BullionStar Blogs

What Are Pennies Made Of?

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Penny Production Costs in 2025: Current Trends Show Prices Could Approach 3.5 Cents Per Penny! Have you ever thought about what pennies are made of? At first glance, it may seem like a minor coin, almost negligible in value. However, the cost to produce each penny actually exceeds its face value, which has led to … Continue Reading

Gold Remains Strong as Central Banks Sustain Upward Gold Buying Trend in 2024

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• Ronan Manly
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Central banks worldwide are doubling down on gold, continuing a trend that began in 2010 and which has accelerated over the last three years.

From Central Europe to the Middle East, and from Central Asia to India and China, monetary authorities are scrambling to accumulate the world's preeminent reserve asset, and unreported buying is fueling intrigue.

With 2022 and... Continue Reading

A Silent Gold Revolution: The New Gold Price Breakout

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• Ronan Manly
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The gold bull market of 2024 has already seen the US dollar gold price rising by 30% since early March. Not only has the gold price been making new all time highs in US dollar terms but it has been making new all time highs in all major fiat currencies.

While the drivers of this gold price surge are numerous and varied, they include heightened geopolitical risk, a shift by... Continue Reading

BullionStar Auctions: Wrapping Up Round 1

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• BullionStar
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We’re pleased to report that our first auction has successfully concluded, with all items paid for, stored in vault, collected or ready to be collected. The response from our customers was enthusiastic – a clear sign that there’s been a pent-up demand for an auction platform like this. Over 3,000 bids were placed, and it seems this number is climbing with each round of auctions.... Continue Reading

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) – Accelerating towards Dystopia

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• Ronan Manly
• 7 Comments

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The worldwide rollout of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) is rapidly gaining momentum with nearly every central bank across the world involved in planning and developing a CBDC.

Pushed by an unaccountable elite fronted by the BIS, the Atlantic Council, and the IMF, CBDCs represent a very real threat to economic freedom and liberty.

There has however been some... Continue Reading

Elections and Political Uncertainty – Critical drivers of Gold Demand and the Gold Price

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• Ronan Manly
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This year is shaping up to be a perfect storm for political risk and uncertainty, given the upcoming US presidential and Congress elections, and major shifts in the political landscapes of France and the UK.

Political uncertainty and government policy shifts increase economic uncertainty and impact investor sentiment, pushing investors to seek safe haven assets such as gold due... Continue Reading

Zimbabwe’s new gold-backed currency: Can the ZiG restore confidence and stability?

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• Ronan Manly
• 5 Comments

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Zimbabwe's latest currency, the ZiG, is backed by gold and foreign exchange reserves, and has been launched amid hopes of stabilising the economy and reining in inflation.

Yet, amid public scepticism and the risk of overprinting, it remains to be seen whether the ZiG will be successful or end up doomed like its predecessors. Continue Reading

Central Bank Gold Buying – Latest Trends and Developments

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• Ronan Manly
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Central banks have been one of the most important drivers of gold demand in recent times, collectively buying over 1000 tonnes of gold in each of 2022 and 2023. This trend is now continuing into 2024, with emerging market central banks being the main buyers. Continue Reading

Why It’s Time to Stop Taxing Gold & Silver

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• BullionStar
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Learn about the flaws of paper money & the U.S. Federal Reserve, and why it's time to end capital gains taxes on gold and silver bullion. Continue Reading

Why a Powerful Silver Bull Market May Be Ahead

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• BullionStar
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A look at numerous factors that may drive silver back to its 2011 high of $50 — and possibly even higher. Continue Reading

What’s Driving Gold to All-Time Highs?

