BullionStar Blogs

Interview With Willem Middelkoop About The Big Reset

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• Koos Jansen

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The very reason I became interested in gold after the financial crisis in 2008 was because of Dutch gold guru, author, journalist, entrepreneur, and fund manager Willem Middelkoop. When I started reading his books I was immediately obsessed with economics and the gold market – along with thousands of others across the world. Who would have … Continue Reading

The PBoC Was Buying Gold in London In The Nineties

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• Koos Jansen

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I couldn’t resist translating this must read from 1993 in Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad (h/t @frankknopers) about the gold sales by the Dutch central Bank (DNB). Presumably, “a part” of the 400 tonnes sold at the time through the Bank For International Settlements went to the Chinese central bank. Although we don’t know for sure … Continue Reading

Chinese Gold Import At 1,152t YTD, Annualized 1,438t

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• Koos Jansen

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Withdrawals from the vaults of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE), our measure of Chinese wholesale gold demand, accounted for 43 tonnes in week 47 (spanning from 30 November until 4 December). Year to date SGE withdrawals have reached 2,405 tonnes. SGE withdrawals in 2015 have broken every record, though Chinese (consumer) gold demand is not likely … Continue Reading

China’s Gold Army

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• Koos Jansen

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As part of the wide analysis of the Chinese domestic gold market I would like to share that since the seventies there is a special army in China dedicated to gold. It’s called The Gold Armed Police – if you can read Chinese have a look at this Wikipedia page. It’s no coincidence this army … Continue Reading

Renminbi Internationalization & China’s Gold Strategy

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• Koos Jansen

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Here we go! A seminar about gold supporting the internationalization of the renminbi and China’s financial strength was held in Beijing on 18 September 2015. One of the keynote speakers was Song Xin, President of the China Gold Association (CGA), Chairman of the Board of China International Resources Corporation, President of China National Gold Group Corporation … Continue Reading

Canadian Silver Maple Leaf Sales Surge 76%

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• Koos Jansen

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In the third quarter 9.5 million ounces (295 tonnes) of silver were sold in Maple Leaf Coins by the Royal Canadian Mint, according data released on Friday. Third quarter silver coin sales at the Canadian Mint were up 76 per cent from the third quarter in 2014 and up 40 % from the second quarter in 2015. The … Continue Reading

What Happened to the Shanghai International Gold Exchange?

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• Koos Jansen

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Withdrawals from the vaults of the largest physical gold bourse globally, the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE), accounted for 54 tonnes (in week 45 / 16 until 20 November), up 10 % from last week. Year to date SGE withdrawals have reached 2,313 tonnes, which is an all time record. Please make sure you’ve read The Mechanics … Continue Reading

Switzerland Gold Exports to China - October 29th

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• Koos Jansen

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First, withdrawals from the vaults of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE), our best measure for Chinese wholesale gold demand, accounted for 49 tonnes in week 44 (9 – 13 November), up 9 % from the previous week. Year to date SGE withdrawals have reached 2,259 tonnes, which is already more than any previous yearly total. … Continue Reading

Reuters Spreads False Info On Chinese Gold Lease Market

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• Koos Jansen

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A reporter from Reuters asserts there is 2,000 tonnes of gold tied up in the Chinese gold lease market. Once again, we will debunk these fictitious statements. Kindly be advised to have read Mechanics Of The Chinese Domestic Gold Market and Chinese Gold Trade Rules And Financing Deals Explained before you continue. (More in depth information … Continue Reading

Swiss Gold & Silver Refineries, GFMS Data, and the LBMA

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• Ronan Manly
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In early September 2015, I wrote an article titled “Moving the goalposts….The LBMA’s shifting stance on gold refinery production statistics”, in which I explained how the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) had, on Wednesday 5 August, substantially lowered its 2013 gold and silver refinery production statistics literally a few days after I had commented on … Continue Reading

World Gold Council Hides Insatiable Chinese Gold Demand

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• Koos Jansen

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The amount of gold withdrawn from the vaults of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE), which equals Chinese wholesale gold demand, accounted for 45 tonnes in the trading week that ended on 6 November. Year to date SGE withdrawals have reached an astonishing 2,210 tonnes, which is more than the full year record set in 2013 at … Continue Reading

UK Gold Export To China Hit Record In September

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• Koos Jansen

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According to the most recent data from Eurostat the UK has net exported 37.6 tonnes of gold to China in September, an all-time record. This figure is up 25 % m/m and up 280 % y/y. The UK started exporting gold directly to China in April 2014 when it shipped 5 tonnes to the mainland while for the first time bypassing … Continue Reading

