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Der Spiegel: Federal auditors call for inventory of German gold reserves
Thanks again to GATA's friends Lars Schall and Peter Boehringer for the translation from German to English.
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Federal Court of Auditors Calls for Inventory of Gold Reserves
Germany owns the world's second largest gold reserves, nearly 3,400 tons. Allegedly, that is.
In fact, the stored gold has never been checked for authenticity and weight. Now the Federal Court of Auditors has urged the Bundesbank to investigate the gold stocks abroad on a regular basis.
From Der Spiegel, Hamburg
Monday, October 22, 2012
http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/rechnungshof-fordert-bundesban...
BERLIN -- The German gold is kept safely in the central bank vaults in Frankfurt am Main, New York, Paris, and London. So far nobody has actually verified this. The Federal Court of Auditors now is demanding from the Bundesbank a regular inspection and inventory of the huge gold reserves abroad. The auditors justify this in a report Monday to the Budget Committee of the Bundestag, noting the "high value of gold stocks."
Moreover the report states that with regard to the German gold reserves stored at other central banks, there has never been a "physical inventory and examination of the authenticity and weight" by the Bundesbank itself or any other independent auditor. Indeed, there are numerous persistent conspiracy theories on the topic. According to these the US gold reserves in Fort Knox have been plundered a long time ago.
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Prophecy Platinum Intercepts Best Pt+Pd+Au Grades Yet
at Wellgreen Project in Yukon Territory: 5.36 g/t
Company Press Release
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Prophecy Platinum Corp. (TSX-V: NKL, OTC-QX: PNIKF, Frankfurt: P94P) announces more results of its 2012 drill program on the company's fully-owned Wellgreen platinum group metals, nickel, and copper project in southwestern Yukon Territory, Canada. Four surface holes and four underground holes all intercepted significant mineralized widths, ranging from 28.5 meters (WS12-201) and up to 459.5 metres (WS12-193). Highlights include WU12-540, which returned 8.9 metres of 5.36 grams per tonne platinum, palladium, and gold; 1.73 percent copper; and 1.01 percent nickel within 304.5 meters of 0.66 g/t platinum-palladium-gold, 0.20 percent copper, and 0.27 percent nickel.
The surface drill program started in June and has completed 16 holes (assays pending for 12 holes) with two rigs now on site. The surface program continues to progress at a steady pace.
Prophecy Chairman John Lee commented: “Wellgreen is a very large nickel, copper, and platinum group metals project with near-surface high-grade zones. High-grade intercepts will be incorporated into resource modeling and mine planning in the pre-feasibility study. We expect further positive drill results from Wellgreen shortly.”
Wellgreen features a low 2.59-to-1 strip ratio, is situated at an altitude of 1,300 meters, and is only 15 kilometers from the two-lane paved Alaska Highway. Those factors significantly minimize the project's indirect costs.
For the complete company statement with full tabulation of the drilling results, please visit:
http://prophecyplat.com/news_2012_sep11_prophecy_platinum_drill_results.php
The Bundesbank has the second largest gold reserves in the world after the United States. By the end of 2011 they amounted to 3,396 tons, valued at 133 billion euros. After the gold rally, the current value should even be about 142 billion euros. The Bundesbank stores the ingots in vaults in Frankfurt am Main and three storage places abroad: at the US Federal Reserve in New York, the French National Bank in Paris, and the Bank of England in London.
The Federal Court of Auditors would determine on behalf of the Bundestag if the Bundesbank is scrutinizing the gold stocks stored abroad. The Bundesbank's longstanding practice to rely only on written confirmation regarding the gold ingots from foreign central banks is controversial.
The Federal Court recommends that the Bundesbank renegotiate the authorization for physical examination of the reserves held in the three foreign held reserves. According to the report, the Bundesbank has started implementing this recommendation. Also, the Bundesbank has supposedly decided to transfer 50 tonnes of gold held with the New York Fed to Germany over the next three years for thorough examination.
Several parts of the report have been blacked out. The report does not clarify exactly how much gold is stored with which foreign central bank.
The inventory held at the Bundesbank headquarters consists, according to the report, of 82,857 ingots, which are predominantly stored in sealed containers containing 50 ingots each, which are kept in four separately locked vaults. Part of this inventory (6,183 ingots) is, according to the report, stored on open shelves in a separate vault -- the so-called Gold Chamber. Concerning the safeguarding of the gold, the report states, "The vault's external locking mechansim is a double mechanism. The vault's internal locking and the Gold Chamber are equipped with a triple locking mechanism."
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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.
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