BANK OF MEXICO BUYS PAPER “GOLD”, SELLS PHYSICAL!

March 14, 2013 By 11 Comments

goldTwo years ago Banxico bought 100 tons of gold, and in 2012, added 20 more tons. Last February, its total holdings amounted to 124.5 tons, equivalent to just 4% of Mexico’s international reserves.

However, this position has been reduced in recent months because the Mexican central bank has been consistently selling part of its gold for at least nine consecutive months (May 2012 to January 2013).
This wrong decision is compounded by the fact that the gold sold was part of the very small amount of physical bullion that Mexico had in it’s possession; bars that had been stored in Banxico’s vaults.

To be precise, the Bank of Mexico released about 36,000 ounces of gold in just a matter of months. 36,000 oz is nearly a fifth (18.5%) of the only 194,539 oz. that were in the country until April 2012, according to its own figures. 
In other words, Banxico purchased 120 tons of paper “gold”, and sold a very important part of the real metal it held! [Read more...]
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MEXICO’S FEDERAL AUDIT DEMANDS PHYSICAL INSPECTION OF SOVEREIGN GOLD HOLDINGS HELD AT BOE!

February 27, 2013 By 15 Comments

Bank of Mexico*BREAKING
Guest Post, by Guillermo Barba

Today we have an exclusive note on this blog: the Mexican Superior Audit of the Federation (“ASF” in Spanish), in its “Report of Supreme Audit Results of the 2011 Public Account” delivered last week to the Chamber of Deputies, gave a stern “recommendation” to the Bank of Mexico (Banxico) to audit the Bank of Mexico’s gold reserves held in London at the Bank of England.

The reason is one of the most important issues we have addressed here: the gold reserves of Mexico.
As you may recall, last year we informed that after four months of legal wrangling with Banxico, it was forced to give us the information about the supposed physical location of Mexico’s sovereign gold holdings.  In the disclosure, we discovered that 95 percent of the Mexican gold reserves (about 125 tonnes) were abroad, and almost all (99%), in London, England.The ASF has determined that Mexico should “make a physical inspection with the counterparty that has the gold under its custody, in order to be able to verify and validate its physical wholeness and thecompliance with the terms and conditions of dealing with this Asset…” It was verified by the ASF that this has never been done by Banxico.

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Bank of Mexico Admits 96% of Gold Reserves Held in US & London

October 16, 2012 By 38 Comments

After months of dragging their feat and claiming it was necessary for national security reasons to keep the info classified (sounds like an freedom of information request to the Fed) The Bank of Mexico has been forced to comply with the Federal Transparency Law and release information revealing where the Central Bank’s gold reserves are held.

In what will not be a surprise to any SD reader, the report reveals that The Bank of Mexico holds less than 5% of it’s gold reserves within Mexico, while the remaining 95% of it’s ‘physical’ gold reserves are held in the US and London (translation- nearly the entirety of Mexico’s gold reserves are held at the Bank of England and the NY Fed basement, and have likely been rehypothecated more times than an MFG client’s assets).

Our friend Eric Sprott recently pointed out in his monthly newsletter Do Western Central Banks Have Any Gold Left? the likelihood that the Western Central banks have largely leased out the gold they are supposedly holding as reserves.
In effect, Mexico just admitted that their actual, tangible gold reserves are 1/20th of the stated total.  Perhaps Mexico should consider hiring Hugo Chavez as their gold reserves consultant.

Got PHYZZ? [Read more...]

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