Largest Chinese Gold Deposit Has Been Found 2,000m Undersea

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• Koos Jansen

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The largest ever gold deposit in China has been found in the East China Sea, near the Sanshan Islands in the Shandong province, at a depth of 2,000 meters, the People’s Daily Online reported on Tuesday. The Shandong Provincial No. 3 Institute of Geological and Mineral Survey announced on Monday the massive gold deposit in … Continue Reading

COMEX Deliveries vs. SGE Withdrawals

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• Koos Jansen

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Withdrawals from the vaults of the Shanghai Gold Exchange, a number by which we can measure Chinese wholesale gold demand, accounted for 47 tonnes in week 42 (26 – 30 October 2015). Strangely, this is a weak number if we compare it to the rest of this year. Still, 47 tonnes of gold equals 47,000 … Continue Reading

Confusion at the LBMA Conference About Gold Round Tripping

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• Koos Jansen

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Much to my surprise speakers at the LBMA conference in Vienna (held from 18 until 20 October 2015) have been discussing how gold round tripping and gold leasing in China inflates withdrawals from the vaults of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE). These Chinese Commodity Financing Deals (CCFDs), which gold round tripping and gold leasing can be labeled as, were presented at the conference... Continue Reading

The Official Chinese Gold Trade Rules By The PBoC

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• Koos Jansen

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Readers can download the original Chinese Measures for the Import and Export of Gold and Gold Products from the People’s Bank Of China (PBOC) here. Be advised the Measures for the Import and Export of Gold and Gold Products can be confusing if not connected to Chinese trade rules in general. In the translation below reference is being made … Continue Reading

Why Austria Is Repatriating Gold From London

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• Koos Jansen

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At the LBMA conference in Vienna, which was held from 18 – 20 October 2015, the Executive Director of the Austrian central bank, Peter Mooslechner, was interviewed by Editor-in-Chief for Kitco News, Daniele Cambone. You can watch the interview here. This particular interview is interesting because the central banker from Austria made some exceptional remarks … Continue Reading

Venezuela Says 'Adiós' to Her Gold Reserves

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• Ronan Manly
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Five months ago in my article “Venezuela’s Gold Reserves – Part 2: From Repatriation to Reactivation“, I concluded that: “given the deteriorating state of Venezuela’s international finances and international reserves at the present time, it may be sooner rather than later before Venezuelan gold could be on the move again out of the country. One thing … Continue Reading

Russia's VTB Bank Joins As SGE Member

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• Koos Jansen

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Another strong week for gold demand at the Shanghai Gold Exchange – China’s main physical gold bourse. From 19 until 23 October 57 tonnes have been withdrawn from the vaults of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE), according to data released on Friday by the SGE. Year to date 2,119 tonnes have been withdrawn. With a … Continue Reading

The Real Ponzi Scheme

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• BullionStar
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BullionStar was founded on the belief that precious metals generally, and gold specifically, has a central role in the monetary sphere. Gold is rare, beautiful and has superior metallic characteristics to other metals. Furthermore, gold is durable, portable, divisible, fungible and possesses intrinsic value. This has led to gold being used as money throughout most … Continue Reading

Cashless Society, Negative Rates, and Hyperinflation – Pt. 1

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• BullionStar
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If you’d suggested just a few years ago that we’d soon be living in a global economic landscape in which an increasing number of central banks would have their interest rates set to zero, or even negative, most people would have thought you where outright mad. What seemed crazy and absurd then is reality now in an … Continue Reading

SGE Withdrawals At Record High 1,958 Tons YTD

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• Koos Jansen

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Year to date withdrawals from the vaults of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) came in at a staggering 1,958 tonnes on 25 September 2015 – a record high – according to data released by the SGE on Friday. In week 38, which runs from 21 September until 25 September, 66 tonnes of gold were withdrawn … Continue Reading

How Much Gold Is China Importing?

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• Koos Jansen

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We have some catching up to do in terms of discussing Chinese gold import in H1 2015 and how this relates to withdrawals from Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) vaults. For this post it’s advised you’ve read The Mechanics Of The Chinese Domestic Gold Market to have a basic understanding of the physical gold supply and … Continue Reading

Back to Basics: Gold ETFs 101

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• BullionStar
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By Luke Chua, BullionStar     What are the key differences between buying ETF Gold and physical Gold? A Gold Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) attempts to track and ‘mirror’ the price performance of gold bullion by holding gold bars or derivatives and issuing shares backed by their holdings of physical metal or derivatives. A Gold ETF, like GLD, has their shares sold in... Continue Reading