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• BullionStar
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Gold has surged by nearly $300 or 14% since the start of March. In this piece, we explain the factors that are driving this powerful rally. Continue Reading

What You Need to Know About Gold's Long-Term Bull Market

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• BullionStar
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Gold began a powerful uptrend in the early-2000s and is still in that same uptrend despite the stagnation of the past few years. The factors that originally drove gold's uptrend are still in effect and, in many cases, are accelerating. Over the next decade and beyond, we are going to see a staggering increase in debt and the money supply, which will result in terrible inflation and,... Continue Reading

BullionStar Financials FY 2023 – Year in Review

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• BullionStar
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This post reviews BullionStar’s financial performance and milestones for the financial year ending 30 June 2023 (FY 2023). FY 2023, from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023, marked yet another robust year for BullionStar, as we saw sales revenues reaching SGD 396.4 million. The sales revenue for FY2023 was marginally higher (1.2%) compared to FY 2022. In this blog post, we provide detailed... Continue Reading

Year of the Dragon: Surge in Singapore's Gold & Silver Sales

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• BullionStar
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As we embrace the Chinese New Year of 2024, the Year of the Dragon stands as a beacon of power, wisdom, and success. At BullionStar, the Dragon's influence is evident in the remarkable surge of sales in Dragon-themed gold and silver bullion, underscoring the deep-rooted cultural significance of the Dragon.

In this blog, we delve into the unique offerings and opportunities the... Continue Reading

The Royal Mint's Growing Interest in Singapore

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• BullionStar
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The Royal Mint, which is the United Kingdom’s official government mint, is taking a growing interest in Singapore and Southeast Asia’s bullion market and is expanding its presence and product offerings in the gold and silver-hungry region. With an illustrious history going all the way back to 886 AD, The Royal Mint is one of … Continue Reading

Surging Silver Demand to Intensify Structural Deficit

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• Ronan Manly
• 19 Comments

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The physical silver market has been in deficit for 3 years now, with demand far exceeding supply. This trend is set to continue into 2024, and above ground silver stockpiles are quickly vanishing.

To make matters worse, Silver Institute / Metals Focus reports exclude many types of silver demand, which means that silver demand is even higher than the market thinks it... Continue Reading

Gold Hits All-Time Highs Amid Huge Increase in Volatility

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• Ronan Manly
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Following monthly, weekly and daily new highs in the US dollar gold price late last week, gold’s price action has been even more dramatic in the opening trading hours of the first full week of December.

But after surging $70 to another all-time high of $2143 in the first half an hour of trading, the gold price then fell more than $120 back to $2020 when London and Wall... Continue Reading

Infographic: U.S. Government & Banks in the Gold Market

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• BullionStar
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Given shocking irregularities in the auditing of the US Gold Reserve, the successful prosecution of Wall Street banks for precious metals price manipulation, coupled with the multi-year gold price capping during COMEX New York trading hours, and the blatant interventions applauded by the Plunge Protection Team, it is clear to see that the US Government and Wall Street work hand in glove... Continue Reading

Why Have Chinese Banks Disappeared From LBMA Gold Auctions?

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• Ronan Manly
• 8 Comments

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In a very strange development, which has gone practically unnoticed, all of the Chinese banks that were direct participants in the LBMA Gold Price auctions have recently disappeared.

The latest casualty is Bank of China, which bizarrely is said to have requested a self-suspension. Before that, ICBC and Bank of Communications disappeared.

With zero commentary from the... Continue Reading

JP Morgan Traders Go to Jail, JP Morgan Exits DoJ ‘Sin Bin’

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• Ronan Manly
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In recent weeks, a number of former JP Morgan traders have been sentenced to jail in the US for precious metals price manipulation.

At the same time, and less appreciated, is that JP Morgan (the bank) has now walked free of its 3 year ‘Sin Bin’ agreement with the US DoJ.

Who are the 10 JP Morgan traders mentioned in court documents? And why did LBMA not do ‘due... Continue Reading

First Ever Filming of Singapore's Super-Secret Gold Reserves

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After being the largest central bank gold buyer in Q1 2023, and one of the largest central bank buyers so far this year, Singapore’s central bank (MAS) is not resting on its laurels, and has made the news again, this time allowing a camera crew into its gold vault in Singapore.

