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» ETF best investment option in SA
» ETF's driving gold demand - Patrice Rassou, SIM
» Gold-backed ETF demand doubled in South Africa during 2007 - Vladimir Nedeljkovic, Absa
» Money gushes into SA gold ETF
» Metal scarcity tough for ETF backers

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SA’s ETF gold moved offshore
Ines Schumacher
Posted: Tue, 17 Feb 2009

[miningmx.com] -- SOUTH African gold-backed exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider NewGold has moved its gold to Britain after it ran out of domestic storage space because of strong demand for its product in the face of economic turmoil.

NewGold had by Monday this week moved its 28 tonnes of gold to storage facilities operated by Brink’s Ltd in England and Wales from the limited space provided by Rand Refinery, Africa’s largest gold treatment facility.

"South Africa's only custodian is Rand Refinery and they do not have the facilities to store the quantities of gold we trade in," said Vladimir Nedeljkovic, the head of ETFs and Index Products at ABSA bank.

Brink's Limited is recognised as a global leader in vault management services, he said.

NewGold has experienced increased demand for gold ETFs over recent months and it is expecting the market to stay strong, even if gold prices drop. "If there is a drop, we expect significant buying," he said.

David Davis, a gold analyst for Credit Suisse Standard Securities, said globally ETFs had increased by 207 tonnes in the first 45 days of 2009 alone. " Should this rate continue we calculate the consumption of gold ETFs for 2009 could easily reach between 380 and 450 tonnes."

"Compared to a total increase of 312 tonnes in 2008, this figure shows that in times of crisis gold is a safe haven. People are flocking towards ETFs," he said. “ETFs are here to stay.”

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Investors have piled into gold, looking for safer investments for their cash rather than volatile equities markets and poor yields in some bond markets. Gold prices have risen in recent weeks to trade around $940/oz.

Since its launch in 2004, NewGold has experienced sustained growth and it now holds 28 tonnes or 920,379 oz of gold, more than double that of Australia, another key gold producing country. The outlook remains bright, Nedeljkovic said.

“We’ve seen quite a bit of demand over the past few years and we expect demand to increase exponentially,” he said.

South Africans are not permitted to hold unwrought gold, meaning they can only purchase gold jewellery or coins. The ETFs give them investment exposure to physical gold without the risk of owning the metal themselves.

NewGold Gold Bullion Debentures are securities backed by physical gold and listed on and traded through the JSE Securities Exchange. Each Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is worth 1/10 of one ounce of gold.