chinese statistics, and not a food or energy product, noted Bank of Montreal (BMO).

That fits with a broader theme that gold and other precious metals

have quietly moved into being a very large portion of the overall Canadian exports -- now more than 6%, a doubling in the share from just two years ago, said the bank.

Notably, exports of precious metals are now almost perfectly in line with former powerhouse forestry products -- lumber, pulp & paper, etc., which at one point not so very long ago was the number one export -- and all farm & fishing products, stated BMO.