BullionStar Blogs

The Real Ponzi Scheme

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• BullionStar
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BullionStar was founded on the belief that precious metals generally, and gold specifically, has a central role in the monetary sphere. Gold is rare, beautiful and has superior metallic characteristics to other metals. Furthermore, gold is durable, portable, divisible, fungible and possesses intrinsic value. This has led to gold being used as money throughout most … Continue Reading

Cashless society, negative interest rates and hyperinflation – part 1

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• BullionStar
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If you’d suggested just a few years ago that we’d soon be living in a global economic landscape in which an increasing number of central banks would have their interest rates set to zero, or even negative, most people would have thought you where outright mad. What seemed crazy and absurd then is reality now in an … Continue Reading

SGE Withdrawals At Record High 1,958t YTD

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• Koos Jansen

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Year to date withdrawals from the vaults of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) came in at a staggering 1,958 tonnes on 25 September 2015 – a record high – according to data released by the SGE on Friday. In week 38, which runs from 21 September until 25 September, 66 tonnes of gold were withdrawn … Continue Reading

How Much Gold Is China Importing And Does It Still Correlates to SGE Withdrawals?

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• Koos Jansen

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We have some catching up to do in terms of discussing Chinese gold import in H1 2015 and how this relates to withdrawals from Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) vaults. For this post it’s advised you’ve read The Mechanics Of The Chinese Domestic Gold Market to have a basic understanding of the physical gold supply and … Continue Reading

Back to Basics: ETF Gold 101

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• BullionStar
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By Luke Chua, BullionStar     What are the key differences between buying ETF Gold and physical Gold? A Gold Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) attempts to track and ‘mirror’ the price performance of gold bullion by holding gold bars or derivatives and issuing shares backed by their holdings of physical metal or derivatives. A Gold ETF, like GLD, has their shares sold in... Continue Reading

The Chinese Gold market: Lost In Translation

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• Koos Jansen

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There are a few analyses making rounds on the internet about gold owned by the People’s Bank Of China (PBOC). I’m always interested in these analyses, as I like to be aware of all knowledge available on this subject, but I rarely agree with them. The big questions that remain in the gold space are, … Continue Reading

Guest Post: 47 years after 1968, Bundesbank STILL fails to deliver a gold bar number list

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• Koos Jansen

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Written by Peter Boehringer, initiator of the German campaign “Repatriate our Gold”. Frequent followers of the German public campaign “Repatriate our Gold“ already know how intensively we have been struggling since 2011 (and longer) with Deutsche Bundesbank to finally – after more than 50 years of external storage of Germany’s gold – get credible transparency... Continue Reading

The Real Reason Belgium Sold 1,098 Tonnes Of Gold

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• Koos Jansen

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Belgium sold 1,098 tonnes of its official gold reserves since 1978. For our global investigation how much physical gold central banks have stored at what location and how much is leased out, I decided to submit the local equivalent of a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request at the central bank of Belgium, de Nationale Bank … Continue Reading

German Central Bank Publishes Gold Bar List

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• Koos Jansen

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The central bank of Germany, the Bundesbank, has published the bar list of all German official gold reserves stored in Frankfurt am Main, London, Paris and New York. The list contains the bar numbers, melt or inventory numbers, the gross and fine weight as well as the fineness of the gold. German official gold reserves … Continue Reading

Chinese And Russian Central Bank Continue To Add Gold To Official Reserves: 16 & 31 Tonnes In August

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• Koos Jansen

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The People’s Bank Of China (PBOC) has added 16 tonnes of gold to its official reserves now totalling 1,694 tonnes in August 2015. The gain in August is the third monthly increment in a row after a period of silence by the PBOC since 2009. The change in reporting, the amounts reported and the fact the … Continue Reading

Central Banks’ secrecy and silence on gold storage arrangements

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• Ronan Manly
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Whereas some central banks have become more forthcoming on where they claim their official gold reserves are stored (see my recent blog post ‘Central bank gold at the Bank of England‘), many of the world’s central banks remain secretive in this regard, with some central bank staff saying that they are not allowed to provide … Continue Reading

Swiss Competition Commission investigates UBS and JuliusBaer on possible collusion in PM trading

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• Koos Jansen

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Originally published at the portal of the Swiss government (translated by Markus M. Muller): The Swiss Competition Commission has started a investigation against the two Swiss Banks UBS and Julius Baer plus the foreign financial institutions Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Barclays, Morgan Stanley and Mitsui. The Commission has gained possible evidence, that the banks may have colluded in … Continue Reading

