Bullion bank

Cold-hammering was used in the late Stone Age to produce plates of gold for ornamental purposes, and this metal has always been synonymous with beauty, wealth and power. Considerable quantities were accumulated by ancient peoples. The coffin of Tutankhamun (a minor Pharaoh who was only 18 when he died) contained no less than 112 kg of gold, and the legendary Aztec and Inca hoards in Mexico and Peru were a major reason for the Spanish conquests of Central and South America in the early sixteenth century. Today, the greatest hoard of gold is the 30000 tonnes of bullion (i.e. bars) lying in the vaults of the US Federal Reserve Bank... 

Bullion Pile" prepared for a visiting Queen Elizabeth II by Mocatta s parent bank (valued at 6,000,000)... 

Economists distinguish among currency (or hand-to-hand circulating media, which includes coins and bank notes), money equivalents (such as demand bank deposits and treasury notes), and commodities used as money (such as gold or silver bullion or consumables such as tobacco). In modern industrial societies, coins and paper money form only a small part of a nation s total money supply, money equivalents accounting for the larger portion of it. 

Britannia Refined Metals Ltd. (BRM) is a wholly owned subsidiary of MIM Holdings Ltd. and operates within the MIM (Europe) group that also includes Britannia Zinc Ltd. (BZL), MIM Huttenwerke Duisberg (MHD) and Britaimia Recycling Ltd. (BRL) at Wakefield, in Yorkshire. The BRM site is located on the south bank of the River Thames, 35 km east of London. There is a deep-water jetty adjacent to the plant where the crude lead fi om Mount Isa and the Imperial Smelting Furnace bullion from Duisberg are unloaded and stored. 

The US Geological Survey [5.3] has extended the calculation to the year 2002 and estimates the total quantity ever mined as 140000 tonnes. About 15% of this is thought to have been lost, dissipated after industrial use, while 120 000 tonnes remain, 33 000 tonnes in central banks as official stocks and 87000 tonnes held privately as bullion, jewelry and coins. 

The composition of aboveground stocks is also important because it determines the speed and likelihood of the return of the metal to the marketplace. Gold as bullion (usually in bar form) typically comes back the most readily, and stocks in this form stood at about 55,500 tonnes. Just over half of this bullion is held by central banks and other official sector bodies, with the balance being held by private individuals and institutions. More, however, just over half of the total, is held as jewelry items. Lastly, about 19,000 tonnes have been absorbed by other types of fabrication (such as electronics), the least likely area to get recycled back into the market. Just under 4,000 tonnes cannot be accounted for and can be considered irretrievably lost or as true consumption. This would include manufactured itans containing gold that have gone to landfill, any metal lost at sea, and so forth. 

Woods System in the early 1970s, gold s link to the dollar and the majority of world currencies was severed and the metal s price was allowed to float freely and be determined by the maiket. The metal still plays valuable roles for central banks, however, such as reserve diversification, instilling public confidence in the central bank, and economic security. It can also generate income through the lending of its bullion. 

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