This is the first time ever that the gold reserves of Singapore’s central bank have been filmed.... Continue Reading

Poland’s Central Bank Ramps Up Gold Purchases

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• Ronan Manly
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Poland’s central bank (NBP) now holds 300 tonnes of gold after entering the gold market for a fourth consecutive month during July, this time buying 22.4 tonnes of gold.

Between April and July, the NBP has now bought 71 tonnes of gold, and there’s more buying to come since the NBP wants to buy at least 100 tonnes of gold in total this year.

Over coming months,... Continue Reading

Poland Bought 50 Tonnes of Gold Over 3 Months

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• Ronan Manly
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Poland’s central bank (NBP) has been raising eyebrows after having purchased nearly 50 tonnes of gold over the three months between April and June.

But this is only half the story, as the NBP has a plan to accumulate 100 tonnes of gold this year. So expect further NBP gold buying during 2023.

Then the newly acquired gold is expected to be repatriated from London to... Continue Reading

New Asahi Vault Added to COMEX Approved List

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• Ronan Manly
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A new precious metals depository / vault has recently been added to the COMEX / NYMEX approved vault network in and around New York City. The depository is operated by Asahi Depository LLC, a subsidiary of Asahi Refining, Inc.

Asahi Refining runs precious metals refineries in Salt Lake City in Utah, and Brampton, Ontario, Canada, and now aims to expand into vaulting and... Continue Reading

BullionStar Financials FY 2022 – Year in Review

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This post reviews BullionStar’s financial performance for the financial year ending 30 June 2022, and milestones during that financial year. Continue Reading

Gold Gains Hugely in Popularity Among American Investors

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• Ronan Manly
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The latest annual survey by Gallup which asks Americans which is the best long-term investment has found that a huge 26% of respondents opted for gold.

This is the highest result for gold in Gallup’s annual asset class ranking poll since 2012, and corroborates evidence from the World Gold Council and US Mint that the American retail public are piling into gold.

With... Continue Reading

Singapore Was the World’s Largest Central Bank Gold Buyer

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• Ronan Manly
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Following a record year in 2022 for central bank gold buying, the gold buying by the world’s central banks in Q1 2023 is also the strongest first quarter on record.

Over the first quarter, the central bank of Singapore (MAS) has been out in front as the biggest gold buyer of Q1, adding an enormous 68.7 tonnes over the three month period January to... Continue Reading

Sound Money Legislation Rapidly Gaining Traction in the U.S.

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• Ronan Manly
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All across the United States there are Sound Money initiatives progressing at the State level which are bringing back gold and silver to their rightful place as real money.

These initiatives span everything from abolishing State sales taxes on gold and silver, to making gold and silver legal tender in US States.

With the level of news flow in this area accelerating... Continue Reading

JP Morgan Gold Traders Plan to Appeal Their Convictions

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• Ronan Manly
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In 2022, when J.P. Morgan’s top gold traders (Nowak, Smith and Jordan) were unanimously convicted in federal criminal trials on multiple counts of manipulating COMEX precious metals futures prices, many thought that justice had been served.

But like the walking dead in a bad zombie movie, J.P. Morgan’s gold traders keep coming back, and are now set to appeal their... Continue Reading

Buy & Store Precious Metals in the United States

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• BullionStar
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BullionStar has now launched in the US and is offering customers one year of storage free in our secure precious metals vault in Texas.

With a BullionStar account, you have full 24/7 control over your vaulted bullion, you can buy and sell gold and silver bars and coins for storage, sell or withdraw your stored bullion, audit your stored bullion and much more.

Texas... Continue Reading

Singapore Boosts Gold Reserves to Nearly 200 Tonnes

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• Ronan Manly
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In a low-key announcement, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has revealed that in January 2023, Singapore’s central bank bought a massive 44.6 tonnes of gold, boosting its gold reserves to 198.4 tonnes.

This is the largest central bank gold purchase of any country so far this year, but surprisingly, the news has received nearly zero coverage in the mainstream... Continue Reading

American Gold Eagles: The Most Popular U.S. Gold Bullion Coin

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• BullionStar
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The US Mint’s American Gold Eagle bullion coin is the most popular gold coin in the United States and is instantly recognizable around the world.

