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“BRICS countries are large economies with large reserves of gold and an impressive volume of production and consumption of this precious metal. In China, the gold trade is conducted in Shanghai, in Russia it is in Moscow. Our idea is to create a link between the two cities in order to increase trade between the two markets,” First Deputy Governor of the Russian Central Bank Sergey Shvetsov told TASS.

China is the world’s largest gold producer. Last year it produced 490 tons. Russia is third after Australia with about 295 tons produced last year. Overall, the countries make up 25 percent of the world gold production.

At the same time, the central banks of Russia and China are the world’s biggest gold buyers. Since the end of 2008 the gold reserves of China have nearly tripled – from 600 to 1,762 tons.

The Central Bank of Russia bought 356,000 ounces of gold in February becoming the largest buyer of the precious metal among the world’s central banks, business daily Vedomosti reported, quoting IMF data. Russia currently has 1,415 tons of gold.

Among the countries with the largest gold reserves, China is fifth and Russia is sixth after the US, Germany, Italy and France.

Tayissa Barone – The West Australian on April 18, 2016, 4:45 am

How do you lose a 2.5kg gold bar?

2.5kg gold bar

Someone in Perth has managed to do it and – thanks to the honesty of a cleaner – the search is on for its owner.

Cleaners found the bar in East Victoria Park and handed it in at Cottesloe police station on their way to their next job on March 18.

Mirrabooka detectives are now handling the investigation and are appealing to the public to reunite the bar with its owner.

The bar, measuring approximately 20cm, appears to have been crudely hand poured and lacks any identifying marks.

2.5kg gold bar.2

Police think the gold bar may be made from stolen jewellery.
Police said while the bar looks and feels like gold, they suspect it is less than 50 per cent pure gold.

If the bar was pure gold it would be worth approximately $100,000. If it is less than 10 per cent pure gold, it could still be valued at close to $10,000.

Police suspect the bar was made from stolen jewellery melted down to avoid detection but acknowledge it could also belong to an amateur gold pourer.

Small shapes resembling parts of jewellery can be felt across the bar. No gold bars matching its description have been reported as stolen or lost.

Anyone with information is asked contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

The number one reason to buy gold bullion given the new risks in the 21st century digital age is “cyber financial warfare,” Jim Rickards, Chief Global Strategist at West Shore Funds told “Bloomberg Markets.”

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The respected analyst and best selling author has just released his new book, ‘The New Case for Gold’ and discussed the risks that digital money and wealth pose to all investors and savers today. He also talks about the Federal Reserve, China’s gold buying strategy, why gold is safer and more liquid than stocks, bonds and cash and tells Scarlet Fu and Alix Steel why “gold is going to go to $10,000 per ounce”.

Rickards’ most important point and one we have been making for many months now (see here) is that today there are additional benefits of owning physical gold outside the financial system due to the real risks of hacking, cyber warfare and terrorism and the threats these pose to all forms of digital wealth – which is most wealth today.

“There are new reasons to have gold, which I talk about in the book, 21st century reasons. [Russian President] Vladimir Putin has a 6,000-member cyber brigade working night and day to destroy, disrupt and erase digital wealth. So how many billionaires do you say, ‘what do you have, stocks, bonds?’ No you don’t, you have electrons. Putin can wipe those out. The thing about gold, you can’t hack it, you can’t erase it, you can’t delete it. It’s tangible,” Rickards said.
Rickards does not mention silver. However, given silver bullion has similar qualities to gold bullion, a strong case can be made those who buy silver coins and bars, either in their possession or in allocated and segregated secure storage will also be protected from the increasing “digital wealth” risks of today.

The other important point that Rickards makes is that “paper gold is paper gold” and ETFs and futures are paper gold which can be defaulted on and therefore, it is vital you own physical coins and bars.

Read Cyber War Poses Risk of Bail-Ins to Banks and Deposits

Watch Must See Video with Rickards on Bloomberg Here

Gold Prices (LBMA)
8 April: USD 1,235.00, EUR 1,085.18 and GBP 877.33 per ounce
7 April: USD 1,237.50, EUR 1,086.07 and GBP 879.70 per ounce
6 April: USD 1,225.75, EUR 1,079.76 and GBP 868.38 per ounce
5 April: USD 1,231.50, EUR 1,083.59 and GBP 866.32 per ounce
4 April: USD 1,215.00, EUR 1,068.80 and GBP 854.58 per ounce

Silver Prices (LBMA)
8 April: USD 15.16, EUR 13.34 and GBP 10.78 per ounce
7 April: USD 15.22, EUR 13.38 and GBP 10.81 per ounce
6 April: USD 15.07, EUR 13.28 and GBP 10.71 per ounce
5 April: USD 15.19, EUR 13.37 and GBP 10.69 per ounce
4 April: USD 15.58, EUR 13.92 and GBP 10.99 per ounce

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Silver Britannias – VAT and CGT Free

Gold News and Commentary

Gold Heads for Best Week in More Than a Month on Fed Rate View (Bloomberg)
Gold poised for best week in five on cautious Fed, safe-haven demand (Reuters)
Gold Gains Most in a Week on U.S. Fed Reserve Rate Caution (Bloomberg)
Gold gains on lower dollar after Fed remains cautious on rates (Reuters)
U.K. Industry May Drag on Growth After Unexpected February Drop (Bloomberg)