The London Float And PBOC Gold Purchases

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• Koos Jansen

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Did the PBOC covertly buy 1,747 tonnes of gold in London? This BullionStar blogpost is part of a chronological storyline. Please make sure you’ve read The Mechanics Of The Chinese Domestic Gold Market, PBOC Gold Purchases: Separating Facts from Speculation and The London Bullion Market And International Gold Trade, or it will be difficult to understand … Continue Reading

Central bank gold at the Bank of England

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• Ronan Manly
• 14 Comments

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In a recent article, “How many Good Delivery gold bars are in all the London Vaults?….including the Bank of England vaults“, I considered how much gold is actually in the London Gold Market, and highlighted how the amount of gold stored in the London wholesale market has fallen noticeably in recent years. That article highlighted … Continue Reading

The London Bullion Market And International Gold Trade

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• Koos Jansen

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Shortly after Ronan Manly released its epic post on 7 September 2015 about how much gold there is left in London, an email exchange started circulating among a small group of bloggers in a joint effort to figure out the apportionment between monetary and non-monetary gold in the capital of England. The group of bloggers consists … Continue Reading

New York And London Gold In Backwardation

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• Koos Jansen

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Not often in financial markets is the future price of gold is lower than the spot price (live), but lately we’ve witnessed such an event in both the New York and London gold market. This is called backwardation, the opposite of contango. What causes backwardation and will it increase the price of gold? In my … Continue Reading

Six months on ICE – The LBMA Gold Price

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• Ronan Manly
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It’s now been 6 months since the LBMA Gold Price auction, the much touted replacement to the London Gold Fixings, was launched on an ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA) platform on Friday 20 March 2015. For anyone not au fait with the gold price auction, the LBMA Gold Price is a twice daily auction that produces … Continue Reading

Economic Times: India imported 138t Gold In August. YTD 998t

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• Koos Jansen

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Last week I reported India had shipped in 126 tonnes of gold in August according to provisional data. Newswire The Economic Times today reports India has imported 138 tonnes of gold in August, which is 9 % more than my estimate. Year to date India has imported 666 tonnes of gold, up 69 % year on year. Annualized … Continue Reading

It’s virtually impossible to get physical gold in London

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• Koos Jansen

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Just after my colleague Ronan Manly wrote a very extensive article on how much gold is left in London (not much), Petropavlovsk Chairman and Co-Founder Peter Hambro discusses gold at Bloomberg Television. He, like Manly, concludes there is very little physical gold left in London. From Mr Hambro: My baseline is they [the Chinese] have been buying … Continue Reading

India Precious Metals Import Explosive - August Gold 126t, Silver 1,400t

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• Koos Jansen

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In the month of August 2015, India imported 126 tonnes of gold and 1,400 tonnes of silver, according to data from Infodrive India. Gold import into India is rising after a steep fall due to government import restrictions implemented in 2013. Year-to-date India has imported 654 tonnes of gold, which is 66 % up year … Continue Reading

How many Good Delivery gold bars are in all the London Vaults?….including the Bank of England vaults

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• Ronan Manly
• 14 Comments

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Each year in June, the Bank of England publishes its annual report which quotes financial data up to the end of February (its financial year-end). The Bank’s annual report also states the amount of gold, valued at a market price in Pounds sterling, that it holds under custody for its customers, which comprise central banks, … Continue Reading

Moving the goalposts….The LBMA’s shifting stance on gold refinery production statistics

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• Ronan Manly
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On Friday 31st July 2015, I released an article discussing the sale of Swiss gold refiner Valcambi to Indian jewellery company Rajesh Exports. In my report, in a section about Valcambi’s annual gold refining capacity, I made passing reference to 2013 gold refining production statistics that had been published by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) … Continue Reading

BullionStar Financials FY 2015 – Year in Review

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• BullionStar
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BullionStar reported sales revenues of SGD 63.4 for FY 2015, up 43.8 % compared to FY 2014. The infographic below shows some of the highlights of the BullionStar’s financial year 2015. Continue Reading

Record Monthly Gold Export UK to China

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• Koos Jansen

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The UK net exported a record 32.4 tonnes of gold directly to China mainland in June 2015. In 2014 the conventional conduits of bullion flows to China, from all around the world first to Hong Kong and then to the mainland, have been replaced by direct exports. For example, the UK is exporting bullion directly to China … Continue Reading

The Concept Of Money And The Money Illusion

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• Koos Jansen

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Awareness about the concept of money is making a comeback. Gone are the decades in which the global citizenry was fooled to leave this subject to economists, governments and banks – a setup that has proven to end in disaster. The crisis in 2008 has spawned debate about what money is, where it comes from … Continue Reading

Guest Post: Eurodollars And The Gold Market – Part One

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• Koos Jansen

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Written by Alexander Mirolyubov One of the most important factors driving the gold price is financial stress. When the latter is changing it always finds a resolution in the interest to the yellow metal. However, gold price adjustments can pass immediately or with some kind of delay. 
This time lag is important to gold investors … Continue Reading

Theory On China’s Gold Strategy

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• Koos Jansen

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Developments at the Chinese central bank (PBOC) hint at more moves towards gold. The most important recent gold developments are; (i) the PBOC updated its official gold reserves from 1,054 tonnes to 1,658 tonnes on 17 July, (ii) the PBOC devalued the renminbi by approximately 3 % on 11 August, (iii) the PBOC again updated … Continue Reading

BullionStar featured on Channel 8 News!

