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Perth Mint’s gold sales climbed to their highest since at least 2012 in March as a fall in prices of the metal lifted demand for minted products, the refiner said in a blog post on Tuesday.
Sales of gold coins and minted bars jumped to more than 130,000 ounces in March, up 4.8% month-on-month and 39% from a year earlier.
“The market continues to take everything we can make at present,” said Neil Vance, general manager at Minted Products, noting above-average demand in key markets like the United States and Germany.
Benchmark spot gold prices fell for a third consecutive month in March, with a drop of 1.5%. Over the first quarter, they were down almost 10%, the biggest such fall in more than 4 years.
The Perth Mint, owned by the government of Western Australia, refines more than 90% of the newly mined gold in Australia
Silver sales, meanwhile, declined 12.6% to about 1.6 million ounces last month.
“Interest in silver is outstripping our capacity to convert plentiful supplies into finished goods,” Vance said.
In the first quarter this year, the Perth Mint sold more than 330,000 ounces of gold, and more than 4.5 million ounces of silver, according to Jordan Eliseo, manager of listed products and investment research at the mint.
“These figures represent the highest calendar quarter on record for gold, and the fourth highest calendar quarter on record for silver.”
Silver prices fell for a second month in March, by 8.4%, and were down 7.5% over the first quarter.
The Perth Mint, owned by the government of Western Australia, refines more than 90% of the newly mined gold in Australia, one of the world’s top gold producers.
(By Anjishnu Mondal; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
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