Uses of Gold

Since the dawn of mankind, 1.4 million tons of silver have been produced to gold’s 165,000 — a ratio of about 8.5 to 1.

Silver is produced at a rate of about 15,600 tons per year, or about 6.2 times the rate of gold.

Silver currently trades at about $14.50/ounce.

Gold trades at about $1,080/ounce.

So while existing reserves and production rates put gold between six and nine times the value of silver, its unique demand still puts its market price at more than 74 times that of its less-shiny cousin.

And that’s not even considering that about 45% of all silver ever produced has been lost. Read the article

• PBOC declared gold reserves now about 55.38 M ounces or 1,722.5 tonnes
• Chinese gold rose to $63.26 billion by end-month – less than 2% of $3.5 trillion FX reserves
• China disclosed on July 17th that its gold holdings had surged 57% since 2009
• China officially owns around 1,720 tonnes of gold

Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6) drafted by the IMF, in which gold is regarded as “the only case of a financial asset with no counterpart liability”, and is therefore, listed at the top of all reserve assets – above SDRs.