The Chinese Gold Market: Lost In Translation

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• Koos Jansen

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There are a few analyses making rounds on the internet about gold owned by the People’s Bank Of China (PBOC). I’m always interested in these analyses, as I like to be aware of all knowledge available on this subject, but I rarely agree with them. The big questions that remain in the gold space are, … Continue Reading

Bundesbank STILL Fails to Deliver a Gold Bar Number List

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• Koos Jansen

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Written by Peter Boehringer, initiator of the German campaign “Repatriate our Gold”. Frequent followers of the German public campaign “Repatriate our Gold“ already know how intensively we have been struggling since 2011 (and longer) with Deutsche Bundesbank to finally – after more than 50 years of external storage of Germany’s gold – get credible transparency... Continue Reading

The Real Reason Belgium Sold 1,098 Tonnes Of Gold

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• Koos Jansen

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Belgium sold 1,098 tonnes of its official gold reserves since 1978. For our global investigation how much physical gold central banks have stored at what location and how much is leased out, I decided to submit the local equivalent of a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request at the central bank of Belgium, de Nationale Bank … Continue Reading

German Central Bank Publishes Gold Bar List

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• Koos Jansen

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The central bank of Germany, the Bundesbank, has published the bar list of all German official gold reserves stored in Frankfurt am Main, London, Paris and New York. The list contains the bar numbers, melt or inventory numbers, the gross and fine weight as well as the fineness of the gold. German official gold reserves … Continue Reading

Chinese & Russian Central Banks Continue to Accumulate Gold

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• Koos Jansen

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The People’s Bank Of China (PBOC) has added 16 tonnes of gold to its official reserves now totalling 1,694 tonnes in August 2015. The gain in August is the third monthly increment in a row after a period of silence by the PBOC since 2009. The change in reporting, the amounts reported and the fact the … Continue Reading

Central Banks’ Secrecy On Gold Storage Arrangements

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• Ronan Manly
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Whereas some central banks have become more forthcoming on where they claim their official gold reserves are stored (see my recent blog post ‘Central bank gold at the Bank of England‘), many of the world’s central banks remain secretive in this regard, with some central bank staff saying that they are not allowed to provide … Continue Reading

Switzerland Investigates Possible Collusion in Gold Trading

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• Koos Jansen

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Originally published at the portal of the Swiss government (translated by Markus M. Muller): The Swiss Competition Commission has started a investigation against the two Swiss Banks UBS and Julius Baer plus the foreign financial institutions Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Barclays, Morgan Stanley and Mitsui. The Commission has gained possible evidence, that the banks may have colluded in … Continue Reading

The London Float & PBoC Gold Purchases

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• Koos Jansen

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Did the PBOC covertly buy 1,747 tonnes of gold in London? This BullionStar blogpost is part of a chronological storyline. Please make sure you’ve read The Mechanics Of The Chinese Domestic Gold Market, PBOC Gold Purchases: Separating Facts from Speculation and The London Bullion Market And International Gold Trade, or it will be difficult to understand … Continue Reading

Central Bank Gold at the Bank of England

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• Ronan Manly
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In a recent article, “How many Good Delivery gold bars are in all the London Vaults?….including the Bank of England vaults“, I considered how much gold is actually in the London Gold Market, and highlighted how the amount of gold stored in the London wholesale market has fallen noticeably in recent years. That article highlighted … Continue Reading

The London Bullion Market & International Gold Trade

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• Koos Jansen

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Shortly after Ronan Manly released its epic post on 7 September 2015 about how much gold there is left in London, an email exchange started circulating among a small group of bloggers in a joint effort to figure out the apportionment between monetary and non-monetary gold in the capital of England. The group of bloggers consists … Continue Reading

New York & London Gold In Backwardation

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• Koos Jansen

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Not often in financial markets is the future price of gold is lower than the spot price (live), but lately we’ve witnessed such an event in both the New York and London gold market. This is called backwardation, the opposite of contango. What causes backwardation and will it increase the price of gold? In my … Continue Reading

Six Months on ICE – The LBMA Gold Price

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• Ronan Manly
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It’s now been 6 months since the LBMA Gold Price auction, the much touted replacement to the London Gold Fixings, was launched on an ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA) platform on Friday 20 March 2015. For anyone not au fait with the gold price auction, the LBMA Gold Price is a twice daily auction that produces … Continue Reading

India Imported 138t Gold In August

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• Koos Jansen

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Last week I reported India had shipped in 126 tonnes of gold in August according to provisional data. Newswire The Economic Times today reports India has imported 138 tonnes of gold in August, which is 9 % more than my estimate. Year to date India has imported 666 tonnes of gold, up 69 % year on year. Annualized … Continue Reading

