Royal Mint

[bigjarofwasps]

Hi Guys,

Having just recently read a very good book about the Brinks Mat gold bullion robbery. It got me thinking as to were the Royal Mint, gets their gold from, and is it possbile that some of this gold, might well have made its way into the Royal Mint? Has anyone got any thoughts or opinions? Look forward to hearing them.....

Gordon.

[mariner]

Most of the gold held as currency reserves when we were on the Gold Standard was mined in South Africa.

However gold now held in reserve is generally bought from the LBMA which acquire it's product as a standard of purity rather than a mined commodity. As all the gold ever mined in the world is traded at least twice each day you can understand that the actual source of the metal is almost impossible to discover. Dependiing upon the price of gold the supplier changes. In the late 1990's when gold was very cheap (around $300/troy oz.) a large proportion of the world's supply came from re-cycled gold. As the price increases more and more the proportion of mined gold increases. The "Head Grade" or the basic cost of digging the stuff up may range from $100 to $1000. Therefore at a bullion price of $600 more mines will produce than at a bullion price of $400. It is only specialised gold use (royal family wedding rings etc. from Wales which get attention). Otherwise the gold ring you are wearing could come from anywhere (The Romans did activly mine) but the majority of that would have been absorbed by the re-cycling market as would the gold teeth taken by the Nazis. Sorry to put a dammpner on this but as an indistructible product which has always been highly (Over) valued, the chances are that any gold you own would have been extracted under slave or near-slave labour conditions.

As for mints - I'm not too sure, but I would imagine that the supply would come from the cheapest place.

Loads of places still mine economically, North Aerica has the largest single deposit whilst the "rim of fire has (dubious) mother lodes. Siberia is OK but perma-frost halts mining for large periods. South America is good too but altitude restricts the ability to access the mine site. Africa would be better if they had more stable governments. Australia still produce too.

In my opinion it's the cost of labour rather than the head grade which boosts production.

The man who can mine the sea bed for gold in the way we do oil will be the richest men ever....