Since its launch in 1986, nearly 47 million bullion Gold Eagles have been minted across the coin’s four sizes, containing a massive 26.8 million troy ounces of gold. That’s 830 tonnes of gold held in Gold Eagle coins! This makes... Continue Reading

BullionStar Launches in the United States

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• BullionStar
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As one of the world’s most innovative bullion dealers, BullionStar is proud to announce that we have now launched in the United States with a dedicated US operation, and a new US website BullionStar.us.

At BullionStar.us, you can now buy physical precious metals coins and bars for free delivery across the United States, or for 1-year FREE vault storage in our secure precious... Continue Reading

Successful Newcrest Bid Would Extend U.S. Newmont’s Lead

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• Ronan Manly
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US gold mining giant Newmont Corporation, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, is already the world’s largest gold producer, but now wants to grow even bigger having launched a takeover bid for Australia’s Newcrest Mining.

A combined Newmont-Newcrest would produce 8 million ounces of gold per year, twice that of nearest rival Barrick Gold of Canada.

This is the... Continue Reading

Deutsche Bank Returning to LBMA After Nine Years

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• Ronan Manly
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Scandal ridden Deutsche Bank is preparing a comeback to the London precious metals markets with news that it is rejoining the LBMA and wants a seat at the daily gold and silver auctions.

However, it should not be forgotten that in 2014 this same Deutsche Bank panicked and fled the LBMA and London gold and silver markets precisely because regulators were investigating... Continue Reading

Chinese Central Bank Accumulating Gold Again

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• Ronan Manly
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China’s central bank (PBoC) has started to publish monthly gold ‘purchases’ again, claiming to have added 32 tonnes of gold in November and another 30 tonnes in December.

Similar to the last periods in which China ‘added’ to its gold reserves over both 2018 - 2019 and 2015 - 2016, this new round of monthly gold revelations is being done for strategic reasons, and will... Continue Reading

Has GLD Been Failing to Disclose Gold Held at BoE in 2022?

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• Ronan Manly
• 7 Comments

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The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) has on occasion held large quantities of gold in the vaults of its subcustodian, the Bank of England. We know this because it’s been stated in GLD quarterly and annual filings submitted to the SEC. Indeed, the SEC compels the GLD to reveal these facts about GLD subcustodians in its filings.

Why then did the GLD Sponsor (a subsidiary of the World Gold... Continue Reading

FTX Fiasco Highlights the Modern Banking & Gold Market Ponzi

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• Ronan Manly
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The collapse of crypto exchange FTX and sister trading firm Alameda has sent shockwaves through the crypto sector and wider financial markets. Customers wiped out and billions of dollars missing, in a scheme that was run as a fractional reserve scheme.

With Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings now in motion, the truth of what exactly happened with FTX, to the extent that it’s... Continue Reading

Gold Establishment Supports Central Bank Secrecy

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• Ronan Manly
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When the World Gold Council released a report this week claiming central bank gold demand in Q3 was at a record high of 400 tonnes, the data was very odd in that more than three quarters of the claimed demand figure was an ‘estimate’.

This estimate was from Metals Focus and is based on ‘confidential information’ so cannot be verified. Despite this, the mainstream... Continue Reading

COMEX Deliverable Silver Far Less Than Imagined

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• Ronan Manly
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With the global demand for physical silver firing on all cylinders, and with silver inventories being rapidly drained out of LBMA and COMEX vaults in London and New York, the silver supply problem is actually bigger than most people realise.

Why? Because at least 50% of COMEX Eligible silver is held as a long term investment, and is not part of Deliverable silver supply. And... Continue Reading

Qatar Ramps Up Gold Reserves as World Cup Approaches

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• Ronan Manly
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As the world’s media begin to descend on Qatar in advance of this year’s FIFA World Cup, it's interesting to note that the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) has been a major gold buyer for much of 2022.