It’s Virtually Impossible to Get Physical Gold in London

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• Koos Jansen

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Just after my colleague Ronan Manly wrote a very extensive article on how much gold is left in London (not much), Petropavlovsk Chairman and Co-Founder Peter Hambro discusses gold at Bloomberg Television. He, like Manly, concludes there is very little physical gold left in London. From Mr Hambro: My baseline is they [the Chinese] have been buying … Continue Reading

India's Precious Metals Imports Surge

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• Koos Jansen

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In the month of August 2015, India imported 126 tonnes of gold and 1,400 tonnes of silver, according to data from Infodrive India. Gold import into India is rising after a steep fall due to government import restrictions implemented in 2013. Year-to-date India has imported 654 tonnes of gold, which is 66 % up year … Continue Reading

How Many Gold Bars Are in London's Vaults?

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• Ronan Manly
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Each year in June, the Bank of England publishes its annual report which quotes financial data up to the end of February (its financial year-end). The Bank’s annual report also states the amount of gold, valued at a market price in Pounds sterling, that it holds under custody for its customers, which comprise central banks, … Continue Reading

The LBMA’s Shifting Stance on Gold Refining Statistics

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• Ronan Manly
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On Friday 31st July 2015, I released an article discussing the sale of Swiss gold refiner Valcambi to Indian jewellery company Rajesh Exports. In my report, in a section about Valcambi’s annual gold refining capacity, I made passing reference to 2013 gold refining production statistics that had been published by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) … Continue Reading

BullionStar Fiscal 2015 – Year in Review

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• BullionStar
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BullionStar reported sales revenues of SGD 63.4 for FY 2015, up 43.8 % compared to FY 2014. The infographic below shows some of the highlights of the BullionStar’s financial year 2015. Continue Reading

Record Monthly Gold Exports From UK to China

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• Koos Jansen

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The UK net exported a record 32.4 tonnes of gold directly to China mainland in June 2015. In 2014 the conventional conduits of bullion flows to China, from all around the world first to Hong Kong and then to the mainland, have been replaced by direct exports. For example, the UK is exporting bullion directly to China … Continue Reading

The Concept of Money & the Money Illusion

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• Koos Jansen

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Awareness about the concept of money is making a comeback. Gone are the decades in which the global citizenry was fooled to leave this subject to economists, governments and banks – a setup that has proven to end in disaster. The crisis in 2008 has spawned debate about what money is, where it comes from … Continue Reading

Guest Post: Eurodollars and The Gold Market – Part One

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• Koos Jansen

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Written by Alexander Mirolyubov One of the most important factors driving the gold price is financial stress. When the latter is changing it always finds a resolution in the interest to the yellow metal. However, gold price adjustments can pass immediately or with some kind of delay. 
This time lag is important to gold investors … Continue Reading

Theory On China’s Gold Strategy

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• Koos Jansen

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Developments at the Chinese central bank (PBOC) hint at more moves towards gold. The most important recent gold developments are; (i) the PBOC updated its official gold reserves from 1,054 tonnes to 1,658 tonnes on 17 July, (ii) the PBOC devalued the renminbi by approximately 3 % on 11 August, (iii) the PBOC again updated … Continue Reading

BullionStar Featured on Channel 8 News

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• BullionStar
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The price of both gold and silver has fallen substantially during the last few weeks. This has ushered in a waive of physical gold and silver buying, with very large volumes and a lot of first time customers. When the largest channel for the mandarin speaking public in Singapore, Channel 8, made a news coverage … Continue Reading

The Bank of England’s Revealing Views On Gold in 1988

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• Ronan Manly
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Below is an interesting 1988 discussion paper on gold, written by Bank of England staff. The original paper can be found in pdf here. The United Kingdom’s gold reserves belong to HM Treasury (HMT) and are held in the Exchange Equalisation Account (EEA), but managed by the Bank of England on behalf of HMT. The discussion paper … Continue Reading

Swiss Gold Refineries and the Sale of Valcambi

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• Ronan Manly
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The normally low-key Swiss gold refining market has been thrown into the spotlight with the announcement that private company Valcambi, the world’s largest gold refinery, is being acquired by Indian group Rajesh Exports Ltd (REL), the world’s largest gold jewellery manufacturer. This acquisition is worth analysing for a number of reasons, namely will the Valcambi-Rajesh... Continue Reading

The Misinterpretation of Money

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• BullionStar
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In its simplest form, money is a substitution for barter to make trade more efficient (formally: medium of exchange) but money is also a means for generating production by allowing for saving and investment (store of value) and for accounting and reconciliation (unit of account). Different economic schools view money differently. Even for the doctrines advocating … Continue Reading