Gold Product RSS News Feed / Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT)
COMEX / NYMEX Gold Futures / New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX)
CME Group 100 oz Gold Futures
CME Group Mini-sized Gold Futures
Largest gold producing companies in the world are Newmont (United States), AngloGold (South Africa), Barrick
(Canada), Placer Dome (Canada), Gold Fields (South Africa) and Harmony (South Africa), and South Africa leads all nations in
total gold production. The next largest production is from the United States (Nevada, Alaska, California and Utah),
Canada and then Australia. Other major producing nations include Russia, China, Indonesia, Peru, Uzbekistan and Papua New Guinea.
The largest usage of gold is in jewelry fabrication (approximately 80% of annual world production) and
consumption (India, United states, European Union, China, Saudi Arabia, Eqypt, Turkey, Italy). The
balance of gold is used as a storage of value, and as a component in manufacturing electronics, telecommunications
equipment, laser and optical equipment, aviation, and medical / health.
Large masses of rock are excavated, crushed and processed to remove and separate gold particles from the crushed
rock. Some mines specifically excavate for gold or gold is found as a by-product during the excavation for other minerals such as
copper. It is very rare to actually locate gold nuggets that are of 0.900 in fineness (parts per thousand).
Mines will perform some preliminary refining in order to produce ingots that can be transported to a professional
Assayer and refiner. These semi-refined ingots are known as Dore, and contain gold, silver and other trace
minerals.
Further refining is conducted in order to remove trace minerals. The refined gold must be assayed (independently
evaluated) to determine that the purity of the gold is of a suitable quality to be termed "good delivery".
Bars must be at least 99.5% (Purity is usually expressed in parts per thousand as 0.995, 99.99, 999.9 or 0.999; it is very
difficult to refine out the last few impurities thus gold is never expressed in 100% terms) pure gold and weigh between
350 and 430 troy ounces to qualify as "London good delivery bar" in most international transactions.
The color of the gold bars will indicate the age of the bar and the impurities in the bar associated with the
proficiency level of smelting during the era that the gold was produced:
A reddish tinge indicates the presence of copper, which reflects bars produced from gold sources of melted coins and jewelry
and indicates older bars.
Butter yellow colored bars indicate bars that were produced by up-to-date smelters and from gold sources of below ground ore.
A white tinge to the gold bars indicates the presence of silver and platinum from older smelters and gold sources of below ground ore.
A greenish tinge indicates the presence of iron.
An unusual form of gold has a black tinge, which indicates the presence of bismuth.
Bars occasionally become dented due to handing (especially older bars that have been physically shipped several
times) however this does not detract from the value of the bar. Similarly, bars will sometimes appear to have notches
on the edge however these are chips removed for assay purposes and does not detract from the value of the bar.
Every bar will have the stamp indicating the smelter where the gold was refined as well as to where it was cast.
Additional identification marks will identify its purity and "melt" (how many bars were produced in that specific pouring;
If there is insufficient molten gold left at the end of the pouring to produce a single minimum 350 troy ounce bar then a series of smaller weight bars are produced as
molten gold from one melt is prohibited from being added to a successive melt).
A Certified Stock is physical gold that has been inspected and found to be of a quality deliverable against
futures contracts, stored at the delivery points and designated as regular or acceptable for delivery by the
commodity exchange
The main bar weight traded in Europe is a Kilo Bar, which has several different weights depending on
the assayed fineness of the gold:
0.995 fine gold kilo Bar comprises 32.1507 troy ounces
0.999 fine gold kilo Bar comprises 32.119 troy ounces
0.9999 fine gold kilo Bar comprises 32.148 troy ounces
A troy ounce is 31.1048079 grams and an avoirdupois ounce is 28.35 grams.
A troy ounce contains 480 grains and an avoirdúpois ounce contains 437.5 grains.
A standard international London Good Delivery 400 troy ounce bar weighs 438.8 avoirdupois ounces or
27.4 avoirdúpois pounds, approximate dimensions are 7 x 3-5/8 x 1-3/4 inches (since 1986, most 400 troy ounce bars
have been cast trapezoidal, and have either rounded corners or sharp corners), and based on the statutory price of USD$42.2222 per ounce
the value of a 400 troy ounce bar is $USD16,888.00
In the Far East gold is weighed in Taels (one tael equals 1.203 troy ounces), and the unit of trading is 100 taels
(123.04 ounces) which is usually quoted in Hong Kong dollars.
On the Indian subcontinent gold is weighed in Ten Tola bars (10 Tola = 3.75 ounces;
One tola equals .375 ounces or 11.1 grammes of 0.999 fineness).
Contango: near futures prices exceed spot prices; the premium paid for futures over spot prices.