Having bought gold for five consecutive months between April and August, Qatar’s central bank now holds 77 tonnes of gold, and has increased its gold holdings by sixfold over the... Continue Reading

London Silver Inventories Plummet as Metal Exits LBMA Vaults

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• Ronan Manly
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Global demand for physical silver is causing unprecedented outflows of silver from the LBMA London vaults.

These London vaults have seen a net outflow of 254.5 million ozs (7915 tonnes) over the last 9 months and London silver holdings are now at an all time low of 28,500 tonnes, of which 18,500 tonnes is silver held by ETFs.

With silver demand firing on all cylinders... Continue Reading

Moscow World Standard to Destroy LBMA’s Gold Monopoly

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• Ronan Manly
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A new precious metals pricing infrastructure may be about to be launched by the Eurasian Economic Union. Led by Russia, this regional alliance is proposing a Moscow World Standard to confront the status quo monopoly of the LBMA.

Masterminded by one of Russia’s leading economists, Sergei Glazyev, this new infrastructure, if it launches, could pull in members from both the... Continue Reading

JP Morgan Gold Trading Boss Found Guilty

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• Ronan Manly
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The head of JP Morgan’s precious metals trading desk, Michael Nowak, and gold trader Gregg Smith, have been found guilty by a US federal jury of attempted price manipulation, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and spoofing precious metals prices over an 8 year period.

Nowak was also a Board member of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) up until his indictment by the... Continue Reading

India's IIBX Bullion Exchange – Price Taker or Price Maker?

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• Ronan Manly
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A new gold exchange called the Indian International Bullion Exchange (IIBX) has just been launched in GIFT City, Gujarat, India.

IIBX offers spot gold contracts backed by vaulted bullion, and trading will allow Indian jewellery companies to import gold via the Exchange.

But will IIBX help India become a gold ‘price setter’, or will one of the world’s largest... Continue Reading

LBMA Silver Inventories Fall to Six-Year Low

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• Ronan Manly
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Physical silver inventories in the LBMA vaults in London have fallen for seven straight months and are now at their lowest levels since December 2016. Additionally, this is the first time since November 2016 that LBMA silver inventories have fallen below 1 billion ozs.

With ETFs in London accounting for nearly 65% of all LBMA silver holdings, and given the deficit in the... Continue Reading

Gold Manipulator JP Morgan Still Influential at LBMA & COMEX

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• Ronan Manly
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The current US trial of a group of former JP Morgan precious metals traders for price manipulation across New York, London and Singapore is but the latest installment in a saga that that has seen JP Morgan pay out US$ 920 million while admitting criminal wrongdoing.

However, that has not stopped the LBMA, SBMA and the COMEX from not only continuing to allow JP Morgan to operate... Continue Reading

BIS, Central Banks Are Rigging Gold Market Using Paper Gold

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• Ronan Manly
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In a new article for British news and current affairs site Reaction, legendary gold sector executive Peter Hambro pulls no punches in claiming that the BIS and central banks are rigging the gold price.

They are doing so, says Hambro, to hide the perception of inflation, and are implementing the smashing of the physical gold price using the limitless ‘paper gold’... Continue Reading

Russia Buying Gold Through Sovereign Wealth Fund

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• Ronan Manly
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As conflicts intensify between Russia and the West, gold continues to be at the forefront of geo-politics.

As Russia prepares its State Fund of Precious Metals to be able to rapidly trade gold in the event of a military mobilization, the EU is talking of a new round of Russian sanctions that will target gold.

New Russian laws may soon also classify the size of... Continue Reading

Czech Republic Joins Hungary & Poland in Gold Buying Binge

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• Ronan Manly
• 6 Comments

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The incoming governor of the Czech central bank plans to increase the Czech Republic’s monetary gold reserves massively from 11 tonnes to over 100 tonnes. That's a 10-fold increase.

This follows huge gold buying over the last few years from the Polish and Hungarian central banks. What’s the connection? All 3 countries are members of the Visegrád Group, a tight economic and... Continue Reading