Gold & Precious Metals

Visualizing the Critical Metals in a Smartphone

Posted by Bruno Venditti, visualcapitalist.com

on Friday, 27 August 2021 16:19

In an increasingly connected world, smartphones have become an inseparable part of our lives.

Over 60% of the world’s population owns a mobile phone and smartphone adoption continues to rise in developing countries around the world.

While each brand has its own mix of components, whether it’s a Samsung or an iPhone, most smartphones can carry roughly 80% of the stable elements on the periodic table.

But some of the vital metals to build these devices are considered at risk due to geological scarcity, geopolitical issues, and other factors…read more.

Going for gold: European investors pour nearly $1bn into gold ETFs in July

Posted by Alex Hamer and Emma Boyde, ft.com

on Thursday, 26 August 2021 10:03

European investors poured nearly $1bn into exchange traded funds that invest directly in gold in July, more than offsetting outflows from US funds and indicating the emergence of divergent views on inflation, the global economy and future direction of the precious metal.

European funds attracted net inflows of $999m, equivalent to 17.1 tonnes of gold, while ETFs domiciled in North America, led by large US funds, saw net outflows of $402m or 7.3 tonnes, according to the World Gold Council, an industry body. Overall, WGC data showed a 0.3 per cent rise in assets under management in gold ETFs in July, driven mostly by the buying in Europe, although Asia also recorded net inflows.

“Gold is currently in transition,” said Mobeen Tahir, associate director of research at WisdomTree in Europe, which manages a range of gold exchange traded products…read more.

Palantir Buys $50.7 Million Worth of Gold Bars

Posted by Neal Freyman, morningbrew.com

on Wednesday, 18 August 2021 11:11

Palantir, the data analytics software company cofounded by Peter Thiel, revealed in a filing that it bought $50.7 million worth of 100-ounce gold bars.

Why? “You have to be prepared for a future with more black swan events,” COO Shyam Sankar told Bloomberg. A black swan event is a potentially devastating economic crisis that no one sees coming—like, say, Covid-19.

Where? The gold will be stored in a secure location in the northeastern US, so…nowhere near a New York bar’s coatrack…read more

Gold price tumbles to yearly low, trades under $1,700 following Friday’s massive sell-off

Posted by Michael McCrae, kitco.com

on Monday, 9 August 2021 7:57

Gold futures dropped sharply on Sunday evening at the start of the Asian trading session.

Gold October futures dropped to low of $1,677 before recovering. As of 8:20 p.m. ET, gold is off 2.19% to $1,722. Silver October futures lost 3.5% to $23.74. Platinum was also off, losing 1.24% to $960 for October futures.

Spot gold is seeing it’s worst two-day cash drop since April 2020 as the world started to feel the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, noted Zero Hedge.

Bitcoin is down, too, losing 2.08% over the past hour to trade at $43,377 at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Gold and silver’s selloff started Friday as markets reacted to stronger than expected employment data. U.S. equity markets hit a new record high Friday after the U.S. Labor Department said that 943,000 jobs were created in July, handily beating consensus expectations of 870,000 jobs. At the same time, the unemployment rate fell to 5.4%, down from 5.9% in June. Wages also rose more than expected in July…read more.

How much gold & silver is actually in Tokyo 2020 Olympic medals?

Posted by Anna Golubova, kitco.com

on Tuesday, 3 August 2021 12:22

It is no longer a secret that the Olympic gold medals don’t contain a lot of the actual yellow metal. But how much gold do they have, and what about silver and bronze medals?

Here’s the breakdown:

Gold medal: Only 1.2% of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medal is actually gold. The other 98.8% is silver.

Silver medal: The silver medal is the only one that truly lives up to its name. It has the same weight as gold and is made from 100% actual silver.

Bronze medal: The bronze medal is lighter and is made up of 95% copper and 5% zinc.

The data are provided by Compound Interest.

It is even more interesting how Japan got the needed metals to make approximately 5,000 medals that are currently being handed out at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

As part of the “Tokyo 2020 Medal Project,” Japan collected approximately 78,985 tons of used small electronic devices. Out of those, 6.21 million were used mobile phones. These were collected all across Japan from April 2017 till the end of March 2019.

Japan managed to collect 32kg worth of gold, 3,500kg worth of silver, and 2,200kg worth of bronze…read more.