Gold Lease Rate: Libor minus the contango.
After being prohibited for several decades, on December 31, 1974, it
again became legal for U.S. citizens to own gold. Gold is used as an investment or inflation hedge by individuals,
companies, financial institutions, national treasuries and investment funds.
Gold is either purchased on an exchange (cleared contract) or OTC between a bank / broker / client.
Bullion trade / transactions require that parties utilize the 1997 ISDA Bullion Definitions and the 1993 ISDA Commodity
Definitions, as amended by the 2000 Supplement to the 1993 ISDA Commodity Definitions documentation.
Weight / Fineness
Both the troy system and avoirdúpois system are British standards of measurement. Avoirdúpois is derived from the
French term "avoir du pois", or goods of weight, and the troy system takes its name from a city in France where it
originated (Tries).
Gross Weight
Fine gold content in ounces troy
Bars of 995.0 assay
Bars of 999.0 assay
Bars of 999.9 assay
1 Kilo
31.990
32.119
32.148
½ Kilo
15.995
16.059
16.074
¼ Kilo
7.998
8.030
8.037
200 grams
6.398
6.424
6.430
100 grams
3.199
3.212
3.215
50 grams
1.600
1.607
1.608
20 grams
0.640
0.643
0.643
10 grams
0.321
0.322
0.322
5 grams
0.161
0.161
0.161
100 ounces
99.500
99.900
99.990
50 ounces
49.750
49.950
49.995
25 ounces
24.875
24.975
24.998
10 ounces
9.950
9.990
9.999
5 ounces
4.975
4.995
5.000
1 ounce
0.995
0.999
1.000
10 tolas
3.731
3.746
3.750
5 taels
5.987
6.011
6.017
Source: London Bullion Market Association
To convert this:
To this:
Multiply by:
One grain
Grams
.0647989
One gram
Grains
15.4323584
One gram
Kilograms
.001
One kilogram
Grams
1,000
Long Ton
Kilograms
1,016.05
Metric Ton
Kilograms
1,000
Short Ton
Kilograms
907.2
One gram
Ounces
.03527
One ounce
Grams
28.3495231
One ounce
Grains
437.5
One troy ounce
Grams
31.1034768
One troy ounce
Grains
480
One ounce
Kilograms
.0283495
One troy ounce
Kilograms
.0311034768
One pound
Kilograms
.4535924
One kilogram
Pounds
2.2046226
Gold Weight Conversion Calculator:
Enter an amount in any box to calculate the equivalent weight.
Gold Loan:
Instead of buying gold, a jeweler will borrow gold for the duration of the fabrication process. Only when the
jeweler sells the finished product at a price related to the spot rate (and the value added) at that time will the jeweler
actually buy gold from the bullion trader. Jewelers thus simultaneously hedge their price risk and finance their stock at
an interest rate below normal borrowing costs.
An exploration company finds gold and needs to borrow to set up a mine. Instead of borrowing from a bank, the
company borrows gold (at a lower interest carrying rate). It sells that gold in the spot market and uses the cash to set
up the mine. It will borrow only what it takes to set up the mine and based on how much ounces/tonnage it may extract. As
the mine extracts the gold from the ground it pays back the borrowed gold.
Lease rate is determined for borrowing the gold, which includes and interest rate (360-day basis) and carrying charges,
which are costs incurred in warehousing the physical commodity such as insurance and storage.
Central Bank Holdings
The largest Central Bank gold holdings include:
United States
Germany
IMF (International Monetary Fund). In December 2007, the IMF indicated that it will seek approval to sell 400
metric tons of its estimated 3,217 metric tons of gold holding in order to invest in earning assets.
France
Italy
Switzerland
ECB (European Central Bank)
The combined holdings of these parties account for approximately 23,250 metric tons.
The Central Bank Gold Agreement of 1999 (renewed March 2004) requires that the 15 largest government and supranational
gold owners restrict their sales into the market at a pace that would not cause substantial disruption of the price (presently
a combined maximum of 500 tons per annum for the next five years).
In the United States, the bulk of United States' gold reserves is stored under security at the Fort Knox Bullion
Depository. The balance of any official United States' gold reserves are held in the Philadelphia Mint, the Denver Mint,
the West Point Bullion Depository and the San Francisco Assay Office. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York also has an
extensive gold storage vault, however this is primarily allocated storage for second parties and not U.S. gold
reserves. The main vault of the New York Federal Reserve opened September 1924, and the Fed does not charge for the
storage service but does charge a nominal handling fee for shipping gold in / out of the vault.
Gold Product RSS News Feed / Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT)
COMEX / NYMEX Gold Futures / New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX))
)
)
)
)
)
