You are here
Gillian Tett: Time for eurozone to reach for the gold reserves?
Unless the gold collateral was moved out of the vaults of the sovereign borrowers and into the vaults of the lenders, this idea would be just another government scam, especially insofar as the supposed gold of the anticipated borrowers probably already has been sold, swapped, leased, and hypothecated into oblivion anyway.
* * *
Time for Eurozone to Reach for the Gold Reserves?
By Gillian Tett
Financial Times, London
Thursday, August 30, 2012
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/80a239a6-f2c2-11e1-8577-00144feabdc0.html
Is it time for some eurozone governments to start selling that metaphorical family silver? Or, more specifically look at their all-too-real gold reserves, to find a solution to Europe's crisis?
That is a question which has recently been buzzing around in some policy making and investing circles. For as autumn looms, it is clear that the eurozone remains under profound stress. However, it is also unclear whether the European Central Bank -- let alone the eurozone politicians -- will really be able to do anything soon to ease market fears and lower those borrowing costs.
Thus, as unease builds, the World Gold Council -- or the body that represents the gold industry -- has recently lobbed a new idea into the fray: It thinks it is time for eurozone governments to start using gold in a creative manner, particularly in places such as Italy, to cut those interest rates.
... Dispatch continues below ...
Prophecy Platinum Announces Wellgreen Preliminary Economic Assessment:
38% Pre-Tax IRR, $3.0 Billion NPV, and a 37-Year Mine Life
Company Press Release
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada -- Prophecy Platinum Corp. (TSX-V: NKL, OTC-QX: PNIKF, Frankfurt: P94P) reports the results of an independent NI 43-101-compliant preliminary economic assessment for its fully owned Wellgreen nickel-copper-platinum group metals project in the Yukon Territory.
The independent assessment, prepared by Tetra Tech, evaluated a base case of an open-pit mine (with a mining rate of 111,500 tonnes per day), an on-site concentrator (with a milling rate of 32,000 tonnes per day), and an initial capital cost of $863 million. The project is expected to produce (in concentrate) 1.959 billion pounds of nickel, 2.058 billion pounds of copper, and 7.119 million ounces of platinum, palladium, and gold during a mine life of 37 years with an average strip ratio of 2.57.
The financial highlights of the preliminary economic assessment, shown in U.S. dollars, are as follows:
Payback period: 3.55 years
Initial capital investment: $863 million
IRR pre-tax (100% equity): 38 percent
NPV pre-tax (8% discount): $3 billion
Mine life: 37 years
Total mill feed: 405.3 million tonnes
Mill throughput: 32,000 tonnes per day
Prophecy Chairman John Lee says: "We are pleased with the preliminary economic assessment results. The numbers indicate that Wellgreen is one of most exciting mineral projects in the Yukon. The company is drilling to upgrade and expand the resource base. The infrastructure is excellent as the project is only 1,400 meters in altitude and 14 kilometers from the paved Alaska Highway, which leads to the Haines deep seaport. Discussions are under way with support from local stakeholders regarding permitting and logistics."
For the complete press release, please visit:
http://prophecyplat.com/news_2012_june18_prophecy_platinum_announces_res...
The issue at stake revolves around the estimated 10,000 tonnes of gold reserves that are held by eurozone governments. According to the council, "It is well known that some of the countries most affected by the crisis, including Portugal and Italy, are responsible for a significant proportion of these assets."
Unsurprisingly, this situation has prompted some to suggest that governments should sell some of that gold. The value of gold has soared in the last few years, and if there were ever a time that eurozone countries needed an unexpected windfall -- say, to pay interest on bonds -- it would be now.
But the gold council, for its part, insists this would be a mistake. For quite apart from the fact that a massive dump of gold would dampen the price, eurozone debt woes are now so large that gold sales would only scratch the surface of the problem. Or as the council notes: "The gold holdings of the crisis-hit eurozone countries (Portugal, Spain, Greece, Ireland, and Italy) represent only 3.3 per cent of the combined outstanding debt of their central governments."
Thus it favours an alternative idea: Instead eurozone countries should essentially securitise part of that gold, by issuing government bonds that are backed by gold. This could be done in a simple manner; or it could be structured to include tranches of different risks. Either way, the key point is that gold would be used to provide additional security for bonds -- and thus reassure investors who do not trust eurozone government balance sheets anymore.
"Using only a portion of those gold reserves as collateral could significantly reduce the rate at which each of these [periphery] countries could issue debt," the council argues, pointing out that this scheme has been employed on a few occasions in history before. In the 1970s, for example, Italy and Portugal used their gold reserves as collateral to get loans from the Bundesbank, the Bank for International Settlements, and other creditors. More recently, India raised a loan from Japan, which it backed with gold.
So is there any chance this idea could fly?
Don't hold your breath, or not soon. Personally -- and leaving aside the gold council's self-serving interest in pushing the scheme -- I think that the concept of gold-backed bonds certainly is worth debating. While gold-backed bonds would not be a full-blown solution, it could help in some respects.
But there is little sign that the idea has garnered any serious support from policy makers thus far. Even if eurozone leaders embraced the idea, there would be some big legal obstacles; most notably, much of the gold is held by central banks, not treasuries.
Nevertheless, if nothing else, investors should take note of the debate as an interesting straw in the wind. A decade ago it seemed utterly old-fashioned to ever suggest that any investor -- or institution -- would post gold as a collateral; in the era of cyber finance, securities such as treasury bonds tended to rule. But in recent months groups such as a LCH.Clearnet, Intercontinental Exchange, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange have increasingly started to accept gold as collateral for margin requirements for derivatives trades. And earlier this summer the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision issued a discussion paper that suggested that gold should be one of six items used as collateral for margin requirements for non-centrally cleared derivatives trades, alongside items such as treasury bonds.
This does not add up to a revolution, let alone the type of step toward gold-backed finance -- or a gold standard -- that gold bugs (and some American Republican Party members) would love to see. But it does suggest that a slow evolution of attitudes is underway – not so much in terms of the desirability of gold per se, but the increasingly undesirability and riskiness of other supposedly "safe" assets, such as government bonds. That pattern is unlikely to change soon, especially as markets wait to see what the ECB might unveil on September 6.
* * *
Join GATA here:
Toronto Resource Investment Conference
Thursday-Friday, September 27-28, 2012
Toronto Sheraton Centre Hotel
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
http://www.cambridgehouse.com/event/toronto-resource-investment-conference
New Orleans Investment Conference
Wednesday-Saturday, October 24-27, 2012
Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel
New Orleans, Louisiana
http://www.neworleansconference.com/
* * *
Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006:
http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html
Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt:
Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009:
http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal
Help keep GATA going
GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:
To contribute to GATA, please visit:
GoldMoney adds Toronto vaulting option
In addition to its precious metals storage facilities in Hong Kong, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, GoldMoney customers now can store their gold and silver in a high-security vault operated by Brink's in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
GoldMoney also has recently partnered with Rhenus Freight Logistics to offer another gold storage option in Switzerland. The Rhenus vault is in the secured zone of Zurich Airport and offers customers superb security as well as the ability to inspect their gold.
Storage at the new vaults in Canada and Switzerland is available at GoldMoney's lowest fees. Customers can select their storage location when placing their buy order.
GoldMoney customers can take delivery of any number of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bars from any GoldMoney vault, as well as personally collect their bars stored in the Hong Kong, Switzerland, and U.K. vaults.
It's easy to open an account, add funds, and liquidate your investment. For more information, visit:
http://www.goldmoney.com/?gmrefcode=gata