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• BullionStar
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The price of both gold and silver has fallen substantially during the last few weeks. This has ushered in a waive of physical gold and silver buying, with very large volumes and a lot of first time customers. When the largest channel for the mandarin speaking public in Singapore, Channel 8, made a news coverage … Continue Reading

The Bank of England’s revealing views on Gold in 1988

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• Ronan Manly
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Below is an interesting 1988 discussion paper on gold, written by Bank of England staff. The original paper can be found in pdf here. The United Kingdom’s gold reserves belong to HM Treasury (HMT) and are held in the Exchange Equalisation Account (EEA), but managed by the Bank of England on behalf of HMT. The discussion paper … Continue Reading

Swiss Gold Refineries and the sale of Valcambi

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• Ronan Manly
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The normally low-key Swiss gold refining market has been thrown into the spotlight with the announcement that private company Valcambi, the world’s largest gold refinery, is being acquired by Indian group Rajesh Exports Ltd (REL), the world’s largest gold jewellery manufacturer. This acquisition is worth analysing for a number of reasons, namely will the Valcambi-Rajesh... Continue Reading

The misinterpretation of money

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• BullionStar
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In its simplest form, money is a substitution for barter to make trade more efficient (formally: medium of exchange) but money is also a means for generating production by allowing for saving and investment (store of value) and for accounting and reconciliation (unit of account). Different economic schools view money differently. Even for the doctrines advocating … Continue Reading

Analyzing PBOC Official Gold Reserves Increment

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• Koos Jansen

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As always, please make sure you’ve read The Mechanics Of The Chinese Domestic Gold Market before continuing. Finally last Friday the People’s Bank Of China (PBOC) updated its official gold reserves, from 1,054 tonnes, a figure reported since 2009, to 1,658 tonnes. Most gold analysts expected a number substantially higher than what was just disclosed. In this … Continue Reading

The Difference in Paper and Physical Gold and Silver in times of Crisis

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• BullionStar
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The Past Fortnight It has been a tense, volatile and dramatic fortnight to say the least. In fickle fashion, Greece went from ‘No!’ to ‘Yes!’ with the terms of the deal seemingly less in their favour then before. In volatile fashion, the Shanghai Composite Index crashed and “recovered" when the Chinese government tighten margin requirements for … Continue Reading

Gold Price & Gold Demand

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• BullionStar
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This interview with Torgny Persson and Gustav Andersson from BullionStar was conducted by the Singaporean blogger SG Wealth Builder 8 July 2015. Question: In view of the emergence of China as the leading producer and importer of gold bullion, what do you think would be the implications for the global markets and how should investors in … Continue Reading

China Rapidly Changing International Gold Market

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• Koos Jansen

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Since 2007 China has the largest domestic gold mining output, since 2011 the Shanghai Gold Exchange has been the largest physical gold exchange and in 2013 and 2014 China was the largest importer. Now the Chinese seek to escalate pricing power. From the beginning of the liberalization of China’s gold market in 2002, the governor … Continue Reading

How Much Are Chinese Gold Reserves?

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• Koos Jansen

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There has been much speculation about a slide from chairman and secretary-general of the China Gold Association Zhang Bingnan presented at the LBMA forum in Shanghai June 25, 2015. The slide states Chinese gold reserves are 9,816.03 tonnes, however, this refers to in ground mining reserves. I have never received so many emails and tweets as … Continue Reading

Oxi (No) is the vote – Increased demand for physical gold

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• BullionStar
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PRESS RELEASE 6th July 2015 For immediate release Singapore: Demand for physical gold has increased significantly in the last week leading up to the Greek referendum and is expected to continue to increase following Sunday’s outcome of the referendum with 61 % voting No. Mr. Torgny Persson, CEO of BullionStar Pte Ltd says: ”Demand for … Continue Reading

Global Financial Turmoil, Gold Price Doesn’t Move

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• Koos Jansen

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It’s remarkable the Greek tragedy has had no influence on the gold price in recent weeks. We’ve heard repeatedly Europe and Greece could not reach a deal for an extended bailout, are financial markets suffering from Euroscrisis fatigue? Team Dijsselbloem-Juncker states they stretched all they could and offered the Greek government a reasonable deal that … Continue Reading