Why Investors Should Buy Gold – Rickards (Bloomberg)
Why Swiss Bank Is Buying Gold (Zero Hedge)
Why Gold Is Great Investment For The Long-Term Investor (Seeking Alpha)
Something Big Happened In The Gold Market (Gold Seek)
Big Trouble Ahead For Copper Is Good For Silver (Silver Seek)

So far in 2016, gold GLD, +0.02% and silver SLV, +1.78% have been on the rise, raising the all-important question of whether or not “it is the time to back up the truck and buy gold and silver,” similar to our calls to buy gold in $600s in 2007 and silver in the $17s before a run to $50.

The Arora Report does not make such calls lightly. Over the years, we have made the “back up the truck and buy” call only once on gold and only once on silver.

Gold and silver markets are global and highly complex. Over the years, we have developed specialized algorithms with fundamental, quantitative, sentiment and technical inputs from across the globe. The uncanny accuracy of these algorithms has been proven and well documented over a long period of time, including at MarketWatch. What are these algorithms saying now?

This is part on of a series of columns on the subject. I will discuss here two noteworthy factors and the remaining factors will be discussed in subsequent pieces.

Character of the rally

To examine the character of this rally, let us start by looking at the annotated chart of gold.

Please click here for an annotated chart of gold.

Please notice the following from the chart:

The conclusion from the foregoing is neither bullish nor bearish for the long-term investor. False breakouts are common. From a technical perspective, it is too early to say with reasonable certainty if this is also a countertrend rally or the start of a new bull move.

Undoubtedly the trend is up and upward momentum is strong. This, too, is common to both the start of new bull markets and to false breakouts. The prudent action from this chart is to be patient and wait for a confirmation of a bull move before buying. Remember, the chart is only one of the many factors that should go into a buying decision.

Correlation with the yen

Both the yen and gold are considered safe havens, and they often tend to move together as a result. The relevant ETFs for yen are FXY, -0.50% and YCS, +1.11% The annotated chart linked below compares gold futures to yen futures.

Please click here for an annotated chart of gold futures vs. yen futures.

The chart shows that the yen has been leading, and gold has been following. As the yen rises, the thinking of gold bulls is that there must be a need for a safe haven for the yen to rise.Gold bulls being more comfortable with gold, they buy it instead of yen on this safe-haven belief.

The foregoing scenario usually works well. However, this time, the reason for yen’s rise is not safe-haven buying, and thus recent follow-up gold buying is misplaced. (This does not include gold buying in January and February when the stock market was down.)

The real reason for a rising yen

Coming into March 2016, there was tremendous buying of Japanese stocks by dollar-based investors. Such investors sold yen to hedge the currency risk. A lot of retail money flowed into currency hedged Japanese ETFs such as DXJ, +3.24% , HEWJ, +2.94% and HEGJ, +3.92%

Now that in response to rising yen, Japanese stocks are falling, dollar-based investors are aggressively selling Japanese stocks. Retail investors are aggressively selling currency-hedged Japanese ETFs.

As Japanese stocks are sold, currency hedges are taken off by buying yen.

All this unwinding of hedges by buying yen is causing yen to rise. It has nothing to do with safe-haven demand. Further, as the yen rises, those who borrowed in yen for carry trade have to buy yen, thus accelerating yen rise.

When will the markets wake up to the reality of the yen?

The markets will wake up to the reality of yen causing huge losses for the momo crowd and technical traders when smart money or BOJ decides that the absurdity has gone too far and steps in the opposite direction.

Disclosure: Subscribers to The Arora Report have positions in gold, silver, and yen. All recommended positions are reviewed daily at The Arora Report and subscribers may receive additional information in real time not available to the readers of this article.

According to the World Gold Council, there are currently around 184,000 tonnes sitting in bank vaults, government reserves and personal collections, but quite how much that actually is will surprise you.

Gold has been coveted for millennia, for its beauty, malleability – and rarity. According to the World Gold Council, there are currently around 184,000 tonnes sitting in bank vaults, government reserves and personal collections. That sounds like an awful lot, until you realise that just one cubic metre of the stuff weighs over 19 tonnes. Thus, all the world’s known gold reserves could be laid out on a football pitch in a layer only a metre or so high.

But this is only the gold that has been successfully mined and documented. Estimating how much actually exists on the planet is much trickier. Chemical analysis of rock samples suggests gold makes up on average a few parts per billion of the total mass of the Earth’s crust. That means the top kilometre or so has around a million tonnes of the stuff still waiting to be dug up. Chances are it never will be, though, because most of it will be hopelessly uneconomic to extract. This was a bitter lesson learned by the brilliant German chemist Fritz Haber in the 1920s. He hoped to pay his country’s WWI reparations by chemically precipitating the gold dissolved in the world’s oceans. Haber discovered, however, that the concentrations were just too low for this to be possible. 
Each litre of seawater contains just 13 billionths of a gram 
of gold.

http://www.sciencefocus.com/qa/how-much-gold-there-world