Newmont Goldcorp Corp (NGT)

[NYBob]

Russian banks increase gold purchases at record pace -
Submitted by cpowell on Thu, 2018-02-01 20:51.
Section: Daily Dispatches
From Russia Today, Moscow
Thursday, February 1, 2018

The Russian government has purchased two-thirds of all the gold mined
in country, buying it from local banks to add to reserves
as the Kremlin sees the precious metal as a safe haven
at a time of geopolitical turbulence.

"For banks this is good business. They credit mining companies, which
return the loan with the gold they extracted.
Then banks sell it to the central bank," according to the
Russian Finance Ministry, quoted by the Prime news agency.

Russia is the largest gold buyer in the world, and purchases by
Russian banks have increased substantially in recent years.

Last year Russian banks bought 205.155 tons of gold, which is
4.7 percent more than in 2016 (195.89 tons), and approximately
67 percent of all gold produced in Russia.
This is also a 13 percent increase compared to 2013.

The biggest buyers are VTB24, Sberbank, and Gazprombank.
All three banks have registered at
the Shanghai precious metals exchange.
In April VTB announced plans to sell up to
100 tons of gold to China annually. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.rt.com/business/417592-russian-banks-gold-purchases/

http://www.gata.org/node/18014

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