Former US Mint Director Clueless On Gold In Fort Knox

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• Koos Jansen

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The Curious Case Of Edmund C. Moy Former US Mint director Ed Moy has made numerous false and self-contradictory statements regarding the gold at Fort Knox – a facility managed by the US Mint. The is post is a sequel to A First Glance At US Official Gold Reserves Audits, Second Thoughts On US Official Gold Reserves Audits and … Continue Reading

Gold Fund To Serve The New Strategy Of The Silk Road, Lead The New Gold Development

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• Koos Jansen

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Not surprisingly there is little official documentation on the recently launched Silk Road Gold Fund. However, the translation below (original article published on ifeng) provides an intriguing insight at what this Fund is about. On May 22 Chinese financial policy makers from the PBOC, Chinese gold industry executives from commercial banks, mining companies, the Shanghai Gold Exchange... Continue Reading

The pre-2015 London Gold Fixings – More technologically advanced than reported

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• Ronan Manly
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The financial media has recently pitched the transition of the London daily gold fixings to an ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA) platform as a quantum leap from an antiquated Victorian-era process to a futuristic 21st century electronic auction. For example, the Wall Street Journal recently said that: “Four of the banks…had participated in the conference call used to... Continue Reading

Strong Withdrawals Mainland & Hong Kong Gold Vaults

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• Koos Jansen

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From June 8 – 12 withdrawals from SGE certified vaults in China mainland and CME Kilobar vaults in Hong Kong accounted 76 for tonnes. Withdrawals from the vaults of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) and Shanghai International Gold Exchange (SGEI) came in elevated for this time a year at 46 tonnes in week 23 (June 8 … Continue Reading

Bank Of England Custodian Gold Drops 351t

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• Koos Jansen

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The Bank Of England (BOE) has recently released its annual report in which it’s disclosed the gold held in custody for a range of customers was 5,134 metric tonnes on February 28, 2015, down 351 tonnes (6 %) form the previous year. The data on gold in custody at the BOE is disclosed in billions of Great British … Continue Reading

Interview Gold Futures Trader Petko Bankoff

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• Koos Jansen

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Out of my interest in every participant in the gold market – not only physical gold advocates – I’ve interviewed gold futures trader Petko Bankoff from Bulgaria. Thanks Petko for your time to answer my questions! What’s your background? I graduated the High School of Maths and Natural Sciences with the specialty “Earth sciences and English … Continue Reading

Bank Of China Joins LBMA Gold Price (London Gold Fix)

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• Koos Jansen

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Originally published by the LBMA. Tuesday 16th June 2015. LBMA Gold Price – Bank of China joins as new participant. The LBMA today is pleased to announce that the Bank of China has been approved by ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA) to participate in the LBMA Gold Price auction process, administered by IBA. On 20 March, … Continue Reading

Gold replacing the US Dollar as reserve asset

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• BullionStar
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The title to this blog post may feel contradictory as the US Dollar has appreciated against all other major currencies during the last year. One year ago, it took 74 euro-cents to buy one US Dollar, today it takes 89 euro-cents. Source: BullionStar Charts The US has for most of the last half century been … Continue Reading

Rectification Chinese Gold Trading Rules

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• Koos Jansen

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I’ve found more detailed rules on the workings of the Chinese gold market regarding, (i) the use of onshore renminbi for contracts traded on the Shanghai International Gold Exchange (SGEI), (ii) gold sales of Chinese domestic gold mines. Previously I’ve written posts on these subjects that contained inaccurate information that I would like to correct. … Continue Reading

Western Consultancy Firms Continue Making Up False Arguments To Debunk SGE Withdrawals

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• Koos Jansen

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More false arguments – that should explain the difference between Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) withdrawals and Chinese gold demand as disclosed by the World Gold Council – are being spread in the gold space. The most recent argument is gold export from China. Since 2013 I’ve been writing the World Gold Council (WGC) is grossly … Continue Reading

Back to Basics: Debt 101

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• BullionStar
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Debt makes the world go round – Anon. Money at present, as we covered in the previous chapter, is merely a debt that a government owes you that can be used to pay for another debt of your choice. Now, if money – the basic medium of all transactions – is debt, what happens when this translates into something a bit more … Continue Reading

The Redeployment of Asia’s Forex Reserves

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• Koos Jansen

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China’s New Silk Road initiatives provide it with a way to use its huge pile of foreign exchange, and its gold-buying could lead to more balanced international monetary regime By Miriam L. Campanella and Koos Jansen Originally published on Caixin Online. The New Silk Road initiatives, also known as the “One Belt, One Road" plan, … Continue Reading