South Africa police standoff with illegal gold miners escalates
The police sealed off access to the Buffelsfontein gold mine in Stilfontein several weeks ago to deny the miners access to food and other essentials.
SFGate reports China’s asset managers, who have been approved to raise $70 billion for allocation overseas, are seeking additional funds to invest in gold and precious metals as soaring inflation spurs interest in alternative assets as a way to protect wealth.
Five companies have been approved this year to raise cash for investment in precious metals products overseas via the qualified domestic institutional investors program, said Hu Miao, an analyst at Shanghai-based fund research firm Z-ben Advisors Ltd. Twenty more applications for resources and commodity investment are pending, said Hu.
China became the largest physical gold investment market in the first quarter, according to the World Gold Council. Lion Fund Management Co. was the first to place money in foreign gold exchange-traded funds, raising more than 3.2 billion yuan ($495 million).
