Largest Gold Refinery in the World Runs out of Krugerrands

Shortages of certain bullion products is possibly the most important issue facing the gold and silver markets today.

The sole maker of South African Krugerrands, Rand Refinery Ltd., largest gold refinery in the world, today ran out of the iconic bullion coin after an ‘unusually large’ order from an unnamed buyer in Switzerland.

Rand Refinery has delivered more than 46m blank coins over the years since it opened in 1967.

South African Krugerrand

Bloomberg reported yesterday how the largest gold refinery in the world was out of inventory of gold Kruggerands due to just one sizeable order from Switzerland of 5000 Krugerrands. This would be worth a measly $4,160,000 (5000 X $832) and this shows how small the precious metals markets are vis-à-vis the bond, equity, currency and derivative markets. It is more than likely that a tiny fraction of these international capital markets has realised the supply/demand issues in the physical market and is following the smart money and this will likely lead to huge moves up in precious metal prices. This should lead to the inflation adjusted price of $2,300 per ounce being reached in a matter of weeks rather than a matter of months and years.

Premiums on nearly all gold and silver bullion products continue to rise significantly. Some products are actually increasing on a daily basis. As reported in Bloomberg and Marketwatch (see news) yesterday, we are now paying a wholesale premium of 3.8% over spot for Krugerrands in volume, up from 3.2% the day before.

Some of the largest wholesalers in the US have no stock left of silver bullion coins (Eagles and Maples) and silver bullion bars (1, 10 and 100 ozt) and only have 90% and 40% silver bags. Increasingly there are delivery delays on a swath of bullion products including on older European coins including British sovereigns. Some wholesalers are not just talking about delays of a few weeks but delivery delays into 2009 on certain products.

These shortages are leading to premiums going up sharply on all bullion products . Some large wholesale bullion dealers have assigned and appointed a dedicated person to monitor pricing and raise premiums as required in accordance with lack of supply and rising demand.

Sources:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing-and-markets/article.html?in_article_id=451213&in_page_id=3

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=acH4WhPh1WJ0

Mark O'Byrne

Also on news-goldcore-com

Videos

Chris Vermeulen on Gold: This Is A Super Cycle At Play

Patrick Karim, Charts and Gold’s Next Breakout

Gold Down $100? This Really Shouldn’t Be A Surprise

Blog posts

Central Banks and Geopolitics to Support Gold In 2024

Gold may not have managed to sustain the record high from the start of the week but it has remained firmly above $2,000. At the time of writing it is trading just below $2,050, a key resistance level. The price has shown very little interest in the usually much anticipated US jobs report, which came […]

READ MORE

Chris Vermeulen on Gold: This Is A Super Cycle At Play

When we woke up to see gold had hit an all-time high overnight we knew we needed to take a look at some charts. And who better to do that with than technical analyst Chris Vermuelen of TechnicalTraders.com.  GoldCore CEO, Dave Russell took some time this afternoon to speak with Chris about what took the […]

READ MORE

Gold Hits Record High: Is This A New Era?

Overnight gold stunned markets by obliterating resistance levels and rocketing up to a new all-time high of $2,148.99.  As well as a new level we might also have seen a new standard in volatility being set as the yellow metal experienced $100 intraday swings.  This morning gold has calmed itself down a bit. But make […]

READ MORE

Featured

The King and Queen will be Gold and Silver

READ MORE
Newsletter
Category
Archives
Popular

No posts available

Videos

Chris Vermeulen on Gold: This Is A Super Cycle At Play

Patrick Karim, Charts and Gold’s Next Breakout

Gold Down $100? This Really Shouldn’t Be A Surprise

Blog posts

Central Banks and Geopolitics to Support Gold In 2024

Gold may not have managed to sustain the record high from the start of the week but it has remained firmly above $2,000. At the time of writing it is trading just below $2,050, a key resistance level. The price has shown very little interest in the usually much anticipated US jobs report, which came […]

READ MORE

Chris Vermeulen on Gold: This Is A Super Cycle At Play

When we woke up to see gold had hit an all-time high overnight we knew we needed to take a look at some charts. And who better to do that with than technical analyst Chris Vermuelen of TechnicalTraders.com.  GoldCore CEO, Dave Russell took some time this afternoon to speak with Chris about what took the […]

READ MORE

Gold Hits Record High: Is This A New Era?

Overnight gold stunned markets by obliterating resistance levels and rocketing up to a new all-time high of $2,148.99.  As well as a new level we might also have seen a new standard in volatility being set as the yellow metal experienced $100 intraday swings.  This morning gold has calmed itself down a bit. But make […]

READ MORE

Featured

The King and Queen will be Gold and Silver

READ MORE