The Vet

Countdown of Manipulated Gold Price Running Out

Short selling of anything requires buyers to take the other side of the trade. Gold is still one place that there are buyers prepared to step up and there are no government restrictions on their activity so the short sellers have a market to ply their trade and they don't need any gold to sell in order to participate.

COMEX works in cash and generally settles in cash. You can be sure that if too many longs start standing for delivery of real metal the exchange will quickly change the rules to force cash settlements only at the manipulated paper price, not the real market price, and the short sellers know that protects them regardless of what happens to real gold.