Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
As rumors fly that leading Western economies have exhausted their gold hoards, China has become the world’s biggest gold producer while also discretely accumulating bullion reserves.
A handy graph provided by Washington’s Blog draws into relief China’s heft with respect to global gold production:
Washington’s also cites another source noting that in sharp contrast to the powerhouse manufacturing industries which have brought about its rapid economic ascent, China is not exporting any of the bullion it produces, and that despite being the world’s biggest gold producer no on ever sees bars with Chinese stamps on them.
Screwtape Files observes that it is difficult to find much evidence of Chinese-manufactured gold bars overseas:
In the database I found ZERO matches for Chinese-manufactured gold bars in the GLD records, and also extended the query to see if other vaults had any. I was mildly surprised to find NONE … surprising because our current gold sample size includes data from not just HSBC London vault, but also Royal Canadian Mint and Via Mat (London, Hong Kong and Zurich).
Washington’s further notes that China has historically remained largely taciturn about its gold holdings for several years at a time before announcing major increases in its total hoard.
5 Comments
WyattDog
With increasing gold holdings, China is certainly building a position to be a major economic powerhouse in the future. If they’re wise with their gold, they will be holding the cards when other fiat currencies begin crashing. In a way, gold is the ultimate ace card to have since its value cannot be manipulated – http://www.providentmetals.com/gold-bullion.html – If the Chinese decide to move to a gold backed currency and out of the world reserve currency (U.S. Dollar), they would certainly reap some benefit. However, a move like that could have some pretty dramatic geopolitical consequences.
Ed Smith
looks like china is clearly crossing every other.
Raja
is the gold ore indigenous one or sourced from other countries?
PrimeValues.org
Papua New Guinea should be a major gold-holder… wow, they should be as rich as Switzerland, but it seems like others are mining their gold “away” and probably only leaving them pennies, hard work and mud-filled crates in the ground…
Avtaar
I find the number for US gold production to look low. If you look at the USGeological Survey Data for bullion exports in 2011, it was much more. This number looks low.